A Tale of Two Cities.

I've been in Fuxin for a couple of days now, and settling in well.  After a couple of trips to the local supermarket, we have a stocked fridge, and I've bought enough accessories to make at least my room warm.  The rest of the dorm is still freezing, but, oh well.

Here are a few snaps of my abode for the next 2 months:

And the dreaded coldzone that's our kitchen:

Fuxin itself is a strange place.  On one hand, it is a big city, by western standards (over one million), but not by Chinese standards though.  We are staying on the outskirts of the city, which are, to be blunt, very dirty.  Sidewalks are dirt tracks in most places,rubbish is left in the streets, and feral dogs roam free.  But, take a cab 10 minutes downtown, and the centre of Fuxin looks like St. Louis or another fairly big western city.  Malls, restaurants, Apple stores, and other chain stores.  The big difference is the number of people is highly concentrated, so it feels more like Chicago or New York in that sense, rather than St. Louis or Kansas City.  We visited a "Western-Style" restaurant the other day and I took some amusing photos:

For a second, I thought this one said inseminate:

Just in case there is a steak emergency, and you just need to know all there is about steak.  The restaurant has these handy handouts:

Finally, I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of where we are in Fuxin.  I forgot to take pictures of downtown to show a contrast between the two:

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