Daqing City Limits

I didn't want you to think that my view of Daqing is that of a perfect modern city. I have been told that it is from day one. Here is a series of shots giving you some insight as to what can be found 5 minutes outside of town. Dirt roads, meager conditions, families with very little, and priorities that are far from what ours might be. The "house-like" building with the satelite dish also had a well taken care of silver jeep behind the closed delapitated wooden gate. The roof may not be too secure and the walls ready to crumble but satelite TV and a shiny motorvehicle surpass what we might think to be more important bear necessities.

This final image was to show how close we are to the city limits but instead the sun on the left-hand side looks a bit more like a nuclear bomb explosion about to swallow Daqing. This image is symbolic of what this trip out to the monestary at dusk did for my metal picture of Daqing as the 'model modern city.' It was swallowed up in one burst of external exposure. What CBC's the National migth call a 'Reality-Check'. When it comes to the wealth of Daqing here is another 'Reality-Check', 1% of all of China's tax revenue is generated out of this tiny, nothing-location of a city. Minutes outside the ever expanding concrete jungle the curtain is pulled back and the Wizard of Oz is revealed.

(One of the other teacher's here in Daqing is from Kansas, so the Wizard of Oz reference is especially touching. Note to my family: She is from Newton, Kansas, was in 4H too, and her grandmother's maiden name is 'Holmes')