2005 ended in a winter during which I would take long lonely walks in the northern outskirts of Beijing: get off at any given subway station and just walk away.

Once I stepped into a restaurant and ordered 宫爆鸡丁 (kungpao chicken), but the waitress just looked at me funny and came back with the manager.

“Sorry, the only thing we have here is 公报肉丁 (kungpao meat)!” said he.

What was I to do? I went ahead and ordered the thing, and I also got two servings of rice and a large coke with that.

I only realized what I had eaten when I was trying to decipher the name of the restaurant on my way out. One character was larger than the rest: 狗. Dog.

Stupid.

…

The following picture is from the same day I think. It shows the large thrash depots outside of the city, there are some kids playing around, and in the background we can see the towering buildings of the rich, on the advance like a relentless army of giants:

Beijing, December 25th 2005.

For me, taking pictures in a place like this is very interesting. But it is not easy at all, and this is mainly due to the fact that the people there seem to be ashamed by their living conditions and their work environment.

I would like to tell them that there is nothing to be ashamed of.

But it would only sound…

stupid.