A brown donkey pulling a two-wheel carriage, seen in 2011 in the far east of Beijing. The carriage carries a load of bricks, a gentleman with reins, and a little lady fast asleep.
Even today, you can see horse-drawn carriages in the outskirts of Beijing, especially around sites that have been demolished to make room for big buildings. The companies that do the destruction take all of any worth, leaving old bricks and crap wood for independent operators like this couple.
I have seen them working on such sites lots of times. They are usually elderly couples, scavenging stones in the hot summer heat or the cold winter wind. Workers carry the materials to villages outside Beijing, where they use them to build new homes for local residents.
This copper lion statue stood at the entrance of a nearby factory, unrelated to the carriage scene. I photographed it right after shooting the donkey, and thought it would be a nice addition here.