Last week I headed west on my bike toward some mountains that always remind me of heading west in Tucson. And not unlike on the more hidden parts of the Tucson mountains, the western hills near ShiJingShan are pocked marked with small open pit mines. My bets they are simple dirt and rock mines excavated around the pre-existing wash, which has since turned into pools of factory run-off, or I can only speculate based on their proximity to that billowing factory in the background and taking into account that I have yet to experience any significant rain for the past 3 months. Spotted a man and boy fishing or skipping rocks. Standing under the freeway in this picture.
Trees planted in uniform rows in the former mine basin. Beijing has instituted region-wide project called the Green Belt (a belt of trees circling the city usually near the Ring Road freeways). The swathes of trees of course are to aid air quality primarily by keeping top soils and sand from blowing crazily all over the place and making Spring miserable as is custom.
This is the truck driver.
