Today I spent some time taking pictures of an elderly gentleman who operates a huge coal burning boiler. The boiler provides water for a communal shower right behind my bedroom wall. Since I moved into the new apartment, he has been very friendly to me. When the weather wasn't so cold, I often enjoyed sitting outside with him while drinking tea and smoking cigarettes. He must be a retired something or other, but due to the goddamned language barrier, I don't know. Our conversations generally consist of when my next class is, what I ate for lunch and long intervals of comfortable silence. The other day there was a huge pile of winter cabbage stacked outside the back door of an adjoining restaurant. I decided to take some pictures of the heaping pile as winter cabbage is something quite unique to China. Every winter huge piles of the vegetable can be see throughout northern cities. I'm not sure why exactly they are so prevelant this time of year but, they are. Capturing the image of winter on film was my objective that afternoon. I looked behind me and the door of the boiler room was open and the old man was shovelling coal into one of the holes that are used to recieve the coal that is burned. I decided to take a picture of it. It was perfect. The red orange glow of the furious fire that burned inside the boiler was reflected on the man's coal dirty face. A lone cigarrete hung from his pursed lips. I walked up to him and asked if he'd stand in a kind of pose looking into the blazing furnace. I snapped a few more pictures and promised to give him some copies once the film was developed. Today I was wandering around the little alley with my camera and decided to take a couple more of him. Then something magical happened. A man that was no younger than 80 hobbled up with his obvious limp and asked the worker for a few clumps of coal for his heater. I asked the man to stand in the doorway and to smile. The toothless grin with the beret style hat and cadre uniform coat was a priceless image. I gave him a cigarette, shook his hand, thanked both the gentleman and walked home.