China Trip - Nantong

Nantong is a small (by Chinese standards) industrial city of about 2 million people located about two hours northwest of Shanghai. It is where Weina's sister, Hai Ni, and her husband, Fan, have an apartment. Hai Ni and Fan graciously agreed that we could stay in their apartment during our visit.  Fan and Hai Ni are living at Fan's parents home in the village of Wu Jie, so that Fan's mom can watch their son, Rei Rei (pronounced "Ray Ray") until he is old enough for pre-school (he's only 17 months). The village is about 40 minutes outside the city.

The neighborhood where we stayed is full of apartment buildings (6 to 10 floors each) with a kindergarten and grade school. Main Street was under construction as they created an elevated highway overtop of the existing street. Many business were forced to close. This was a real working class neighborhood. No tourists every come here. There was a produce market, fruit market, pool hall, moon cake bakery, drug store and a couple of noodle shops. Every morning our little rooster (Hao Hao) woke up about 5:30. We'd get dressed and head out for breakfast at 7:00.  Here are Kathy, Weina and Hao Hao having baozi and hard boiled eggs for breakfast.

On Sunday, we were all invited to Fan's parents house for a big lunch with all the relatives. First we took a motorcycle jitney cart from the neighborhood, through the construction zone, to the nearest big street. Then we took a taxi cab out to the village. From left to right, Fan's mom, Fan's dad holding Rei Rei, Hai Ni holding Hao Hao on her lap, Weina in the foreground with Fan's cousin behind, Fan's sister and her husband, Kathy in the foreground with Fan behind her.

Next it was off to Chongqing for Weina to pick up her her housing allowance disbursement and visit with her colleagues from the University.