[Itinerary Page]The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
April 29 - X'ian to Chongqing
I didn't expect a lot from today. We just had to check out of the hotel, get to the airport, fly to Chongqing and get on a boat that wouldn't sail until 10pm. Truth is that we did all those things ... but there were a few surprises along the way.
To start with, the driver was late in arriving at the hotel. Miao, ever the tour guide, was frantically on the phone trying to locate the van as she watched our "time cushion" slip away. When we finally got everyone loaded up and headed for the airport, we ran into horrendous traffic. The driver wound around through back streets trying to find a way around it. I'm not sure if we saved any time but we certainly got to see "the other side" of Xi'an ... and it wasn't too pretty.
A digression, if I may. As we did what Marv and I first called "the street dance" where traffic moves pretty much wherever there is (or might be) a space large enough for the car, I was reminded that I made a statement about Beijing traffic a few days ago that needs further clarification.
I talked about being in traffic in the midst of several hundred thousand inexperienced drivers. What I meant by that is that only recently have cars become available to the masses. When I was first here in 1981, the only motorized vehicles on the roads were trucks. Passenger cars were rare and typically only for government officials.
Even six years ago, I still saw a lot more bicycles than cars. But now all that has changed. There are old trucks on the road in China ... but no old cars. That's because almost all of them have been purchased in the last five years. That also means that their drivers were not behind the wheel until then, either.
Think about what it would be like if everyone on the road was a teenaged driver. Then imagine that all these teen drivers came from a culture where it was normal -- even expected -- to push your way to the front (not to wait in line) to get what you want. If you can imagine that, you have some sense of why you do not want to drive in China!
In any event, we made it to the plane, made it to the boat and even made it to the ship's welcome session, where we were promised an interesting video with commentary in English and Chinese. True to their word, they delivered ... except that the English and Chinese narrations both ran at the same time! Very curious.
The Split Personality of Chongqing
© 2008 Restaurant Doctor