Strange things I saw in Harbin

[PaulB]

1) There was some weird fluff flying around the air - what is this?

2) There were people pushing wheelbarrows on the street, hitting a bucket every now and then - what is this?

3) On the way to the airport I saw people on the side of the highway holding signs - is this people just hitchhiking?

[roddy]

1) Willow catkins (used to work with a woman who was convinced the air was saturated with pollution, and that this was the excess crystallizing in front of her silly eyes).

2) Depends what was in the bucket. They'll be some kind of craftsman, handyman, buyer and seller. In Beijing you get knife-sharpers, scrap merchants, etc.

3) Depends what was on the signs. Could be looking for work, but in that case people will usually have the tools of their trade beside them on the pavement. At a guess I'd say advertising restaurants or hotels.

[chrix]

weird fluff eh. I once asked cops in DC what the steam was coming out of the manholes, they wouldn't tell me, probably classified information eh

[imron]

The fluff will be a mix of 柳絮 and 杨絮.

[kdavid]

Roddy nailed that all on the head, so no reason to rehash here. However, I'd like to comment that it's not just Harbin where you'll find these things.

[abcdefg]

Last summer a couple Harbin natives told me the guys with push carts and bicycle carts banging empty buckets were trying to attract your attention to buy your household scrap. It was their signature device. In Harbin the roaming street vendors and repairmen usually used other methods of advertising their services or wares. They often shouted out; some even used home made recordings.

Edited June 3, 2009 at 11:58 PM by abcdefg
clarity

[kdavid]

Last summer a couple Harbin natives told me the guys with push carts and bicycle carts banging empty buckets were trying to attract your attention to buy your household scrap.

Yeah, they can recycle just about anything. Fridges, TVs, computer monitors, etc.

[Meng Lelan]

Recycling's always been big in China, PaulB. I remember when I was a student in China, we had to turn in the empty cardboard toilet paper roll to get another roll of toilet paper.

If you used up your toilet paper roll and tossed away the cardboard core, you couldn't get issued another roll.

Your Harbin postings are most interesting, that I can say.

[abcdefg]

If you used up your toilet paper roll and tossed away the cardboard core, you couldn't get issued another roll.

Now *that* is some serious recycling. Conservation with a vengance! The current plastic bag ban pales by comparison.

[Weskhan]

The banging the bucket I'm pretty sure is just the guy trying to get peoples' attention. Signs on the road could mean anything. Fluffy stuff, no clue.

Me and my buddy saw a midget with I'm guessing his daughter singing a really strange song on the street. They were dressed up next to the KFC. It was pretty disturbing when this big fat Chinese guy went up to his daughter and started petting her head. She didn't want to be touched so moved away and the Chinese guy kept following her trying to pet her.

Uck...nasty....