May 30, 2006
KCR Guangzhou to Dongguan again
My once monthly trip to Hong Kong was under a leaden and saturated sky. Guangzhou and much of the province has been under siege for almost two weeks, a steady, lazy draining of the swollen and claustrophobic heavens. The last trip, I sat facing forward on the train's left side; this time I sat facing backwards on it's starboard side, traveling south, and looking west. This meant I could not anticipate a shot, and most of the photos are of whatever was after what was interesting, that with a half-second delay had already long passed by.
After writing about famous village incidents of Guangdong yesterday, I was trying today to be as impartial as possible in capturing what Guangdong looks like along the KCR industrial corridor. Of course certain things appeal to my aesthetic: satanically black, corpulent and necrotic concrete factories. The endless catacombs of industrial slums, mortared with a generation's paste of impermeable refuse satisfies my disgust for rapacious development.
In mostly equal thirds then, the hour-long journey is split between this odious mess, bland acres of salmon-tiled inflatable high-rise apartments, and verdant fields and ponds. What the farms, along with their villages, are being replaced with is not something I think is an improvement.
concrete factory near 新瑭 xintang
another concrete factory near 新瑭 xintang
fishponds near 仙村 xiancun
crossing 东江 dongjiang at 石龙 shilong
石龙 shilong city near the river
more fishponds near 茶山 chashan
farms meet overpass near 横沥 hengli
gutting old houses near 横沥 hengli
apartment blocks near 常平 changping
elevated train line near 常平 changping