Visiting Wuhan

From Wuhan

Well, national day vacation was a bit of a bust. As you know, national day actually encompasses an entire week. However, as you know, I am now teaching at two different colleges and it was not made entirely clear, by both schools that I would have the entire week off.

The problem with this is that the plan making stage of any vacation activities got delayed. Once I got definite word I carpet bombed the hostels in Beijing, Wuhan, and Hangzhou with letters asking if they had any expected vacancies. However, as I expected, I was too late. the responses began trickling back informing me that I was too late.

My plan B was to ride my bicycle to Nanyang, Gao Jings 高静 home, and perturb her. However, she did not go home. Instead she traveled to various cities to visit her friends and siblings.

Very simply, it would cause discomfort for me to travel to He Zhi Qing's 贺志青 town, it is a small town and to have a man visit her family would start the tongues wagging, so I did not really consider visiting her; although, I threatened her that I would.

My next plan was to ride my bicycle for a couple of days in the direction of Zhengzhou. This plan wold have me visiting several people as I went along. In fact, considering that the rain stopped and the days were beginning to look pretty good, this was the plan I was preparing to follow. Then, the evening before I was set to leave I got a letter from a hostel in Wuhan informing me that they had a vacancy.

So, I went to the train station the next day and got both my ticket to Wuhan and my ticket from Wuhan at the same time. I carefully wrote down all I wanted, in Chinese, and handed the note to the person at the station. I was in no way surprised when this left her terribly confused. I had the train numbers and the times written down for her. This was not the problem, I finally handed her a phone and had her talk to a student.

It was no surprise to me what the source if the confusion was. I wanted a ticket from Wuhan; but, I was not in Wuhan yet. The student reassured her that I really did want to purchase two tickets at the same time and that I would not go to Wuhan unless I had a ticket to return. As I have said, this is just not the Chinese way. The problem is that it is not the way of 99.99 percent of Chinese. However, that .01 percent of all the people in China can, without even engaging in an organized effort, purchase the tickets that the hapless traveler desires unless the traveler has swooped upon them first.

I have mentioned Wuhan in the past and in needs to be understood that Wuhan is really three different cities, Hankou, Hanyang, and Wuchang. The D train, as well as most of the trains from Xinyang, enters in Hankou. My Hostel was across the Yangtze River in Wuchang.

The trip to Wuhan was an uneventful, if crowded, D train ride. I have noticed that the D trains are filling up. I also noticed that this train had been retrofitted with a squat toilet.

By the time I arrived in Hankou it was already getting dark. I took a stab at following the bus directions but quickly found that I was not having any luck in finding the bus stop; so, I reverted to plan B and took a cab.

The cab took me to the hostel, the Wuhan Pathfinder Youth Hostel, with a minimum of fanfare. From where the cab dropped me, on the street, the signs were clear and obvious all the way to the hostel. In fact, I was the one that noticed the sign from the street, not and cabbie, I think it is simply that I am more aware of what I am looking for.

Later in the evening a couple of Chinese women moved into the room. They knew no English and my Chinese is too limited to have much of a conversation, thus He Zi Qing's suggestion that I “chat with them” was pointless. All I really wanted them to do was to be quiet.

I have noticed that, while this hostel is similar in amenities to the others I have visited, the clientèle is almost entirely Chinese. In most of the places I have stayed it is unusual to see a Chinese guest, here it is unusual to see a western one. I suspect it is because Wuhan is not a big stop for westerners. The main reason for stopping in Wuhan is as an end, be it the start point or the terminus, of the Yangtze River cruises that take about three days (yes, if I had more warning regarding the vacation I wold have reserved a cabin to do just that). Other than that, there just isn't a lot to do in Wuhan.

I am not trying to disparage the Hostel, it is no different than many of the others in China, the staff make a strong effort to be helpful. Probably the biggest thing I can say against it is that the menu is limited. The trouble is that Wuhan is a modern Chinese city. That of course means that nearly all of the historically significant structures have long since been removed.

Even the much vaulted “yellow tower” is a new structure built in an old style. There is a photograph showing the tower standing in the early 1950's. It was later destroyed and then there was so much local demand that a new tower was built in its place.

