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.

Shopping in Wuhan

06 Jan 07

As many of you know, I ended up working this weekend. The reason really made no sense to me, or the other westerners; however, it seemed to make perfect sense to the Chinese.

We worked Saturday and Sunday so that we could take Tuesday and Wednesday off, following the holiday on Monday. The thought, on the minds of all of us westerners, was, why not just take Saturday and Sunday off? Instead, this goofy approach messed up all of our schedules, their schedules, and, undoubtedly, the schedules of millions of people across the country. I really think that the reason was just to do something different; whatever the reason, I worked Saturday.

I would have also had to have worked on Sunday, except that I traded classes with another teacher. Julia has several of the same classes that I have.

Remember, the students are assigned to a class group at the beginning of their college life and that class group is given a number (easy enough, I have classes one through five). They then attend all of their classes, and many out of class activities, as a group.

Because she, Julia, also has classes one through four, we were able to make a trade in the classes. This left us both with classes on only one day, I did Saturday and she did Sunday. (And no, Julia is not her real name. However, her family name sounds a bit like Julia, it is a name that I can pronounce, and the students know who I am talking about when I say, "Julia." [Even if they do laugh when I say it]).

An example of the, out of class, activities, that are attended as a group include the Friday that immediately preceded this weekend, in which I had to work. The student classes reserved large rooms at the college and held various parties. As a teacher I moved between the groups that were, generally about two classes, or about a hundred students. Some of the parties focused on, student produced, skits and dances. There were a lot of song and musical instrument recitals. Some of the classes got together and watched movies on the large, projection screens (there is a… um… "Free" web site there in China that allows a person to watch any of hundreds of movies, there is a reason that this site is unusable for my classes; however, it allows anyone with web access to watch them. So, the students start the projector and the movie, and then they enjoy free theater.).

On Saturday I then showed Titanic. I used some discs that were purchased here in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />China. So, to no surprise, they did not work well. They are copies and are not good ones. Toward the end of the movie the disc froze. The good part was that it really was the last scene, I still was irritated. One part of the movie was sort of funny. I have mentioned the disregard for heat in the classrooms; as it happened, there has been a bit of a cold snap and the classrooms never got above 40f all day. So, at the end of the movie, when everyone is in the water and freezing, I looked around the room and observed that everyone watching the movie was freezing, right along with the actors on the screen.

I ended up showing the film twice, this allowed me to show it to four of my classes; like I said, I was doubling up my classes. I first showed it at 10am and a second time at 2:30pm. It really felt like I was running a theater.

On Sunday, because I had made the arrangement, I had no classes. Instead I went to the usual meeting with some of the westerners, which we hold on Sundays and then returned to my flat in order to do some writing; I also did quite a bit of lounging around and reading. (Wow, it is hard to type this, my fingers are cold; thus I am producing a lot of typos. Therefore, my usual, very slow, typing, is slowed even more by the number of corrections I am making.)

Monday was a rather normal shopping trip. Ellen, a female student of Michelle's, went with us and provided quite of bit of help. It is always funny when you ask for help finding something. All I wanted was some spices and vinegar. I ended up being brought vegetables, soup mix, and other things that I can not remember or identify (they seem to be food), in the pile were my spices and vinegar; so, I did not complain.

It was at that time that Michelle and I discussed the possibility of an upcoming trip to Wuhan. We are both considering purchasing backpacks for our, upcoming, winter break. We were initially planning to purchase them when we arrive in Xian, while we are on vacation, and still may do that. However, there is some logic in purchasing them ahead of time so that we are not left carrying two pieces of luggage. I would also like to visit the museum in Wuhan. One thing that has disappointed me, in China, is the lack of museums. According to the travel guide that I borrowed from Debra, there is one there.

That night I went to dinner with He Zhi Qing and some of her dorm mates (There, a real name for those of you who complain that I do not include real names. She tends to ask me to call her HZQ because I often mangle her name so badly.). Even though her roommates are not English majors, instead they are majoring in Chinese, they speak English well enough to communicate.

We did not go where we had planned because the place was full. Instead, we went to another nearby restaurant. From her I am learning to identify restaurants (not always as easy as it sounds) and going to more "authentic" places. She is the same student that took Debra, for several hours, and showed her what the student dorms look like.

We (He Zhi Qing, her roommates, and I) made plans to go on Tuesday and walk around the city; however, it was snowing so we called it off. In all, the vacation was too cold to enjoy.

That night, I had a slight problem. The house phone rang, I differentiate that from my cell phone, which is used for almost all communication. The house phone is primarily used for calling people on campus, and in the dark, while stumbling to answer it; I stepped on the power supply for my computer. Not only was it a wrong number, as most of my house phone calls are, but I broke the power supply. Breaking the power supply prompted me to write this letter to my good friend from High School; and all around Mac Genius, Mike.

Last night when getting up to answer the phone, it was a wrong number, I broke the connector on my Macally power supply, I long since replaced my Apple supplied one.

This power supply has a plug in the end that connects to the supply; so, the cord that plugs into the computer also unplugs from the supply. It uses a non standard plug. However, I am first going to look for the plug, if I can not find it I will solder the cord directly into the supply.

