Laying Fiber-Optic Cable

Sarah and I had the best time on the way home one day speaking with a bunch of people from the Beijing electric company. They were laying cable for a future skyscraper next door, and most everyone was from Inner Mongolia. At first I was embarrassed to take their picture while they were working so hard, but it turned out that they soaked up the attention more than anyone else. They stopped spinning the giant wheel and told everyone to smile!


My favorite part was peering down into this man-hole and hearing everyone saying "Yi, Er, Zou!" meaning "One, two, walk!" Between heaves they all looked up and talked to us, welcoming us to come to Inner Mongolia. What nice people. Just when you think that you shouldn't stop and disturb, you meet some to the nicest, most open people.