On my second day in Nanning, Maggie and Joyce came back to my hotel room late in the morning. “We are going to move you into your
new apartment today!” Joyce said. They originally said I was going to stay in the hotel room for a few days, but no matter. Once I made sure I
had all my things packed, we left the hotel building and made our way to the front gate of the hotel which was guarded and had a security
checkpoint just in front of the street. We walked up Gucheng Lu a little ways past some small two story buildings including noodle restaurants,
stores that sold electronics, tea that came in more traditionally styled boxes, and there were also some general convenience shops.
       In the middle of Gucheng Lu, there was a small guardrail supported by white metal bars that kept people from wandering across the street
too much. There was a lot of traffic moving up and down the street, and just a few people crossed there at a small opening in the guardrail
risking getting hit by a vehicle, but there were some yellow stripes that ran diagonally across the road at that point on both sides, so I assumed it
indeed was a place for crossing. We walked to the end of the block and then turned right at a slightly dangerous T-intersection onto a smaller
street called Xinzhu Lu (sheen joo loo). What made it dangerous was that pedestrians who were crossing the neck of the T had to watch out for
cars that came up suddenly trying to turn onto Gucheng Lu from Xinzhu Lu or vice versa. Joyce said, “In Nanning, people must wait for cars.”
Back in Anhui, pedestrians didn’t give anything foul imaginable for cars as they were coming towards them. Different provinces must have some
different ways, I suspected (as obvious as that might sound).
       On Xinzhu Lu, there were many small clothing stores, mostly women’s clothing, and a few convenience stores. There aren’t many streets
that I could call residential because the majority of them always had some kind of businesses on them. There are some old and narrow
backstreets and alleys that don’t have shops on them because they are too far out of the way, but there are usually not so many of them in a city.
The sidewalk on Xinzhu Lu was made of brick, something that was unusual compared to the standard sidewalk designs I’m used to seeing in
China.  Usually they are red, yellow, and green with a chessboard-style arrangement of tiles instead of one slab of concrete after another. There
was also a newspaper and magazine stand in the middle of the sidewalk in a part of the street where the sidewalk suddenly expanded and
became over three times as wide as it was near the beginning of the street. The workers have to enter the newsstands through a small door on the
side and they sometimes sell drinks in addition to the reading material or let people use their public phone.
       We walked about 50 meters down Xinzhu Lu to a small entrance on the right where the sidewalk parted to let cars and other vehicles drive
through. The gate was retractable and reminded me of a spring the way it coiled up to one side as it opened, but there wasn’t any sudden spring
action possible or that would be dangerous for anyone who was trying to pass through if it ever malfunctioned. There was a small guard station
on the right where one guard dressed in a blue work shirt and black pants sat at a table with a parasol standing straight up next to the table to
protect him from experiencing too much of the sun’s rays. The guard would fully retract the gate when motor vehicles came through and give
them a ticket that they must present if they ever wanted to leave with their ride again. The gate was partially open for pedestrians and bicyclists
to enter and exit freely.
       Within this apartment zone there were many old looking apartment buildings, not old as in traditional, but old as in just old. Nothing but
several rows of gray cement apartments on either side of the walkway at least eight stories tall each. The staircase we went to was just past a
small hair salon on the first floor of one of the apartment buildings, and the staircase was external, so there was no elevator. We climbed up to
the sixth floor, which is where I was moving to. Maggie pulled out the keys and opened the door with a strange key that was shaped in such a way
that the lock had an X shape to it. Whoever was living in this apartment before me must have bought too much that they couldn’t bring with them
when they left, because there was stuff of theirs all over the place. This was Webster’s apartment that they moved all of the new teachers into, at
least at first. It was comfortable, though. There were two bedrooms, a small living room, a bathroom, and a kitchen, not that it was going to be
important for someone like me who doesn’t like to cook anything but pizza and spaghetti. “This afternoon, our company is having a party for the
teachers who just finished teaching this summer’s classes. You can go to the party if you’d like.” Maggie said. I thought that would be a great way
to get acquainted with my new coworkers, so I agreed. If Maggie keeps taking such good care of me like this, it wouldn’t be hard to start having
feelings for her, as nice and attractive as she is. Joyce was a bit different than Maggie, yet they made a great team together. Joyce was a little
quirky like a cartoon character with some funny looking facial expressions and was hard to read in a way. It wasn’t that there was anything
mysterious about her, but it was a little difficult to tell if she was sincere or not. I didn’t recognize her as any kind of threat, so I guess it didn’t
matter too much.
         That afternoon, Maggie fetched me and brought me to Webster in Nanning’s headquarters. Walking back on Gucheng Lu past the hotel I
first stayed in, we came to a large street called Minzu Da Dao(Meen Zoo Dah Dow) or Nationality Avenue. This was the main street in the city.
With three lanes on each side, Minzu Da Dao was separated by a median strip that had palm trees on the median and on the sides of the road
and also there were separate bike lanes. The road was almost perfectly straight, so it was possible to see nearly eight miles down the road looking
east from the intersection with no hills or curves to obscure the view. It would be a perfect drag-racing strip if anyone ever wanted to use it for
such a thing, or a sniper’s paradise. There were several medium-size buildings of around 30 floors each that were visible popping up from place
to place down the road. Webster’s Nanning office was located in a semi-tall building called Tai An Da Shan, or Tai An building, very near Minzu-
Gucheng Lu Kou (the intersection of Minzu Da Dao and Gucheng Lu).
