China Trip - Nantong Again

On September 7, we drove to Yantai and caught a plane to Shanghai, then drove to the City of Nantong where we took up residence again as guests in the apartment of Weina's sister Hai Ni and her husband Fan.  We stayed in Nantong for 10 days, which gave us time to get to know the city a little better than when we had stayed briefly previously in our trip.

One thing we decided to do was to walk around the immediate neighborhood - known as the Shuguang district.  It is bordered on one side by a stream or canal, on two other sides by immense highway and apartment construction projects, and on the third side by a river.  The district includes over 50 high-rise apartment buildings, known only by their building numbers.  Our apartment was in Building 28.  This type of apartment community is of a scale most Americans find hard to grasp, but it is ubiquitous in China.  As we drove around the area, we saw, under construction, much larger communities with many more, and larger buildings, than the community in which we were staying.

However, aside from the heavy population density, life in this community wasn't far different from that in many communities around the world.  In the mornings, we would wake up, and, looking out across to the nearby apartment building, we could see people opening their little shops on the ground floor (bakeries, convenience stores, hair stylists, and the like), while, in the stories above, people had hung laundry outside their bedroom or kitchen windows.  Folks were puttering on their balconies with potted plants.  Many were getting dressed and ready to head off on scooters for their office jobs elsewhere in Nantong.

After school, the young children gathered in the playground adjoining our building.  While we were waiting for dinner one afternoon and after Hao Hao's nap, we took him out to watch the children.  As soon as we arrived, a bunch of children mobbed us, curious about him and us, where we were from and whether we could speak Chinese.  They tried out their English on us, and corrected our Chinese, eagerly and excitedly.

Unexpectedly after diner that night, the doorbell rang.  When we answered, in tumbled three of the young girls that had mobbed us down on the playground!  They wanted to know if Hao Hao could play (and, probably, were also curious about how we "foreigners" were living).  They stayed with us perhaps an hour or so, helping Hao Hao play with his toys, and trying to communicate with us in Chinese or English.  Here's a photo of the girls with David and Hao Hao:

As we had during our first stay in Nantong, we took a day to travel to Fan's village to spend part of the day, and lunch, with his family.  They live in the village of Wu Jie (literally, "Five Street" or perhaps more loosely, "Fifth Street"), about a half hour drive from Nantong.  Their house was more modern and elaborate that that of Weina's father, having two stories and being more elaborately decorated.  The visit gave Hao Hao a chance to play with his cousin Rei Rei.  They took to each other pretty quickly, even exchanging kisses with each other.  Rei Rei also tried to feed Hao Hao a few times.  Here's a photo of Rei Rei (standing) introducing Hao Hao (sitting) to Rei Rei's toy car:

Weina's sister Hai Ni has a scooter with a baby seat for Rei Rei.  Weina spotted the scooter and thought it would be great fun to take Hao Hao for a ride on the scooter.  Here's a photo of Weina and Hao Hao mounting up for their scooter ride:

On another day of our stay in Nantong, Weina, Hai Ni and we decided to take Rei Rei and Hao Hao to a beautiful park in central Nantong.  The park is laid out around a beautiful lake, with various amusement rides sprinkled along walkways around the lake.  Weina and Hai Ni thought it would be fun to introduce the boys to a carousel, so they jumped on.  Weina first tried to jump on a horse with Hao Hao, but that seemed too insecure for the little guy, so they moved to a larger sleigh with seats that accommdated all four of them:

The time in Nantong passed very quickly.  Since we were there in September on this second visit, the weather was much cooler, clearer and more autumnal than it had been in mid-August when we first visited.  Since the weather was more pleasant, it was much more enjoyable to get out and about without enduring the heat of the sun or the heavy smog or haze that settles along the streets when there is no breeze.