The Hometown

I return to China in less than a week. I hadn't visited my hometown in close to five years, and I'd been wanting to do it.

In population, New York and Los Angeles are the biggest cities here in the U.S. But size is relative. Nanjing, where I was this past summer is the same size as New York and at 7 million is considered medium sized over China. Beijing is considerably larger, and Shanghai at 15 million is over twice Nanjing's size.

Above: view of the Chrysler building from UN Plaza. Below: Newsstand by a midtown subway stop.