Being in the city, you will find that the air is so fresh and lovely, and the life is so positive and sunny.
But when you pass by the boardwalk under the Rainbow Bridge, you will find that there is a group of special people living under the bridge, who are the builders of the city and the marginalized people of the city.
During the day, they are scattered in all corners of the city, doing the hardest work, taking a meager salary; at night, they return to the bridge, laying on a simple mat, take out the bedding is not clean, tired to sleep, then, frogs and snoring...
Whenever the night falls, under the flyovers, subway entrances, underground pedestrian passages and roadside benches all over Shenzhen...
When the night falls, under the flyovers, subway entrances, underground pedestrian passages and roadside benches all over Shenzhen...
When the night falls, the city is still in a state of emergency. pedestrian passages and on roadside benches, you will always see them.
Some people may say that these are the parasites of the city, idle and uninspired, and deserve to be on the streets!
Is this really the case?
I met an old woman under the footbridge next to my neighborhood. She was short, dark-skinned, hollow-eyed, wrinkled, and often wore a black-and-brown cloth coat and shoes, and was about sixty years old.
The first time I saw her, she was using a wooden stick as a stretcher, with a big tattered box hanging on one side, and a strange big cloth bag hanging on the other side, like it was full of tattered brass and iron.
There was more than one set of equipment like this, and she would move one set forward dozens of meters before moving the ones behind it, week after week, with difficulty. I don't know where these items end up, or where she ends up.
For a long time, I met her almost every day after work, sometimes she was moving her "harvest", sometimes on the side of the road to take a nap, I guess, the neighborhood next to the flyover may be her transfer station and the night landing point.
One night, the sky was drizzling, and I thought that I might not be able to meet her today. But when I stepped off the 23 bus and looked toward the footbridge, the familiar figure and familiar gear were still in the same place.
The slight difference is that the old woman was eating "dinner", I don't know if I can call it dinner, the bowl was very big and dark, and the food was unrecognizable. When the pair of dark hands holding the bowl of rice can not be named in that chewing, my heart tugged a bit, very bad taste.
At that time, I stopped and wanted to talk to her briefly to see if I could help. Although I have not communicated before, but met more often, feel like acquaintances. So I had to put a hundred dollars in her hand, and silently left.
Shenzhen, a bright and shiny international city, looking around, full of transparent street lights and never-ending strugglers. Can you say this old woman is not a struggler?
They sleep on the streets, perhaps because they can't afford the high rent, or because they want to send more money to their children who go to school in their hometowns and to the elderly who are bedridden. They don't have the knowledge and skills, and they don't have the language to communicate smoothly, so they can only survive in the cracks with their hands, so who are we to beat them to death and say that they are the parasites of the city?
Fortunately, Shenzhen has always been a tolerant and warm city, and most people here are very kind, so even if the sky is the quilt and the ground is the mat, they can still not be driven at night, and sleep peacefully.
The civilization of a city is not only reflected in a few elites, but also in the dignity and hope given to the people at the bottom of the society. If you meet them, please help them within the scope of your ability, maybe a caring look, maybe a hand on the stairs, a little bit of warmth, will be converged into a sea of the city's strongest cornerstone.
Ollie gives!