Actually it isn't different at all.
It's exactly and precisely the same. Still, it's as good a place as any to post it.
Back in October to January I posted about how annoying the trenches were. I even included a poem in my last book about it. They had every inch of every road for miles around dug up. All the alleys and pedestrian squares between all the apartment blocks were dug up too. They were re-laying the citywide heating system and taking a bloody long time about it.
Then it was all finished.
Roads flat (well flattish) again, trenches and holes filled in, paths passable.
Well now it's May and the roads all dug up again in precisely the same places. So far they haven't touched the pedestrian bits but I expect it's just a matter of time. This time they are relaying sewr pipes. Or water pipes. Or something. Nobody doing the job seems to be sure.
I was walking down the street with a Chinese colleague and I asked him. He asked a worker who told us that his job was to dig up the road where he was told to dig it up. It was someone else's job to do whatever had to be done before he filled it in again.
So there you have it. Two things that are exactly the same in China as in England. Uncoordinated LHRHIF* when it comes to roadworks, and jobsworth workers.
It feels like home.
(*Left Hand Right Hand Interface Failure)
William Labov, RIP.
14 hours ago
