Photos and Transport Memories

I remember when there were few cameras.  As I peruse photos in my vast collection that go back to the 1940’s, I note that in those days the photos were in black and white and were few and far between. Most of my photos are on my computer – most taken in the last 20 years or so when I chose to make photography a hobby.  While so many are digital these days, I still get many printed – and often use them on cards I create.

As I am trying to downsize I am very challenged.  So many photos I will discard, as they mean nothing to my family these days.  I have so many from my times in China and I found these in a photo album and have scanned them to include in this post.

When I arrived in China we were surprised and astounded at the traffic on the roads, from huge trucks with men and women sitting atop the load – no safety rules apparent.  Sitting on the side of a road with my camera always allowed me to record things we’d never see in Australia.

Transporting water bottles on the campus.

The Water Bottle Carrier

Drinking local water was not always a good idea, so we would use a water dispenser in our apartments.  The building was a six-story building, and we would send a message that our water had run out, and a man would ride his bike to us, and carry the huge bottle upstairs on his shoulders.  We would often hear him huffing and puffing as he struggled up the stairs.

We always lamented that there was no lift in the building, as with luggage and shopping the stairs were always a challenge and of course, we felt for the man struggling with our water!!

The Cane Chair Delivery

In the city of Shaoxing where I was living and teaching, we would often see scenes like this.   I was told that the chairs were probably made in a nearby village and this is the way they were transported to the retailer.  It’s hard to calculate how many were loaded onto the bicycle, but certainly looks to be an economical way to transport.  I found it amusing that the man in charge chose to use a pedestrian crossing.

Waste?

To the Tip?

This load looks like it would head to the tip – or recycling.  Who knows, but at least this transport vehicle had an engine, so the delivery journey would not be hard.

These were common sights when I was in China

More boxes of ????

Another worker transporting product – no idea what is in the large packages.  Maybe transferring from warehouse to retailer.

And wait, there’s more….

More Boxes

On his way to the tip? Who knows.