Private Businesses in China

15. Optical Shop

This optician is a private businessman. He and his wife run the shop. It is on the main street of town. The shop is about 10 by 10 feet in size. Through the door in back are his bed and a stove to cook. He both works and lives here. One of our teachers broke one of the lenses in her glasses. He measured the good lens with the machine he is looking at now, picked out a blank lens of the right magnification, scribed it with an awl, broke it roughly with a pliers, ground it with the grindstone showing to his lower rear, and put it into the old frame. Cost was 24 cents US. Time elapsed was 20 minutes.