BIG CITY, SMALL TOWN

When we first came to China, more than 13 years ago, foreigners were not all that common, even in places like Beijing. Our six-year-old attracted a fair amount of attention, but it was our one-year-old who really stopped traffic.
What a difference a decade and a half makes.
Nowadays, unless we stray into those areas where hicks prevail (The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, The Great Wall at BaDaLing) we can walk out, even en mob, and not attract very much attention. That doesn't mean we can walk around our neighborhood unimpeded. Quite the reverse. If strangers no longer stop us very often to riddle us with endless questions (How old are you Where are you from What country do you come from How many children do you have Is that your wife Is your wife Chinese How much money do you make How old is your wife HOW many children did you say you have!?) we now are likely to encounter people we know, and if we've been away for a few months they'll remark on how long it's been since they've seen us, ask when we got back, how long we're staying, when we're coming back the next time, ask how each of us are, how the research is going, what the eldest is studying. It can make a five minute trip to the store for a bottle of oil take half an hour.
But interestingly, despite the fact that at 16 million the population of Beijing is eight times that of northern New England, the youngest remarked the other day, "It's nice living in a small city." "Really," I asked? "Yes," he said, "everything is so close-- the regular grocery store, the new grocery store, Carrefour, our friends, all the restaurants-- it's all so close."
And it's true-- it can take 20 minutes to cross our town when there's no traffic (and there's never any traffic) to get to a friend's house or the grocery store, while nothing here is more than a five minute walk away. So which is the big city and which is the small town?