On Friday we went to Hefei. Danny had a conference there and I figured I may as well check it out. Hefei isn’t terribly interesting. All the websites we looked at pretty much described it as an ok place for a layover but not really worth visiting. It is actually pretty large in population, about the size of Philly, but it is mostly an industrial city without a lot of sights worth seeing.
We got in Friday night and went to the guest house at University of Science and Technology of China. Their campus is one of the nicest things to see in Hefei, although when we arrived it was dark and they do not keep it well lit at night. Usually when we travel I am super motivated to go see stuff as soon as we arrive but since there isn’t a lot to see in Hefei, we just checked in and went to bed early. The guest house was ok; it pretty much looked like a generic three star hotel. For some idiotic reason the hotel is cash only, kind of weird but whatever. China has a cash based economy. Danny always likes to point out there is less identity theft; I wonder if there are more robberies though. I’m pretty sure the government here would never release statistics on it and there is no way to know.
Saturday morning when we looked around USTC’s campus we found it had a pretty lake with water lilies and some pretty rocks.
That night Danny found a little night market while I was resting and since there was nothing else to do, I went with him to check it out. It was just a few booths set up selling food. I snapped a few pictures of it and then decided it wasn't very exciting and headed toward the juice shop across from it.
I don’t know how we find these lunatics but as we were walking away from the market this really drunk guy started yelling at me. I kept walking. Then he ran up to me and tried to shove me. At that point Danny stepped in front of me and asked him in Chinese what his problem was. I didn't really understand what he said but apparently he was pissed off I took his picture and said some bizarre crazy stuff about having already died once. Danny fended him off and told him we didn't want his picture and we were only interested in the neighborhood. He kept trying to shove Danny, who was standing in front of me at that point. It was pretty futile since he was a really little guy. I think I might have been able to take him even if Danny weren't there. A few seconds later his friends chased after him, one of them dragged him away as they apologized profusely in Chinese pantomiming drinking to me with apologetic gestures since they assumed I didn't speak Chinese. How have we had two complete strangers try to pick fights with us on the street in less than one year? Is this normal in China or do we just have really bad luck. We weren't even in bad neighborhoods. I lived in New York for five years and never had these kind of problems.
We spent the day in Sanhe Ancient Town. It is about an hour from the city center. We took a bus for 12 RMB each, about $2 a person. There wasn’t a ton to do but it was a cute little town. They had a pretty gate, a pagoda and some old fashioned buildings.
The most exciting part was our boat ride. It was 20 RMB a person, about $3, to take a ride for about twenty minutes with a live performance of Chinese music. They also give you tea and sunflower seeds, which I didn’t really care for. The performers were really good and they all dressed up in traditional costumes. 
While in Sanhe we also visited the childhood home of a Nobel Prize winning physicist named Yang Zhenning. Danny met him on his last trip to China 10 years ago. He was in his 80’s and married to a 30 year old woman who used to be his student.
After we got back we had dinner at a shopping mall called Wanda Plaza where I was hoping to find some western food. It is a pretty fancy mall complete with Gucci selling $500 shoes. The food was not as impressive. The closest I came to western food was pizza with sauce that tasted like ketchup and fruit and corn as toppings. Danny got the “Wild Germ Hates Soup with Crisp Skin.” That’s right. Google translator strikes again!The next day we checked out Lord Bao's Park. It pretty much is the only sight we read about in Hefei that tourists might be interested in. It is basically a big park with a couple of monuments in memory of this guy named Lord Bao who was known in Chinese history to be a very honest and fair judge that the emperor liked but all the nobles hated. He had three guillotines – a dragon shaped guillotine to kill royalty, a lion to kill nobles, and a dog to kill commoners that he had sentenced. The park was a pretty place to stroll around and it had a few monuments that were mildly interesting.
I think at this point in our China travels we really have done so much sightseeing that another pagoda and another tomb is just not as fascinating though. Hefei also really isn’t that impressive. I was pretty happy to head back to Shanghai at the end of the weekend. It isn’t my favorite city but at least I can find some decent places to go for dinner. Danny was stuck there for a whole week but I think he doesn't mind it as much since he has work to do anyway and a bunch of our friends are at the conference with him.
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