A brief smile escaped the wrinkled face of a Chinese woman as she looked at the sky left crimson by a setting sun. The elderly woman stood outside the gymnasium of a housing cluster, carrying a child's backpack and a longing in her eyes that seemed to reflect a desire to hold on to the view.

But an energetic grade-schooler appeared shortly by her side. He was thirsty after a swim and needed grandmother to promptly give him water to drink. Grandma, on the other hand, may have enjoyed the sweet solitude longer had he not interrupted. The two then made their way home as dusk veiled Beijing.

The woman is unknown tome, but she symbolizes an established social practice in China - that of second-generation parenting.