Loading ...Archive for July 8th, 2002
first three days in china
July 8th, 2002
hi everyone, i’m finally in china. after i’ve stuck in tokyo for a nite. they told us the flight would change to 10am the second morning. later the flight was delayed again to 1pm. we accepted the change as long as we won’t need to spend another nite in toyko. but by the time we reached the airport, the woman said altho they were gonna take off on time but if the weather (typhoon) in shanghai was bad by the time the plane reached shanghai and couldn’t land, they would need to come back to tokyo. i fell asleep on the plane. at last i arrived in shanghai airport around 3pm on July 5th; i couldn’t find the guy who was supposed to pick me up. i even asked the people working there to annouce the person’s name in the intercom. i was very desperate when no one responded. i had no chinese currency. i had to exchange for chinese currency with my dollars there first before i could even make a phone call. finally i got some money after a long period of waiting in line. i got a hold of the guy on his cellphone. it turned out that he had a meeting and he sent his driver to pick me up. since the driver had never seen me before, he was holding a sign with my name on it waiting by the exit. i had no idea such thing could happen. first of all, the guy who i thought was picking me up has glasses and secondly i absolutely didn’t expect a sign waiting at the exit. i neither looked for people without glasses nor a sign. so we missed each other. and i didn’t know that driver was very close to where i stood until i made that phone call. quite a mess. i wasted half of an hour waiting there.
since i got to my uncle’s house from the airport, many had happened. change in shanghai is tremendous. i couldn’t put every single thing down. the driving here is a nitemare for those who drive in small cities in US. crazy drivers everywhere. NO ONE follows traffic rules. passing illegally and honking the horn is just a piece of cake. i saw cars driving in the middle of the two lanes so often now that i no longer feel surprised any more. another interesting thing about traffic in shanghai is that all the traffic lights will turn yellow before it turns green from a red light. and when the traffic lights turn from green to red, they flash three times first and then yellow and red. strange? in addition, at the intersection, sometimes the lights let turning cars go first and sometimes it’s the other way around. it all depends on the condition of the specific intersection. i don’t think that’s such a bad idea for shanghai since it’s just too overpopulated and different traffic laws must be provided to cope with the situation.
the food here is so cheap. i told andy two dozen dumplings here is only 6 RMB (6/8 US dollars), he just started to cry LOL. i just start shopping yesterday. i’m looking forward to buy some cheap and pretty clothes to take back. i brought an extra suitcase. haha, i’m gonna fill it up!!
