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2009 in Cities
I read Kottke’s annual list, and then I read Chris’, and now here’s my list. The cities I visited in 2009:
- Portland, OR*
- New York, NY*
- Oberlin, OH*
- San Cristobal De Las Casas, Mexico
- Palenque, Mexico
- Lagos de Montebello, Mexico
- Philadelphia, PA
- Lexington, MA
- Royal Oak, MI*
- Washington, DC
- Suwon, South Korea*
- Jinju, South Korea
- Bosong, South Korea
- Namwon, South Korea
- Beijing, China*
- Taigu, Shanxi, China
- Xining, Qinghai, China*
- Yushu, Qinghai, China*
- Shanghai, China
- Eugene, OR
Cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days (or I lived there). I’m not counting places I didn’t sleep.
Well, that’s it. I’m back in the United States. I’m sorry for not blogging more, but it sort of just didn’t feel right.
I’m leaving early tomorrow morning for Oberlin. It’s going to be my first meeting as a member of the Oberlin College Board of Trustees. I’m not quite sure what to expect, but I have a couple tomes worth of reading before I get there. Should be fun.
After that? Good question. I’ll probably be in Portland for the foreseeable future. Hopefully I’ll make it up to Seattle and down to the Bay Area before too long.
And my US phone works again, so you should definitely give me a call if we haven’t talked in a while.
Development here moves at an astonishing pace. I’ve been in Yushu almost a month now. It sometimes seems like every other building I walk by is under construction, for some reason or another. The big skeletons I noticed on my first walk downtown have almost turned into real whitewashed buildings, with bright blue doors. Cement mixers (whether in machine or human form) are a common sight even on some of the smallest alleys I’ve explored. I was lucky to stumble on the grand opening of a business my first week here, complete with an overwhelming number of Chinese firecrackers.
It’s almost like there isn’t a recession here. But I know things aren’t that simple. Every day, I get accosted by at least a dozen panhandlers — monks, the elderly, people with disabilities, nomads — and that’s just a small number of people who I’m sure are just scraping by. Then, there are the hundreds of people I always see milling around the various town squares. Are they doing business? Unemployed? Just relaxing? Sometimes I wish I could ask.
Next time: the two things that seem to be driving the local economy.
p.s. Sorry for the lack of photos. My laptop is out of commission for now, so all my photos are still on my camera. But don’t get your hopes up too high — one really needs a super wide-angle lens to appreciate the topography of this part of the world.
Travel Map.
I don’t really feel like blogging much, as it turns out. But I did make this map. Click on the various locations to read my silly commentary. I’ll try to keep it updated as I move around; let me know if you have trouble with it.
View Ezra in China in a larger map
…we often have opportunities — whether for business, to visit friends, by accident, or because the collapse of the currency has created a window of opportunity for travel bargain hunters — to go someplace we know little about, and had never thought of visiting. Hearing about other people’s trips like this, getting over your fear of the unknown, and learning how to deal with travel to a place with few tourists and/or about which you know little — and how fun and/or interesting it can be — can greatly expand the travel possibilities that you are open to considering.
— The Practical Nomad blog: How “Afar” do travellers want to go?
