Shop trees
(Trees and their shops, downtown: Suzhou, China)
On the way home from a garden visit, Ying, his mum and I were traipsing through a busy area of downtown, somehow completely bereft of taxis. We walked quite a way along this tree-lined street before we noticed that the trees were not just creating a canopy above us, but were holding some of the buildings up. No doubt the trees have simply been there so long that the stallholders and residents have to move around them as they would a river or mountain, just adapting their space to fit the surroundings.
One apparently universal trait of the Chinese (that I have encountered) is their adaptability, not just to their country developing at warp speed or their cities increasing in size, billowing out daily like smoke from a chimney, but to the insignificant everyday events as well. If a car is too expensive or too large for a family, they all ride on the same e-bike or scooter; dad driving, mum riding pillion behind with a child in her arms and another offspring wedged in between dad and the handlebars. If it rains, someone will hold an umbrella, a sheet of cardboard or hold a waterproof above their head like a soft top. If a taxi picks up a customer and the car is facing the wrong direction, the car will immediately pull a U-turn in the road, with little outward regard for other traffic.
Ying’s mum was often alarmed at these seemingly dangerous stunts, yet they are what allow China to evolve and progress. If the people without cars did not ferry their children around on a bike, could they afford to take a taxi? Or even all four fares for the bus? The shopkeepers are adapting their shop fronts to accommodate the trees that are taking up valuable selling space. By working around them, the atmosphere of the street becomes twighlighty; as if the shops sprang up like mushrooms overnight, and the trees have been there forever.
