It’s been a busy month.
Last weekend, we went to Changsha to visit friends, and were amazed at how much Changsha had changed. It’s a lot cleaner than Chenzhou. The old computer market that was nearly brand new 4 years ago is now a shopping center with Pizza Hut and KFC. But the big change was the roads. They were a lot wider and nicer, and people actually obeyed the rules of the road for the most part.
We took the slow train there, but bumped up to the soft seats which gave us a pretty empty car to ride in. To come back, though, we took the fast train. It took us 4 hours to get to Changsha, and one hour to get back. The downside is that the train stations are far away from the city, and in Chenzhou the taxis want RMB60/cab to drive you into the city. The buses only cost RMB2, so guess which one we took.
While in Changsha, we went to Metro to get some western food such as bacon and cheese, and the ever popular cereal.
We had a nice couple of days there, then came back home to wet and cold Chenzhou.
Then on Friday, I flew up to Xining to look for a new apartment.
Xining is a fantastic city.
It’s full of foreigners, so I ended up eating shepherds pie, spaghetti and meatballs, pizza, and chicken enchiladas, plus some really good Chinese food. Not only that, Xining has an import store, so before flying out yesterday morning I stopped in and bought some macaroni and cheese for N, Doritos, Jell-o, and taco seasoning. So for lunch today, we enjoyed some burritos. I ate better this past week than I have since we’ve been in China.
Xining is totally different from Chenzhou. Chenzhou is wet and humid, while Xining is cool and dry. Chenzhou is crowded (4,559,600 people, or 611.3 people/sq mi), while Xining is spacious (2,177,900 or 76.5/sq mi). The people in Chenzhou are pretty rough, while the people in Xining seem to be more laid back.
We weren’t able to find an apartment, but did find a place to stay until we can find our own place.
I was also told that there are a number of foreign doctors in Xining, including an American pediatrician, and a number of foreign midwives, which will come in handy in October when number 4 shows up.
With the good report of how great Xining is compared to Chenzhou, we are all looking forward to moving to Xining in April.