Since arriving in China, it's become far too obvious that most of the work done by most of the people is just so they can have a job. There are A LOT of people in this country. A lot of people that need rice to eat. A lot of people that need money to buy it with. A lot of people that need jobs to get the money to buy the rice with.
So they create jobs. They create ridiculous jobs for people from the countryside to come to the city to do.
For instance, there is a wonderful section of town called Da Shan Si. In it, is a wonderful old factory that has been converted into a art galleries. Many, many galleries. Many, many pieces of art. Much of it's free, so we go as often as possible. It's quaint in an old Chinese sort of way.
It really was a factory, so some of the machines are still in the buildings. They all say "Qi Jiu Ba" on them, which is the address for the factory (798). They all have worn off paint in a way that makes it that much more artistic. And many of the buildings still have propaganda painted in huge red characters ("Long Live Chairman Mao" is one example).
So one time, I went there with Mario and Ilan. And we met my Chinese friend Kim and her boyfriend Michael. While we were walking around, we were carefully avoiding the HUGE HOLES that were being carefully dug by thousands of petite Chinese men wearing yellow hard hats.
"Kim, what are they doing?"
"I don't know. Probably nothing. It's probably just so those men can work."
I had often considered this a possibility, but I'd never heard a real live Chinese person say it. I was almost startled that she admitted it so easily, so readily.
Currently, some of these same petite Chinese men are taking apart and putting together the foot bridge that leads to the main part of campus. The campus is divided by Xi Da Wang Lu. It extends pretty far on one side, while there are only a few buildings on the other. One of the buildings happens to be "Foreign Teacher Housing", so I have to cross this bridge several times a day. Also, since this is the university of technology, most of the campus has to cross to the Management buidling, which is on my side of the road. Basically, a large majority of the campus crosses this bridge several times daily.
Like most foot bridges, it has two sets of stairs leading you over the road. But one side of these stairs leads to...nowhere (I've never seen a single soul using that side). The other side is used CONSTANTLY.
So it probably needed a little refurbishing. But these men seem to be doing it in the most ridiculous way possible. First, they stripped it. Then, they repainted it. They, of course, stripped and painted the side that everyone uses during the day and the side that no one uses at night. Everyone who uses this bridge had to walk all the way around to get to the other side of the street.
Now, they are pulling up the rubber mat that lined it. I suppose they will relay a new mat, but only time will tell. That's not the ridiculous part though.
They are pulling up the mat BY HAND. One man holds one end of the mat while another has a chisel and hammer going at the other side to release whatever bond held it there in the first place. While walking to class all I can think is, "Don't they have machines for that?"
There are about 30 men working on this project. It's one of about 17,000 foot bridges in Beijing. If they have 30 men working on each one...I guess that's a lot of jobs.
