Cleaning.......

Certainly Hangzhou road cleaners put even Canada to shame. Each seems to have a patch of roadway and a sidewalk to keep sparkling clean. The cleaners range from young to old, both men and women. They wear a royal blue uniform with orange hats and safety jackets. Each has a bicycle - some with baskets, some with panniers but most have a three wheeled bicycle with a wooden collection box, (the newer ones are metal,) on the back and they are armed with shovels, brushes, large scissor like tongs and the very important bamboo broom. They seem to make and repair this tool themselves and it does an excellent job of moving the dust and debris. They make it in an L shape with the long bamboo branches forming the sweeping action. They collect the cigarette ends and tiny scraps of paper with the tongs (bamboo or metal) and they work long hours every day of the week, Sundays included. They seem to have depots dotted around the town where they leave their garbage bicycle carts overnight and where they do needed repairs to their bikes and equipment. At many of these depots I have seen stands of bamboo which I believe they use to make their brooms.

Garbage does not stay on the street for longer than a few minutes and, as a result, although there are garbage cans and recycling bins everywhere, I have noticed that generally people just drop packaging, cigarettes, paper, food etc wherever they are, knowing that it will be picked up in a minute or two. No $500 fine for them.

We have had first hand experience of the speed of garbage collection ourselves when, feeling brave, we thought we'd try to find the train station where the Lonely Planet said we would find tourist kiosk which sold maps of Hangzhou in English. To date we had been using a very small map found in a tour guidebook which was certainly not adequate for our peripatetic needs.

We alighted from the bus in an unknown part of town and began walking in the direction of the station but not really sure of where we were. Checking with the 'map reader' as to the name of the street we were looking for, he reached into his pocket for the map only to find it gone! Searching every pocket and the knapsack proved futile. Where was it? Where had we dropped it? We had it when we got off the bus.

Nothing for it but to retrace our steps to the last map reading stop at least 15 mins back. Mick raced on ahead and I brought up the rear with a more thorough scan looking in shop doorways, in the flower beds and in the garbage cans. We met up again - No map - Panic!!! We decided to proceed and 'guess' where we were going as after all we were hoping to buy a new map!

Continuing to look we dejectedly pushed on in the glorious sunshine. We saw a garbage collector's cycle up ahead. I said I had looked but perhaps Mick should investigate. He miserably declined. I decided I'd better look again and there, caught down the side and held there by a banana skin was our map!!! Who could believe it? Another few seconds and the cleaner, at that point across the road emptying a garbage can, would have been cycling away......but it showed how quickly, thoroughly and regularly the cleaners do their job. Fortunately the map was none the worse for wear so a quick wipe and we were rocking again.

Trash from stores in large garbage containers and those placed along the roadways are also emptied by hand and shovel by the collector into their little cycle carts. Hardly high tech but it employs hundreds (thousands?) of people and the city is spic and span as a result. A place to be proud of.

Perhaps the only complaint I have about these stalwart workers is that when they are cleaning on the Expressways (yes, they even clean there with the huge trucks and buses and cars whizzing by) they just leave their carts wherever they wish on the road while they go to collect the debris. This week one was parked right in the middle of one of the lanes and the speeding morning traffic had to weave and wind its way around them. Don't think it would be allowed on the 401!!!!