{"id":187,"date":"2010-06-06T17:21:49","date_gmt":"2010-06-06T23:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/laowaiteacher.wordpress.com\/?p=187"},"modified":"2010-06-06T17:21:49","modified_gmt":"2010-06-06T23:21:49","slug":"contrasts-behind-the-walls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/2010\/06\/06\/contrasts-behind-the-walls\/","title":{"rendered":"Contrasts – Behind the Walls"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This is one of the homes that are found within the gated community called Sunshine Gardens (y\u00e1ng\u00a0gu\u0101ng hu\u0101\u00a0yu\u00e1n –\u00a0\u9633\u5149\u82b1\u56ed)\u00a0where we lived during our first two years in China (Zh\u014dng\u00a0gu\u00f3 – \u4e2d\u56fd)\u00a0and where we will again live when return to Changzhou (\u5e38\u5dde)\u00a0in August of this year. \u00a0There is little doubt that the residents of this gated community were wealthy people (y\u01d2u\u00a0qi\u00e1n\u00a0r\u00e9n\u00a0– \u6709\u94b1\u4eba)\u00a0in contrast with most Chinese citizens (Zh\u014dng\u00a0gu\u00f3\u00a0r\u00e9n\u00a0– \u4e2d\u56fd\u4eba). \u00a0Most of this wealth is hidden behind walls. \u00a0In the case of Sunshine Gardens, most of the wall was comprised of a row of apartment buildings along the north (b\u011bi\u00a0– \u5317)\u00a0\u00a0side, the walls of another gated community on the west (x\u012b\u00a0– \u897f) side, another gated community on the south (n\u00e1n\u00a0– \u5357) side, and a high fence almost hidden by trees and bushes along the east (d\u014dng\u00a0– \u4e1c). \u00a0 As you might notice, I have given you the pinyin and characters for the four cardinal directions which often find their way onto street signs.<\/p>\n

But, as you may well guess, this wealth is not the norm.<\/p>\n

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Poverty (p\u00edn\u00a0k\u00f9n\u00a0– \u8d2b\u56f0)\u00a0is also hidden behind walls within the cities. \u00a0I found this “home” hidden behind high billboard fences in the downtown area of Changzhou. \u00a0To be honest, this level of poverty was not the norm either. \u00a0For most residents of the city, home was simple, comfortable and more often than not, an apartment.<\/p>\n

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Some of the more modest homes of the middle class (zh\u014dng\u00a0ch\u01cen\u00a0– \u4e2d\u4ea7)\u00a0are found behind walls that are made of brick and cement with openings called moongates. \u00a0These gates lead to either individual homes or more typically, a row or two of row housing from an earlier period of the city’s history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is one of the homes that are found within the gated community called Sunshine Gardens (y\u00e1ng\u00a0gu\u0101ng hu\u0101\u00a0yu\u00e1n –\u00a0\u9633\u5149\u82b1\u56ed)\u00a0where we lived during our first two years in China (Zh\u014dng\u00a0gu\u00f3 – \u4e2d\u56fd)\u00a0and where we will again live when return to Changzhou … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22,28,33,38,41,49,50,68,74,75,100,103,118,123,141,155,168,211,212,217,241,238,246,253,267,83],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bei","tag-changzhou","tag-china","tag-chinese","tag-chinese-language","tag-communicate","tag-communication","tag-dong","tag-esl","tag-esl-blog","tag-foreign-teacher","tag-ft","tag-hong-chan","tag-jiangsu","tag-mandarin","tag-nan","tag-pin-kun","tag-sunshine-garden","tag-sunshine-gardens","tag-teaching-esl","tag-xi","tag-xinbei","tag-you-qian-ren","tag-zhong-guo-ren","tag-267","tag-83"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}