A walk in Ningguo

By:  October 1, 2023 Categories: 

Lower-tier cities in China always fascinate me, because they’re so anonymous and unknown, yet house hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. (I wrote more about this phenomenon in an article about Danyang.)

Anyway, today we’re in Ningguo (宁国) in Anhui, where 400,000 people live, and while Eva still sleeps I’m taking a quick walk around the area.

This is an old area that’s being slowly pushed out. A shushu is gardening some crops.

Old houses being pushed out by modern high-rises.

A statue of an inventor of rockets or something.

It’s the National Holiday in China so lots of families have a week off — hence it’s a convenient and popular day to get married. In an hour’s walk I saw about five caravans of cars — ranging from BMW’s and a Rolls Royce to cheaper cars.

Now back to the hotel for our breakfast!

Latest

Passing on the Baton

Passing on the Baton

Day 2876 in Shanghai and I’m walking with Hasse on Dongdaming Road (东大名路) in the Hongkou district. In 2018, I lived next to this road; here I registered my first Chinese bank account, bought my first baozi in a FamilyMart, and it’s here that I photographed so many random things because Shanghai was all new […]
April 13, 2026
Arriving at an emotion

Arriving at an emotion

Before moving to China, I wondered what it’d be like to live in an entirely different environment — and it was the same for holidays like Cambodia or Vietnam, or when Hasse was born. You try to imagine these things and how they’d make you feel, how you’d react, or what they’re like. But everytime […]
April 10, 2026
People of Nantong

People of Nantong

I’m carrying Hasse around in Nantong (南通), in the historical block surrounded by the Haohe River (濠河) — while Eva in the hospital visits a sick relative. Hasse, being a seven month old baby, is a true 显眼包 (eye-catcher), so dozens of bypassers turn their head or want to touch her (which I quickly have […]
April 4, 2026
Cozy market alleys and pot stickers

Cozy market alleys and pot stickers

We’re in  Zhuqiao Village (祝桥镇), again. I love these old streets, filled with market stands or scooters and trikes parked everywhere. These alleys are so full of life, devoid of big brands with their uniform protocols and brand guidelines. And because the whole scale of it is smaller than modern shopping malls, everything feels so […]
March 31, 2026