I wanted to go to the Huebi History Museum (Wuhan is the capitol of Huebi Province). However, this was a free week. In essence, free weeks are a great idea. During certain weeks many of the nations and provincial attractions are opened up for free. The problem with this is much like what HZQ and I ran into in Xian. The lines are so long that a visit becomes an all day affair, with the day being spent waiting in a line. Instead I went to the East Lake, another attraction of Wuhan.

From Wuhan

After leaving here I went to the waterfront and visited the First Bridge. This bridge is interesting in that it is a remaining example of Stalin Era architecture as it was designed by the Russians to transport both rail and truck traffic. Before this bridge was completed all traffic crossed the river in ferries. It is a two level bridge with the rail traffic routed to the lower level. Without a doubt, it is one of the most interesting features of Wuhan, if not the singular most interesting; with crowds gathered to look at it and stirring music being played at its base, it is an impressive bridge.

From Wuhan

From Wuhan

On my way back I tied to find a hat shop. I want to replace this cheap fedora that purchased in Kunming. However, even though I tried my best to follow the directions given to me by the hotel staff, I never did find it. That seems to be a recurring theme of the directions given by the hotel staff. If they gave directions, I never did find it. It really doesn't matter what it was. If they had given me directions to the face of the earth I, most assuredly, would be writing this while floating in space.

They tried, I will give them that. Trying was much more than the place I tried to eat that night did. After failing to find the restaurant that the hotel staff tried to direct me to I wandered (took a bus) back to the riverfront district. I had seen a place with a tremendous number of food vendors in Hubu Alley. I decided to give it another look. On closer examination I saw that it was mostly sea food. Huge platers were covered with crabs and shrimp things. All forms of seafood was being cooked on sticks. But, I was not in a seafood mood (I am still trying to get a shot of “scorpion on a stick” I regret passing that up the day I saw it).

I then wandered into a restaurant that had example plates siting in a case. I pointed to one and told the waitress, “that one,” (jigga). She did not seem to understand me but she did take me to a table and gave me a menu. I found what I wanted and pointed it out. At that point she insisted on asking a bunch of questions. Finally, after realizing that I was not going to get anything to eat there I got up and left.

Later, on my way back tot eh hostel I passed a “meat on a stick” bar-b-q vendor that was next to a bread shop and a drink vendor. So, I went to all three and had some bread along with spiced “sheep on a stick.”

The next day I started out with the intent of visiting several of Wuhan's points of interest. The first thing I did was to wash some laundry; thats right, I used a washboard. Then I got directions to several key locations. As it turned out, the directions were, as described, universally useless.

One place that I wanted to go was the “yellow tower.” I followed the directions and sat on the bus for about 30 minutes in, near stalled, traffic just to watch myself pass the tower. I did see it, and for the day, that was enough. It was another case of lines that extended for hours. I was actually enjoying the ride through the city on the top deck of the bus. I saw one place but was not quick enough to get a picture and there was no way I was going to walk back to it. The sign over the building proclaimed it to be the, “Museum of Sexology.”

From Wuhan

As I approached the Hankou train station I saw the Wuhan Museum and decided that I would walk back to it. It was a good museum, in many ways similar to several I have seen in China. If a person is in Wuhan and not “museumed out” it is definitely worth a visit. I remember, the first time I went to Wuhan HZQ had mentioned wanting to go to that museum with me. as we left the Hankou train station to go shopping.

Upon leaving the museum, about 14:00, I decided to try something. I decided to try getting from the Hankou station to the Hostel using the directions that they had given me.

The first step was to take the number ten bus to the Wuchan train station. That leg went pretty uneventfully. I, again, sat on the upper deck and enjoyed looking at the city as I went through it. I then got off at the Wuchan train station.

This is where things went wrong. My directions said that at the Wuchan station I was to get on the number five-eleven bus. The trouble was that there was no indication of where the bus stop for the five eleven was. The buses only stop near, note, never “at” but only “near” the route bus stops (not for traffic lights either). This leads to wandering and looking for a bus stop that the bus you want uses. Realize, not all the bus stops are marked, “because everyone knows that the bus stops there.”

