Hefei, my old stomping grounds

Hefei is the little known capital of Anhui Province where my parents were on the faculty of China Science and Technology University. Up until my sister, brother, and I started elementary school in Shanghai, we got shuttled backed and forth between Hefei and Shanghai. As a little kid, I intuited that Hefei was far inferior to Shanghai.

In the ensuing forty years I found little reason to return. Part of the impetus that prompted this visit was my only remaining great aunt had moved to Hefei a couple of years ago. Alas, I arrived to find that she died the day before. While I could not fault her for leaving this world after 94 years, nonetheless it was difficult for me to accept her departure.

The weather did not look on my visit favorably either as it rained over half of the time.

Upon this brief visit, I discovered:

1. I am older in age than ALL of the buildings on the university campus, nevertheless the campus looks shabby.
2. My old world was even smaller than I expected. I had known that going from our old apartment to my kindergarten seemed like miles must be greatly exaggerated. Now, reality shows it is more like steps.
3. The older part of the city is rundown and crowded, the new part pretentious and impractical.

Whew, am I glad to be out of there, then and now!

We took the high speed train from Hangzhou to Hefei.


And enjoyed some noodles and bing (bread) after settling in to our hotel.




I can't resist taking photos of "loaded" recycling carts.


Sun-Ling at the gates of her old kindergarten.


The old university "swimming pool".


The old university gate.


John making new friends on campus.


Making "hand-pulled" noodles.


And the finished product; our noodle soup.


This snack is kinda like a potato burrito. Have two and it's a meal. ;-)


Hefei had much more street food than Shanghai or Hangzhou. We picked up these steamed buns as a snack before visiting the Anhui Provincial Museum on a foggy then rainy day.




The museum, in the newer section of town to the south, was worth a visit. We especially liked the exhibit on prehistoric Anhui. Here's a shot of the lobby.


Some prehistoric pottery balls (bottom row).


After the museum we headed to the downtown pedestrian street and adjacent park but the rain soon drove us back to the hotel.