I am moving to Beijing at the end of June! Disney decided to close the center where I
have been working so I had the opportunity to transfer to another city. I am excited to experience another part of
China and to live in the same place as Ryan!
I will miss Ningbo.
One of the best things about living here has been meeting people from a
very wide variety of backgrounds. I made
of list recently of the countries from which I have met people. Here it is:
the US, Canada, Mexico,
Cuba, Columbia, England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Spain, Germany, Italy,
Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Albania, Turkey, Serbia, Ukraine, Armenia, Poland,
Russia, India, Congo, South Africa, PNG, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Iceland
Yes, even Iceland! There
is an immediate commonality with foreigners from even the most obscure places
because we are all outsiders here. We
all get stared at. We all have to
communicate as we can in a foreign language.
And, we all ended up in Ningbo!
Ningbo is not a place that people generally plan on coming to. So, most foreigners have an interesting story
to explain their presence.
In my final weeks here I have been trying to enjoy all of my
favorite places plus do things that I hadn’t made time for yet. Such as, a bike ride to the coast. So yesterday, armed with an inadequately
detailed map, I headed east. It took a
little less than two hours to reach the Beilun harbor, but unfortunately I
didn’t even get a chance to see the water.
That part of town is strictly industrial – lots of containers, cranes,
oil drums, and semis. Not only was I a
little out of place on my bike, I was also not allowed into the harbor
area. I looked at my map and saw a nice
little island about an hour south. It
looked like it had just one small road around it and a cute little bridge that
would be a pleasant excursion. Here is
what I saw instead:
More containers, cranes, factories, oil drums, etc. And really brown water. I knew I was in trouble when the road I was
on turned into a windy elevated highway with a very narrow shoulder. I was constantly getting passed by semis who
enjoyed blaring their horns and gawking at the tourist on a bike. So, the ride was a bit of a disappointment,
but at least I know what I’m not missing!
Also, I got to spend 7 sunny hours on my bike!
I also recently visited the Tiantong temple which is
one of the largest Buddhist temples in China. It is about an hour out of town by bus. The mountains were lovely and it had just
rained that morning so the air was misty and fresh.
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| Please not that there is "no hullabaloo" allowed at the temple! |
In the next couple of weeks I am revisiting Shanghai and
getting to meet up with Carla, my former co-worker. The next weekend I have plans for a trip to
Hangzhou with Marsha and Vicky – two other lovely co-workers. The weekend after that, I will be in
Beijing!
Before we knew about the center closing, I had booked
tickets Beijing to visit Ryan and see the Great Wall at the end of May. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and I got to
drop off most of the stuff that I will be moving there. We went to the Badaling portion of the wall,
which is a very convenient, 6 kuai ($1) train ride away from the city. It was an exceptionally clear day and not too
crowded. Here are some pictures:
