Lazy Man in China

Avenue of Eternal Peace, Beijing 2002

China's capital with its citadels of commerce enveloped by smog and its main thoroughfare clogged by cars. This was predicted by ABC interpreter Old Fan in the 1980s. One afternoon, when we were driving along this road, then almost deserted and only minutes from the bureau, he said with pride in China's modernisation: 'One day Beijing will have so many skyscrapers and so many cars it will take an hour to reach the office!' (Helene Chung)