Carey, NC: Visiting old classmates, seeing the B-side of small town America

The small towns in the United States are extremely different from our domestic towns, mainly because the population size of the former is several levels smaller. The small size of the U.S. town is also one or two thousand people, or even only a few hundred people; more than 20,000 to 30,000 people has been considered very large; 50,000 people more than the town, that are in the big city around the developed town.

The North Carolina town of Cary has a land area of 155 square kilometers, which is about the same size as many towns in Guangdong, but its 2020 population is only 170,000 people. Nonetheless, Cary is properly the number one town in North Carolina, and its population size is among the highest of any incorporated town in the country.

Very few people in China know about Kerry. Before I traveled to the United States, my only contact with the town of Kerry was a classmate of mine.

Lu is my junior high school classmate in a different class, my high school classmate in a different department, and my master's degree classmate in a different school. we never saw each other after we separated from Nankai University in the early 1990s, and it was only many years later that I realized that he had made a home in Kerry on the backside of the earth.

The direct purpose of my last trip to the US was not to see Lu, but to run the Chicago Marathon.

The Chicago Marathon is one of the world's top six marathons, and the winning rate is very low. When I signed up, I just took a tentative attitude, and I didn't think I would be so lucky to win.

Chima is probably the most suitable foreign race for mainland Chinese, as it is usually scheduled in early October, just after our National Day vacation. I was able to have a good time in the US before the race, with plenty of time for jet lag.

It was a rare trip to the United States to see an old classmate that I hadn't seen in more than 20 years.

This is the first time I've been to the U.S. in a while, and I'm sure I'll be able to make it to the U.S. in a few weeks, but I'm sure I'll be able to make it to the U.S. in a few weeks.

After studying the map, I realized that Chicago is in the "Rust Belt" of the United States, that is, the cold, old industrial areas in the north, while Kerry belongs to the southern "Sunshine Belt" of the emerging industrial areas. The spatial distance between the two cities is more than 1300 kilometers, and the urban landscape, industrial development patterns and lifestyles are very different.

Chicago's latitude is equivalent to our country's Shenyang, the winter is relatively cold, cold wind, known as the "windy city". The earliest industrial base after the founding of the United States was concentrated in the northern part of the country, and from the 1950s and 1960s onwards, thousands of Americans moved south from the northern cities along with the industrial migration.

Our country is now the decline of the old industrial base in the northeast, high-quality industrial population accompanied by industrial mobility to the warmer regions of the south, which is extremely similar to the United States back then.

Kerry's latitude is roughly equivalent to northern Jiangsu and southeastern Shandong, with four distinct seasons. Although it is not directly adjacent to the sea, it benefits from the Atlantic Ocean's warm and humid airflow, which makes it warm and humid all year round, with less extreme weather and abundant rainfall, making it more physically comfortable than other cities at the same latitude. Due to good natural environmental protection and high forest coverage, the harmony between man and nature **** life has always been the label of life in North Carolina.

Nearly arrived in Raleigh, I looked down from the airplane, the whole vision is lush forest vegetation and a variety of lakes and bodies of water. For a moment, I had the illusion that I wasn't running a city marathon, but rather traveling and seeing the sights.

Twilight at Lake Johnson Park (Shudong/Photo)

Lui picked me up at the Raleigh airport in his powerful Ford F-150.

I didn't realize it was just a little more than a 10-mile drive from the airport, and it took less than 20 minutes to drive home. As it turns out, Carey and Raleigh are two cities right next to each other in Wake County.

When I got out of the airport and onto the highway, I didn't see a single building taller than 5 stories along the way. Almost all of the buildings are no taller than the canopy of the surrounding trees, and most of the buildings can only be seen through the gap between the trees; the buildings are also quite sparse and far away from each other. In short, apart from the blue sky, there are trees, forests and green areas.

It is no wonder that the F150 pickup truck, with its huge size and displacement, is always in the top ten of the best-selling models in North America, and it is indeed particularly suitable for Mercedes-Benz in this kind of forested, sparsely populated, and sky-high place where the birds fly.

For three hundred years, North Carolina's traditionally dominant industry has been agriculture. It seems logical, then, that the place is lush and green.

What puzzles me y is that in recent years, North Carolina's economy has ranked in the top ten every year in the United States, and it's clear that agriculture alone can't do that. Is there some secret sauce hidden here?

