Mrs Lu dealing with her coal delivery.
Although we are in the same country as a month ago, there are a number of variations in daily life. This picture shows two differences between Yunnan and Beijing, according to my experience. Firstly, the common fuel here is raw coal, which is dumped outside houses in large, unrefined lumps that have to be broken up by the customer. In Yunnan the common fuel for stoves is processed coal briquets, which customers pick up from the factory on the back of a tricycle. This leads to another difference. Unlike in Yunnan, where larger, two-wheeled carts and tricycles are used to transport goods, single wheeled barrows are typical here in this part of Beijing prefecture. They look wobbly and precarious but, like the Yunnan trikes, allow the transportation of large amounts of dongxi (stuff) when in expert hands. One fuel-related similarity I've discovered is that people here also dry out corn cobs for the fire (scattered around the yard and easily mistaken for rubbish) and build up stocks of wood, gathered from the hillsides, for fueling their giant woks and winter boilers.
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