Being Resourceful...

One of the things I love most about Chinese people is how resourceful they are! In part, their resourcefulness is reflected in their wide variety of foods they eat. Some would call it crazy or gross, but we’ll just call it a wide variety!


Some have said that in some regions they eat everything that flies, swims, and EVERYTHING in between. Another saying is that they eat everything that has legs, except tables and chairs! AYE!

Other than food, their use of bamboo constantly amazes me! Scaffolding, mean street-sweeping-machines (bamboo brooms), my house shoes, side dishes, table decorations, and on and on and on… bamboo is everywhere. I kind of feel like bamboo is China’s duck tape!















And waste management… Scotty here you go! China is all over it. There are people hauling (not brush like Dad, Jim and Gpa!) cardboard, random construction materials, styrofoam (you knew that one was coming), and anything else you can imagine and doing something with it! I have no idea where most of it goes, but it seems as though, everything will have a place and be reused if it can be!

Last week, I happened upon a waste sorting area! I was dropped off by my taxi a little premature while in route to an art gallery. I was supposed to meet some people so I thought that if I just stayed put, they would find me! I ended up having a “conversation” with this man sorting the trash. He was speaking Chinese, I was speaking English. Both of us were gesturing, talking rather loudly, and laughing (mostly) for about five minutes; I have no idea what we actually said to each other. It didn’t really matter.


Luckily the people I was meeting found me and we were on our way! Oh China.