Plankton on the move: Scootering through Central China
Xinxiang City, Henan Province, China
Friendly Lady North of XinxiangThere is nothing particularly adventurous or special about these episodes taken individually, but assembled, they compose the richly human moments of traveling. I am puttering along Road #40 to fill my days with these kinds of encounters. Certainly, traveling at 25 km/hr, scooter driving urges me to follow my whims; it encourages diversions precisely because of its inefficiency in covering distances. If the destination were paramount, I would take a bus, train or taxi.
Beyond the small city, Weihui, there are workers in the cornfields gathering, bagging and transporting the harvest on trucks and tractors. Minutes up the road, I see the harvested corn being shucked and laid across the cement of an abandoned gas station. Husks form a pile next to the golden ears spread thin to dry. It’s pleasant driving in the afternoon sun with the construction behind me and the other vehicles few and far between. I blow my nose to clear the dust and exhaust; the air immediately tastes sweeter. Women sell yellow apples on grassy patches, and beyond them, the corn and wheat fields stretch out on both sides. I sing to myself above the steady timbre of the engine, feeling the vibrations in the handgrips.
