day 24: 新乐 (xinle) – 正定 (zhengding) = 26,6km

I said good-bye to my friends in 新乐 today. Life in the spa was very pleasant, but eventually I had to get going, no matter what.

On the road I saw someone who was carrying heavier than me:

The official retiring age in China is sixty. Many a good man is forced to work unimaginably hard until his last breath, though. And so is many a good woman.

You can see them everywhere.

I shot wide-angle shots today, obviously, since I had my baby back:

I like the energy…

…the generous use of space…

…and the open feeling of a wide perspective.

When I was just walking along G107, a brave group of middle school students came to hold me up:

They invited me to visit their school, which is in the center of a 单位 (a work unit, sometimes kind of like a little village all by itself):

Interestingly enough, I found these kids from the countryside extraordinarily eloquent and nice to talk to. Standard, dialect-free Mandarin, very pleasant to the foreign ear.

We chatted a while, then we found a place to shoot fun pictures:

I was trying to explain the word “dramatic” – since I don’t know the Chinese expression (shame on me).

Then I took a group picture of the bunch:

I hope they’ll soon get a chance to look at this. From what I know these kids rarely have the time to play or get online, because they study very very hard.

Wish them success.

When I continued to walk, it was already getting dark, and some of the way became a bit of a helter-shelter:

Now I’m in my hotel room on the outskirts of 正定, there’s a police series on TV, I have just had a nice and tasteful dinner, and I’m looking at the photograph above, the one of the old guy pulling his cart.

I guess my yoke is easy and my burden is light after all.

Soundtrack: Dead Prez – “Hip-Hop”

—total: 328,2km