As I chatted with Lu, I habitually opened my cell phone map to study the surrounding geography, and suddenly realized that Kerry is not only next to Raleigh, but also next to a city and a town: Durham and ChapelHill.

Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill! Isn't that the famous triangle!

Those who have engaged in industrial research know that these years for China's economic development has provided a surging momentum of the "development model", to a large extent, refers to the government-led promotion of the "industrial park model". The originator of the government-driven industrial park model is not in China, nor is it in Silicon Valley, but in a place called Research Triangle Park (TheResearchTrianglePark, or RTP).

Our Ford F150 is within the boundaries of the RTP park at the moment!

I was momentarily confused, unable to make the connection between a highly regarded, highly developed, high-tech industrial park and a sea of green as far as the eye could see.

There is a wealth of information and books on RTP. People outside the industry might not imagine that a government-driven business could be so successful in the United States, where land is privately owned and marketed to a high degree.

The word "research" is in the name of RTP because the campus really started with three universities. Duke University (in Durham), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (in Chapel Hill), and North Carolina State University (in Raleigh).

RTP's land lies within this triangle, hence the name.

In 1959, the government, universities, and businesses joined together to form the Research Triangle Park Committee, which formally established RTP. The government, through policy support and guidance, closely integrated the teaching capabilities and research strengths of the three universities with the local technology enterprises, forming the now familiar "government, industry, academia, and research" ecosystem. "

The park's industrial ecosystem is a one-stop shop.

The day-to-day management and operation of the park is handled by the Research Triangle Foundation, a non-profit organization. The Foundation is a tripartite organization involving the government, universities, and tenant companies***.

RTP is very unique in its administrative jurisdiction, it is a non-incorporated area (Unincorporatedarea), which is a typical American administrative system.

The so-called Unincorporatedarea, in fact, means that all the subjects on this piece of land do not pay taxes to the government. So how to manage the public ****? Each non-establishment area is different. In RTP, enterprises and individual subjects are paying taxes to the foundation; the foundation is responsible for providing public **** products in the region. Obviously, the non-established area model is more autonomous, flexible and efficient than the British-style "statutory body" model popular in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The Foundation owns all the land and infrastructure in the zone, and is responsible for its planning and construction. It leases or sells land in the park to technology-based companies on a systematic basis. All proceeds from leasing and selling the land and property, as well as tax revenues from its operations, are used to improve the infrastructure and services of the Science Park.

After more than 60 years of operation, the RTP now has more than a dozen industry clusters, the largest of which are biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, followed by information technology and software, and has attracted close to 300 research-based companies employing tens of thousands of people.

The RTP has not only transformed North Carolina's industrial structure, but has also contributed to North Carolina's overall economic strength.

It is worth mentioning that Lenovo Group moved its U.S. headquarters here after it acquired IBM's computer business as a whole.

After the reform and opening up, the model of industrial parks was enshrined by governments around the country. On this basis gradually formed China is now blossoming industrial parks, industrial new towns. Many people will even come from far away to RTP to learn from the experience.

A middle-class residential neighborhood in the small town of Kerry (Shudong/Photo)

Kerry, an otherwise unassuming town, has caught up with the good times. It also happens to be in the center of a huge triangle, geographically close to the RTP, but despite that, it is still a standard incorporated township, and its residents and businesses pay taxes to the government.

In the 1960s, Kerry's total population was just over 3,000 and the town's main industry was tobacco. Since the RTP came into being, it has naturally transformed into a residential living area to complement the park.

Decades later, the town's population has increased dozens of times, and it has undoubtedly become one of the wealthiest towns in America.

Lu's home is in a typical middle-class neighborhood. The houses are new and uniform in style, and the neighborhood is clean and tidy. Most of the neighborhood residents are new immigrant families.

Lui also took me to see another apartment he had invested in and rented out in the town. These newly developed three-story apartments are compact and suitable for lower-income earners or single residents who work here for a short period of time. By domestic standards, these low-density apartments, surrounded by forest and with plenty of parking, could be called "townhouses.

Kerry's apartment complex (Photo: Shu Dong)

With a strong industrial base and plenty of job opportunities, this town has a strong appeal to newcomers - something all American towns and cities thrive on. But the opportunity to make money is not enough. The American elite value education and quality of life more than we do.

