Food drying in the streets

Out in the streets in the midst of all the human and other traffic, and dust and pollution are rows of foods drying. We saw fish, chickens, ducks, pieces of pork and other meats, sausages. We saw people making the sausages with big bowls of meat (it looked like pork, and soy sauce) and they used parts of plastic bottles as their funnel, and at one place we saw a woman on the footpath cleaning out pig intestines which are used for the skin of the sausages.

Quite an array of fish - obviously cleaned and opened up - some of the fish and chicken were held open with small wooden skewers.

Hanging out in the street to dry - rather strange sight to us!

Vegetables are drying too. These were on a bridge over a canal on a busy street - hard to tell how much dust and other foreign matter they would collect. Dogs, cars, carts, and spitting men pass this spot continuously.

In the village the sausage shop had rows and rows of product drying.

Drying sausages - almost like a curtain near the canal.

Vegetable growing in the suburbs

Rocky vegetable garden.

The farmers or vegetable growers are resourceful here in China. The above photo shows part of the gardens near here where men tend their vegetable patches. It looks to be an old construction site - perhaps there was an old factory, or old dwellings on the site in the past. It is full of stones, but midst the reclaimed bits and pieces there is a thriving vegetable garden. The product is probably sold at a local market.

Beside our apartment is a canal. Filled with water. On the edges, gardeners have brought in rubble - old bricks, stones etc and built it up so that they can grow small vegetables here. I have seen an old man in a wooden boat, laiden with rubble, come and create a vegetable patch, where there was none before.

There is a special benefit to the gardens along the edge of the canal. There is plenty of water, and I've seen one of the women gardeners use her paddle/oar from her boat to push water up onto the growing plants.

There is a downside to this style of gardening. Once or twice a year the government workers empty the canal to clean it. And all the gardens are removed. Hardly a week or so after the canal is again flowing with water, the resilient gardeners are back with their rubble to rebuild.

Below is another view of the vegetable gardens - you might note people doing their washing in the canal.

Vegetables growing beside the canal.

More canals

There are canals everywhere. Just behind and beside our apartment are more canals. One is quite fascinating as there is some interesting activities there.

Some days I see fishermen - they have a fish trap in the canal. I've get to see them catch any fish, but I have difficulty seeing what is going on. They quietly ply the water in their little boats - I'm not sure what they are called, but they look a little like "sampans". They are very steady in the boats and stand up without wobbling the little boats.

Against the wall is a vegetable garden and every now and then a lady comes along in her little boat, picks some vegetables and puts them in a bag. She throws something that looks like white powder (nutrient of some sort I suspect) and then using the paddle/oar sweeps water from the canal onto the plants.

I am told that every now and then this canal is emptied - and her garden is dismantled (it must be illegal?) but after cleaning out the canal she returns and builds her garden against the wall of the canal and starts all over again.

In this photo you can see two fishermen in their boats, and up against the far wall, the vegetable patch (it is one of two along the wall).

(this photo was taken from the kitchen window of my apartment)