My question is this; the cord that connects to the Mac has one strand and a shield (thus, two conductors). I am assuming that the shield is negative and the core is +24VDC@2A. Looking at the tip I see it as having three elements, a shield, as is found on an RCA audio connector and a plug in the center that is similar to a stereo headphone connector, just smaller. This very small plug has three elements. What should the voltage be at these various points? (Yes, I checked the apple site, it has no real useful information on this that I was able to find)<>

I got a response from him that advised that, seeing as the part is made in China, that I should replace it in China. He also included some helpful information. However, by the time that I received his response (remember, the time is almost opposite here [gmt +8]) I had already gone into town and gotten it, sort of, repaired; prompting this letter.

The really funny thing is that a lot of the stuff made here is not available. When it is, it costs more than it does, after conversion, in America. As an example, I saw an iPod Nano (4gb); after conversion (of course, it is priced in RMBs [aka, CNY]) it would have cost $280USD. What I was told is that the stuff is first shipped to the states and then shipped back to china, where it becomes an import and is subject to very steep taxes.

I did manage to get it fixed. There is no "do it yourself" culture and near all tools are only sold to licensed repairmen. As such, I took it to a computer repair shop and HE ZHI QING (my student, I can not pronounce or spell her name) was having trouble telling them what I wanted done because the idea of fixing something was totally unknown to her.

Finally I walked behind his counter (with permission, if he understood what I was asking) and picked up his solder sucker, soldering iron and Multimeter and started working on it myself. After I had it all positioned I let him solder the parts together (and he did a terrible job of it). She was laughing the whole time; it seems that this is not the way things are done here

I suspect that I will hear about this in class... However, it is now working.

That Wednesday, after we had canceled our plans to wader about the town on Tuesday due to the snow; He Zhi Qing, more of her roommates, and I went to go and get this done. To go into town she first tried to hire a three wheel cab; however, the driver would not budge on the price so we took the bus. We then went to get the repair done, which was the, afore mentioned, ordeal.

After we did that she insisted that I go and eat lunch. While I had not eaten lunch I could have done very well to miss that meal (I have lost about seven Kilos since I got here, then I pretty much stopped loosing weight). However she was very uncomfortable with my having not eaten (she, and her friends had eaten before we met) so I had some soup that she ordered for me at a lunch counter.

[Then people ask why I hate using windows. Here I was typing along and I get a message that the windows OS had encountered yet another error and has closed word. I only lost a little because I save often; however, this does not happen on my UNIX, a real OS, based Mac …oh where was I…]

After we did some shopping, I decided that I needed more long johns, we went for a walk. The only problem with wearing the long johns is that it tends to reduce my level of empathy with my students. After all, I am not freezing, there is no reason that they should be acting like they are (other, possibly, than that the room really is freezing).

The walk we took led through one of the larger city parks and a small bamboo forest that had several footpaths leading through it. It was, obviously, a popular place for young people to stroll.

We then walked along the river; stopping at a playground to enjoy the exercise equipment (me v. them on the teeter totter was funny, if not a bit embarrassing). I took some pictures of the old city wall and we also did a bit of other shopping (I needed some eggs, which are not sold in cartons as they are in the west) and I returned to my flat.

We had walked quite a bit, including the entire return trip, however, it was fun. Even better, when I plugged in my, newly repaired, power supply it worked!

This week was obviously a short one for classes, consisting of only two days. We talked about many of the terms used in Titanic. I discussed the, upcoming, exam in my class. However, I was not able to use the material that I normally use in the second half of my class. I normally use a podcast from a pair of Doctors in Linguistics in Los Angeles.

I use the audio skit in their program and then build more lesson material around that. I was not able to do this for one of the very reasons that you have not received these blogs in some time. The internet connection to China has been very slow as a result of a damaged cable in Taiwan. This is making the access to may websites, the sending, and receiving of both audio and pictures nearly impossible.

I hope that this is repaired soon and I will be able to send pictures of Wohan.

This afternoon, this being Saturday, I got a call from He Zhi Qing asking if I wanted to go on a bike ride with them. They are, of course, her and a couple of her roommates. One of her roommates did not want to ride and, apparently, claimed that she did not know how to ride a bike. So, she rode on the rack on the back of the bike. It is amazing, to me, to see how often people ride on the cargo racks on the backs of the bicycles. They are clearly labeled that they are not capable of holding people; however, many of them are padded and there are often handles and footrests on them. We are not talking of carrying small children, we are talking of full sized (well, fill-sized means something a little different when talking of Asian women) adults.

They generally ride on these racks by riding side saddle and mount after the bicycle is moving slowly. I have a cargo basket on my rear rack so I have not carried any passengers.

So, we rode the three bicycles, with one passenger, to the local lake. However, none of us wanted to pay the entrance charge so we then headed back on the other side of the river to see the construction on the Pagoda that has been in many of our pictures. When finished, it will be a temple.

