Communism at work?

So the other day we had to get up at 7am and (instead of going to class) ride about an hour and a half out to a place listed on our schedule as a "Green Ecological Community". Weren't sure what to expect, and even now I'm still not entirely sure what it was, due to some flexibility in translation.

Basically, it was something like a pre-fab agricultural community. They explained to us how everyone in this small town worked equal jobs and got equal shares of what they made (I think). Most of it is based on fruit and grain production, but they also kept all kinds of animals and livestock.

The village itself reminded me of visiting some of the places outside Kunming last summer, at least in the way the buildings were set up. But the communal-farm thing is a pretty sharp contrast to what we're used to seeing in Beijing, which itself is more befitting of a typical capitalist American city.

In any case, it was a quick but interesting visit. We spent twice as much time driving as we did visiting, and initially I wasn't very enthused, but in the end I was actually glad we went. Below are some photos... as always, more on Flickr.

Otherwise, not much to report... just another rainy afternoon in Bejing (it's rained pretty consistently at some point every day for the past several days). We only have about two more weeks in Beijing, which is really hard to believe. But two weeks is still a pretty long time, so stay tuned for more updates!