In the glitzy Chinese port city of Shanghai, home for some poor
families is, well, a shipping container.
The containers, which provide shelter for households which
cannot afford proper housing, are each leased out at 500
yuan (USD80) per month. Even though these people have shelter
and fare better than those without, there is still no proper
insulation against the cold in winter months.
Lighting conditions are poor, and families have to rely on
artificial light when inside the containers because of the lack of
windows cut into the containers.
The little girl's jacket is a bright contrast to the dreary
landscape of rusty shipping containers.
Some families try to build a semblance of a home by tiling their
'front yard', adding steps and erecting dividers as fences. They
also ingeniously add transparent sliding doors to let natural light
in during the day while maintaining some privacy.
Mother and son share a quick meal outside the shipping
containers. The painted red sign reads 'scrap metal recovery'.
A young boy peers curiously from behind the screen
door in his shipping container home. Despite it being the day, the
containers are dark and grim.
Families have to be organized to fit their different living
spaces into the narrow container. Here, a family arranges the
kitchen alongside their bed and puts hooks along the wall to keep
things off the floor, saving precious space.
The stacked containers cast long shadows onto the street.
Residents can benefit, especially at night, if street lamps
were to be installed.
