Progress

Do you remember this post, where I described the nice country-side and villages around our town where we run and bike on a regular basis? We went for a bike ride in one of our favorite areas yesterday and were shocked to find a favorite little village on the edge of town demolished.


I am trying not to be sad, because maybe the people who lived here are not sad. Maybe they are happy to move to an apartment building in the city. Maybe they received a good chunk of money to move out. Maybe they had built there illegally and were kicked out. I have no clue. I just know that the group of families who lived there are no longer there.

I know that my year living here is only a blip in the life of this town, and all of the tall buildings I see were probably once smaller groupings of homes like these. But this does demonstrate a significant change in China, one that is sweeping many cities and small towns. This village was by no means old or historic, but I just saw this article about the demolition of the entire historic downtown in Nanjing, with some buildings dating back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

I will miss this courtyard - I would always peek in there when I ran by. This week I need to find a new route out of town and into the fields to avoid the rubble.