More China Photos

Here are some more photos from my China travels. Huangshan city was a gorgeous city of about 30,000 people. Finally a I can see a pure blue sky in China. They don't call Huangshan Mountain the most beautiful mountain in China for nothing. There's actually a cable car going up Huangshan mountain. But it's cheaper to pay workers to make the steep 10km long climb to the top loaded with 5 gallons of kerosene than it is to transport supplies with the cable cars. These are the friends I made during my stop over in Xuancheng (see the three most ridiculous hours of my entire life). We have finished bathing at the spa. This is the main road leading away from the train station in Xuancheng. Rice paddies as seen out the window of my train. The view of Shanghai from the famous Bund. The Shanghai skyline This is the view from my hotel in downtown Nanjing. Like most of China, it's a work in progress.

Last Night in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is so ridiculously modern. The subway system is a marvel of the world. It's not that there is anything that stands out about it, it's just that every detail is perfect. It is completely clean. You can get from any point in the station while outside the paid area or from within. They have sliding glass doors that open and allow you to enter the subway, preventing that nervousness that you get when you standing three feet away from falling into the tracks and instant death. They have the Octopus proximity cards for paying fare. The cars all have maps of the subway routes above the doors, with electronic dots telling the next station and which side the doors will open. Plus there are the constant reminders by voices everywhere, "Please mind the gap while boardin", "Please hold the handrail while riding the escalator." etc. This is a city that has advanced far enough that it has time worry about these things. For my last night I journeyed into central and rode the tram up Victoria Peak. I took one last look at the skyscrapers of Hong Kong spread out below me. The buildings are so modern, the streets so orderly, I can only wonder if this is what China will look like thirty years from now. Only time will tell.

Returning to Hong Kong

Chris was telling me the story of the Czech army in World War I. They were crossing the Trans-Siberian railroad when the Communist revolution made Czech an enemy. Stuck in Siberia, they hijacked a series of trains in the Trans Siberian railroad, and the entire army decided to shoot their way out of Russia back to their home. I spent my last evening in China praying that I wouldn't have to do the same to get out of China. My first worry was the airline. I had a ticket with China Eastern Airlines and hadn't been able to reconfirm my ticket home. I had tried their phone number, but couldn't get it to work. I feared going to a branch office because with the language barrier I figured I might end up inadveratedly canceling the tickets. I've heard stories of China Eastern Airlines canceling flights unexpectedly, or canceling tickets when people failed to confirm. In Shanghai I met a student who was stranded in the hostel for an extra three days because China Eastern Airlines had screwed him over. His hand writing ticket had become unreadable, so he got a letter from the airline saying that it was still valid. However, the letter didn't have the proper stamp and they refused to let him board. My second worry was getting through immigration. I was also a little worried about getting through immigration. The last night in the hostel the girl at the desk told me that when she entered in my passport info at the police station it had come back that I overstaid my VISA. This was not true at all - I had entered on August 4th and had a 30 day VISA. But I had heard stories of the Chinese fining people$5,000 for overstaying their VISA by just one day. Suddenly I had all these visions of being fined as I tried to leave, and being caught up in hours of delay as I tried to prove that I hadn't overstaid my entry. But as it turned that once again my fears about China being undeveloped or scary or harsh were unfounded. I checked in and got my boarding pass without any problem. At immigration, the woman was extremely nice and was very happy when I spoke a bit of Mandarin. She began asking me where I studied. She stamped my passport, and I was out, my last contact with the Chinese confirming my view throughout the trip that these are a ridiculously nice people.

One way ticket to Wuhan

In the travel books on China they tell you that train tickets often must be purchased days in advance because they sell out. Unfortunately, when Chris and I were in Shanghai, we found we could only buy tickets to Wuhan, we would have to buy the tickets from Wuhan to Nanjing while at the station. That would mean we would have to cross our fingers that we could buy tickets out of Wuhan for the same day as our arrival, or else we would be stranded and I would miss my flight out of Nanjing. Naturally, we bought the one way tickets and trusted to our luck. While we ended up taking a 10 hour train ride to spend a half day in Wuhan, the experience was worth it. We got to rought it like the natives in hard berth, and then see the sprawling city of Wuhan. And our luck held and we got tickets back to Nanjing. On our train from Hefei to Wuhan we were stuck in hard berth. For the over night train we had to sit in straight seats that had little padding and that did not recline back. There was no air conditioning. The fortunate part was that we were across from two cute college students who spoke a bit of English, so we played cards and chatted for a couple of hours before trying to sleep. Trying to sleep is ridiculous. They never turn off of the light in the train car. At two AM they have still have sales people coming through hawking toys for the kids and socks for the adults. A policeman comes along every hour and wakes you up, and tells you to watch your belongings. We got so little sleep that we checked into an hourly hotel next to the train station (not for prostitution, this one is for the exact purpose of travelers needing rest) and slept most of the morning. We then took a taxi around the city. I'm convinced that China has about 10 cities the size of New York that no one has ever heard of. Wuhan is an absolutely massive city. From the top of the Yellow Crane Tower we could see in all directions, but could not see an end to the sprawl. Construction is everywhere, and a new skyscaper is ascending in the sky that will dwarf all the others. The city is very modern and properous. The streets are wide and filled with trees, much different than Hefei and Shanghai. It was more like LA in layout. As we were coming in on the train though, we could still see the povery of China. For several miles all the buildings were ramshackled, broken down, had caved in roofs and fallen walls, and trash was everywhere. But in the city itself everything was prosperous. I would love to see a histogram of individual wealth in China and see what percentiles are at different levels of wealth.

writing the book on hefei

"So you know what they say about Hefei?" I asked Chris, as we left the train station. "No. What?" "Absolutely nothing." Chris's tour book had all of one sentence about Hefei: "Capital of the impoverished Anhui province." For that reason, we decided that we would go to Hefei. After all, who wants to do the same thing everyone else does? We arrived at 6:30 AM, loaded down with our huge backpacks. First, we tried to find to see if we could pay a hotel to hold our bags for us for the day. Unfortunately, they refused, saying only guests could leave bags. I didn't know how to bribe the attendent (and I'm not sure if I'd want to leave my bag at place that could be bribed) so we decided just to buy a room since it was so cheap. Unfortunately, we came up 5 yuan short of the money needed for the deposit. For the next half hour we walked around Hefei with our giant bags trying to find an ATM. Some ATM's were broken, some didn't accept foreign cards. At one bank there were 3 security cars outside, with a dozen guards armed in body armor and automatic weapons. As we went up to the ATM, one of the guards poked his head out of a back window of the van and said, "Hello!" with a boyish grin on his face. "Ni hao!" I replied, and he ducked into the van laughing. As we left we saw a huge cart full of locked metal boxes being escorted into the van. After a long cab ride to the center of town we finally found a serviceable ATM. We also got to see a lot of Hefei. For the capital of an impoverished province it is pretty nice. In the shopping area we went to a giant shoe store where Chris was entirely unable to find a single shoe big enough for his foot. We ate in small noodle shops where we tried to make a little conversation with the locals.