Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Now in Ningbo

I have changed cities. No longer am I in scenic Hangzhou, and with a change of residence I feel it is appropriate to start to try and update this again.

I am now in Ningbo, a city to the east of Hangzhou and the south of Shanghai. It makes a triangle of distance the likes of San Antonio, Austin and Houston.

Our new apartment is much bigger than our old, an increase from ~45 square meters to almost 80 square meters. We were trying to find a one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen, one bathroom place like our previous apartment, but those types of apartment are uncommon in the area of Ningbo we are living in. We ultimately settled on a 2 bedroom apartment with fantastic renovations rather than a duplex, and the new place is fantastic. Here is the video we took when we were still moving in, hopefully I'll remember to film a new updated one in the next few days.

House Tour

Ningbo itself is a city zoned for economic development, and the district we are in is the newly developed Yinzhou District. As a result, everything is very big and westernized rather than the traditional cramped style you see in most Chinese cities. Downtown Ningbo is still cramped, but the district we live in is much more spacious. We have a big western style mall right near us, and I can't wait until Harry Potter comes to China so I can go see it on the huge IMAX theater in the mall. One difference Ningbo has that Hangzhou doesn't are the giant tricycle taxis. Old men on giant three wheeled bikes (tricycles) ride around looking for customers to taxi about; it's pretty fantastic. We've got some videos of our first trips around the neighborhood on these tricycles. We have our motorbikes here now, so we sadly don't ride on these anymore.

Neighborhood Tour 1
Neighborhood Tour 2
Neighborhood Tour 3

The new job is very rewarding, though the office is far too professional for me to feel comfortable doing anything foolish yet. I'd like to stand up and reenact the Will Ferrell "I am a strong man! I dare any of you to take a run at me!", but I strongly doubt that any of my coworkers would run in to fight me with a trident.

Our office is located in a giant building known as the 广播贸易中心 (Guangbo Maoyi Zhongxin - English name to come later). On our first day in Ningbo we came to see the building, and on our surprise there was an office space on the first floor that was in the process of being renovated. Since we went on a Saturday there was no one there, just the half finished work and power tools laying out. As we gazed in the windows at the work in progress, we noticed something odd. Amidst the power tools strewn about ran a gaggle of geese. There must have been 8 or 9 geese just running loose and unsupervised around the office space. I haven't seen the geese since that day, which only raises more questions.

I'm sorry this first update isn't entertaining. Now that I have all the informational crap out of the way I can start detailing entertaining aspects of life in China again.

Anyone wanting to text me can add me on What's App (+86 18852837725). I have super unending internet on my phone, so I'll be happy to text and send you picture texts over What's App all day long if you add me and talk to me.

Finally, as you can see we have an extra bedroom with a full size bed, so anyone wanting to come visit is welcome. When we signed up for our new phone contracts we got a 12 pack of Sprite/Coke/Beer with every 100 RMB spent. That room currently houses our collection of Sprite and Coke, but we are willing to let you share a bed with it as long as you don't spoon it. No spooning the Sprite! Hopefully by the time you come I'll have completed my collection of lightsaber chopsticks, and between that and my lightsaber umbrella we'll never need to leave the house. We can just stay inside battling like Jedi and drinking free soda all day. Exciting? Any takers? Tricycle rides? Late night roast lamb on a stick? My gym has foosball and ping pong tables. There's spicy roast duck across the street.