I met this Korean girl the other night, a student from Jilin University (right down the road, basically). We talked about how long I've been here, if I'm liking China and somehow the construction outside of my apartment comes up. When I arrived in Changchun, the road along the front side of my building had been completely ripped up (probably a quarter to half a mile of road). It was just dirt and rubble. As I said in a previous post, every morning at almost 6:15 on the dot, I hear heavy engines revving up and tons of construction-related noise. Anyway, I had only been in China for a day before I spoke to this girl. The conversation went something like this:
"Yeah, I'm not looking forward to the mornings here. I'm going to be woken up so early everyday."
Confused, she asks: "Why is that?"
"All the construction on the road. Its going to take months before they're finished."
She shakes her head. "It does not take that long here."
"When do you think they'll be done?"
Suddenly very serious she pauses for just an instant and says: "Six days. It will be done in six days."
And she is definitely in the ballpark. They are almost done now. Faster than any road crew team that I've ever seen in the United States. Even the ones just doing patch-work. These guys here are putting in new pipes, and completely paving a road from dirt. It may not be the best construction in the world. They may cut corners where they shouldn't. It may not last more than a year or two. There may even be bones in the concrete. But goddamn, if they don't get stuff done fast.
Raw Chinese efficiency,
- Andrew
(Oh, they also don't mark off construction sites here. You can just walk across them, even if a steamroller is coming right at you. They probably won't stop though, so you better be quick)
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