Ningbo

Ningbo is not a city that would make most travel books. An old high school friend lives there with his wife, so we visited them. It was nice to see "an average Chinese city." Average not being non-exceptional in any way...just not a tourist trap by any means. We didn't take many or very good pictures in this city apparently.

When a city expands, the government builds condos and gives them to the folks who have land being claimed by the expansion. Many times these will be sub-leased multiple times. This leads to a couple of interesting situations. Some buildings only have a few occupants. Most buildings have a wide array of incomes and finishes. Our friends have a nicely furnished apartment while the one next door is still cinder block.

My friend had always wanted to try the arcade but felt odd doing so alone. Johnna and I joined him, and we both won little dinosaurs from the claw machine. I don't know if I've been that excited in awhile.

A view of the apartment.

The view from the kitchen (which is kind of screened/glass off). The pic above is looking out of the kitchen towards the apartment. The pic below is looking the opposite direction. With high rises like that, it's obvious how you can fit a lot of people into a small space. This city also has a population similar to Chicago, but you can walk from one end to the other in about an hour. Take that urban sprawl.