The Mess

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 in: News, Travel

Living in China is a constant confrontation with garbage, a seemingly inexhaustible supply refloods the streets on a daily basis, only to be swept away before the dawn. The Chuar street not far from our school is a good example: during the day it’s mostly a fruit market with kiosks selling whatever they can grow. White space is filled in from the plastic chairs of local eateries, offering the usual Chinese fare, including the recently popularized meat kabob known as 串儿, pronounced “chuar.” Its origins in the Muslim minorities of the far west, the most common types of chuar are small bits of lamb and chicken, stuck on wooden skewers and roasted over an open pit of hot coals. When we eat our chuar or eat some nuts or edamame, we carefully put the skewers and the shells back on the plate on which they came. Most people aren’t so considerate, and after an entire day and night of revelry, the ground is thick with refuse of all sorts, enough to make my stomach turn a little.

Get up early enough and visit the street again, and it’s a different landscape. The ground has been swept clean under the cover of night, and the fruit vendors and chuar grillsmen have set up shop once again, ready to start all over again.

I wonder where it all goes. Sounds like a job for Mike Rowe…

Ok, this one was taken in Xingtai, but that’s a pretty gross pile of cigarette butts and assorted muck.

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