I had a free day on Wednesday “Shall we go to that scummy village I was telling you about” I suggested. 
I had described it a while ago and Lynne was keen to see it for herself. Thirty minutes later we were out of the city and at the end of the Metro line. Disembarking at Hongshan Zoo we could see below us a maze of narrow streets weaving between run-down grey concrete houses. With a little trepidation we walked into the village. Trying to look as nonchalant as possible we walked slowly down the narrow concreted lanes with a backdrop of rusting metal and flaking concrete. Washing hung from power lines above the front doors and unwanted furniture littered the streets. I spotted a very narrow path between the backs of two houses which led to a small allotment which an elderly man was tending. We picked our way over open drains, past assorted rubbish and piles of excrement and toilet paper. The smell was dreadful; we turned and headed back to the lane. Soon we came across a group of women and a child sitting in the street. It was nearly midday and not a particularly hot day but even so, one of the women was still in her pyjamas, sitting on her stool chatting and laughing with her friends. Lynne worked her magic with the child, picking it up saying nice things about it to its mother while I practiced my small amount of Chinese on them. Feeling buoyed by our chat with the natives, we walked further into the village and were soon in a small open area surrounded by houses. As we stood chatting to a smiling man another, wearing nothing but a dressing gown and with a towel slung over his shoulder, walked in front of us and into what looked like a communal bathroom. We continued to the end of the village where we found the allotments. Here, unidentified crops grew in straight well-tended lines in a clearing between the last house and the foot of the hill. After the greyness of the village it seemed so lush, so green, an oasis of freshness. And as we turned to go back we came across a girl in a nightie coming out of a house and wandering casually down the street. And as we left the village I wondered about the way I had described it to Lynne. This village with its shabby grey houses, dirty streets and open drains seems to enjoy a community spirit and provides a safe place to its residents who are completely at ease wandering around semi-naked. And here in the city where we have guards on our gates, combination locks and metal deadlocked doors we don’t even know our neighbours. Turning our backs on the village I wondered whether I hadn’t been a bit unfair when I described it as “scummy”. I realised then that it’s only surface scum. If you disregard the general disrepair there is richness to be found in poverty that is hard to find in the well kept gardens and litter-free streets of this city.