Nanning Running Tour

Nanning Running Tour
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

Since I've been showing shots of the more touristy and lovely parts of

China -- Beijing, Nanhu Park and dowtown skylines in Nanning, and Hong

Kong -- I wanted to give you all a sense of the contrasts between

wealth and poverty, developed and undeveloped, that we see every

single day in Nanning. I hope there will be more of these photo tours

later, if you like this -- I admit at the outset that I may have gone

overboard. But I find these contrasts and views and ways of life

absolutely fascinating. Though the blog will show these as posting on

Friday, June 17, here in China it is Saturday morning, June 18. I took

my little digicam along for my run on Thursday morning, since my

running route presents a good number of contrasts that Americans and

other developed-world folks would find interesting I think.



So herewith, Paul's running tour of the southeastern corner of

Nanning. I also note at the outset that I'm trying a new method of

posting photos, which may or may not work as I hope. I'm sending

batches at one time, with a text block that's meant to accompany all

of a group. If the blog works as I hope, the text will appear only

once. I'm afraid, though, that the text may post with each individual

photo. If this happens, I apologize and hope you won't be discouraged

from clicking onward to see the rest of the photos. As you know, I

have no ability to access my blog itself and thus manage its

presentation better, while I'm here in China. When I get to Hong Kong

or elsewhere where the restrictions on web content are not applied, I

may be able to fix this.j



In any case I hope you enjoy these shots. They include me and my

housemates on the steps of our house, and the house next door to ours,

which has been under construction for a while. These are pretty

glamorous -- enough that I've been embarrassed to show our house until

now, when I could give you some context for it. My housemates are

(left to right), Francoise (doctor at AIDS clinic, French), Laura

(nurse at clinic, English), Manuel (country logistician in

coordination, French with Spanish Mom), and me of course. The other

shots show the street corner just uphill from my compound, with the

start of lovely big Green Mountain Park on one corner, a new complex

just going up on another corner (the big pylons you see, and the woman

with the wheelbarrow), and two other complexes on the other two

corners.



One last note about the construction in our compound. I've said before

that it ain't the unionized crews we know in the US...these guys work

from 6 or 7 AM until 7 or 8 or later at night. Often when it's

hottest, they do the hottest work until midnight - roofing and tar and

stuff. And another interesting factoid: the construction crews live in

the house they are building. There must be running water brought in,

since I don't see them carrying water, but I do see them showering and

doing laundry (yeah, they shower in the houses without windows and

stuff) and hanging the laundry out to dry...and cooking dinner and

watching TV on the mounds of dirt on the ground floor at night. Guess

that means they have electricity already, too, which makes sense since

I hear them using buzz saws and stuff a lot, too. Anyway, it's

interesting, though dusty and loud.



The work continues well. We've just submitted our second-half budget

reestimation (my first big financial job), which included our action

plans for both projects and coordination for the balance of the year.

I can now say that the coordination team (with me) will move to

Beijing in the fall, so the AIDS clinic here in Nanning can grow up a

bit more independently -- this is the more typical MSF model around

the world. For MSF it's been a bad couple of weeks: colleagues

arrested in Sudan, kidnapped in Democratic Republic of Congo, the

anniversary of the murders of colleagues in Afghanistan. We've all

felt these losses and worries, since many of us know people who work

in these places. But here in China, we're trying to grow our projects

and continue to take care of our clients, and it's nice we can do this

in a climate without serious security concerns. And I continue to be

very happy I've made this choice, though I do miss my friends and

family.



Take care, enjoy the photos, and keep in touch.

Nanning Running Tour
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

Nanning Running Tour

Nanning Running Tour
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

Nanning Running Tour

Nanning Running Tour
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

Nanning Running Tour

Nanning Running Tour
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

Nanning Running Tour
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann

Glamor and Mud

Glamor and Mud
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

You may recall the shots of construction and big buildings that I took

from Nanhu Park back when you, my readers, were telling me you wanted

PHOTOS of Nanning rather than words. In one of these shots, you see

what looks like an abandoned lot with grass and construction stuff

strewn around, and in the hazy (after I got home from my run, I heard

it was 94% humidity that day) background you can sort of make out some

of those buildings. I think that skyline is less than five miles away,

though I've not measured it.



The other shots include one of my favorite contrast shots -- beautiful

flowering tree next to lamp-post from streetlight, with shack in

background in little hollow among the hills and mud where a family is

living and making do somehow. Also in this shot: more views of

construction, and a large wooden spool that for some reason is sitting

on the sidewalk right next to the entrance to the (very glamorous)

complex where my MSF housemates and colleagues and I have been

spending many weekend afternoons by the pool, and several weekend

evenings playing (finally, yay!) tennis. That's the yellow building

you see in the background, and in some of the previous shots; across

the street from the big columns and the woman with the wheelbarrow you

just saw. This is literally the end of the line for glamor

development, until you get to Riverside Drive, a bit further on.

