People don't usually change their small habits. They don't even do so when many other things change, and even when major policies have changed many times.

One such ritual is drying laundry outdoors, as seen in the 1983 picture of a working -class quarter in Jingdezhen, an old industrial town in Jiangxi province, taken by China Daily photographer Wang Wenlan.

Flash forward and in the 2004 color picture of a recently built housing project in Ningbo, a port city in Zhejiang province, many clothes are still hanging outside homes.

(China Daily October 24, 2008)