By Request

My uncle requested more photos of my surroundings, so when I went to do errands today I took some photos on the way out.

This is taken from the courtyard entrance, looking into the courtyard and slightly toward the left. The buildings visible in this picture are all part of the complex. What you can see of my apartment is the kitchen on the left and the curtain on the right is the laundry alcove.
Turning straight on from the courtyard entrance, you can see our very nice sculpture of a bird feeding its chicks on the nest. In the background is a hill which looks rather pretty but cannot be seen from most angles due to all the tall buildings in the area. Sadly, the view from my windows is solely of the other buildings in the complex, but at least the courtyard is nice. Now that the weather is warmer the courtyard is quite a gathering place for the neighbors - the dancing ladies who are still practicing whatever it is every night, the grammas with toddlers, the oldsters using the fitness equipment (the purple things on the right hand side), and the handful of semi-feral cats.
Turning around and walking partway down the steps at the courtyard entrance, I can see the parking lot and the construction site across the way. Construction hours are apparently 6am to midnight, it's pretty noisy but not too bad with the windows shut.
Turning to the right, more parking lot, and some old Quonset huts of unknown usage across the street which were the first landmark I could recognize nearby.
The view to the left, looking up the street and more of the construction site. Beyond that are mostly old industrial buildings (you can see them in my storm photos with the lilac trees), which will probably be torn down before long to make way for more new buildings. Our complex is only a couple of years old, with two more complexes being built between ours and the main street; I'm not sure what is going up across the street, but I'd guess more apartments.
I have stepped out into the parking lot and this is a photo of the entrance to the underground parking garage. You can see the sculpture above; the steps leading to the courtyard entrance are to the right.
View of the complex from the street. The buildings in the front contain business shopfronts which were all empty when I arrived, now a couple of them seem to be at least partially tenanted. I'm hoping a restaurant will move in... a noodle shop would be nice.
View looking up the street to the left. On the left of the picture is our parking lot and on the right the construction site across the street.
Here I have turned right and walked about 100m down the street to the intersection on the busy street below where I catch the bus, it's a main thoroughfare heading out of town to the east (right). In the foreground is a taxi, most of them are this color/make/model (Volkswagen). They are plentiful here, and very cheap (under 10 yuan = about US$1.50), which probably encourages me to cut my time closer than I ought, since it's usually easy to get a cab if I'm running late!
I have now crossed the intersection and walked about 1000m to the right/east to my bus stop. The main thoroughfares have these kind of frontage streets which are mostly used by carts, mopeds, bicycles and so on, but sometimes also cars. On the right of the frontage street is the bus stop and newspaper seller, on the left side corner is where all the street vendors set up outdoor restaurants in the morning. I will try to get a photo of them
Now standing at the bus stop looking to my far left. This is early afternoon, so there is very little traffic at this time.
Looking to the near left. Oh look, another taxi! Also a bank; there seem to be more bank branches here than anywhere I've ever seen in my life. I'm not sure why they need so many of them.
Looking to the near right or more accurately straight across; you can see the bus stop and one of the new apartment buildings (the black one).
Toward the far right; the two new complexes. the black one has one building and the white one has two. In the center behind and between them you can just see the corner of my building peeking out. When I arrived the driveway that goes up between the two buildings and to my buildings was just mud, now it's paved and they are putting stonework trim on the planters.Hope you enjoyed the home tour! :)