Today was the first full day in Chenzou and I was given the gracious opportunity to travel with two soon to be students of mine into town for some supplies. The journey was very amusing and somewhat long. Chenzou City is about a 30 minute bus ride from where we are located, which is considered the "suburbs".
These are all pictures that were taken during the journey. As you can see, it was a very overcast day here, but still very humid. By the end of the day, my shirt was clinging tightly to me.




This is a very common site in Chenzou and I would imagine other cities in China as well. Men with giant carts loaded down with goods from who knows where. This man had one of the larger carts we saw throughout the day, but it was not uncommon to see bikes loaded with 75 bags of rice weighing at least 50lbs a piece.







I thought this is a funny picture because the billboard looks very much like the one in this photo. This is also driving into Chenzhou.













These are the giant supermarkets that are in the city. There isn't any Wal-Marts here folks, but these are the places to go if you need supplies are not up to the consistant haggling that goes on in the marketplace, which I will show later.









This is the part about China that is the most intruguing. There were several buildings like this one throughout Chenzou that would not seem out of place in any Western City.
Progress is alive and well in the city as the Chinese are becoming more responsive to Western interests in the far east. The modern look to the cities is in no doubt due to the Olympics that will be coming up in 3 years. All over the city, there are signs that proudly read BEIJING 2008!!!
*Interesting little factoid: The China Women's Volleyball team is headquartered in Chenzou.