Zhoushan and Dinghai
I'm living on the island of Zhoushan, but really Zhoushan refers to what we'd think of as a county. It's an administrative region called a "city" that spans an archipelago off the coast of Zhejiang Province. The urban area I live in is called Dinghai.
Dinghai is a small city by Chinese standards. It's surronded by hills on three sides and the ocean on the other. It has a port, a central urban area, and large areas of apartment buildings and shops. I know the area between our apartment and the school, but there are still parts of the city I haven't explored. The city is pretty modern, but doesn't feel as glitzy or rapidly changing as I understand some places in China do. We live in a well worn-in section of town with lots of apartment buildings, shops lining a main street, and a market. But from the apartment we can see a large modern boulevard that cuts across town. The heart of the city is towards the water from us, near the school. There are large fairly new buildings - hotels, banks, etc - and crowded modern shopping streets. There's a large central square, the People's Square, with a jumbotron on one building and a huge underground supermarket and department store. And a KFC on the corner. Other parts of town, like our neighborhood, have older buildings and small shops open to the street except for a metal garage door that can close.
We got bikes a few days after we arrived and have used them a lot to get around. The commute to work takes only 10 minutes, but it's exciting. Cars, buses, motorcycles, motorscooters, electric bikes, bike taxis, bicycles, and pedestrians all share the sidewalks and roadways. The other day we ran into a car driving the "wrong way" down the sidewalk. There are so many bicycles during rush hour that there are special bike lanes drawn out on the wide sidewalks, traffic lights for bikes, and even a traffic cop making sure bikes stop behind the white line at the light. Other times of day the traffic is more fluid. It's not too stressful to ride - you just have to be aware of what's going on around you, and never assume you know what a car is going to do. There's no heirarchy of cars yielding to bikes yielding to pedestrians here.
One thing I really like about Dinghai is the access to natural areas. We've found a couple parks on town. One is across town with open space, a pond, and trails that go up to a temple on the hill. My favorite is the one near our apartment. There's a temple with steps leading to the top of the ridge. Then trails fan out in different directions through the woods. One trail we ran led to a couple shelters overlooking the city ... beautiful spots.
Dinghai is a small city by Chinese standards. It's surronded by hills on three sides and the ocean on the other. It has a port, a central urban area, and large areas of apartment buildings and shops. I know the area between our apartment and the school, but there are still parts of the city I haven't explored. The city is pretty modern, but doesn't feel as glitzy or rapidly changing as I understand some places in China do. We live in a well worn-in section of town with lots of apartment buildings, shops lining a main street, and a market. But from the apartment we can see a large modern boulevard that cuts across town. The heart of the city is towards the water from us, near the school. There are large fairly new buildings - hotels, banks, etc - and crowded modern shopping streets. There's a large central square, the People's Square, with a jumbotron on one building and a huge underground supermarket and department store. And a KFC on the corner. Other parts of town, like our neighborhood, have older buildings and small shops open to the street except for a metal garage door that can close.
We got bikes a few days after we arrived and have used them a lot to get around. The commute to work takes only 10 minutes, but it's exciting. Cars, buses, motorcycles, motorscooters, electric bikes, bike taxis, bicycles, and pedestrians all share the sidewalks and roadways. The other day we ran into a car driving the "wrong way" down the sidewalk. There are so many bicycles during rush hour that there are special bike lanes drawn out on the wide sidewalks, traffic lights for bikes, and even a traffic cop making sure bikes stop behind the white line at the light. Other times of day the traffic is more fluid. It's not too stressful to ride - you just have to be aware of what's going on around you, and never assume you know what a car is going to do. There's no heirarchy of cars yielding to bikes yielding to pedestrians here.
One thing I really like about Dinghai is the access to natural areas. We've found a couple parks on town. One is across town with open space, a pond, and trails that go up to a temple on the hill. My favorite is the one near our apartment. There's a temple with steps leading to the top of the ridge. Then trails fan out in different directions through the woods. One trail we ran led to a couple shelters overlooking the city ... beautiful spots.
posted by Tyler C-R at 12:01 PM
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