These alleyways in Shanghai generate close-knit communities, almost like families in which children are free to roam and are cared for by anyone who happens to be on hand.

Apartments in Tianjin built prior to the Revolution.

Very typical socialist-era housing. Attractive they are not.

These are popping up all over in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin. These are in the Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area.

A department store one of the major cities (I forget where I took this one!).

Excercise is important...

...at all ages.

And I mean all ages!

How would you like to run into these gals in a dark alley?

Typical leisure-time activity, playing cards and eating lunch on the street.

There are cars, but most people depend on bicycles.

I saw a lot of these taxis in Shanghai but not in Tianjin or Beijing.

A delivery vehicle in Shanghai.

Parents delivering their kids to kindergarten. Note the dominant mode of transportation.

A kindergarten/elementary school class in Tianjin, at a school run by Nankai University.

A rice paddy near Beijing.