Wherever you go in our city, you will find buildings being razed and buildings being raised. Before starting a construction project, the workers always build a wall along the roadside. This process often seems to happen almost overnight, starting with site preparation:
Two things to note in photo above: the small building in the foreground was erected to house the workers, allowing them to live on-site during the project; and the high-tension power tower was not removed, but the road construction crew started anyway.
Next, the wall builders moved into action. Most often, the laborers are women – strong women:
I find it interesting that they usually mix their mortar directly on the ground (why use a mixer?). Like the project workers, the wall builders live directly on the job-site, but their make-shift building isn’t quite as nice:
The walls are always topped with a small roof structure:
This wall was built with low-quality, grey bricks. But even when they use nice, red bricks, they always stucco and paint it:
This is an important part of the process, enabling the finishing touch – painting a slogan:
The characters advertise the new building, but usually, the walls display slogans created and replicated by the propaganda department (yes, that’s what they call it):
While these walls aren’t famous like the Great Wall in the north, it wouldn’t surprise me if they cover more distance on a cummulative basis!
Interesting to think that the labor shortage over here in Oz (not even that far away), is such that we’re paying >$100-200k/yr for much the same type of work… and can’t even imagine the union response if the housing conditions were similar!