I stopped and had lunch at one point and continued my search for the elusive bus stop. At one point I asked a traffic cop siting in his NEV (neighborhood electric vehicle) and he pointed me in a direction. I went that was about a kilometer and came to a bus stop. I got on only to discover that the bus was headed to Wuchan station from that point. So, after following his directions I got to about 200 meters from where I had asked for directions and was told that it was the end of the line.

I then went to the next stage of finding the bus stop. That method consists of identifying the bus that I want to be on and walking along its line until I reach a point that I no longer had visual contact and then waiting for the next time that bus passes and repeat the process. It is reliable; but slow and involves a lot of walking.

When I finally got on the correct bus I was one stop form my Hostel. I had spent close to three hours following the route that I had been given by the staff. I am glad that I had chosen to take a cab that first night.

Some time during my return to the Hostel it had begun to rain. I am glad I had my hat, I only wish I had been able to find a better one. It continued to rain into the evening and I decided to stay in the hostel and play on my computer. Well, this being linux, play means tinker until it is broke. I ended up doing another full reset which cost me about an hour of writing. However I did send some time talking to another person that was using the same model of computer and he had done some tinkering on his Linux that looked interesting... fix it till its broke...

Then about midnight I remembered that I had done laundry. It was still on the line, in the rain. It was definitely not drying.

dinner... with extra smoke

I realize that this is a bit out of sequence; however, seeing as I am back in Xinyang I decided to write about it for a bit before returning to a recount of our short vacation.

It is still snowing here; so, that makes about two weeks of snowing. Of course my bicycle and scooter are under a bump in the snow. The result of this is that I do not expect to use either of them in the immediate future.

Yesterday I got a call from the office informing me that I had a package and, of course, they also wanted me to come by to pay the power and water bill from last month (apx. 368 RMB). So, I bundled up and put the sweater, harness, and leash on Wa Dou and walked over. They have impressive bars on the floor that the Foreign Relations Department has occupied, of the new building. However, the latch requires no key on the inside and with just bars, it is a simple matter of reaching through and opening the lock.

Well, the package was the Ubuntu http://www.ubuntu.com/ disks that I had requested. Ubuntu is a popular, free, distribution of Linux. I requested the disks on their web page and they sent them to me at no cost. Now that I have a second university computer here in the apartment, I was thinking of trying to see if I could get it to connect to the network.

After that I wandered across the street to the café. One can quickly see that even the Chinese consider this to be cold because a lot of the shops that cover the sidewalks, bike lanes, and spill out in to the street, are gone. Of course, the ice is pretty thick, making walking a bit rough.

When I went toward the café, the first thing I noticed that not all the doors were open. Normally, in China, the doors are left wide open for air. The next thing I noticed, when entering, was the fire. This building has no fireplace. Instead of a fireplace a fire had been built in a large, low, metal pan and consisted of a couple large lumps of coal with wood put around them. No, there is no chimney, this is part of the reason that the doors need to be left open, even in winter. I still smell the smoke...

It is times like this that one regrets not having a camera with them. I also noticed, while eating my meal, a mother pulling her children down the side walk on a wooden sled. After finishing, having some food prepared for Zeneta, and arranging some deliveries to my flat, Wa Dou and I wandered back.

Another visit to Xian

Seeing as I did not have to prepare for my exams, I had decided to reuse my preparation material; I had a weekend free and arranged to spend it in Xian with Debra. I made reservations, purchased train tickets and off I went.

Having gone to sleep, on the train, early I awoke at 05:00 ready for the day. My train arrived in Xian at 05:30 and, as has become my habit, the first thing I did was to purchase a return ticket. The Chinese tend to wait until they are ready to go before purchasing a ticket. I like to get one as soon as possible in order to reduce the amount of time I spend in the train station and to be sure I will get the ticket I want.

I got to the hostel and stowed my pack but Debra was still in bed so I went and played on my computer for a while. When she got up and we went walking through the Moslem quarter looking for breakfast. We actually found something that was a lot like a doughnut bar. We snacked a bit and went to a Mosque but it was not open that early so we continued on the Giant shop. I wanted to look at the model I had purchased and check the price. I had purchased mine in Xinyang for just under 2000RMB and in Xian I discovered that they were asking over 2600RMB, I had suspected that the Giant shop in Xian was over priced. Now I have verification.

