Stairways to nowhere

In rural China, many homes have stairways leading out of the ceiling to nowhere, built in anticipation of children living in rooms to be built upstairs.

Instead, the children have moved to the cities, the second floors were never completed, and the stairways stand alone against the sky.

(from a [PBS special on the women of rural China](http://www.pbs.org/kqed/chinainside/women/index.html))