this is one of my favourite photos, as it shows both the old and the new on East Hong Kong street in Qindao. The Chinese government is building like mad to be able to provide decent homes for its huge population and take them out of the single room buildings the working people lived in. I have photos of areas of those, but I thought it much more interesting to chose one which shows a comparison of the both. The thing which amused me were the grumbles I heard about these new builds : they will not last, they are not properly built, things go wrong in them etc. I found this amusing, as in the single room flat places, there are not even toilets, though the people keep them immaculately clean /I am not sure who it was complaining/ but darn it all, was finally annoyed when at Christmas, our chinese hosts were taking us for dinner, and passing through an area of these tiny places with no paths or roads, in our taxi on the way to a plush hotel, my Australian colleague /Male/ turned to me and said something on the lines of- they are so romantic. I couldn't help retorting: why don't you try living in them!