"…Fuling slipped out of sight quickly. I stared out the window at the city and mountains, trying to grasp more into my memory. But who knows what will be when I come back next time? ..."
I couldn't put it better - but this is a quote from one of Peter Hessler's (author of River Town) students about leaving Fuling (Changing Course by Peter Hessler, Time Asia, 2003). It is how I felt in 2003 when we left Fuling after our flying visit to collect our daughter from Fuling SWI and it is most definitely how I felt leaving Fuling after our extended visit. Only difference is this time I know how quickly things are moving in Fuling - this is a town that has been on fast forward since Peter Hessler wrote about his time there approximately 8 years ago.
In fact, although I knew that the River Town of Hessler's time had changed I still suffered what I can only describe as a kind of 'culture shock' trying to equate the town I had read about and the one I was walking through. Yes there are still parts of Fuling exactly how Hessler described it but there is the modern Fuling with modern buildings and chain stores (I even found a baby boutique which was better stocked with Huggies, Pampers, formula and babyfood than anything I saw in Chongqing city).
The new dykes have cut a swathe through what would have been 'old town' - the dyke area will be Fuling's answer to Shanghai's Bund -you can walk along the top and get views of the river, underneath will be shops and cafes. But when we were there these were still empty (hardly surprising because the rent advertised on the signs was huge even in our terms) - Vice Director Huang who took us there said they should open soon. Behind the dykes there is a large area of cleared land - part of it is a construction site. We were told that this a museum for White Crane Ridge - this will incorporate an underwater viewing of the rock which will/is submerged by the rising Three Gorges waters (the reason for the dykes). There is a new museum in Chongqing - opposite People's Hall - and it has a piece of White Crane Ridge on display - so worth the visit.
We drove back to the orphanage through an area of old town (ala Hessler's River Town) behind the cleared land - to my surprise we were told that everything to the left (ie lower side) of the street we were on was earmarked for demolition and the right side would stay - so there were at least several streets that were still to be knocked down.
The taxi drivers didn't beep nearly as much as I had thought from Hessler's description - maybe they had toned it down or perhaps I was deaf to horns after a couple of weeks in China when everyone seems to beep every 5 seconds.
We noticed the development made in the area in the last 2 years even on the trip there - there was far more development along the highway from Chongqing. But I was completely surprised at how close the city was getting to the bridge. When we were there in 2003 the Taiji pharmaceutical plant was sitting by itself on side of the hill -nothing much around - it is now in quite a built up area and this extends back towards the bridge.When we visited the building site for the new orphanage with Director Yang and Vice Director Huang, Mr Huang joked that 3 years ago the current SWI lay outside the city limits now it is really in the centre - he joked that in a couple of years the new orphanage would be in a built up area and I can believe it. The new orphanage site is perched high above the Fuling side of the bridge - if you look up as you cross the bridge you can catch a glimpse of the crane on the new site.
One thing that hasn't changed with Fuling is the friendliness and the curiosity of the people - we did have a number of Hessler type moments with crowds gathering around us and firing questions at us that my Mandarin was not good enough to cope with. On one evening I took our daughter by myself to watch the night exercises on the square outside Fuling Stadium and we drew a big crowd. Fortunately one of the people who came up was a local teacher, trained at the Fuling Teacher's College, who spoke perfect English - she teaches English in one of the local schools and liked to take every opportunity to speak with native speakers (as it turned out 2 of her teachers had been Australians). She was able to translate all the questions that the crowd had and the answers - when she had to leave those in the crowd were able to tell newcomers of the who/what/where of our visit (except for one old lady who I think was telling me off for having our daughter in shorts in 35 degree heat who got very animated with me and despite my 'I don't understand' in Mandarin kept telling me in Mandarin to LISTEN). But word of our visit spread because in the following days when we were out people would gather around and Iwould hear someone say in Chinese of course- 'the daughter is a Fulinger, from the SWI'.
So Fuling is a changing town and changing rapidly (probably not interm of the pace of change in the rest of China but in comparison with the West - they can pull down and rebuild in less time than the environmental impact statement takes here)- what will it be like when we next visit. I don't know. What I do know is that we want to visit a regularly as we can afford because it the city and the people do hold a special place in our hearts.
