Langfang

We are staying at a hotel in a city outside of Beijing, Langfang. Last night after dinner, as I was falling asleep in the car, we drove out here. It’s a half-hour or so by freeway from Beijing.

There’s a toll road at the highway off-ramp. From there, we traveled along several long, broad boulevards. Back home, we would call them parkways. Even here, there was a steady trickle of bicyclists and pedestrians, though it was already around 10pm and there didn’t seem to be much commercial or residential development along long stretches of road. It feels a bit strange, this constant presence of people going from one place to another, no matter where you are and at seemingly all hours of the day. It makes regret not getting the ant farm for S’s young cousin, as I think the social implications would be all the clearer for someone growing up here in China.