Yuhang, Hangzhou - I have arived!
Hangzhou. If Shanghai is like Sin City, Hangzhou is the Mesquite. Maybe that isn't being fair. I'll call it the Atlantic City to Nevada's Vegas. It has all the lights and fanfare of Shanghai, but on a smaller scale and more clean.
I am stuck in a suburb of Hangzhou though called Yuhang. It is still a decent size. 800,000 people. The region reminds me a lot of Toronto and the GTA. I'll call it Hangzhou and the GHA. Yuhang is like Mississauga. It has all the comforts of the big city, you can see the big city, but to try and walk would take forever!
Yuhang, unlike Shanghai, makes me feel very much like an outsider. In Shanghai, I would see many westerners walking around, doing the same stuff that I was doing. Here, however, people on the street stare at me with wonderment. They obviously don't get many western people in their town. It would probably be different if I was right in Hangzhou proper, but in the sticks, I stick out.
My apartment is decent. It is a small bachelor pad with everything I need. Including a view of a set of slum apartments, a few factories and a bunch of neon lights.
The area that I live in is quite interesting. My apartment is part of a hotel complex. It is right across the street from a very large park with a lake in the middle. Very beautiful. Right beyond that however is a slum.
The slums here are not like any that I have seen in Detroit, Saskatoon, Vancouver or anywhere else. While the people may be poor, there is no violence. Just crappy houses and lots of people milling about. At no point did I feel like I was in danger, even when walking through the dark back alleys at night.
On the other side of my apartment, the side where my window faces, are factories. There are factories everywhere here. Making everything from socks to iPods to vacuums. I am not sure what the factory next door makes, but I do know that it isn't pumping out harsh smoke or funky smells, so I am quite relieved.
For the time being, internet is going to be once every few days. My connection at the apartment should be hooked up in a week. I am hoping to get a cell phone today as well.
I am stuck in a suburb of Hangzhou though called Yuhang. It is still a decent size. 800,000 people. The region reminds me a lot of Toronto and the GTA. I'll call it Hangzhou and the GHA. Yuhang is like Mississauga. It has all the comforts of the big city, you can see the big city, but to try and walk would take forever!
Yuhang, unlike Shanghai, makes me feel very much like an outsider. In Shanghai, I would see many westerners walking around, doing the same stuff that I was doing. Here, however, people on the street stare at me with wonderment. They obviously don't get many western people in their town. It would probably be different if I was right in Hangzhou proper, but in the sticks, I stick out.
My apartment is decent. It is a small bachelor pad with everything I need. Including a view of a set of slum apartments, a few factories and a bunch of neon lights.
The area that I live in is quite interesting. My apartment is part of a hotel complex. It is right across the street from a very large park with a lake in the middle. Very beautiful. Right beyond that however is a slum.
The slums here are not like any that I have seen in Detroit, Saskatoon, Vancouver or anywhere else. While the people may be poor, there is no violence. Just crappy houses and lots of people milling about. At no point did I feel like I was in danger, even when walking through the dark back alleys at night.
On the other side of my apartment, the side where my window faces, are factories. There are factories everywhere here. Making everything from socks to iPods to vacuums. I am not sure what the factory next door makes, but I do know that it isn't pumping out harsh smoke or funky smells, so I am quite relieved.
For the time being, internet is going to be once every few days. My connection at the apartment should be hooked up in a week. I am hoping to get a cell phone today as well.
posted by Blue4130 at
3/12/2008 12:15:00 AM
1 Comments:
Hi Vance Lester
My name is Cecil Broooks I amd talking to your Grandmother Elsie.
She would like to have you'r email address so she can send you a note.
Send it to this email Address
mseniorcitizens@gmail.com
Just in case that fails send a copy to my address c.brooks@accesscomm.ca
Cec Brooks
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