When I was researching the possibility of working in China one of my choices was a college in Ningbo. Ningbo is located couple hours east of here by bus. After spending a couple of days there I have decided that I was lucky because I made the right choice and chose Hangzhou. Granted ZUFE is located an hour away from Hangzhou and the sky is not as blue and they don’t have fried bananas (another story) but there seems to be so much more history and culture in this area. I think we visited most of the important sites during our 2 days of walking around the city. Also one of the things that Ningbo is famous for is 4 special types of food. All of ripened tofu dishes have names that start with the word that means stinky and boy do they live up to their name. They say it tastes a little like blue cheese, which I like, but I have never been able to get the stuff past my nose to try it. So every once in while you would get a whiff of that strong stinky smell as you walked around town. Also Ningbo had way more beggars, Hangzhou has some but usually I only give away 5-10 yuan here on Yan'an Rd., but in Ningbo I went thru at least 30 yuan (in coins) for the beggars there. (I have been so blessed to be able to travel and teach over here, I feel like I need to share a little- plus they always beg harder when there are foreigners around because we are such an easy touch- me included)
So Hangzhou was a good choice because even after spending 2006 in Hangzhou I still have places I want to visit here – but not next weekend because I am heading off to Shanghai to meet some other adventurous travelers from Glynn County that are touring China. Their first stop is Shanghai and I intend to abduct a couple of them on their day off and lead them astray into the den of temptation known as Lisa’s Pearls. Many of my friends have bolstered the Chinese/Shanghai economy at least a couple of percentage points by the amount spent here.
Click here to see more pictures of Ningbo
