Around Campus

I've had a few weekends now to explore the areas around the new campus where I live. It really seems like everything you could possibly need is walking distance from where we live and work.

While the options for food and entertainment are nowhere near as extensive as Daegu or Busan, there is still more than enough to keep me.

The main gate is basically the transportation centre, and where I go to get to the gym. There is also a supermarket out there, and if you head east. a WalMart (ewww) and some great patio's for a late night dinner.

Keep going northeast and you connect with the east gate, which seems to be the place to go.

The west gate is mostly apartment buildings, though there is a great Korean place there, which is where I go when I get nostalgic.


So this last weekend I took a Friday mission out to the east gate and found an amazing little Chinese patio. Being so far south the restaurants often close mid afternoon for a Chinese version of the siesta, and then open up at 6. By 9 it is dark but still 22 and you can sit outside with a very light beer and some great food for the evening. The woman who owned the place insisted on taking a picture with us at the end of the night. I am sure we were the first laowai (foreigners) who had ever eaten there. Being in Nanning now is a bit like being in Daegu in 2009-2010. People stared at you, wanted to take pictures with you, you were a novelty. That had well and truly died by 2015, but it is still going strong here, and it is actually kind of fun.


There is also a BBQ street, with meat skewers, amazing vegetable dishes, and more very light beer (a blog on Chinese drink will follow, not especially complimentary). I went out there to sit on a large patio and enjoy the views and food for several hours. I've been there a few times, and I am sure will go back many more. It has a feel much more like southeast Asia than it does China.... in fact I think the whole city has that sort of a feel.

Anyway, with work keeping me so busy (12 hour days are not uncommon, even if much of that work is done from home) it is nice to have those distractions nearby. I often can't be bothered to head in to the city, especially when the only expat bar has classic rock Friday night and football (soccer) on Saturday.