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Ní hăo!
So it's been a while since I updated, but that's because Lucie and I have been travelling around Jiangxi during our week off of school and I decided to leave my laptop in Yihuang. I have decided to split our travels into 4 blogs, otherwise this would be huge!
So first off, the travelling. Lucie and I booked our trains a week in advance so we knew exactly where we were going and when. The trains were easy enough. Head into the station, match the train number on our ticket to the one on the display board, find our waiting room (train stations in China are a bit like airports) and then sit and wait till we board. The waiting was the long, boring bit but we wasted time by listening to music or chatting about our university courses and such. (Lucie has just received an unconditional offer from a Welsh university to study Anthropology and Chinese Studies!).
We were lucky as for 4 of our 5 trains we had managed to get seats; only on the train to Yingtan did we have a standing ticket, and that journey was only 2 and a half hours, so we rotated standing, sitting on the floor and sitting on our cases. It was this train that we almost got off at the wrong station, but luckily we noticed and hopped back on before it left again.
We seemed to be the only 2 white people (and white females at that) in every train station and on every train. This was expected, but it did mean we attracted quite a bit of attention. I have got used to the staring and the picture taking by now, so I just ignore it. I do prefer when the people are polite and ask if they can take a picture, but even if they take one from afar, I just pretend not to notice as I know it's highly unlikely I will ever see these photos.
On our train to Jiujiang we found ourselves sitting across from 2 Chinese college students. We chatted for the entire train journey, and they were surprised at what we were doing at our age (we told them we were 19, because in China, we would be). Nearly everybody we have spoken to is surprised by this as here in China even 19 is still considered very young, and to be doing something so big, and staying away from home for this long is very rare at this age. The 2 college students (one was named Neil, his English was better than his friend's, who we named Shaun because it sounded most like his Chinese name) were really friendly and we exchanged wechat contact details (one of 'the' things to do in China) and they helped us find our hotel on reaching Jiujiang. (More about these guys in my Jiujiang blog.)
Taxis were a completely different matter. When we arrived in each city we knew that we would have to find some way of getting to our hostels from the train station. Jiujiang was simple enough as the two friendly college students helped us find our way.
Nanchang was a different matter. Luckily it was the middle of the day, but we were stood for ages trying to flag down a taxi - in China, you stand on the edge of the road, stick your arm out and flap your hand up and down. A few taxis pulled over, but after hearing our destination shook their heads and drove off. I had checked the location of our Nanchang hostel, and I knew it was only a 10 minute drive away, so we were frustrated by the drivers' declines. However, we were slightly comforted by the fact that the two groups of Chinese people standing next to us were having just as little luck with the taxis. Eventually a taxi driver from across the road shouted us over, and after showing him the address of our hostel, he nodded and smiled and we finally got in the taxi. When we arrived he charged us 30CNY! We knew a journey that short should have cost us around 10CNY but he wasn't haggling so we just ended up paying him what he wanted (this became a trend as the week went past).
And Yingtan was even harder. Taxi drivers were telling us it would cost us 100CNY for them to take us to our hotel, which we were just not paying. Eventually a man came over to us and told us there was a bus we could catch. This only cost us 8CNY each, so we're glad we didn't have to get a taxi. We hadn't realised, but our hotel was actually in a small village about an hour's bus ride outside of the city.
So this sums up our travelling throughout the week. In my next blog I shall tell you about our friends in Jiujiang and Mt. Lushan,
Zàijiàn x
- comments
Previous Voluteer - Nicole if you go back to Jiujiang, its worth haggling with the Taxi drivers before you get it. I think the best argument was once 'We are white not stupid' and normally someone gives in. We always managed it anyhow :P x