Pengshan: More Beautiful by the Day

I feel that it's time I tell you a little bit about Pengshan, my home for the next year.

Pengshan is not a beautiful city. It is quite small (by China standards) and dirty. As it is one of the top producers of cell phones in China, it is full of boxy industrial buildings that come in shades of gray. When I first arrived, I found it to be a glum place, and the little annoyances of China grated on my nerves instead of rolling off my back like they usually do: the spitting, the staring, the honking...

But after almost a week here, I find that I am enjoying this city more and more each day I spend here. While the area I live in is somewhat dour, downtown Pengshan is only a very short bus ride away, and has a lot of hidden beauty to offer. There's a sleepy river that runs right along the edge of downtown, and beyond its other edge is a sudden wall of humid jungle and mountains. Small, intricate tea houses hide behind willow trees, and quaint clothing markets can be found in the maze-like alleyways connecting main streets. Everywhere, there are side streets packed with delicious restaurants, and there are little parks filled with ancient mahjong players, the clicking of their tiles filling the liquid air.

My favorite place that we've found in Pengshan has been the main town square. It is also right off of the river, and is absolutely barren during the day due to the stifling heat. However, as soon as the sun goes down, the people begin to creep out of the woodworks and the square quickly fills to a crowded bustle, alive with festivities. Music plays as groups of people do synchronized dancing (kind of a mix between ballroom, zumba, and line dancing), little children zoom around in little battery powered cars, and people mill around, chatting and hanging out. Some nights, they will light floating lanterns, and they bob away over the city, or out past the river. It's a fantastic, cheerful time of the day, and a great place to go chat to people in Chinese or to sit and people-watch. 

All in all, I've been settling in just fine here in Pengshan. Besides the town itself, the campus I'll be teaching on is first rate. Within 500 feet of my new apartment I have access to a gym, a laundromat, a post office, a whole slew of restaurants, a coffee shop, my new classroom, and an on-campus bar. And best of all, my apartment has a western-style bathroom! What a place! What a life that I live!