Scenes from the country village near the institute
Here are a few pictures from the little country village that surrounds the Nanjing Institute of Meteorology.
We were walking along with Gao when suddenly this woman rushes up and begins talking excitedly with him. She was soon joined by this man. Later we asked who they were, and Gao told us that there were his adoptive parents. He had come far from his home town of Taiyuan, in Shanxi Province (also the hometown of Li Guoying and her sister Li Mei), to study at the institute. This couple took him in, and they became so close as to become his second set of parents. When they saw him unexpectedly back, they naturally rushed to him.
A closer view of Gao's "mom." They love each other dearly.
Near the gate was this collections of little shops. One hot evening, we came upon this man making sandwiches with Chinese pancakes that he was preparing on the spot. He would first pour the batter onto this rounded griddle and smooth it out until it was very thin.
Then he would cook it for 30 seconds or so, gently flip it over, and remove it. Somehow, it would all hang together. It smelled delicious!
Walking with Gao was like witnessing the return of the town's favorite son, which he might well have been. Every minute or so, someone would recognize him, rush over to shake hands or receive a quick hug, and they would prattle on for another few minutes, all cloaked in broad smiles. Here is one such experience, with the driver of a local taxi. Kelly is enjoying the event.
Here is another friend of Gao's, this time a woman who is the passenger in different taxi. I swear that Gao knew every living resident of the town! If he ever runs for office, he will be a shoo-in.
The local post office.
Kelly happily mailing a postcard to the folks back home.
Here are some scenes along the main road through town. You can see various kinds of buildings on the left, fields on the right, and the institute in the distance in the center. The little stream is tied to irrigation of the fields, mostly for the rice.
Here is where the villagers apparently were preparing something like plaster for their construction.
Black smoke from some kind of industrial combustion that was not being given enough oxygen. We saw such plumes throughout China. Before China can fully control its air pollution, it will have to eliminate such strong sources of black-carbon aerosol.
I suppose that collections of photos should contain sights that impressed us. This street corner certainly did. It was garbage and trash from a variety of sources, thrown out onto this corner apparently because there was room enough. We also saw garbage along the side streets right across from all the houses. Maybe animals eat it. The sign says "Nanjing Perfect Breeding Co., Ltd. Experiment Place."