Jobs in China

      Yesterday I was on the bus taking my usual hour and a half trek to go get dinner, when I looked out the window and saw about three people standing in the middle of the road, wiping the metal highway divider with rags. Normally, this wouldn’t faze me, but I realized that most of you folks back home would actually find this unusual. So I’ve decided to actively try to pretend like it’s my first week in China, and report back all the “weird” things I see on a daily basis that I no longer find weird and have been desensitized to.

       So going back to the people wiping the metal highway divider, it is not unusual in China to see many people doing what appear to be unnecessary tasks. Wiping the highway divider is one. Having five attendants stationed at each aisle in a grocery store is another. Sweeping the sidewalks everyday is one more! I’ve never actually seen this as it probably happens late at night, but I’m pretty sure that there are people assigned to sweep up after a night markets so they can set up the next night and trash the streets again. For those of you that don’t know, all remnants of food and garbage are thrown on the street at night markets. Apparently using the garbage cans is too hard. Either way, labor in China is cheap. So cheap that a restaurant will have someone whose only job is to open the door for the patrons. As such, you will find the Chinese doing the most ridiculous jobs all over the place. With 1.3 billion people in China, the government has to sometimes find creative ways for all of them to have work.

 

This is a woman "sweeping" the floor. Only odd thing is that she is using wet sand and pushing it around with her broom. I mean it seems to do a good job. But really? Wet sand?