Nanning and the other white meat

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I was surprised by how beautiful Nanning was. Nanning is the capital of the Guangxi province, close to the border with Vietnam. Its easy to think that if you have seen one Chinese city you have seen them all, but Nanning surprised me.

After the pervasive grime of Wuzhou Nanning sparkled like the Emerald City. The streets were clean, the traffic was organised and there were lovely landscaping with trees and flowers. There were even security guards with whistles every couple hundred metres to yell at people making the place dirty (didnt stop the spitting though).

The part of Nanning I was in was called "Economic Zone" and consisted of hundreds of spanking new and epic shopping malls. There was even a Walmart! I went in because it was airconditioned and it is HOT in Nanning. The Chinese interpretation of American customer service is bizarre, same applies for McDonalds. "Hi, how are you, welcome to the store, how can I be of assistance?" (in Chinese) has no place in the national psyche, nor are they sure how to respond to it. But still they try.

Chinese fashion is a strange thing. The general population seems to have been ignored by every major fashion trend since the early 90's. The women dress either dress like Fran Fine, or her mother, and the men dress like "The Dude" Lebowski, replete with plastic sandals. There are exceptions to the rule. There are young people, particularly in the richer areas, that dress pretty well. But the funny thing is the utter lack of low cut jeans. Even the trendiest little pop tarts have murphy brown pants. Which I suppose is a practical adaptation to the global trend. Squatting, the national passtime, would be difficult in pubesters.

Given the state of Chinese fashion shopping is, unsurprisingly, pointless. Even when I did see the occasional okay item, which was dirt cheap of course, I couldnt buy it. Chinese people are tiny and so are their clothes. It was like being in a Gary Larsonesque shoppers hell, everything is on sale, but nothing fits!

The strangest thing about Nanning is their cuisine. Apparently they eat a lot of dogs. I didnt like the idea of eating dogs, but its hard to avoid with my "point and hope" method of food ordering. I didnt eat anything that tasted like dog, but I dont know what dog tastes like, so its hard to say.

Anyway, off to Kunming next. stay tuned
Chow

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