My Neighborhood

The pics below are of my surrounding neighborhood which is a part of the town of Xili.  I’m pretty much the only foreigner here, at least in this vicinity.  As such, I get constant stares.  I always feel like the Chinese are asking themselves, who is that foreigner?  Where is he going?  What’s he doing?  What’s he carrying?  What planet does he come from?  I would say my neighborhood is more on the lower class spectrum compared to my peers’ neighborhoods.  But I like that in a lot of ways.  It’s more authentic.  More real China.

The 1^st pic is where I do most of my shopping.  It’s a small supermarket / convenience store of two stories.  It’s where I usually buy my food and beer.  You can also buy toiletry items and household goods, etc.  It’s probably about a 5 minute walk from my apartment.  I go there at least a few times a week.  They should start getting to know me by now as I have been there a lot.

The next pic gives you an idea of the type of housing here.  Everyone hangs their laundry outside on their balconies.  This pic was taken right near the store above.

The next pic is a little store/stall selling freshly cut-up meat if that’s your thing.  You have meat vendors everywhere.  It can get pretty gruesome.  Just yesterday, I saw men unloading the whole half of a cow carcass, just split right down the middle with the two legs still attached.  The carcasses were being unloaded from the back of a truck.  They were lying right on the truck’s floor.  Not in a cloth or a box or anything.  They then just grabbed these spike-things and lifted it out of the truck into the guy’s store.  Pretty nasty for me to see as a vegetarian.  Have to look away as much as possible.  The red things above the meat next to the lights in the pic rotate to keep the flies at bay.

This pic is of a store/stall vendor in my neighborhood selling all types of vegetables.

The next pics are of the main drag of stores, stalls, and street vendors near my apartment.  It’s also near my school.  The stores are of various types or sell different things, like meat, vegetables, household goods, pet stuff, etc.  There are also small convenience stores, eateries, and a bakery.  As you can see from the one pic, the chickens await their fate.