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These steps were built in the 70s. They are located in the center of an industrial city in northern China, where coal mining, began more than a century ago, will soon be exhausted. These 36 steps link the upper and lower apartment block quarters. Residents, on foot or bicycle, must use them to go to the factory, school or market. One can compare the different facets of these steps with the many expressions of the human face, depending on the moods of the people who use them as well as the weather. By observing these steps, a whole series of questions come to mind: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? Like the Chinese social system, the steps allow people to rise, but at the same time, they set a kind of boundary. A Chinese proverb goes: “Man walks upwards but water flows downward”. But seeing these steps and the people living around them, we also wonder: where are the heights to reach and the depths to avoid?

China - 2004 - 25 mn - DV - Colour

Director Youming Fei, Shuo Liu Camera Shuo Liu, Youming Fei Sound Zechun Ma Editing Shuo Liu, Zechun Ma

Production Tangshan TV Station, No.1 Guangda Street, Lubei District, Hebei Province, 063000 Tangshan, Chine Tél : +86 135 829 11186 Fax : +86 315 2810115 E-mail : ls0315@126.com

Sales Tangshan TV Station, No.1 Guangda Street, Lubei District, Hebei Province, 063000 Tangshan, Chine Tél : +86 135 829 11186 Fax : +86 315 2810115 E-mail : ls0315@126.com