In a way, Kerry is similar to Shenzhen in that it is a brand new city where foreign immigrants dominate, and where well-educated elite families are the main focus, but the difference is that Kerry's education, healthcare, and other supporting resources are much more plentiful.

Compulsory education in the United States is from kindergarten through 12th grade (i.e., K-12). The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), the largest public school district in North Carolina, is located in Carey.

With a total population*** of 1.1 million, Wake County has more than 190 elementary and secondary schools under the WCPSS, including 27 high schools, 33 middle schools, 104 elementary schools, and 8 specialized schools. There are also 9 charter schools and 31 private schools (all K-12) in the county.

That's a lot of educational resources to put a lot of our cities to shame.

The town is no slouch when it comes to quality of life, either.

CaryTowneCenter is one of the main commercial centers in Cary, with a commercial floor area of more than 90,000 square meters***, a partial second floor, more than 4,800 parking spaces, and more than 100 tenants, including JCPenny, Belk, and Dillard's in the department store alone. It has been open for more than 40 years, since 1979.

On the contrary, if the population of a small town in China does not reach more than half a million people, probably no businessman would dare to open such a large-scale one Mall.

CaryTowneCenter is not yet the only shopping center in the town. I searched google maps for shopping centers near Lu's house, and there were at least a dozen within a 20-minute drive! Four or five of them are within the town limits of Carey.

Lui's kids' favorite shopping center is SouthPoint Mall in Durham, also less than 20 minutes away, which is even bigger, with a total area of 120,000 square meters and more than 6,400 parking spaces.

After strolling through the Mall in a small town in the United States, you will realize that the commercial culture of the United States is developed, and the American commercial life has penetrated into every remote corner of the United States.

At the same time, I also feel that the U.S. town is actually a city, and there is no substantial difference between them and the center of the city in terms of quality of life. On the contrary, the neighborhoods here are much closer and you can enjoy more sunshine and greenery.

Twenty to thirty years ago, living in a small town in the United States, the biggest cost was perhaps the commute to work. Now, with the industrial park model, even this only shortcoming is made up for.

In the past few years, Kerry has been a star town in the United States. Because the United States call small towns or big cities, are called "City", Kerry has won the safest city in the United States, the most popular city for professionals and other awards, and in 2016, it was even named the top ten prosperous cities in the United States.

Inside South point Mall, there are few weekday shoppers. (Shudong/Photo)

After strolling through two or three shopping centers in and around Kerrytown, I've wondered about the quality of life of small-town Americans, but I've sweated for the operators of the shopping centers.

New York, Chicago and these metropolitan shopping centers are fine, smaller cities, especially in small towns such as Kerry, shopping centers on weekdays can be used to describe the flow of people "can not be" - this is the case before the epidemic. To me, as a Chinese person, I wonder how the stores can survive with such a low footfall!

The waiters, on closer inspection, were calm; the prices of the merchandise were fair and square, maintaining an almost completely harmonized pricing system across the United States. Everything is so natural and calm.

Carey's government website indicates that another new shopping center is coming to town in 2022!

By name, LakeJohnsonPark should be considered an official city park in Kerry. After dinner, Lui would take me here for a walk.

Here there is no domestic parks at night to light up the habit of twilight sky and the distant rolling, pitch-black forests merge into one, as the depth of the stage backdrop, the lake formed a wide stage, the lake stars dotted with lights as if the actors and actresses, three, two, whispering pedestrians are completely dissolved in the nature of the light and shadow, into the audience.

If you don't look at a map on your phone, it's hard for an outsider to tell exactly where a park is in a town like Kerry. By my standards, the whole town seems like one big park; from a walker's perspective, all you can see in this town most of the time are trees and sky.

A setting like Carey is perfect for a warm-up run of a few miles before a marathon. Instead of a formal park, I ran into the dense jungle.

Deep in the dense forest of Kerry is a very famous running trail, the AmericanTobaccoTrail (ATT for short). A few decades ago, the tobacco industry and trade in and around Kerry was relatively well developed, and the original ATT site used to be a railroad that belonged to the famous American Tobacco Company, which specialized in transporting tobacco.

