Donkey In Distress

This unhappy looking fella was parked up outside a restaurant early the other morning in face-hurting, lung-burning temperatures.

Since then, I've seen a couple of donkeys being used for transport, but it seems extraordinary that a beast of burden that size could ever possibly be more economic than a motorcycle engine strapped to the bottom of that cart.

With the electronics department stores, street lighting, ubiquity in the business press, and nouveau riche Chinese strutting round in their (possibly fake) designer labels, it's all too easy to forget that China is still a developing economy.

That shivering donkey was a jolting reminder that even in big cities like Harbin, there's still a long way to grow.