China - Kamil Leszczuk

A man holding an umbrella walks across the photograph. Behind him is an illuminated store with lights reflecting in a wet pavement.

# Almost three weeks there, over 5600 km (and four full nights) on a train, countless hours on foot, often with backpacks. And we saw only a tiny piece of China and Hongkong.

Disclaimer: it looks modern and fairly well developed, and we were surprised by that to some extent. But keep in mind that we were focused almost exclusively on big cities this time.

Beijing, somewhere on Quianmen Str (which is just south of Tienanmen Square).

Foggy hills with a Great Wall disappearing in a distance.

# The Great Wall at Badalingu, approx. 80 km north of Beijing. It was Nov 8th and, as you can surely tell, quite cold. Fortunately, we had a decent, hiking shoes, so walking on the slippery stone of the wall wasn't that risky.

# The National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. We saw a very interesting, modern ballet there performed by young artists - „Chinese Dream". Well worth it.

A man stretches a few meters long elastic candy.

# Making a candy can also be a performance. Night market in a Muslim district, Xi'an.

Skyscrapers disappearing behind something that looks like a fog.

# This is not a fog, unfortunately, but air pollution. Shanghai.

A landscape of a city with a heavy air pollution.

# Another city, another day, same pollution. Three weeks there, and (besides Hongkong) we saw clean, blue sky only once. Xi'an.

Man driving a scooter loaded with 4 quite large boxes.

# Delivery scooter? Shanghai.

A cat looking outside through a partly opened window.

# The cat. I don't know why I like this photograph. Especially that I don't even like cats. Shanghai.

A young man in a hair saloon styling hair of a mannequin's head.

# This particular client will never complain. Shanghai, the French Concession area.

A long exposure trails of moving cars' lights and a semi-transparent cab, all on a steel bridge.

# Uber fast cab. Waibaidu bridge, Shanghai.

A person having his hair cut out outside on a sidewalk is smiling at a camera and showing two fingers in a V-sign.

# Shanghai.

A woman takes a selfie with a phone mounted on a very long selfie stick.

# Selfie sticks are everywhere in China. Beijing.

A building with a traditional Chinese rooftop appears at the end of a dim tunnel.

# Summer Palace in Beijing.

Several men working outside while a young boy, at a desk nearby, studies.

# Notice the kid learning while his father (presumably) is at work. Luoyang.

Woman reads a travel guide with traditional chinese buildings behind her.

# Scene in Longmen Caves in Luoyang.

An old man in a hat looks directly at the camera and smiles cheerfully.

# We've spent around one hour on a public bus, with this man sitting vis-à-vis us. He was staring at us all the time, to the point when it started being really uncomfortable. But later, when we left, and so did he, we engaged in a conversation. He didn't speak English, so we didn't understand much, but we learned that he's a former military man, a veteran. And that currently his hobby is caligraphy. Luoyang.

Construction worker in a safety helmet rests in a chair.

# China is growing. We've seen countless cranes, construction sites, even sets of ten or fifteen apartment buildings, each exactly the same, being built. The sheer scale of all that makes me wonder, why haven't we met a lot more construction workers.

A night market booth with two people preparing food.

# One of the last remaining night markets in a Beijing center. Most of them have been closed before the Olympics in 2008. It's a very touristy, and relatively pricey place, but on the other hand, we've tasted a seahorse and a spider here.