Originally Posted by moondog

Greetings, all.

I've been meaning to give you guys an update on Nanning for the past several days, but haven't had a chance to do so until now.

I honestly don't know where to begin because my time here has been a complete shock to my senses, so I'm just going to throw my impressions out in random order:

-The napping thing was hard to get used to at first. Naps aren't acceptable in Shanghai or any other place I've ever lived. But, here they are guaranteed by law. In fact, one of my colleagues chastised me for typing too loudly during nap time about 10 days ago... so I decided to adapt to this aspect of the culture myself. And, I must say that I have no complaints. No business happens during nap time anyway, I can now roll with the locals who refuse to go home before 2a, and still get an hour of work in before bedtime. Moral to story: if any of you set up an office in Nanning, be prepared for the naps; it's an unwinnable battle... you could conceivably even be booted from the country by challenging it.

-The food isn't very good, but it's surprisingly expensive. When I say expensive, I'm not talking 10k hot pot or the like, but y100 pp for ordinary street food. (I eat a lot of street food because I can't stomach any of the true "restaurants" near the gate of my complex, and I hate waiting in line for 40+ minutes at the popular places in the MixC across the street.)

-I haven't seen any sites that I would describe as tourist worthy apart from the Guangxi Library (impressive because it is on stilts above a reflecting pool), but this is partly due to the fact that I don't get out much during daytime heat. Still, even when the cooler weather arrives, I don't have high hopes. I've done the old part of town because our office used to be there, and don't plan on going back because it is gross; meanwhile the new part of town (where I spend almost all of my time) is kind of like Lujiazui or Financial Street in Beijing.

-People here seem to be quite bored as a rule, and are used to being bored. This is exactly how Shanghai was when I first visited it 18 years ago. But, they are almost all eager to try new things... a hamburger that doesn't taste like a tire, a cool craft beer from the UK, a coffee shop that isn't called "Starbucks". Not only do the people around me have a considerable amount of disposable income to drop on such luxuries, Beijing is determined to transform this city into something great (e.g. Nanning is China's official gateway to SE Asia, and the new HSR will make it blissfully convenient to access both the PRD and Beihai).

-Mandarin speaking ability is a pretty important feather in these parts. During my time in Beijing and Shanghai, I let my skills slide a bit because almost all meetings take place in English. This is not the case in Nanning; in spite of the fact that my colleagues speak passable English, none of the guys we meet with do, so if I'm not on my toes, there's a danger that we will fail to convey the proper message.

In closing, while I miss all of my awesome friends and our superb hangouts in Shanghai, I'm glad to be here because I'm 100% convinced that Nanning is the future (even moreso than the other darling cities that are frequently tossed around in the financial press).