18th May 2011 A forest city
I’ve been photographing a lot in the last few days. There’s something that struck me. Perhaps it is the contrast between the old and the new town? Yesterday, from the golden towers, I walked into an area that’s partly demolished. This area has an unusual atmosphere, a landscape that I haven’t seen in all the new areas…..the trees…the trees are higher than the buildings. They grow on the buildings, even grow into them. In a way, the human structures and the nature have grown and intertwined together here. Walking in tree shadows feels very different from walking in the gaps of skyscrapers.
Apart from the new skyscrapers, I’ve also been photographing the new ‘forests’ in the city. In order to build a ‘forest city’, tens of thousands of mature trees have been bought from all over the country and the world. They have their branches seriously chopped and transported to a new place. Then they get a lot of nutrition injected into them. I hope they’ll survive.
On the top of a small hill there’s a steel tower for carrying electric cables. Underneath there’s a bird-keeping club: the Chinese like to keep birds in cages in order to enjoy their singing. Neighbours in this area will bring their birds to this strange place for the ‘fresh’ air. It’s such a sad place…
