To be honest, I do not like Nanning very much, despite my parents work and live in this city. I have come to Nanning every summer ever since my parents started their business here. I used to take the 24 hours train to get to Nanning when I was young, and thanks to the high-speed railway, it only took me nine hours to get to Nanning.

When I was young, coming to Nanning meant seeing my parents. I was excited and happy every time I boarded the train to go to Nanning. Although I did not know anyone there except my parents in the city, I did not feel bored because my parents would take me to shopping and eat my favorite food almost every day after their work.

However, as I grew up, I gradually got sick of shopping with my parents. I had to go to their store every day, but they were so busy in the daytime that I could not do anything. I sank myself in my homework and video games and I was getting bored and angry. But I had to stay with them. This is the two months I had to suffer every year in order to repair our broken relationship. Besides this reason, I knew no one here in Nanning. I had no friends. The store was a cage I could never get out. As years passed by, I accepted the truth and wasted my time here in Nanning. Now every time I boarded on the train to Nanning, I felt sick and I wanted to go back home as soon as the train moved.

My mission to Nanning started on fourth of July. I had been paralyzed by the nine-hour trip. However, this year things went a little different for me because I actually made some friends in Nanning last year. So I contacted them before I got there, and we decided to hang out more.

We went to have lunch in a shopping mall when we hanged out for the first time. We hadn’t talked to each other a lot since last year, but our topics started to flow more since we both studied in high school in the United States. It was first time that I felt friendly in Nanning because I finally had a peer, a friend.

I have to say Nanning has a lot more than I thought when a local was leading me to explore the city.

We went to Zhongshan Road in the night. It is a street full of food, mainly is barbecue. We choose a random vendor and sit down for food. “We really should hang out more.” I told them. They made me feel Nanning was not as indifferent and colorless as I thought before.

 

To be honest, I still cannot feel excited about Nanning now. My parents have told me that they probably are going to settle down in Nanning because they feel so close and related to the city, but I will never take Nanning as my second hometown. Even though I have friends now in Nanning, the city contains too much boring and bitter memories.