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Playing around with my camera, this setting, more suitable for candle light scenes, seemed a lot more moving when applied to more regular objects; in this case perhaps reflecting my feelings of the cold anonimity living in a modern appartment block.

Coming here I lived in a dormitory with close friends and colleagues, spare keys galore for all rooms just a doorstep away from their's. Most Chinese families in this city live in shorter appartment buildings where much is shared and, due to their design and Chinese culture, little kept private.

High rise blocks, emerging over the city, seem a step away from communal living. While there is no garden or fence to denote private space, the dwellers of these blocks, usually not families and without small children running around in the courtyard nearby like older developments, have little to draw them together. The appartments tend to be single bedroom, studios at worse. Around 40-60 square metres. While not all are like this, a significant proportion are, and with prices in a new build not even very central now fetching 12,000 kuai per square metre, people are squeezing things into ever smaller places.

To me, modern high rise appartment blocks built for couples or single people, seem very odd and cold places. No home, certainly.