I couldn't put it better - but this is a quote from one of Peter Hessler's (author of River Town) students about leaving Fuling (Changing Course by Peter Hessler, Time Asia, 2003). It is how I felt in 2003 when we left Fuling after our flying visit to collect our daughter from Fuling SWI and it is most definitely how I felt leaving Fuling after our extended visit. Only difference is this time I know how quickly things are moving in Fuling - this is a town that has been on fast forward since Peter Hessler wrote about his time there approximately 8 years ago.
In fact, although I knew that the River Town of Hessler's time had changed I still suffered what I can only describe as a kind of 'culture shock' trying to equate the town I had read about and the one I was walking through. Yes there are still parts of Fuling exactly how Hessler described it but there is the modern Fuling with modern buildings and chain stores (I even found a baby boutique which was better stocked with Huggies, Pampers, formula and babyfood than anything I saw in Chongqing city).
The new dykes have cut a swathe through what would have been 'old town' - the dyke area will be Fuling's answer to Shanghai's Bund -you can walk along the top and get views of the river, underneath will be shops and cafes. But when we were there these were still empty (hardly surprising because the rent advertised on the signs was huge even in our terms) - Vice Director Huang who took us there said they should open soon. Behind the dykes there is a large area of cleared land - part of it is a construction site. We were told that this a museum for White Crane Ridge - this will incorporate an underwater viewing of the rock which will/is submerged by the rising Three Gorges waters (the reason for the dykes). There is a new museum in Chongqing - opposite People's Hall - and it has a piece of White Crane Ridge on display - so worth the visit.
We drove back to the orphanage through an area of old town (ala Hessler's River Town) behind the cleared land - to my surprise we were told that everything to the left (ie lower side) of the street we were on was earmarked for demolition and the right side would stay - so there were at least several streets that were still to be knocked down.
The taxi drivers didn't beep nearly as much as I had thought from Hessler's description - maybe they had toned it down or perhaps I was deaf to horns after a couple of weeks in China when everyone seems to beep every 5 seconds.
We noticed the development made in the area in the last 2 years even on the trip there - there was far more development along the highway from Chongqing. But I was completely surprised at how close the city was getting to the bridge. When we were there in 2003 the Taiji pharmaceutical plant was sitting by itself on side of the hill -nothing much around - it is now in quite a built up area and this extends back towards the bridge.When we visited the building site for the new orphanage with Director Yang and Vice Director Huang, Mr Huang joked that 3 years ago the current SWI lay outside the city limits now it is really in the centre - he joked that in a couple of years the new orphanage would be in a built up area and I can believe it. The new orphanage site is perched high above the Fuling side of the bridge - if you look up as you cross the bridge you can catch a glimpse of the crane on the new site.
One thing that hasn't changed with Fuling is the friendliness and the curiosity of the people - we did have a number of Hessler type moments with crowds gathering around us and firing questions at us that my Mandarin was not good enough to cope with. On one evening I took our daughter by myself to watch the night exercises on the square outside Fuling Stadium and we drew a big crowd. Fortunately one of the people who came up was a local teacher, trained at the Fuling Teacher's College, who spoke perfect English - she teaches English in one of the local schools and liked to take every opportunity to speak with native speakers (as it turned out 2 of her teachers had been Australians). She was able to translate all the questions that the crowd had and the answers - when she had to leave those in the crowd were able to tell newcomers of the who/what/where of our visit (except for one old lady who I think was telling me off for having our daughter in shorts in 35 degree heat who got very animated with me and despite my 'I don't understand' in Mandarin kept telling me in Mandarin to LISTEN). But word of our visit spread because in the following days when we were out people would gather around and Iwould hear someone say in Chinese of course- 'the daughter is a Fulinger, from the SWI'.
So Fuling is a changing town and changing rapidly (probably not interm of the pace of change in the rest of China but in comparison with the West - they can pull down and rebuild in less time than the environmental impact statement takes here)- what will it be like when we next visit. I don't know. What I do know is that we want to visit a regularly as we can afford because it the city and the people do hold a special place in our hearts.
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