Zhenjiang

Here is a set of pictures from another outing that I didn't post about previously. In February we spent a couple days in Zhenjiang. It is a smaller city along the Yangtze river to the West. Of course, "smaller city" doesn't quite mean the same thing in China. This one, for example, has a population of around three million. I made some comments about relative city size in a previous post, so I will move on.

Some of you may know that Lee went to China two and a half years ago as part of the Sister Cities organization. This city, Zhenjiang, is where she stayed. It is, therefore, part of the reason we have ended up doing and being where we are right now. Lee's experience helped push both of us to consider teaching overseas. That had always been a eventual plan of ours, and I even tried to apply to the U.S. Department of Defense school system (for military dependents) clear back when I first got my teaching certificate. Back then, it didn't take long for me to figure out that a new teacher with a non-teaching spouse and two dependents was not an attractive candidate. The overseas plan was shelved indefinitely, and had in effect become a retirement plan. The plan resurfaced once we began to feel that the kids could really gain by it, and it would matter for their educational and personal growth. At that point, we decided that it was time to take action, rather than just have them experience it from a distance as something cool that Mom and Dad did long after they had moved out.

From the very beginning, Lee specifically wanted to go to Suzhou (she had visited it that summer). However, although China was the initial inspiration, once the actual job search began, we cast the net far wider. A number of schools took us very seriously as candidates, and with a few twists of fate, we might have ended up in Latvia or Croatia or Lebanon or Turkey or China. Each place, in its turn, inspired great enthusiasm, and since we took each of our interviews very seriously, almost every single one was briefly "my life long dream" of where to live. I will tell you that the mental whiplash of constantly switching between cities, climes, and continents was possibly the most surreal experience of my entire life.

In the end, we ended up only an hour away from Zhenjiang, and in the exact city that Lee had wanted from the beginning. I'll leave it to you whether that represents ironic fate, or the culmination of inspiration, hard work, good preparation, and blessings. I know where we stand on that question.



Zhenjiang is not a major tourist area, but it does have a really nice Buddhist temple. It is an enormous complex of jumbled buildings and twisting stairs. On the left, John is in the photo.



This is another nearby temple, that is on a small island in the Yangtze river. Ann as per your comment, here is further evidence that your mother was actually here (and evidence that I read your comments).


John, hamming it up.


It was a very misty day. This is an evocative scene of a ramshackle old boat on a quiet spur of the Yangtze. One interesting part of the scene is hard to pick out in the photo, so I have a closer view below.


A pig carcass washed up on the shore of the Yangtze.

An evening out at a Hotpot restaurant, a regional tradition from Sichuan province that has become popular nationwide. Basically, it is a big pot of boiling broth, into which everyone puts their selections of tidbits and delicacies, and which everyone then shares. Options include a variety of meats, noodles, vegetables, and dumplings. Strangely, a good Hotpot restaurant is something that we have yet to chase down in Suzhou. We know they are here, but few have English menus. We do occasionally go places without English menus, but it is a lot of work.

In the left photo is Janet (Lee's mother, who was visiting) with Emma. They are displaying their duck feet, if you can't tell. On the right, Lee is with Christine, the teacher who hosted Lee in her home during the exchange in 2006.


One more photo for good measure. A local boy under attack by fearless and overfed pigeons.