early morning work - square # 38

Workers at "Shandong Institute of Business and Technology" create cement to fill in trenches that had been dug to lay new pipes for the 'water' heating system within the cement block apartment buildings
photo: mhobbs

crowded

Yantai - south - Crowded apartment "dwellings" in the southern section of the city - The real income of the poorest 10% of China's 1.4 billion people fell by 2.4% in the two years to 2003, an analysis by World Bank economists has found. Meanwhile, average incomes for China's richest rose by more than 16%. The findings challenge the basis of government policies aimed at narrowing the country's politically sensitive wealth gap, which President Hu Jintao has made a centerpiece of his administration's economic policies. The Chinese have understated the extent of poverty by defining it as roughly US$83 in annual income, equal to about 5% of average per capita income. The U.S. definition of poverty is 12% of average per capita income. - afternoon
photo: mhobbs

blur - taxi

Yanati - Central - Two high apartment buildings in the centre of town as seen from a moving taxi
photo: mhobbs