Niu - Cow soon to be Niu Rou - Beef?

That’s the question I asked when our company bus pulled up beside these bovines on a Linyi road. They are riding in the back of a small truck and didn’t seem too stable. They were clearly unhappy and uncomfortable.

Poor girls.

I grew up on a farm and I have a soft spot for cows. I’ve become more and more of a vegetarian eater in recent years. Except for the occasional meat feast at a Xinjiang people’s restaurant, my diet usually consists of vegetables, noodles, rice and fish. If you were to see the way meat gets sold here - usually half the pig or cow displayed on a table on the sidewalk - you might understand why I eat less and less of it.