First Impressions

I’ve now been in Yuxi almost two days–nowhere near enough time to really know a city, but enough time to form first impressions.

I’ve never been to a city as large as Yuxi (1.5m people) that has as many trees. There are broad boulevards lined with old sycamores and elms. Trees this old and this numerous take a real long-term commitment to grow and maintain, which gives the city a sense of having been thoughtfully designed and administered for many years. I noted that even on a street lined with upscale shops, the trees frequently partially obscure the stores’ signage. In many parts of the world, commercial interests would insist that such trees be cut down or pruned so that commerce could be better promoted–but not here. It’s good to see that even in a country with such a strong pro-business culture there are still people in authority who understand the value of trees and public spaces. There are many public parks–another sign of the city’s long-term investment in public welfare. Although I haven’t seen many buildings that I would describe as beautiful–maybe contemporary Chinese architecture is an acquired taste?–the trees in front of them and the mountains behind them soften their bland designs.

So far, in my hours of walking the streets of Yuxi, I have passed by thousands of people and seen no other people of European descent. Few people speak English, which means I have to rely on hand gestures, smiles, and pen and paper to make myself understood. The people I have interacted with in this way have been very patient.

There is an interesting difference between the way men and women dress here. A number of women dress very smartly and perfectly convey “cute” (for younger women) or “beautiful” (for older ones). They are certainly easy on the eye. The men, however, seem to be stuck in the fashions of 1973, with high-waisted pants and ugly striped polo shirts pretty much the norm.

Even my inexperienced western eyes can pick out the non-Han peoples here. One sees women wearing Muslim headscarves and men wearing flat-topped fezzes. There are also others whose skin is a darker brown and whose faces are rounder than those of the Han people.

I walked around downtown last night (Saturday) around 10:00 and was struck by the absence of vice: I saw no bars, no drunks or drug addicts, no beggars, no prostitutes, no pornography, no gambling. Bummer! I’m sure such things exist here, but they must be well-hidden–or perhaps they are going on right in front of me and I’m just not seeing it.

The school where I will be teaching is housed in a large complex that has many enrichment programs for children and young people: English classes, dance lessons, music instruction, yoga groups, art studios. It’s a very lively place, with women zipping in and out on their electric motor scooters to drop off or pick up their kids. Tomorrow and Tuesday I will be apartment-hunting and will also drive up to Kunming to get the health check needed for my working visa. My training in the school’s teaching philosophy and curriculum starts Wednesday.

It will be interesting to see how my eventual sense of Yuxi compares with these first glimpses. So far, it seems to me to be a very good place to live, a thoughtfully designed city whose people are not so caught up in the need to make money that they forget to be kind.