The Canal:
A few months back I posted some pictures of the frozen canal and specifically one of the fishermen sitting on the ice. Now the icy canal has thawed, yet the fishermen remain. Of course they remain, you may think! They're fishermen! A thought for you to ponder - a week ago the city drained about half of the water from the canal and then loaded a few thousand fish into the remaining water. There was not enough oxygen in the water for the fish, so they swam to the top to find refuge and air. Little did those poor fishies know that tons of hungry fishermen awaited their arrival at the surface with long poles and nets which they used to scoop up the fish. I don't think a thousand-fish bucket burial was what the city had in mind! Kinda takes the joy out of fishing, huh? These facts and the following picture come from my friend, Joel, but I did witness this scene last week - and I stopped to take a look myself!
Another interesting fact about the "mysteries" of the canal. About 3 weeks ago, just as the ice was melting, a body was pulled out of the canal. Who knows for sure what happened but the speculation was that it had been there for over 2 months and was possibly an old fisherman who fell in or suicide...either way it's pretty grim!
The Trees:
This next photo is certainly not a new sight around Tianjin but I haven't showed you yet so I thought I would include it. Right before the cold and winds hit this winter the city sent out crews to literally wrap all of the trees and bushes to protect them. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the wrapping, just as long as they are covered! These green tarps are EVERYWHERE in the city but they should be disappearing soon!
The Heat/Radiators:
If you can remember way back in November I told you that the heating in China is on a schedule and the government controls when it comes on and when it goes off again. It kicked on a few days before November 15th and is supposed to be turned off on March 15th - tomorrow. I just felt one of the radiators and it's still warm so maybe they will extend the time for a few days. I will be sad to see the heat go for several reasons:
1. The radiators are perfect clothes dryers - I have 4 radiators in my apartment and I spent many hours throughout the winter rotating my clothes on and off of them. This started in December when one day I went out to my yang tai (balcony) to get a pair of jeans only to find them frozen to the hangar they were drying on! Ha! :)
2. Drink warmers. As you can see from the picture, the radiators are perfect to warm up these tasty cans of almond flavored milk. This is under the condition that you are patient enough to wait for about 4 hours while it heats.
3. They are the perfect hand warmer!
4. And, you know, they do keep the place warm - an added bonus!
1 comment:
ha! we can comment on blogspot now!
I wished I'd gotten a picture of the crowds. There were way more people than it looks like in that picture.
One of our teachers said they read in the newspaper that they'd stocked it with ten thousand fish.
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