Glamor and Mud

Glamor and Mud
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

Glamor and Mud

Glamor and Mud
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

Glamor and Mud

Glamor and Mud
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

My Running Route

My Running Route
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

My Running Route

My Running Route
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

My Running Route

My Running Route
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

My Running Route

My Running Route
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

I've got a basic circle loop that I run in either direction depending

on my mood. Today I ran down this road first, past the building where

we go swimming and play tennis, and over the course of maybe a mile I

see so much contrast it's boggling. In these shots you see the

beautiful streetlamp designs that light this completely empty road at

night, and some of the beautiful flowering trees that have been put in

lining the road. You also see, in one shot, one of those same

lamp-posts drawing up the margin on the left side of the shot, while

we look uphill to another cinder block building where folks are living

and carving out an existence somehow.



If you knew this street, and Nanning traffic as I do, you'd laugh at

the pedestrian and wheelchair crossing sign. It's lovely in concept,

except for two realities: 1) There are NO CARS on this road -- yet.

(Don't worry: they'll come; as I said, this city is growing very

fast.) 2) There exist in all of Nanning no more than 10 drivers that

would take any notice whatsoever of those signs or act on them if they

did take notice of them. To call Nanning's roads a chaotic mess of

terror is to somewhat understate the case, I think. My two

acquaintances who've been here longest (English teachers at Guangxi U

who've been here three years) tell me they think it's simply that all

the roads, and all the cars, are so new to folks that they just don't

know the rules of the road yet -- they tell me most of these

hard-surfaced roads, and the cars that go on them, have really just

come since they've been here.



I include the street sign of Qingshan Lu and Qingxiu Shan because

that's my street, and Qingxiu Shan is Green Mountain Park -- uphill

from this sign is the intersection I showed you earlier. I also

include it because it, too, is funny to me in such a traffic-free

context. But I do admire the advance planning that's gone into

building these roads and infrastructure for the needs that will surely

come.



Then there are more contrast shots: the one with all the plastic

hanging, and the brick shacks is a place where I think the family is

raising fish in fish ponds to sell at the market. Having seen a woman

washing her clothes in one of the ponds, though, I'm no longer as sure

as I was the first time I saw this. Across the street from these ponds

is the graveyard you see. This is interesting because, according to

Keith in Hong Kong, graveyards have not been permitted in the PRC:

some time after the Communists took power, they made the (to my mind,

extremely logical) decision that China could not afford space for all

the graveyards its population would need, so they've been encouraging

(or requiring) cremation. This means graveyards are a very rare sight

in my experience of China -- except the old tombs around Xian up

north, for example. And I assume that, when the development fringe

reaches the few hundred yards further to where this graveyard is, this

graveyard too will vanish. Perhaps I'm wrong.

My Running Route

My Running Route
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

Studies in Contrast

Studies in Contrast
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

Studies in Contrast

Studies in Contrast
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

What I hope is the last shot here shows the glamorous part of what I

think of as Riverside Drive (its real name isn't shown on my map), of

which you'll see a good deal in the next set of photos. I think the

relatively manicured and clean beauty of that shot contrasts nicely

with the other photos in this set. This street here is maybe 1/2-mile

long, and leads down to (or back from) the river and Riverside Drive

It is lined with the cinder block shacks you see -- right now almost

all of them are empty. Once more folks move in here -- when the

development along Riverside Drive is complete, when the road that

connects up to downtown is done, when all the many other buildings

you've been seeing are occupied -- no doubt many little shops of the

sort that are omnipresent throughout China will go in.



But for now, it's what you see...including the women selling

vegetables and meat by the roadside. (Oh, and by the way, since this

road deadends in the dirt field with the blue arrow you will see in

the next batch, it's not like there are tons of cars on here, either;

I've never seen one car yet, I think, but some motorbikes of course.)

I think most of these folks live in the green hills and shacks you see

in photos later on, many of which are back behind these rows of cinder

block squares. Comment from Francoise when I showed her this shot:

"what you can't see in the photo is all the flies buzzing around the

meat." This is when I'm glad I'm only eating the vegetables -- which

you can't really see here, but looked gorgeous.

Riverside Drive, a la Nanning :-)

Riverside Drive, a la Nanning :-)
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

A fairly wide and full, muddy river runs through Nanning. Colleagues

and friends who've worked here a few years tell me that as recently as

two years ago almost all of the city was inland and north of the

river; I know for a fact that until two years ago there was only one

bridge over the river in town (a town that now has two million people,

with the airport among other things on the other side of the river

from downtown -- compare this to Pittsburgh's 500,000 people and

countless bridges!). In any case, the usual route for my morning runs

is down by the river; the reasons for this include very little (no)

car traffic, and this is the only road I've seen in Nanning that is

paved with blacktop rather than concrete. My old running buddies from

Long Beach Front Runners will know how I feel about running on

concrete! :-) (It's many times harder than blacktop, so it kills your

joints.)



