Last night was exciting, sort of. China's 60th Anniversary National Day is today, as you probably can hear from the fireworks echoing off the building in my apartment complex. Pretty soon you will be able to smell the gun power as it drifts up to the 20th floor. Anyway, as with all long holidays in China, the main streets and highways were in complete chaos. This somewhat normal during rush hours. But it was 4:30 in the afternoon and it was worst than normal. The Noon shuttle still had not returned from across the Chang Jiang River (Yanzee River).
So the bus drivers had an idea. Now these are the same people who like to race each other from intersection to intersection and think it is a good idea to drive in the oncoming lane to pass another bus (not just scooters and cars) just to get a better position in traffic. (oops gotta go meet someone - to be continued) (I'm back) So anyway, their idea was for them to drive us to the ferry and we could take the boat across the river and catch a city bus home. I was a little skeptical to say t he least. But it did seem like an interesting adventure.
So off we went in our usual race car fashion, until got a section of Pukou (That's the name of the city the company I work for is located in.) that had a one lane street meant to carry two way traffic. It was so narrow the bus driver even drove cautiously (by the way even though I question the bus drivers in China judgment; I have full confidence in their skill.
Things were moving along great until we came to some railroad tracks. To be honest we didn't actually make it to the railroad tracks. Traffic was backed up for about 200 meters before reaching the tracks. I am not sure what was going on, but it seemed to me there was a train just going back and forth in front of the roads' intersection. I think it was letting another maybe two other trains pass on a section of track that only had one track.
Now all of this time I kept watching cars behind passing us in the on coming lane. Trying move up in their position in traffic. Now you may be thinking this isn't a good idea since when they reached the tracks and there would be oncoming traffic on the other side of the track who wanted to use their lane (Bus drivers aren't the only drivers lacking in judgment.).
Finally after about 30 to 40 minutes the passengers on the bus asked the driver how far away the ferry dock was. It turned out that the dock was only another 500 meters from the tracks. Since the train was still just going back and forth we all got off and started walking.
Luckily there was a walkway over the tracks so we could get to the ferry. The bridge also provided a great view of the traffic situation and sure enough on either side of the track there were cars buses and scooter all the across the road all going in the same direction; facing each other. I have no idea how it got sorted out.
Once we found the dock, which was not as easy as I thought it should be, the ferry ride was fast. It was also kind of fun because by this time my co-workers where in a festive mood. Plus I think crossed the river in less time than the bus does on a good day. Mainly because the on and off ramps weren't design for the volume of traffic the bridge receives.
On the other side we found out our troubles weren't over. The bus some of us had to take, bus 34 didn't stop at the designated spot. Finally the attendant at the station had to flag a bus down for us. When the bus finally arrived at my stop the bus was so crowded, I almost couldn't get to the door, to get off. Finally four hours after work was over I made to my apartment. (Photos are posted below.)
<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="400" height="267" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Ftravels.with.glen%2Falbumid%2F5388196005699467313%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCNzN_KrP34TMjAE%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>