'water on ice' • qingdao, china
some days i do wonder why i tend to cross the world latitudinally - it's been as frigid as a montréal january in qingdao lately. however, it's apparently still not arctic enough to disrupt this insane method of water delivery. these dudes, on their 125cc monkey-shit 'jianlings' (or other japanese brand knockoff), are most definitely on my shortlist of modern-day unsung heroes in china (a notch below rope-dangling skyscraper window-washers i'm guessing).
one water jug weighs in round 20 kilos and they can carry up to 5 of them onboard at any given time (i actually counted 6 once). schlepping them up countless flights of stairs after risking life and limbs on the rallye drive to your home, is just a couple of other perks on their job description list.
our friend in the photo skidded and ended up under the trunk of a taxi 20 seconds after i snapped this (unfortunately with my camera securely packed away). his recovery was reflexively swift and safe - i'm guessing he had had an unfortunate amount of 'practise' that afternoon.
some days i do wonder why i tend to cross the world latitudinally - it's been as frigid as a montréal january in qingdao lately. however, it's apparently still not arctic enough to disrupt this insane method of water delivery. these dudes, on their 125cc monkey-shit 'jianlings' (or other japanese brand knockoff), are most definitely on my shortlist of modern-day unsung heroes in china (a notch below rope-dangling skyscraper window-washers i'm guessing).
one water jug weighs in round 20 kilos and they can carry up to 5 of them onboard at any given time (i actually counted 6 once). schlepping them up countless flights of stairs after risking life and limbs on the rallye drive to your home, is just a couple of other perks on their job description list.
our friend in the photo skidded and ended up under the trunk of a taxi 20 seconds after i snapped this (unfortunately with my camera securely packed away). his recovery was reflexively swift and safe - i'm guessing he had had an unfortunate amount of 'practise' that afternoon.
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