From Grits to Chopsticks

The air was unusually clear when we flew to Chengdu recently, allowing us to take the following picture of our part of town:Our apartment is on the western edge of town (beneath the red arrow).

We recently shared our excitement about the pending completion of a new road entering our apartment complex from the south:It is finally finished.  Now that it’s open, we’re not sure if it is a road or a very long parking lot.  The rapid growth of automobile ownership in China has created a significant parking problem…We’re also excited about a new supermarket that has opened in the basement underneath our apartment building:Instead of riding a bus or taxi, we can just walk to the corner and go down an escalator to buy groceries and other household goods:It’s actually a good place to shop, living up to the name of “happy life, go”:If you don’t want to get your fruits and vegetables here, you can walk along the nearby street on Thursday when the farmers come to town:I’m still not sure if people can understand what’s being advertised by the cacophony of advertising messages.  Here’s a brief video clip so that you can see what I mean: Street Fruit Sellers.  And if you just want to get unhealthy skewers of street food, you can get that on the corner after dark:These are just a few more things close to our Chinese home.