My China Odyssey

As Bin had stated earlier, the cab ride from the bus station to the school was indeed very short. Less than a mile I would say; if not for my albatross we could have easily walked. Upon arriving at the Kewen, pronounced K’win, I was introduced to Mr. Wang and Ms. Xie, the boss and manager of the school. The boss, stood slightly taller than me with black hair and dressed in all black. Appearing fairly serious as I entered, his look became much friendlier as Bin began introductions. Ms. Xie was about an inch or two shorter than the boss and gently smiled as we were introduced. Next I was introduced to Jill Gao, the first familiar face I had seen since landing in China. She had been my first contact with the school and we had remained in contact via Yahoo’s Instant Messenger. She was an English teacher at the school and acted as translator between the boss, manager and I. From our many correspondences I knew her written English was very good, though she had told me here oral English was lacking. With such a grasp of the written language I had found this difficult to believe. A few minutes into our meeting I realized she had been very modest regarding her speaking ability. I was very impressed by her grasp of English as she translated for the boss and I.

Within a few minutes most of the initial formalities had been covered and the boss suggested lunch. It had been hours since the morning buffet and my stomach made me aware it was indeed time to eat. Jill said she would be unable to go to lunch with us as she had a class to teach that afternoon. This left Bin, Ms. Xie, the boss and I to lunch together, at least Bin would be there to translate. I followed the trio down a flight of stairs and out the back door into a small, very crowded parking lot. We came to a stop beside a small white four-door car and Bin and I were directed to sit in the back. I assumed this was Ms. Xie’s car as she was the one that sat behind the wheel and drove us to a nearby restuarant. We traveled only a few blocks before reaching our destination. Though it was only a short distance from the school, it was great to be in a car since the temperature and humidity was very high. Exiting the car, I noticed the restuarant we were approaching had a very large neon sign above the door. The unlit sign was in the shape of a fish so I figured we were going to a seafood restuarant for lunch.

An attendant was standing at the door and held it open as we entered. We were guided upstairs and shown to a private room. The room, about ten feet by ten feet, had in the center a round table with eight chairs surrounding it. A circular piece of raised glass covered about three quarters of the table. In the corner stood an upright air conditioning unit that stood about six feet high. As we were taking our seats, the waitress turned the unit on. The boss must have been a regular, as he began ordering without the need of a menu. By the time he had finished the room had cooled down enough that the beads of sweat had disappeared from my forehead. Within minutes of taking our order, the waitress returned with a large bowl of cooked shrimp, heads and legs intact, and a dish of green leafy vegetables that appeared to have been stir fried. Both were placed near the edge of the glass circle that sat atop the table. Wielding his chopsticks like they were an extension of his hand, the boss took hold of a several shrimp and placed them in the small bowl before him. Using his free hand, he slowly turned the raised glass until the dish was in front of Bin who deftly acquired a portion of shrimp for his bowl. By this time, several other enticing looking dishes had been brought to us. The glass disc had been turned to place the shrimp and other fare within my reach.

Even though the waitress had brought me a spoon and fork, I was determined to use the instruments of my new home. Having used chopsticks a little in the past, I felt somewhat confident as I reached first for the shrimp. I was able to retrieve a couple of shrimp to my small bowl with little difficulty which caused me to smile with pride. Unsure of the correct dining etiquite, I had been observing my companions to learn the proper way to eat this meal. Picking up a single crustation, I placed it tail first in my mouth and bit very close to the head. Being sure to keep hold of the head with my chopsticks, I then lightly sucked the rest of the meat from the head portion and lightly spit the remaining pieces onto the small plate beside the bowl. From my observations, this was the correct etiquite for eating this kind of dish and was also sort of fun. The center piece had made several rotations which had given me a chance to sample all of the lunch items. I thought everything was very good, even the foods which were still unknown to me. Throughout the meal I was encouraged to eat my fill as the others talked amongst themselves to finalize the business at hand.

The feeling of being oddman-out was not so great as one might think. Even though I had little or no idea of what was being said, my new employer had put me at ease with the friendly greeting and gracious invitation to lunch. As the meal came to an end I was told that we would return to Kewen and retreive my albotross and take it to my new residence. The ride back to the school was as exciting as the initial trip, we drove through red lights and weaved around a couple of vehicles waiting to make turns. Up0n returning to the school, Jill told me that her and Ms. Xie would come to my apartment shortly after classes had finished for the day. They would then accompany me to one of the large local supermarkets to purchase any items I may need for the coming weeks. This being arranged, the boss once again led us to Ms. Xie’s car which would be our transport. I sat in the back with the rest of my luggage peering out the windows in an attempt to familiarize myself with the new surroundings. So amazed was I with the sights and sounds around me, I knew that attempting to try to memorize the route would be futile.

