Shadows means there's sun.
Today was a good day. We had breakfast at the apartment while sun was streaming through the windows. Then Nik left for work, I got myself together, and I went out and conquered my fear of taking photos in our neighborhood! The sun was out for the first time in two weeks so everyone decided that it was laundry day. Granted, in Shanghai, there is always laundry hanging from bamboo poles cantilevered over the sidewalks, but today was different. Today EVERY bamboo pole was filled with trousers and socks and shirts and jackets and blankets and sheets and shoes. The garments covered the entire rainbow so the opportunity for color was amazing…and I took advantage of it. I didn’t take much time on each shot because I’m still a little self concious about taking photos of people’s houses while their neighbors are walking past me, but I think I captured what was going on. I hope it doesn’t bore you to see lots of laundry, but we never see this in America, so I find it fascinating.
Laundry 1
Laundry 2
Kids playing with laundry behind
Laundry 4
High Rise Laundry
Low Rise Laundry
Bedspreads on the Sidewalk
Bedspreads on the Basketball Court
Pink Pajamas
Yellow Pajamas
Blue Shirt
Shirts in Trees
Laundry over Bike Parking
Panties on a Pole
People walking under Laundry
Walking Shoes on Window Sill
Sheets over Concrete Poles
I also saw some other random interesting stuff…
Toilet
Steel Screen
Neighborhood Thermometer/Clock
Yellow Building
This is the city of apartments we live in.
Something about these clovers was great. So green.
Here's a pretty cool new building on the Fuxan Medical Campus.
And this little Ford Focus was posing in front of it.
This afternoon I was going to use the curling iron…but I guess the voltage here is a little different than at home! The black gewy stuff is plastic and the white strings are the heating wires. I simply picked up the handle and the curling part fell off.
**Don't do this at home**
11 comments ↓
Mary
March 6, 2009 at 8:05 amBeautiful! I was amazed at how much laundry I saw when it was overcast and cold. Seeing all the window units tells you how hot the summers will be.
Bummer about the curling iron! I used a converter set, but only for my camera battery. I bet you can buy a Chinese curling iron pretty easily.
Gillian
March 6, 2009 at 8:53 amI guess when you don’t have much space, you use every inch!! Fabulous pics – I love them!
Keisha
March 9, 2009 at 9:32 pmI would think that airing your laundry in such a public urban area might encourage a person to stay thin!
Jamie
March 10, 2009 at 1:15 amLOL! Keisha, that’s hilarious. And perhaps you have a good point!
Prêt à Voyager
March 13, 2009 at 10:04 ami’ve always found laundry particularly photogenic while traveling. the shirts hanging from the trees made me laugh :)
A
Meggan Fadden
March 18, 2009 at 4:51 pmHi Jamie!
It is so great to see you guys are settling in well. Sorry I have not been in touch. Beau and I just got from Mexico for our wedding and we are leaving for the big trip in 8 days! I love the laundry post. Beau and I got a laugh out of it. I agree with Keisha on the weight issue… Maybe that would have kept us away from the white sauce and chicken bowl in college. ;) Thank you for the beautiful posts. They are getting really excited about leaving. We can’t wait. Stay in touch. I will send you any info I get on firms over there. Good luck!
Meggan
On the Fringe » Inspiration
April 7, 2009 at 11:32 am[...] Sinz, particularly this post and Nik Daum, this post, among [...]
elizabeth
April 7, 2009 at 1:18 pmWe live in WuZhou, so in a manner of speaking, we’re neighbors! Well, ok, not exactly. If you were in Guagzhou, we’d be neighbors, but we’re on the same side of the planet… Anyway, I, too, have found myself fascinated by the laundry hanging out of doors as well, and the people dwelling in sampans on the river etc. Feel free to shoot me an email if you’d like. I haven’t had time to blog about anything for the past year or more… Not likely that that will change any time soon. froggielaureate at gmail dot com
Peter
April 9, 2009 at 11:57 amCan you imagine if they all can afford a cloth dryer, and I believe most middle-class Chinese families can afford one, or if the Chinese government(like the previous Malaysian government) deems it unsightly to hang clothing out of one’s window and forces hundreds of millions of Chinese families to use a cloth dryer, what would be the impact on global warming? Shudder!!!
Jamie
April 9, 2009 at 10:35 pmPeter, I do believe that a lot of people in Shanghai do have clothes dryers, but for some reason they don’t have the heat or capacity to actually dry the clothes. I also think that there might be energy restrictions in the city so that clothes dryers that actually work aren’t allowed. Perhaps one day, the entire world will give up their dryers and go back to letting mother nature dry their pants!!
CHIT
December 12, 2009 at 2:56 pmThanks for this, i will return to your site later.