Suzhou
I saw this couple of bins (they really did look like a couple), in the Humble Administrator’s Garden, one of the many ornate gardens one can visit in Suzhou, a city about 100 km west of Shanghai. The garden is named after the Ming dynasty civil servant and poet Wang Xiancheng who had wanted to retire in peace to grow plants and vegetables there. One could spend hours visiting all the dining halls and chambers with their ancient hardwood furniture and the peaceful, intricate gardens themselves.
My Shanghai traveling companion, a Chinese American engineer from California who I met just before boarding the breathtakingly fast bullet train from Shanghai to Suzhou, had to get back to the city that evening so our visit was rushed. I only just managed to catch this amusing couple of metallic, upright fake log bins on my way out. Mr. Recyclable and Mrs. Non-Recyclable look as if they’ve just had an argument. The usual one about what is and isn’t recyclable, I imagine. It doesn’t look as if they’re close to resolving it!