By Guillermo Abril
(El País)
Five retired farmers got on the bus.
They have this tanned face specific to people who have worked the land.
The place is very familiar to them.
They have lived their entire lives in this corner away from the hustle and bustle of the world, where, suddenly, modernity has arrived.
They point out, on the right, tractors operating in the middle of mountains of rubble, indicating that the demolition operations of an ancient village have started, and, on the left, on an arid plain, the place where the campus of the Beijing University.
Elsewhere, the site of the futuristic-looking white building will be devoted to the sports stadium, construction of which is well underway.
And the road further away, they explain, is the highway to Beijing.
These neighbors often board the bus to pass the time admiring the scenery.
They go from their house - given by the government in exchange for the one that was expropriated from them - to the new high-speed train station, then...
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