China TV
(The view out Emily's bedroom window)

We call her sewing lady...  

If it is not raining, she is out there on her corner sewing things on a treadle sewing machine.  People come by with items of clothing in bags or just over their arm.  They stop and talk to her, then they give her the bag and she puts the bag up on the wall behind her.  Some days there are quite a few bags on the wall.

One day we saw a older man walk up to her.  He pulled a pair of trousers out of a plastic bag and they talked for quite a wile.  Finally the man took off the trousers he was wearing.  Yep!  Took'em right off and was standing there in baggy, white, briefs.  Then he put the trousers in question on.  "sewing lady" marked the cuffs of the trousers.  The man took them off and put the pants he had been wearing back on and the one's that needed work went on to the queue... up on the wall.

Sewing lady has a beautiful little girl.  She looks about 4 years old.  The little girl sometimes sits at a little box, setup like a desk, just her size.  Right next to mom.  She is there all day with her mother.  We've never seen her cry or complain.  I'll try to get a picture of her.
Sewing lady works on the upper landing of a set of stairs that lead down to this street.  No cars are on this street.  Just pedestrians and bicycles.  It leads to a maze of little allies and doors where people live.  I walk it in the mornings some days.  People are out washing their hair in basins and eating breakfast, getting ready for the day.  The canal is on the other side of this row of houses and people wash their cloths and clean their dishes in the canal.  I think sewing lady must live down this street in one of these houses.

Lots of things happen on the street out side of Emily's window...

Do you see the man in the picture below.  He is taking a new refrigerator home, or maybe taking an old one to be repaired.  It is setting on the pedal of his bicycle.  Smart!!  Cars honk at him, and drive on the wrong side of the road to get around him.  Everybody somehow gets to where they are going.

Do you see the group of men in the picture to the right.  They are standing on a bridge over the canal.  We watched the whole thing.  It seemed to happen by accident.  We think they decided to start gambling.  We saw money changing hands in a gambling sort of way.  Why on the street and sidewalk.. on a bridge.. do you begin a game of chance?  We don't know, but what we do know is they stood there in the street for about 10 minutes completely oblivious to the cars and trucks that were fighting to get around them.

I love China!!!
 

Restaurants

There are many restaurants on the near-by streets.  I would say there are 10 on the one street we can see from Emily's window.  Ummm.... Kelly and Emily won't eat in any of them.  To the left is a typical "fanguar".  That's Chinese for "Greasy Spoon".  We often see people doing the dishes on the sidewalk outside these fanguars.  At some of them they also cook the food out on the sidewalk.

Kelly's rule:  "I will not eat at an establishment that ever cooks or cleans on the side walk."

Geesh!!  That shoots down something like 9 out of 10 restaurants around here.

The Garbage Man

China does recycle but we don't hove to sort the trash.  People come by at night with little carts and pick through the trash for recyclables.  It is this way with most things.  We often see people throw bags of thrash into the canal.  The bags are tied up neatly and they usually float.  At least 3 times a day a boat with 3 or 4 men on it comes down the canal.  The men on the boat have nets and they scoop up the trash that is floating in the water.  I guess this is the affect of excess labor.

Here is a picture of one of the garbage collection people.  I think this one is just carrying wet trash.  The ones that collect bottles or cardboard are usually piled 4 or 5 feet high.  I'll try to get a picture of one of those.  It's really quite a site, though I've grown used to it.

 

More of Sewing Lady
I captured a picture of sewing Ladies little girl but it is not so good.  I am afraid they will see me so I have to be sneaky with my camera at the window :) -->
<-- Here's me doing business with sewing lady.  She hemmed a pair of paints for Emily.  The cost was 2 RMB (25 cents).

So I got to meet Sewing Lady!  I looked up the Mandarin word for "hem" then went down see her.  The English translation of what I said is something like this:  "I am sorry my Mandarin is so poor.  Can you hem?",  then showed her the pants.  She gave me a big smile and said that she could.  I pointed to where the hem was marked.  She said some things that I did not understand and I handed her the bag with Emily's pants in it.  It went up on the wall.  I checked back in 2 hours and they were ready.  Easy and convenient!  She's gonna get all our business.