I know, too much. In college my best friend would always pull me back in when I went too far. I'm getting slightly better at acknowledging when I should stop, now that I'm living in China. So instead I give you a different quote, one that kept me going when times would get a little turbulent. I read this quote shortly before I left and it stayed with me:
"Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going." ~ Paul Theroux
I've been a tourist many times, now I'm an expat, but during this trip I was a traveler. And although we had an over-arching plan, on a day to day basis there were many times when we didn't know where going next.
The first day of our trip we were to take a train to Beijing Xi (West) train station then travel to Beijing Nan (South) train station to take a train to Hefei. Once we arrived in Hefei we would then take a bus to Huangshan. Now let me tell you how it actually happened.
We arrived in Beijing Xi with 2 1/2 hours till our next train. We figured the newly completed metro (yeah I gave in, ask somebody where a subway is and they look at you like you're crazy) would be the best means of travel. However the student I was traveling with wasn't too keen on the metro. We ended up taking a bus.
A little over an hour later we're told we have to get off the bus because we were at the last stop. We missed our stop by 20 minutes. Typical of Beijing, no taxi would take us. (Beijing taxis are infamous for refusing service to foreigners). So as we watch the 10 or so cabs we manage to hail drive off in to the distance without us, we waited. Finally a bus came and we sat nervously biting our nails, we had 35 minutes before our train left. We were 20 minutes away without traffic.
We got to the station with 17 minutes to get to our train. Miraculously there was no line as security, we got through and started to run. It was John, Katie, and I on a mad dash to gate 15. John knew the way so Katie and I followed, Katie narrowly made it past a woman trying to mop the floor. I wasn't so lucky, I went down, hard I might add with the weight of my 40 pound backpack landing on me. I made my way to feet as quickly as I could but I'd lost Katie and John.
I made my way to the gate, but they're not there. As I stood there confused the train ticket checker (do they have an actual name?) took my ticket and guided me through. I ran down the steps of the escalator expecting to find Katie and John waiting to get on. They were no where in sight. Flustered and unsure of what to do I stood at the door of the train. A woman who works on the train took my ticket and passport (I'm pretty sure this was in an effort to help me) and starts to wave me inside. My limited Chinese seemed to be frozen in a part of my brain I couldn't get working, the only word I could manage was pengyou (friend). As I attempt to stammer more (mainly repeating "wait" in English) I attempt to call Katie. Unfortunately for me my phone does this weird thing whenever I go to Beijing, it looses all signal and needs to be restarted. As I wait for my phone to reboot, the alarm goes off signalling the train is about to leave. Seeing my passport in the woman's hand I jumped on the train.
As the train begins to pull out my phone finishes rebooting and Katie calls. I breathlessly stammer out "tell me you're on the train." I remember holding my breath for her answer "what? you're on the train? I'll call you back."
Turns out gate 15 of Beijing Nan (South) station has two entrances. Lesson learned.
Katie and John ended up switching their tickets to a train five hours after the one I was on. With them not getting in til 7pm we would spend the night in Hefei and I got 5 hours to explore on my own. I could tell you that it was absolutely amazing and I loved it but in reality Hefei is best left as a transportation hub.
A little over an hour later we're told we have to get off the bus because we were at the last stop. We missed our stop by 20 minutes. Typical of Beijing, no taxi would take us. (Beijing taxis are infamous for refusing service to foreigners). So as we watch the 10 or so cabs we manage to hail drive off in to the distance without us, we waited. Finally a bus came and we sat nervously biting our nails, we had 35 minutes before our train left. We were 20 minutes away without traffic.
We got to the station with 17 minutes to get to our train. Miraculously there was no line as security, we got through and started to run. It was John, Katie, and I on a mad dash to gate 15. John knew the way so Katie and I followed, Katie narrowly made it past a woman trying to mop the floor. I wasn't so lucky, I went down, hard I might add with the weight of my 40 pound backpack landing on me. I made my way to feet as quickly as I could but I'd lost Katie and John.
I made my way to the gate, but they're not there. As I stood there confused the train ticket checker (do they have an actual name?) took my ticket and guided me through. I ran down the steps of the escalator expecting to find Katie and John waiting to get on. They were no where in sight. Flustered and unsure of what to do I stood at the door of the train. A woman who works on the train took my ticket and passport (I'm pretty sure this was in an effort to help me) and starts to wave me inside. My limited Chinese seemed to be frozen in a part of my brain I couldn't get working, the only word I could manage was pengyou (friend). As I attempt to stammer more (mainly repeating "wait" in English) I attempt to call Katie. Unfortunately for me my phone does this weird thing whenever I go to Beijing, it looses all signal and needs to be restarted. As I wait for my phone to reboot, the alarm goes off signalling the train is about to leave. Seeing my passport in the woman's hand I jumped on the train.
As the train begins to pull out my phone finishes rebooting and Katie calls. I breathlessly stammer out "tell me you're on the train." I remember holding my breath for her answer "what? you're on the train? I'll call you back."
Turns out gate 15 of Beijing Nan (South) station has two entrances. Lesson learned.
Katie and John ended up switching their tickets to a train five hours after the one I was on. With them not getting in til 7pm we would spend the night in Hefei and I got 5 hours to explore on my own. I could tell you that it was absolutely amazing and I loved it but in reality Hefei is best left as a transportation hub.
The best thing I found about Hefei was this sign, note that its in German.