       Everything I needed was conveniently located right in the same area for me. It was about a 15 minute walk from my apartment to Tai An Da
Shan. Tai An Da Shan was the tallest building in the immediate area. It had a small set of stairs that led up to the first floor with an interesting
work of art out front that looked like it was half ancient Chinese warrior and half a metallic piece of modern art. I thought it must signify China’s
step forward into the modern world since the back half of the sculpture was the old warrior and the front half was the modern metallic
construction that was taking a step forward. The building itself had many greenish reflective metallic panels running all the way to the top of the
building which had a pyramid shaped top and the four Chinese characters that represented the name of the building. I didn’t have to go inside,
because all of the teachers had begun to assemble outside in the parking lot in front of the stairs.
       The first one who I met was Niall. Niall was the CEO of Webster from England who spoke at a very fast pace and had very polite and proper
speech. He was about 6ft. tall and had glasses with a build that made him look slightly hunched over. He and the others were all set to get on a
bus and head to a recreation center. I was notified in advance to bring my swimming trunks, so I had them all set.
       On the bus ride, I was introduced to all the others from my new company that had the time and the desire to participate in the event. There
were several female Chinese teachers, Becky, Yoka, Yo Yo, May, and Elva. There were also several others who worked in the marketing
department, Samuel, Sonny, and Ruby. A foreign teacher named Peter from New Zealand was also with us. He was a bit old, but he still had so
much youthful energy that he made the rest of us younger folks look like we were the ones who were old. Most of all, I got acquainted with Peter
and Sonny. Peter finished his last year with Webster and was planning on returning home soon. Sonny was from a city up north close to Beijing
and seemed rather interesting compared to many others who I’ve met. His English wasn’t the greatest, yet we were somehow on the level. It
seemed like he had quite independent views for someone that was well educated. He also looked different than others I had met.  Most people I
met with a high level of education were so polite and respectful to Chinese customs that they didn’t dare express anything that was unpopular.
He was much more casual for someone who had high enough marks to attend college.
       We arrived at the recreation center, which had a swimming pool, tennis courts, bowling alley, and other facilities.  We all had a fun time
playing sports, but for some reason, Ruby thought she could beat me in a swimming race. I hadn’t too often met Chinese people who knew how
to swim. There didn’t seem to be any emphasis on learning how. Well, if she thought she could beat me, then I should give her a chance. We
both moved to the shallow end of the pool and prepared ourselves mentally. The other girls shouted, “One, two, three, go!” I kind of felt bad
about it, but I blew Ruby’s goggles off in the race, though I respected her for trying. After we finished with our sports, we went to a small meeting
room where some people decided to play a game called Majiang (mah jiong). I wanted to learn how to play, but they told me it was very
difficult and would take some time to explain, so I decided not to be a wounded leg on anyone’s journey. The game involved small rectangular
pieces that had different shapes and patterns on them that did not appear to be related to the standard Chinese language. They would choose a
number of them from the center and do something like try to make pairs. We also snacked on some fruits including one that was called longan,
or “Dragon Eyes”. It was very small, about the size of a grape, and it had a rough skin on the outside similar to what I would imagine dinosaur skin
feels like. The reason they must call it Dragon Eyes is that after you peel off the skin, the transparent fruit surrounding the pit looks just like a
dragon’s eye with an with an elliptical pupil in the middle.
       We had a dinner in a large dining hall and then got on the bus back to the center of the city. I sat down next to Yoka, and Niall tried to get
me to make moves on her. He told me to use the old yawning technique, but I wasn’t interested in doing that. I knew nothing about her. It is not
at all logical to dive into a swimming pool without knowing how deep the water is. All the other girls were laughing and teasing Yoka about it. I
guess these folks were real tight with each other.
       It was completely dark outside, and we arrived at an area called Chaoyang Guangchang, or Chaoyang Square. There were huge
complexes of four or five floors each that had spaces in between them where many people, families, friends, and couples of all ages go
shopping or enjoy the time at restaurants or drink at coffee shops. “This is Nanning nightlife.” Sonny said as we walked through the crowded
leisure complex district.
       We went inside of a building that had an escalator to the second floor that reminded me of a movie theater lobby the way it was designed,
but actually it was a KTV where we were going to sing. We went into one of the many KTV rooms, which were all dark and luxurious and ordered
food and drinks and began to select songs from the computer screen. Most of the songs I was able to sing were from groups such as The
Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and other pop music artists. Everyone was excited to be there singing their songs. May looked like a little girl in
a young woman’s body because she seemed a little silly, but actually she was a year older than me. Becky sat next to me on the couch and
began to speak to me about something, and immediately my internal alarm system went off. It told me do not give her any signs at all of interest.
Just the way she sat next to me told me almost everything I needed to know about her, but I kept friendly to her while keeping my distance.
Sonny made an effort to sing some English songs with me and also sang some Chinese songs. There was one that I remember specifically that
had Jet Li in the video and it was a song that was composed by a very popular Chinese singer and rap artist known as Jay. It had a combination
of some modern and traditional elements, and appeared to be about fighting.
       The traditional-modern fusion of Chinese music reminded me of exactly where I was, in China. This is the place I had always heard about
but knew nothing about, yet for some reason, my destiny took me to this place for reasons that could have been greater than I was able to
imagine. Such a big and old country with so many people holds many possibilities and many secrets that I was all too eager to uncover, but life
has its limits, such as work, time, and money. Soon, through my new company Webster, I would learn just how those limits were going to affect
my new life in Nanning, and what would be possible for me to achieve in this city.
China Dispatch/Andrew Gramling

Welcome to Nanning