After settling in my seat and observing the surroundings I was pleased to see this bus was light years ahead of the bus station I had just left. Very comfortable reclining seats, air conditioning and a television mounted at the front of the bus. I was ready to sit back and enjoy a nice peaceful and leasuirely ride. Within minutes all passengers were aboard and we departed the station. It was about 10:33 in the morning and the streets of Shanghai were very busy, filled with cyclists, pedestrians and more cars than I had seen the earlier evening. The bus ride was very smooth, the cabin was cooling down and a movie with English subtitles began to play on the TV. I was becoming interested in the show when the sound of horns broke my concentration. Our bus was the loudest sound followed by adjoining volleys from the vehicles that passed. It seemed that most vehicles blew their horns to alert the pedestrians and riders of their approach. Very practical but somewhat noisy I thought. Looking out the window I was able to get a feel of the daily life in downtown Shanghai . I often wondered what the differing businesses were as the large lettered signs were of no help to me. Then out of the blue I spied an easily recognizable sign, I was very surprised and had to snap the shot through the bus window.

I relayed to Bin that one Pepsi slogan is “Pride of the Carolinas” because it was created in my home state, North Carolina. He found this to be interesting as he likes Pepsi better than Coke, though he said Coke was probably the most popular of the two in China. This made me curious to try them both and see if they tasted the same here as in the states. Within several more minutes we had cleared the congestion of the city and were headed down a four-lane highway at a good cruising speed. Without the distraction of the sights and constant horn blowing I began once more to follow the movie supplied for our entertainment. It seemed to be your average gang boss vs. hitman plot, common to many B movies I’ve seen. The funny thing about this Asian film was that it was filmed in Las Vegas, most of the ones I watched have been filmed in Hong Kong. Once again my concentration is disturbed by the sound of the bus horn, with no pedestrians likely on this highway I leaned forward to see what was ahead of us. A small car was about twenty feet ahead of us traveling in our lane and we were steadily gaining on it. In the opposite lane headed towards us were several cars traveling at the same rate of speed. All of a sudden we veered from our lane and into the lane of the on-coming traffic. I couldn’t understand what was going on, there were only about twenty yards between us and the oncoming vehicles.

The bus driver continued to blow the horn as he passed the car on a double yellow line and the oncoming traffic veered toward the shoulder of the road to avoid a head-on collision. I looked around and no one seemed to give this driving technique a second thought, my traveling companion had not taken his eyes from the screen the entire time. Okay I thought, maybe buses are given a little more latitude here. About that time, I noticed the bus was slowing down and pulling off to the side of the road. The only thing I could think was that we were being pulled over by the police for an unsafe move since there were no buildings or gas stations in sight. As we came to a stop the bus driver opened the door and on walked a young man who handed the driver some money. I was a little surprised as I had seen nothing to denote this to be a designated pick-up point. Within a couple of minutes we were back underway. Once again after only a few miles of travel I hear the familiar sound of honking horns. This time instead of passing the car in front of us on the double yellow line, we go to the right hand side of the road. To begin with I thought our bus driver was insane, but the more I watched the more I observed the same maneuverings from other drivers. After about three quarters of the way through the trip and several more inpromptu stops, our bus was more than full. Passengers were even sitting in the aisle, some on small stools supplied by the bus driver and the rest on the floor of the bus.

About this time, we turned off the main road and entered what appeared to be a large parking lot. At first, I thought, we were just making one more of many stops along the way. Then, I noticed we were forming a line behind several other cars, trucks and buses. This was interesting I thought and began to look around more intently. At this point, I saw a large body of water slowly appear as we crept closer. Within a few minutes we were at the edge of the Yellow Sea and about to board a very large ferry. Our bus was the next to last vehicle allowed on this particular ferry. I took the opportunity of our delay in shoving off to retrieve my camera from its bag. I hoped to take a couple of good shots through the now dingy and bug-splattered window of the bus. The departure was so smooth I did not realize the ferry had left the dock. The sea definitely lived up to its name. The color of the sea varied between warm yellow and a golden yellow, depending on the way the sun reflected upon it. Looking back toward the mainland I could see several ships docked, ready for loading or unloading as well as a very large electrical plant. Along the way we passed several large tankers anchored just off-shore as well as a few barges on their way to guide the large ships to port.

The water looked a little choppy but the ride was very smooth. All of the passengers stayed on the bus but the bus driver took this opportunity to stretch his legs and smoke a cigarette just outside the bus doors. A few young boys walked from one vehicle to another trying to sell various items. They appeared to have anything from cigarettes and magazines to watches and radios. They had a few interested passengers and were able to make a sale or two it appeared. Only a couple of people ventured from their rides as it was a very hot day, even with the breeze from the sea passing by. The trip across this opening to the Yangtze River took about twenty minutes. Arriving on the other side, the departure from the ferry went like clockwork. In a short time, we were back on a major highway and within a few more minutes I could make out a city skyline in the near distance. After a few more miles of blowing horns and passing on whichever side the driver fancied, we entered the city limits of Nantong . Turning my head from left to right in order to see as much as possible of my new city, I was amazed at all of the new construction in progress. Within no time we pulled into the Nantong Bus Terminal, disembarked and once more I was lugging my albatross over new terrain. Bin said it would be just a short cab ride to the school where I would be teaching, Kewen.

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