We then returned to the Hostel and contacted one of my students, who was also in Xian but not staying with us, to go shopping with us, as we had previously arranged. There was some confusion as to where we would meet but we finally did meet up in front of the Xian China Post building.

We went to some shops that were nearby, including the large mall that is next to the Bell tower. There were three problems with those shops. First, they didn't have anything that Debra liked (she was looking for some skirts), second, they did not fit her and third, I consider those mall shops to be over priced. I finally convinced my student and her friend that we were not going to find what we were looking for at these shops and that we needed to try the Bazaars.

They finally understood and took us to the places that typical Chinese shop for clothing. Truth be told, there was a much greater selection than in the tourist area, but the prices were also a lot lower.

We finally got one skirt for her ant the first shopping building we went to. As you have seen in the past, these are large multi-story buildings (often seven to ten floors) filled with small ten by ten or twenty meter shops and all of the shops are independent of each other. One thing that never ceases to amaze us is that most of the shops close up for lunch and the staff stretch out on the floor for their siesta. We almost got a second skirt, at the second building, but the shop keeper saw westerners and raised the price beyond what we felt was reasonable. Then Debra was getting tired (I had not realized that we had been out on the shopping trip for over five hours until we returned to the hostel) so we started heading back.

(To get to these shopping centers one would go north [toward the train station] from the Bell Tower on "The North Street" until arriving at the last major intersection before passing under the wall, "Xi Wu Lu" on this street you will turn right, or east. You will know that you are on the right street as you pass under the circular pedestrian walkway as you cross the next major street heading to the train station in the north. Continue East on this same road. You will leave the walls and in about three kilometers you will reach the shopping buildings.)

Later, after naps, Debra and I had lunch, where we were pleasantly surprised that the Pizza at the Bell Tower was really pretty good, better than the only other Pizza place available to us, Pizza Hut, and also cost a lot less. We then went looking at iPods and pricing them and visited some other computer stores. This is the first time I have actually seen Red Flag Linux (the Chinese version of Linux) on a computer in China. There is a popular myth in the west that computers are cheap in China. We have not found this to be true. After currency conversion they seem to cost the same, and often more, for similar units. We checked the price online and determined that the iPods here cost slightly more than they do in the US and decided to think about it.

That evening we went out to watch the street carnival, which is common the Xian. However, the weather put them off and there was not as much happening. So, mostly we sat around.

Wandering at night in Xian

The next day Debra and I went and she did get her iPod. We checked several dealers and determined that the authorized Apple Dealer was the cheapest. It did sort of surprise them that she had a Chinese bank card; but the transaction went smoothly.

Debra getting a new toy

They included a number of extras but the one thing that they did not include, because they were out of them, was a screen protector. Debra does not want her iPod to end up looking like mine (in my defense, mine is about three years old and she has used it more than I have). We then went to another shop, which had the screen protectors, and tried to purchase one. For whatever reason, this caused them an incredible amount of consternation. We just wanted the screen protector, nothing else. It was in the locked case so I was not able to pick it up and wave it in their faces; instead I was reduced to pointing and saying "that" in Chinese. I finally gave up and phoned another Student, Gao Jing and had her talk to them (I knew she was awake because she has sent me a "Fathers day" note on my phone). It just seemed that the transaction was much more complicated than it needed to have been.

We then walked over to the artists' corner of the city and I purchased some drawings to put up in my flat. This particular shop had about the lowest prices I have seen on the Chinese scroll prints. They add a bit of color to the walls (well, the map adds color to the walls, but it looks a bit overly functional).

We then went back to the book store where some Chinese students were asking what they should read to work on their English over the summer and I would up back in "teacher mode." From there Debra retrieved her bag and headed to the train station and I sat in the lounge and waited until about seven in the evening, when it was time for me to go.

This time the VIP lounge was full and because I did not have a soft seat ticket (it is not a straight charge, it is a percentage of seat, so for Debra's trip to Ankang it is only a 20RMB upgrade, for me it is almost a 200 RMB upgrade) I had to wait in the general lobby, the cattle pen. And, as usual, it was filled with rude people who, with hundreds of people standing, had their luggage piled on the few seats and others lounged across several seats napping. The degree of public rudeness in China, from people of all ages, is something that is often shocking.

Upon return I took a cab back and then rode up to class.