Daily Life in China                  

Grist Mill and Crop Mats of China:

Grinding wheel for corn, wheat and other crops.  Sometimes pulled by a horse or human. In Mongolia they are still comon but I have seen this type of grist mill all over China.

  Stone being pulled around by a donkey with a blind fold. They're grinding either wheat or corn.

I call them crop mats.  The ladies are sewing wheat stalks together with a nylon like synthetic thread.  The mat had many uses but the most common is use in a temporary shelter.  They are used to make a low silo or crop storage structure.  Poles are put in the ground and the mats drapped over ropes running from pole to pole. The ropes are also made from crops like wheat stalks woven or twisted together.

   Monofilament line is threaded through the stalks to hold them together forming the mat.

The long mat is rolled and ready for sale all over the province.

Here are temporary shelters for workers who are making a bridge.  The parts to the bridge are manufactured on site so take months.  The buildings will be general living quarters with a building or to setup as a kitchen and restaurant.  If the crew is big enough stores will set in a crop mat building.

Temporary workers shelter made from poles nd mats.

A form of crop storage so similar to a silo.  I have never seen a silo in China.  I have seen something that probably was a silo make from bamboo structural members then overlaid with sticks and leaves similar to the one below but very large.  50 x 100 feet 7 or 8 feet high.