While riding we noticed that He Zhi Qing's bicycle had a flat tire; so, as I rod off in search of a WC she went and borrowed an air pump from a repairman. I was under the impression that she had the tire repaired until we had ridden several blocks; only to discover that her tire was flat again. At that point we went looking for a repairman and were unable to find one and ended up back at the same person that had loaned her a air pump earlier.

By the time we returned, it was too dark for the repairman to see well enough to find the flat, he was completing the work he was doing by the light of nearby cook fires. I quickly dismounted the tire form the rim, it is normal here to leave the wheel on the bike while going the here, and located the hole by wetting my hands with water he provided me. I than roughed the area of the hole and he put the patch on for her. This was all done by the light of my torch (silly Brits' insist on calling a flashlight a torch). Instead of using the patches we are familiar with, he used a section of tube that one of the girls cut to the shape that we needed, he then poured some cement on the tube and used the cut portion for a patch. All I can say is that it worked.

While we were doing this it was getting darker rapidly. In addition, I received a phone call from Ilwn, a graduate student, reminding me that I had planned for him and Merry, one of my students, to have them over for dinner. So, once repairs were completed, we rode back, rather quickly, in the dark. I will point out that I do not recall seeing a single bicycle light in the country. Other bikers, in the dark, are the real scare when riding this way.

At that point He Zhi Qing and one of her friends joined us for dinner. They cooked, which made it a very easy night for me. However, I was getting a bit tired, and I expect that I was looking it. We also looked at the on-line train schedule and determined what train we wanted for the trip to Wohan.

Today, Sunday, I went to our Sunday meeting. After that, the Browns and I watched a movie, "The Bodyguard." I then went for a bike ride with Walik. I prefer to take my bike to the store and on local trips, instead of relying on the bus service. It just leaves me with a bit more freedom to do what I want.

After returning to my apartment and watching another movie, "timeline," Walik and I went to dinner. It was pretty much a slow day. Most of my Sundays are slow, which is just fine.

Touring the Hospital

14 Jan 07

Yesterday was the day of the planned trip to the famed city of Wuhan. To say the least, it did not go as well as expected.

The trip started well, except that the day before, Friday, I was not feeling too well in class. I ascribed this, mostly, to my not getting enough rest. That evening I went to dinner with Michelle, Ellen, and He Zhi Qing. The plan was for them to stay the night at Michelle's so that we would be able to all get up and get going early. This was necessary because the only tickets that we had been able to get were standing tickets; and then, on a train scheduled to leave at 5:30a.m.

As is normal for me, I did not sleep well that night (yes, all of this mentioning of how I was feeling is leading up to something). As a result, I was awake long before I needed to be and ascribed all ill feelings to the lack of rest.

The ride itself was uneventful. The train was late; however, it made up the time and we arrived in Wuhan on schedule. I do not have a lot of pictures of Wuhan, at this point. However, it is a much larger city that Xinyang. The main reason for our coming to Wuhan was to visit the large market districts. The desire, all around, was to get backpacks so that we would not need to do something with the extra bags after meeting Debra in Xian.

The market districts in Wuhan were similar to the pictures one sees. The streets were crowded with small, busy, shops. After getting directions near where the bus, from the train station, let us off, we began walking through several kilometers of this large market area.

Finally, after working our way through a series of streets that were too narrow for motor traffic, we arrived at a section, covering several blocks, which sold nothing but luggage. I saw several that I liked; however, there were a lot that I didn't. I was being pretty picky. I wanted something with a rigid frame in order to keep the pack form pushing on me as I walked. There were also some other features that I wanted.

After finding a style that I liked, it became Ellen's show. She aggressively bargained on the price and had us walk out of several shops that would not give her a price she considered fair. The final price was 140 RMB, which seemed fair.

The problem was that by that time I was feeling a bit ill. Michelle wanted to go for lunch and I was not feeling well enough to eat. About this point I realized that this was not a simple case of exhaustion. They wanted to do more shopping (which I had also wanted to do); however, I had reached the point that I wanted to take a cab, rather than a bus because it would be faster, to the train station and get a sleeper back to Xinyang. It was only a three hour trip; however, I wanted a bunk, I needed to lay down.

Things went wrong very quickly. This short letter I wrote pretty well says it all.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to tour a hospital In Wohan, China. It was a pretty good deal, everything included: ambulance, ER, EKG, chest x-ray, and recovery room came to less than 400 RMB (about $50 USD). Basically, I was not feeling well and had to sit down, then some big Chinese guy was carrying me, then I was in an ambulance (I was in a maze of alleys and motor vehicles were not able to get in).

The medical care was very good 1970's grade. After an hour in the ER they remembered to take my temperature, I was feeling better at that point; it was only a bit over 104f.

One thing that really surprised me was that they had He Zhi Qing stay with me nearly all the time, even when I was getting the x-ray taken. In the US a person would never be allowed in the room while someone else was being x-rayed. The thing that Michelle noticed, and commented on, was that the IV bottles were made of glass.

I checked out of the Hospital in time to get to the train station, I already had return tickets with a seat reserved. I was still pretty ill on the train back to Xinyang. However, I am now back.