Speed of change: China through train journeys

Photographer Wang Fuchun. [Photo/Xinhua]

No terminus

Wang grew up dreaming of becoming a train driver. After school, he got a job in a train station in his hometown - Harbin, in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province. He took his first picture in 1977 when asked to photograph model railway workers.

Wang's approach to photography has got him into trouble on numerous occasions. He has been reported to police by passengers suspicious of his snooping around, and he was beaten up in July by a man who objected to his baby being photographed.

Undeterred, Wang "will keep on photographing people on the train for the rest of my life."

Wang moved to Beijing in 2002, the year he officially retired. He experienced deja-vu on the subway and could not resist continuing with his vocation.

"Taking photos over such a long span of time has been fascinating," he says. "That naked boy will have grown up to be a man. I wonder where he is now?"