Last Dance in Daqing

Daqing, at last...

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After one hour and a half spent in an express train leaving Haerbin by the railway bridge crossing the Songhua River.

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Since I read the newspapers at 9 years old about the kuwait Iraq first war in 1990, I'm keeping pictures in my mind... those of gas burning night and days... those of soldiers from Iraq shot by US marines for nothing but wealth... Those taken by Sebastiao Salgado with his Leica R6 of workers exhausted to manipulate the nytro to extinguish the geysers flaming up...

This morning, at 6 am, I woke up and faced the human moving maze of Haerbin Central Station and get myself a seat in the train to Qiqihaer. I wanted to see what was Daqing looking like. I wanted to see if the image I had when I was a child were right... I wanted to write this on my rolls and in my memories.

It took me 2 hours to get a back up ticket to Haerbin and find a cheap hostel for workers near the railway station. I rushed in the southern part of Daqing and waited for the sunset... I'm not dispointed. I saw what I wanted... and even more. I'm dreaming eyes wide shut.

She's free now... one more test before the finish line. In a short while, I'll be meeting Her by the morning side, as we wake up. In Paris. Thousand of miles away from here. I can already hear some jazz coming up in the air and the smell of the whine bottle opened. Waiting for these moments, at every step I perform here, she probably doesn't know, but she's with me. I miss Her.

July 2008,
Dancing in the typhoon

July 2008,
The transmandchourian line... the famous one. Leading from Russia to the once mighty Russian concession on the coast, Port Arthur and Dalian.

July 2008,
In the residentials blocks boarding the railway line to Dalian on the coast, walking streets are topped by the rich veins of Daqing : gas runing in tubes across the buildings.

July 2008,
Lost or forgotten, the price of life exists the time of a short instant... as the craftmen remember that wooden bridge should be a good idea to circulate among the soaked mud and the nearby swamps.

July 2008,
The Dancing ballet of Iron monsters giving birth and hope to Daqing.

July 2008,
My very first contact with Black Gold itself... the first time I could touch and see freshly pumped petrol... staining the earth here as a promise of future economical growth.

July 2008,
Looking like a Third world favella, the present area of oil exploitation is collapsing under the weight of the sky, suffocating from industrial rejections.

July 2008,
Ingeneer at work on the second expwy from the main southern highway branch.

July 2008,
In the ruins of former exploited zones, abandonned building are still standing as evidences of a fact : life is possible here.

July 2008,
Mechanical caterpillars crushing the earth soaked with oil freshly discovered.

July 2008,
Restricted area number 73, where is located the emplacement for the new highway leading to city center.

July 2008,
Even in the rusty, dusty and filthy streets of workers opening new fields in the southern part of the city, childhood is finding its way... kids playing among the rubbishes or in the mud.

July 2008,
Bending over the wind, derricks stretching up and down under a cloudy sky of Rain season.

July 2008,
Warehouse of the coal terminal.

July 2008,
Among the coal pitts and the stocking warehouses, residential buildings are everyday coping with the water motorpumps are expulsing out from the gas underground.

July 2008,
Railway main access to the Gas terminal and the coal factory.

July 2008,
The sunset quietly ends while the roaring sounds of the nearby merchandises and Gas terminal railway station echoes with foosteps of workers leaving their job.

July 2008,

In the Southern part of the city, where are located most of the oil derricks and refinement plants, the mechanical sound of pumps drinking up dry the earth never stops... Even the night, inhabitants are used to hearing the sucking noise of machines.

July 2008,

Deserted by customers at night, the MisterLI's noodle shop is only frequented by bypasers looking for a confortable seat in front of the giant screen hanged upon the Shopping mall main entrance... entertainment provided for the price of bowl of lamian... the air conditionned in addition.