Xiantao (仙桃) is a city of over a million people in Hubei, China. My friends and I were on a roadtrip in 2021 and stopped at the highway rest-stop. While we were busy, a man on a scooter quickly rode up, grabbed my friend’s dog, and drove away. We spent the next three days wondering around Xiantao looking for our stolen dog. We finally found him, deep in a rural compound. Unfortunately, the police officer forced us to pay money to the thief in order to get our own dog back!
An abandoned home near the rest-stop.The back of the Xiantao, Hubei rest-stop where our dog was stolen. We spent many hours wandering in the green fields looking for him. It rained on us several time.A door in Xiantao covered by depictions of traditional door gods, likely the deified ancestral spirits of two men who guarded the Tang emperor Taizong.Some homes in Xiantao, China where we looked for our lost dog. On the left is one of the many lost dog posters we plastered all around the area.An older home in Xiantao. While this house is probably not even one-hundred years old, it is already far older than almost any other building in New China.A man on a motorbike rides past an interesting older home in Xiantao, China (2021).The bundled grain is actually rapeseed oil, canola, which was harvested and then set out in front of the homes to dry. After it dries, they will beat the stalks to extract the seeds.A three story home in Xiantao. In China, people often add new stories to the tops of their homes in order to make it more valuable when the local government buys them for development.After days of searching in the rain and mud, we recovered the dog from the thieves. In this photo, we are being forced to negotiate with the criminals on a settlement price. The police did not do their jobs.
New China Archive 