My China Odyssey

I woke feeling very refreshed and looking forward to the final leg of my journey. Looking at the clock, I realized it was only 6:11 am. I think by sleeping so little on the plane I avoided major jet lag. Bin and I had agreed to meet around 8 am in the lobby, so I decided to take a short walk to view my surroundings. As I started out the door I grabbed my camera from the night stand. This would be my first opportunity to take photographs of China. The hallway was just as hot and humid as the previous evening. I made my way down and out of the hotel being sure to stop by a small shop and buy a couple of bottles of water. It had been made clear to me that you should not drink any water from a faucet unless it had first been boiled. This is not only true in China, but in most foriegn countries I have traveled. I downed the first one in a matter of seconds and placed the other in my camera bag to sip on as I walked. After disposing of the empty bottle, I turned to the right and walked toward what appeared to be a large intersection. There was very little traffic on the road I was walking, only a couple of cyclists out for an early morning stroll and a few men pulling wooden carts. Upon reaching the intersection, I came face to face with many large buidings and quite abit more traffic than I had seen on the walk up. Shanghai in the daylight looked nothing like the Shanghai I had experienced on my brief cab ride only a few hours earlier. No longer the city of lights, she looked like most large cities I have visited.

The only exception was I could not read any road signs or advertisements I came across. I really understood the saying, “It’s all Greek to me”, except it was all Chinese. I felt illiterate; at least during my time alone at the airport most signs were bilingual, Chinese and English. This feeling made me realize how much I would need to rely on Bin to get me to Nantong. I was very pleased to have him as my escort. This thought also alerted me to the time, so I concluded my wandering daydream and headed back to the hotel to meet Bin. Upon my return to the hotel I quickly showered, repacked and lugged my albatross, luggage, down to the lobby. There I found Bin; he had arrived a few minutes before me and had begun the check-out procedure. My 200 yuan deposit was promptly returned as Bin asked if I would like to join him for breakfast at the hotel’s buffet. My first thoughts were of China Eastern’s unappetizing fare, but it had been several hours since food had entered my body and I was very hungry. I consented to his request and asked that he help me choose from the buffet as most of the items appeared alien to me. We sat in a corner booth with large glass windows to my left and front. Several other guests were returning for their second taste of the buffet line. This eased my mind somewhat but I remembered the other passengers on the plane also hastenly ate their food. Bin had already taken several bites from his plate as I picked up a small portion with my chopsticks and brought it to my mouth. Not wanting to offend my new friend I was determined to eat all on my plate. As soon as the food touched my taste buds, I knew my fears were for naught. This dish and the rest I sampled were as good as or better than most breakfast buffets. As we ate, Bin asked if I was enjoying the breakfast; I told him that it was very good, much better than what I had been served aboard the plane. He thought this humorous and laughed slightly. After our fill was had, we once again hailed a cab and headed to the bus station.

Having ridden the buses in America and not being overly impressed, I was a little dubious of what our transportation would be like. Upon our arrival at the Shanghai bus terminal, my fears did not abate. It reminded me of a bus station I had been in in the middle of nowhere USA. There was no air conditioning only an old three-blade fan that slowly circulated the hot moist air throughout the waiting area. The seats were faded blue in color and made of hard plastic which set low to the ground. A few passengers were stretched out on the uncomfortable seats while the rest talked amongst themselves or stared intently at me. The latter I had already become accustomed to; it seemed most everyone I had passed wanted to get a good look at the fair-skinned stranger. According to Bin, we had about a twenty-minute wait until our bus boarded, then it would be a three-hour ride to Nantong. After so long in flight, my thinking was that I could the final leg standing on my head, which would be preferable to the crowded bus with no a/c that I was envisioning. Bin asked me many questions of my home state and family; this seemed to make the time pass much quicker. Before I knew it, an announcement rang over the loud speaker and Bin said that was our boarding call. I grabbed my albatross and followed him outside where about eleven buses were parked side-by-side. There appeared to be two main bus lines departing from this terminal and we entered one of the blue and white fleet. As we settled into our seats, the first two on the right hand side of the bus, I was pleased to see air vents above my head and a color television attached to the ceiling in front of us. Maybe this ride would not be as bad as I had feared.

Tags: Travel

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