I was very frustrated with my location again this semester. It took me 2.5 hours to reach the train station on the teacher bus, and my return trip on the light rail took 3 hours. Not to mention the 1 km walk back from the train station to my apartment. It’s pretty much as bad as last semester, maybe even worse since there are no longer any trees or stray cats. It's just a large dusty campus on flat land with a lot of wind and currently, a blistering hot sun. Still, I made it to Xuzhou by taking the 12:30 p.m. teacher bus to Nanjing, which is a downgrade from last year, when the bus left at 8 a.m., allowing me to make the most of my day. I opted for the slow train since most of the day was already lost to the teacher bus. After purchasing my train ticket and embarking on the four-hour journey to Xuzhou, I was more than ready for bed by the time I arrived.
The following morning, I planned to use my tourist pass for the "dinosaur park" but after a two-hour bus ride, discovered it no longer existed. The bus driver attempted to inform me, but I couldn’t understand him. He picked me up again on the return trip, and we shared a laugh about it. Then, I tried to find a way to Pan'An Wetland, but the bus I waited for (over an hour) never showed up. I ultimately gave up and decided to scrap the day.
The next day, I headed out fairly early and encountered a group of deaf men going the same direction. After we got off the bus together, I realized we were headed to the same destination. It was quite a trek to the park entrance, so I followed them, and they led me there. When we reached the boat launch, they mimed that they were going to drink baijiu, which made me realize I wasn’t invited. I said goodbye and went in the opposite direction. I wasn't interested in the boat ride but didn’t mention it to them.
I hiked around for a while, until a staff member found me and informed me that I was in an out-of-bounds area. The map didn’t indicate any restricted areas, which puzzled me. He drove me back in his little car, and I appreciated that since it was a massive park. Later, I coincidentally bumped into the deaf men again, and one invited me to join him in the hotel lobby. Unsure of how that would unfold, I followed him and noticed many kids around, making it look like a large family event. I used my phone to translate and asked if it was a wedding, to which he confirmed. Though I missed the ceremony, I arrived just in time for the reception—how could I say no to that?
We all entered a private room, perhaps meant for the deaf guests since a larger banquet hall was off-limits to us. I must say, we definitely didn’t go hungry or receive inferior food and drinks. The table was filled with various Jiangsu-style dishes, along with several bottles of $60 baijiu! The entire event lasted about an hour or two, unlike Canadian weddings that continue all night. Someone drove me and the deaf men back to the bus station where we had started our hike, and right afterward, I caught a bus that came along immediately. None of the deaf men were taking that bus, so I bid them farewell and returned to my hotel.
I didn’t think anything could top that wedding invitation, but I decided to venture out again the next day to another tourist spot for which I had a free ticket. This one was called Yao Wan ancient town. Typically, these ancient towns don’t impress, but this one was decent. It was evident they invested quite a bit of money into a museum and restoring an old church. There was a beautifully carved old jug, remnants of Republic of China military artifacts, a pickle-making exhibit, and a display of countless cigarette packages. This area was part of the Beijing-Hangzhou canal, the reason Yao Wan grew into a significant city known for its kilns and its advantageous access to the waterway for transport, dating back to 610 AD.
They even had water misters in the area to keep everyone cool. I jumped through one but then remembered that’s how Legionnaire's disease spreads, so I refrained from doing it again. Alongside this, I was getting bitten by little gnats and was ready to head home fairly early. I hopped on the first bus I saw, but it was heading in the wrong direction. I thought to myself that I could ride it to any train station and get back to Xuzhou. However, I realized I had forgotten my passport. I approached the ticket agent and, feeling timid, asked for his help. I had photos of my work
I was initially planning to stay in Nanjing and gain some weight, but I figured I should take advantage of my five days off. Since no one would help me transport my belongings to my new school until after the holiday, I decided to book a train to Chongqing. Then, in a stroke of brilliance, I thought I should probably arrange my return train to Nanjing. The management wants to send my things on February 5, but can you believe every train is fully booked for that day? So, I ended up booking a train for February 7, arriving in Nanjing on February 8. If they have an issue with it, they can just deal with it, I suppose. This meant I had to hurry and pack everything since I had no idea what the cleaning crew would do on February 5. I informed my boss that the bags were packed in my room, except for some laundry I did on the day I left (another mistake). I still haven't heard back from her about that.
We spent two weeks in Beijing. The day after our arrival, we visited Chao Yang Park (Sun Park) and rented a duck boat. It was quite slow, but we enjoyed navigating it around the lake.
Along the Yangtze River, there are several caves featuring Guanyin, but since most of them are inaccessible, I simply walked along the cliff.
This month, I've been extremely lazy due to my knee not feeling completely right and the inconvenient location I reside in. Traveling to the south end of the city requires me to take two light rail trains, which takes at least 1.5 hours. I live in Gaochun, south of the airport, so I first take the local rail to the airport, then switch to the airport train to finally reach the south end of the city. My tourist card now only has destinations on the north end of the city left, and I lack the motivation to visit more than one each weekend. Without further delay, here are the photos I took during the weekends in December.
It was excessively warm.
No Permanent Residence
I was very let down by my location once more this semester. It took me 2.5 hours to reach the train station on the teacher bus and then 3 hours to return from the train station on the light rail. Not to mention the 1 km walk back to my apartment from the train station. It's just as bad as it was last semester, if not worse, because there are no longer any trees or stray cats. It's simply a vast dusty campus on flat ground, with a lot of wind and currently, the sun is quite uncomfortably hot.