Post by OZgronk on Jul 2, 2005 20:00:47 GMT 7
Ningyuan County is a city of about 750,000, in the south of Hunan Province and is located about 200km north-east of Guilin.
It is in the middle of a rural area, which the locals will point out is a very poor area. It is surrounded by paddy fields and market gardens for as far as the eye can see.
The air is very clean, as the only factories are a couple of brickworks on the outskirts of town, in fact the sky is blue and the night sky is brilliant with stars.
If it wasn't for the coal-burners that nearly everyone uses to cook upon, the air quality would be perfect, as there are very few cars in the city. The majority of vehicles are 3 wheel motorbike taxis, the odd bus and small trucks as well as those fantastic things with a motor out the front, steered by a tiller that farmers come into town upon.
Everyone, including the aforementioned vehicles all just wander down the streets, regulated of course by the judicial use of blaring horns. There are no footpaths to speak of, the space between the buildings and the road are taken up by hawkers' carts and motorbikes and piles of bricks, sand and other building materials which spill out towards the middle of the roads.
The streets are littered with crap, and the river that flows through town is as filthy as any in China, but apart from the rubbish, one could almost say that Ningyuan is unpolluted.
It is certainly uncontaminated by anything remotely resembling civilisation!
True, there are three supermarkets and when we first arrived 4 months ago I found a jar of peanut butter at one. Admittedly it was 2 years out of date, but I bought it nevertheless, and it still hasn't been replaced.
The weekly shopping trip to buy just 4 items consisting of bread, marmalade, rolled oats and Dove chocolate (the only western style chocolate available) requires visits to all three of these fine establishments to fill the order, and of course they are not adjacent to each other.
Fresh fruit and veg' are on sale from barrows everywhere, and hole-in-the-wall eateries serving up very delicious fare utilising the point and pray method of ordering, feed my wife and I with two large courses with a bottle of beer for 9 Yuan.
Nightlife consists of two discos, frequented by adolescents who, in the case of the males, dance without shirts on.
The "international hotel" at which absolutely no-one speaks English and at which probably no one outside China has ever stayed, has some karaoke rooms, and each night the tiny tiled park with its 3 plastic palm trees comes alive with rows of identical airgun shooting at balloon thingies, and a jumping castle.
There are no bars, cafes, nor indeed any where to sit under trees (there aren't any trees except for those three plastic ones). The river can only be seen from the three bridges that cross it, so on a hot day the only thing to do is sit in your apartment with aircon on, beer in hand, packet of Chinese potato crisps and watch Chinese TV or your DVDs which thankfully can be obtained albeit in limited numbers and choice.
A new development is being built along the river which looks (going by the scale model on show inside the sales office) like it will be quite nice.
We actually met the developer who gave us a lift in his pride and joy... a 1980's Toyota Corona with right hand drive...he couldn't speak English (no-one except us 5 FTs do), so I couldn't ask him how he came to have such a vehicle.
The No1 Middle school we teach at has about 10,000 kids spread across a couple of campuses, is the only bright spot, the kids are very well behaved and curious, the staff are all friendly and our accommodation is adequate...even with "squat bogs" which we are now almost used to.
Naturally there are no such things as western takeaway, there are no toasters to be bought in town, and the only automatic washing machines sold in town are those in the FTs apartments.
To say Ningyuan is quiet is an understatement, but I suppose it could be worse......
This is my first post in Raouls bar, and I trust my babbling will assist someone somewhere...its just good to have you nice people around propping up the bar with me, who can listen without me having to talk and chalk every word.
It is in the middle of a rural area, which the locals will point out is a very poor area. It is surrounded by paddy fields and market gardens for as far as the eye can see.
The air is very clean, as the only factories are a couple of brickworks on the outskirts of town, in fact the sky is blue and the night sky is brilliant with stars.
If it wasn't for the coal-burners that nearly everyone uses to cook upon, the air quality would be perfect, as there are very few cars in the city. The majority of vehicles are 3 wheel motorbike taxis, the odd bus and small trucks as well as those fantastic things with a motor out the front, steered by a tiller that farmers come into town upon.
Everyone, including the aforementioned vehicles all just wander down the streets, regulated of course by the judicial use of blaring horns. There are no footpaths to speak of, the space between the buildings and the road are taken up by hawkers' carts and motorbikes and piles of bricks, sand and other building materials which spill out towards the middle of the roads.
The streets are littered with crap, and the river that flows through town is as filthy as any in China, but apart from the rubbish, one could almost say that Ningyuan is unpolluted.
It is certainly uncontaminated by anything remotely resembling civilisation!
True, there are three supermarkets and when we first arrived 4 months ago I found a jar of peanut butter at one. Admittedly it was 2 years out of date, but I bought it nevertheless, and it still hasn't been replaced.
The weekly shopping trip to buy just 4 items consisting of bread, marmalade, rolled oats and Dove chocolate (the only western style chocolate available) requires visits to all three of these fine establishments to fill the order, and of course they are not adjacent to each other.
Fresh fruit and veg' are on sale from barrows everywhere, and hole-in-the-wall eateries serving up very delicious fare utilising the point and pray method of ordering, feed my wife and I with two large courses with a bottle of beer for 9 Yuan.
Nightlife consists of two discos, frequented by adolescents who, in the case of the males, dance without shirts on.
The "international hotel" at which absolutely no-one speaks English and at which probably no one outside China has ever stayed, has some karaoke rooms, and each night the tiny tiled park with its 3 plastic palm trees comes alive with rows of identical airgun shooting at balloon thingies, and a jumping castle.
There are no bars, cafes, nor indeed any where to sit under trees (there aren't any trees except for those three plastic ones). The river can only be seen from the three bridges that cross it, so on a hot day the only thing to do is sit in your apartment with aircon on, beer in hand, packet of Chinese potato crisps and watch Chinese TV or your DVDs which thankfully can be obtained albeit in limited numbers and choice.
A new development is being built along the river which looks (going by the scale model on show inside the sales office) like it will be quite nice.
We actually met the developer who gave us a lift in his pride and joy... a 1980's Toyota Corona with right hand drive...he couldn't speak English (no-one except us 5 FTs do), so I couldn't ask him how he came to have such a vehicle.
The No1 Middle school we teach at has about 10,000 kids spread across a couple of campuses, is the only bright spot, the kids are very well behaved and curious, the staff are all friendly and our accommodation is adequate...even with "squat bogs" which we are now almost used to.
Naturally there are no such things as western takeaway, there are no toasters to be bought in town, and the only automatic washing machines sold in town are those in the FTs apartments.
To say Ningyuan is quiet is an understatement, but I suppose it could be worse......
This is my first post in Raouls bar, and I trust my babbling will assist someone somewhere...its just good to have you nice people around propping up the bar with me, who can listen without me having to talk and chalk every word.