The good thing about traveling in a group is that many of your activities are planned for you. The bad thing about traveling in a group is that many of your activities are planned for you. With that said, when we were told that we were going to see the Yangtze River today, the third largest river in the world, I thought this would be great. So we were in the van driving over the Yangtze River bridge in Nanjing and someone asks, are we going to stop? The next thing you know we are stopped on the side of the bridge. Once we are out of the bus we quickly realize there is about a half mile of visibility because the smog is so bad and our vans have disappeared.
- Very smoggy day. There is nothing to see.
So we hang out taking pictures on the bridge for what seems like a long time and then go back to the place our van dropped us off. At which time our tour guide for the day suggests that we have to cross to the other side of the bridge to be picked up. This sounds like a bad idea. Crossing four lanes of traffic, on a busy Saturday, in the middle of the day, is not something I would typically do. EVER. We devise a plan and since crossing the street in China isn’t like it is at home, there may be hope but only a little and I make sure to take my spot in line so that at least six other people will buffer the blow of the midday traffic in Nanjing when we step into the road. I am sure that even the most calloused driver will notice hitting a dozen people at a time. At the appropriate time our guide leads us into the street and we cross 2 lanes and stand on the yellow median line, halfway there. Bless the four souls that actually stopped their car so we could cross because I have yet to see a car stop for a pedestrian that is more than six inches away. We make it to the other side and observe the very dangerous job of the median police whose only job appears to be walking up and down the median.
Imagine 12 people standing in a row on that yellow line to cross the street.
We happily get back into the van glad to be alive and out of our smog bath. Shocked and dazed we continue with the journey for the day. Not 15 minutes later at a stop light, in a turn lane, our van is scraped by the city bus, not hard but enough to cause both drivers to shout at each other in Chinese for awhile and hold up traffic. We are not phased by any part of this interaction and eventually continue on our way to the temple we are on our way to visit.
Ji Ming Temple
We make it to the temple without further incident. I will share the details, and other pictures, of this beautiful temple at a different time. When our time is over at the temple we come to find out that our scratched van is in the repair shop for some reason and we all have to fit into one van to go to lunch. Have I mentioned that there appear to be no seat belt laws here. So we all pile into one van to head to lunch.
Thirteen people in one van.
On the way to lunch we drove through the much talked about Purple Mountain. Lunch itself was uneventful and so-so, except for the first time ever beer held a certain appeal to me. I figure if I am going to start running in the middle of traffic I might enjoy some beer while I am at it.
The after lunch activities consisted of visiting Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s Mausoleum at Purple mountain and climbing a few hundred stairs and a walk at Xuanwu lake.
Sun Yat-Sen's Mausoleum and a few hundred stairs
By the end of the day I am tired and hungry and don’t want to be in a van or climbing stairs but still grateful that I am not peddling a bike, while smoking a cigarette, with an impossibly large load through one of the scarier intersections in Nanjing.
The picture is blurry but you get the point
Instead I am sitting on the street, eating spicy noodle soup and drinking beer in my mind there are few finer pairs and this somehow feels like an unusually rewarding, and cheap meal.
Spicy noodle soup and beer.
Wanderer's Lust 