Usually, my first visits to a new city are not all that exciting in terms of adventure. I usually do no planning other than, “Hmm? I have a day off. Where to go?” I arrive at places blind, sometimes, and that’s because sometimes walking into the sheer unknown sounds exciting. That sounds good in theory, but in my experience, it hardly works out. My recent foray into Yangzhong was no different.

This is a city that takes up a one very large island in the Yangtze river, and it technically part of Zhenjiang. It is not as industrialized as other nerby cities like Changzhou or Yangzhou. As some cities go, this one has a a less developed and small town feel. Then again, that’s just an impression based only on a few hours of walking.  Here are some photos from that walk.

 

 

This is the long distance bus depot. I live and work in Changzhou, and the ride was an hour and twenty minutes.

 

I have a trick when I go to a new city for the first time. I pull up Baidu Maps and see if the area has a Starbucks. If so, I make it my mission to find it. Yes, I like coffee, but the practicality is that Starbucks is an expensive luxury for many Chinese people. So, these coffee shops are usually in built up, commercialized areas. Yangzhong, according to Baidu Maps, has only one Starbucks, and so here is what I saw in my trek to that Starbucks.

 

Eventually, I had to get back to Changzhou because of business / dinner arrangements. I had misjudged how long the ride to this place was. I needed to give myself ample time to get back.

 

Yangzhong is mostly a rural place, and one of the major industries here, historically, has been farming. When you live in a Chinese city, sometimes you are not used to the wide open spaces that surround place like Yangzhong.

While I didn’t see anything too exciting this time around,  I left saying to myself, “I missed out on something there.” So, I need to go back and find out what that “something” was.