Yulin: Downtown

Thursday, 2/18/10 -- my first trek to downtown Yulin. We walked the usual ten minutes to get off the campus, missed the bus, and luckily caught a cab right away. Yulin is laid out longways roughly northwest to southeast along a river. The campus is toward the northwest edge, and quite detached from the downtown area and, for that matter, the rest of the city. East of the river there are three streets that roughly parallel the river and that constitute “downtown” -- Third Street, nearest the river; then Second Street; then First Street, which is a restored old market area.

On the ride downtown the cab crossed the river, drove under a gate in the old city wall, and dropped us off, as Jamie had requested, at Century Park. We strolled through the park, which Jamie says is crowded in warmer weather but which was almost empty that day. After the park we crossed second street and then walked along an uphill alley to First Street and the old market. A lot of stores were still closed for the holiday season, but some were open, and the street was bustling with walkers. We got a lot of stares, as usual.

Away from the wind it was a pleasant, mild day. The flip side of being in a place that gets almost no rain or snow is that it’s almost always sunny, and that’s nice.

Pictures here.