In any case, this batch of shots shows you a bit of the road and its

environment. The paved stretch is maybe two miles long. The pictures

below include photos of both ends of it: at the southeastern end it

peters out into a dirt track (it's the shot with the flags and ads in

Chinese running along both sides of the road) that runs into Green

Mountain Park, which occupies the riverbank for a good stretch

starting there: you also see a river shot that includes a pagoda

that's in the park, with more of the brick shacks in the foreground.

My China guidebook tells me (in the two paragraphs it devotes to

Nanning, capital of Gaungxi -- this gives you a sense how appealing

Nanning is to the casual tourist industry) this is the tallest pagoda

in Guangxi. I often see folks on bikes and mopeds that are loaded down

with vegetables and greens coming from that direction: no doubt many

things I've bought at my (wonderful) local fruit and vegetable (and

meat, somewhat but not much more grandiose than the shot you saw

earlier...being a vege, I studiously avoid that part of the market;

it's terrifying) are grown on the riverbanks further along, by people

living in the kinds of brick and tin shacks you've been seeing in

these photos.



I've also included two shots that show the landscaping along the road:

one shows large mansions, with dense and lush plantings in the

foreground. These roadside plantings have just gone in since I got

here in early April, mostly by groups of women wearing straw hats who

chat away in Guangxinese (which I understand perhaps 5% of). Since

it's gone in, these being the tropics, weeds have sprouted up, and

judging by the actions of the two ladies whose photo I took from

behind, some of the weeds are edible: they were collecting, at 6:30 in

the morning. Actually, the riverbanks on this stretch -- including the

brick shack you see in the shot with the pagoda, assuming that photo

loads right (it's been having trouble...), include many spots where

people grow vegetables to take to market. On this run, I saw a father

loading up his son's bike with some things that look a bit like fern

shoots...and yesterday at lunch, Stefano and Katja and I had a dish of

those very shoots, stir-fried (OK, not from that kid's bike, but you

get the concept) -- they were really yummy!



The other end of the road -- running west/north along the river,

heading somewhat in the direction of town, though the river winds a

LOT -- is the big field of dirt you see, with a small blue sign

showing a right arrow. I find that right arrow rather funny. Let me

just say this is NOT the litigious land of the US here...there are

uncovered manholes, uncovered drains on the side of the road, manhole

covers that extend a good six inches above the surface of the road,

bricks and cinder blocks lying in the middle of the road...and folks

just navigate around them. (Including the fifty or more young men I

assume were military, who were doing some sort of road race that

morning -- first other runners I've seen in all my runs!) Of course,

like I said there's no traffic here yet, but were this the US it would

all have "keep out, construction zone, no trespassing, hardhat zone,

enter at your own risk" all over it, and big plastic cones everywhere

to warn those would-be trespassers...and if I fell in and broke a leg,

I could still sue. Here, I know I'm on my own with my brain and my

eyes.

Development Underway

Development Underway
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

I leave you with a few more shots taken along the road by the river.

As you saw in the previous shots, this road has lovely landscaping, is

broad and generally well-paved (except the few spots they keep having

to re-pave because of subsidence with all the rains, usually around

power or water manholes), and already has a decorative railing for

what will, presumably, one day be a lovely, planted walk along the

river.



Right now, though, reality hasn't caught up with all that yet. In one

of these shots, you the really lovely, large and glamorous hilltop

mansions with elegant metalwork terraces, while at the bottom of the

hill below the road, you see an older brick building in which, yes

indeed, folks are living right now. The shot of the river and its

banks is taken directly across the street from this one: the cleared

space and piles of dirt will one day be the berm and walkway along the

river. I've not read the urban plans, so I don't really know that for

sure, but I base it on what I can see, and on the lovely riverside

walks and park that already exist in the heart of town: which I'm

fairly sure (from what I've been told) were themselves only created

within the past two years.



In the other two shots, you are looking inland a hundred yards or so

upstream -- closer to downtown and the dirt-and-mud dead-end of the

current road -- and you see some of the brick and cinder block

buildings that characterize the parts of the road that have not yet

been fully developed. I assume that just last year or earlier this

spring, the road here was all dirt track...and that folks were already

living in the lovely mansions in the gated compound on the hill.



If these photos have posted as I'd hoped, you've got four shots with

this caption, and these are the last shots in the current installment.

I hope in the future to show more of downtown and the markets,

perhaps. Hope you're all well, and thanks as always for reading my

blog and for your support! :-)

Development Underway

Development Underway
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

Development Underway

Development Underway
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

Development Underway

Development Underway
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.