Much of the railroad was removed in the 1970s for the construction of the Lake Jordan Reservoir. But it wasn't until the 1980s that the use of this abandoned rail line was really seriously considered at the planning level. It wasn't until 1992 that a formal ATT master plan was developed. Only since then has the trail been on track for construction. In fact, portions of the trail were not delivered until 2014.

With less money at all levels of government in the US, and a very cumbersome decision-making process, city building is really inefficient. If RTP hadn't been growing more and more over the years, with a rapidly increasing population and rapid tax revenue growth, the odds are that the running trail would still be on the drawing board.

The Wake County section of the ATT (Shudong/Photo)

The first thing that struck me in person was the rustic simplicity and typical North American style of the ATT, which runs for more than 20 miles (about 40 kilometers) through Durham, Chatham, and Wake counties. Since the ATT was constructed almost on the original railroad line, its most notable feature is that it is long and straight.

Several of those sections through Durham and Chatham have been converted to asphalt. Only this section in Wake County is still paved with the traditional stone dust slag road, which is very comfortable to run on, feels great on your feet, and protects your knees.

Pure air, high concentration of negative ions, run down, not only do not feel tired, on the contrary, "lungs" effect is very obvious; extremely quiet environment, only running shoes and road friction issued by the rustle accompanied by; occasionally encountered following the coach of the training of the children, they will enthusiastically give me cheer.

There are many entrances to the ATT, and parking is easy. One entrance is only a few minutes away from Lu's house, and he was responsible for the car pick-up and drop-off as well.

I only ran a few miles experientially. It is reasonable to say that if you don't run more than 20 kilometers at a time, you are sorry for such an environment. Unfortunately, I had a full marathon coming up in two days, so I had to give it a miss.

During the run, I saw one or two old houses in the jungle on the side of the road, which seemed to be swallowed up by nature at any time, which was a bit weird.

The sign on the side of the road for me to clear up my doubts, it turns out that these old houses are the tobacco warehouses along the railroad back in the day. The sign illustrates the contributions of the tobacco industry over the past three hundred years - feeding thousands of families for generations, supporting the construction of cities, hospitals and universities. These tobacco warehouses, once numbering nearly half a million across the United States, hold the memory of history, but few remain. Finally, we urge everyone who passes by to pay attention to these warehouses and to work together to preserve this history.

An old tobacco warehouse along the trail (Shudong/Photo)

I stayed at the home of my friend Lu for three days. I hadn't seen this good friend for years, so I would take advantage of the conversation to look at him silently, hoping that I could observe his current state of life from his face. It was a face of inner fulfillment, serenity, and strong faith, and he seemed to be completely absorbed in the natural, indifferent environment of Kerry, with no hint of worry or stress about his life.

Lu is also very active in sports and fitness. According to domestic standards, his body belongs to the twenty-something and active in the gym young people, is a typical muscle man.

The fact that he is not impetuous, sincere and real is also reflected in Mrs. Lui. During my time at Carey, the couple took turns being my driver.

During one of our chats, Mr. Lui suggested that I should consider moving to Carey after retirement. His suggestion was not just a slip of the tongue, but a valid one. Kerry is an open town with a high concentration of new immigrants, and is quite accommodating to them. With 30,000 Chinese living here today, accounting for more than 20% of the population, it's no wonder that I felt at home in the town when I was wandering around and running around. In recent years, Kerry's Chinese Lantern Festival has become a calling card, attracting tens of thousands of visitors each year.

On the other hand, Kerry's highly qualified demographics are well known throughout the U.S. In 2016, it was counted as the city with the highest percentage of PhDs in the U.S., and the 2017 American Community Survey showed that 65% of Kerry's adults have a college degree, which is the highest percentage of any city in the developed world.

Demographics, in turn, determine the lifestyle of the city. With such a high percentage of highly educated people, and a strong Chinese population, it's no surprise that the city is rich in educational resources.

Unlike small towns in China, which were born out of a traditional agricultural society, most residents of small towns in the US are brought together by their work in the corporate world. Although these townspeople are not related to each other by blood, their neighborhoods are closer and more interdependent because their family lives are tied to local industries and businesses.

According to township statistics, even in 2020, when the epidemic was raging, Kerry's government saw an increase in property and sales taxes over 2019. This shows that the local economy is still going strong and that residents are still willing to invest and spend money.

So when I heard Lui's suggestion, I was actually a little bit tempted.

Shudong