IMPRESSIONS OF CHINA: STREET WORKERS

Street Life – Cleaners

In every city in China you will see people cleaning the streets, caring for the trees and plants, even monitoring road crossing points.

Most are paid by the city but quite a few are volunteers.

The street cleaners dress up in overalls, face-masks and hats. The volunteers have red armbands. Many wear Chinese straw hats some are more individualized, like the lady in the picture with a great hat.

The way that looking after the streets is managed is by allocating areas to specific individuals who patrol their areas, some walking with brooms, others with bicycles.

You can observe that most are very efficient and dedicated to their work. Some work together in teams, especially in the parks or the roadside gardens. Motorways and major routes are all planted with beautiful flowers and manicured flowering shrubs.

Most cities are full of tree lined roads; these trees are essential in the hot humid conditions of cities such as Guangzhou (formally Canton) pronounced ‘GongJoe’.


Proud to clean up

Proud to clean up

These workers are proud of their city and the work they do. So too are the citizens who appreciate their work; public service videos are shown about their contribution to the image of the city and for the health and welfare they provide in rubbish removal; on television and on Metro video screens.

At many pedestrian road crossing points there are police or crossing controllers and some are controlled by volunteers.


Bicycle delivery

Bicycle delivery

All over China you see pedal cycles and motorized bicycles, some carrying incredibly huge loads. These are all totally independent delivery businesses. Everyone in China is business motivated, it seems like all the population are mini entrepreneurs: probably because everyone must work, there is no social services for the unemployed. Without such small scale, efficient deliveries, the city centres would chock up and grid lock with more traffic than already exists and that’s enough.

These bicycle deliveries range from collecting waste cardboard to high class cake deliveries.


Loaded Bike

Loaded Bike

Pedal power, is assisted with many of these bicycles being fitted with motors.

MORE: Impressions of China


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