The Five Policemen
Well... this turns out to be a eventful week......
That Bus....
First there is that bus trip to Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain). In order to save time and money, I opted to take the bus to go from NanJin to the HuangShan Preserve. The trip was sold as a five hour journey when I first asked over the phone, which give me time to look for a place to stay @ the foot of the mountain. Well...It was more than that....
First there was the incessant honking that this particular driver does at about every 30 seconds interval, and then there is his love for driving on the wrong lane, and his refusal to turn on the air conditioner... Well after traveling here for a month, I am use to all that. Nothing a pair of ear plug and the fresh scenery on the side of the road couldn't fix.
The first sign of problem, started when the driver stopped the bus a couple times and did a good looking around the underside of the bus. I though nothing of it at first, but when we pulled in a repair shop an hour later, we learned that we have a broken suspension spring. The co-driver were send to purchase the spring from a near-by town, and we waited, and waited...A hour and a half later, he came back with the part. Everyone were so excited, we surrounded the repair crew when they opened the box....
"Hmmmm??..... How come the old leave-spring had three leaves, and the new one had only two?"
The driver tried his best to convince everyone that the steel on this new spring was stronger than the old one. Oh....Yeah... right... I kept me mouth shut, and tried not to over analyze this with what ever I had learned in those Material & mechanical engineering classes....I just wanted to leave !!!! An hour later we were on our way, with the driver telling us to try to all sit on the left of the bus....Okay?! I guess there is a difference between a 2-leave spring and a 3 leave spring! So, we all sat on the left side of the bus.
(by this time I am more amused then worried)... four hours later, after going though all the road repairs on the way and some hair pin turns in the mountain in the dark we got to the foot of the mountain. (That makes 9 hours total...)
The drive at night is actually not bad. With a full (and yellow) moon up in the night sky, its reflection in those countless rice fields, ponds, and rivers on the side of the road is just spectacular. There is also the bamboo forest, and the little towns and stores on the side of the road with their doors open....
The scenery in HuangShan is just gorgeous, it's probably the Yosemite of China. It is probably the cleanest and the most pristine place I had been to in China so far. Aside from the cable cars and the little tourist traps along the path that is. (One can probably say the same about all the shopping center, and ice cream shop in the Yosemite Valley.....). I opted to stay at the top of the mountain for a night, and watched the famous sunrise before I headed down.
The Five Policemen
You see policemen/guards everywhere in China. In GuangZhou, there is one in every street corners, and a guards at every gate or doorway, but in some way this hardly qualifies this as a police state, because they really do little than just sitting around. Our bus once went head to head with a police car while trying to pass and ended up with three cars side-by-side on a two lane highway, and nothing happened. Who knows?, maybe this is actually legal in China. :-)
Been in China for about a month now, never had any troubles with the police, but this is all about o change. In those next three days, I manged to ran into not one, not two, but...FIVE of them.
The FIRST policemen I met was up in the HuangShan Mountain @ this dorm that I stayed and dined. This young policeman and some of his co workers also eat there. Nice guy, we ate at the same table and shared a bottle of beer.
The SECOND policemen I met were at the same dorm room I stayed and we went and watched the sun rise in the morning and shared the hike back down the mountain. The guy were on vacation.
The THIRD, the FORTH and the FORTH one I met @ HongChun....
HongChun and SiDi are two famous villages on the World Heritage Protection Site list establish by the United Nations on preserving some of the fast disappearing culture and communities around the world. The place in probably more famous for being the filming location of the movie "Crouching Dragon, Hidden Dragon". There is one catch, this site is currently close to foreigners (myself included) without a permit (which are hard to obtain for independent travelers, hearing from a fellow traveler). So... being a law obeying American, I went to the local police station when I came down the HuangShan and asked for a permit, which to my surprise were issued in less than 20 min.
These places were very nice!!! one villages (SiDi) were surrounded by mountains, bamboo forest, rice paddies, and streams.... The second (HongChun) had perhaps the clearest lakes I had seen in China so far. And the centuries old buildings... then one of the guards asked me to show him my permits, which I promptly provided, but I was asked to take a ride to the police station with them anyway. That's where I met No.3, No.4, and No. 5.
We got to the police station and asked to sit down, and give them my passport...Then one of the guy bought in two extra chairs, and I was suddenly being interrogated by these three guys. Things I had only read about.... :-)
Well... apparently, the police station on the HuangShan area have no authority to issue the permits. "How am I suppose to know that?!" That's when No. 5 bought out the little booklet on foreign travelers laws and regulations.... .Okay..... This lasted for about an hour, and after they accompany me back to my hotel room to inspect my luggage, I was released with a warning on not to over staying my permit, and not to go out at night after 7PM.
All these guys were pretty nice through the whole thing, in their words " we are responsible for the traveler's safety, if you get into trouble, we are in trouble".
So.... my friends, If you don't hear from me in the next couple days, then I am probably in a Chinese jails for violating my curfew and get caught on the way back to the hotel. Hahhahahh.... :-)
I just hope this policemen trend just doesn't continue .... :-)
That Bus....
First there is that bus trip to Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain). In order to save time and money, I opted to take the bus to go from NanJin to the HuangShan Preserve. The trip was sold as a five hour journey when I first asked over the phone, which give me time to look for a place to stay @ the foot of the mountain. Well...It was more than that....
First there was the incessant honking that this particular driver does at about every 30 seconds interval, and then there is his love for driving on the wrong lane, and his refusal to turn on the air conditioner... Well after traveling here for a month, I am use to all that. Nothing a pair of ear plug and the fresh scenery on the side of the road couldn't fix.
The first sign of problem, started when the driver stopped the bus a couple times and did a good looking around the underside of the bus. I though nothing of it at first, but when we pulled in a repair shop an hour later, we learned that we have a broken suspension spring. The co-driver were send to purchase the spring from a near-by town, and we waited, and waited...A hour and a half later, he came back with the part. Everyone were so excited, we surrounded the repair crew when they opened the box....
"Hmmmm??..... How come the old leave-spring had three leaves, and the new one had only two?"
The driver tried his best to convince everyone that the steel on this new spring was stronger than the old one. Oh....Yeah... right... I kept me mouth shut, and tried not to over analyze this with what ever I had learned in those Material & mechanical engineering classes....I just wanted to leave !!!! An hour later we were on our way, with the driver telling us to try to all sit on the left of the bus....Okay?! I guess there is a difference between a 2-leave spring and a 3 leave spring! So, we all sat on the left side of the bus.
(by this time I am more amused then worried)... four hours later, after going though all the road repairs on the way and some hair pin turns in the mountain in the dark we got to the foot of the mountain. (That makes 9 hours total...)
The drive at night is actually not bad. With a full (and yellow) moon up in the night sky, its reflection in those countless rice fields, ponds, and rivers on the side of the road is just spectacular. There is also the bamboo forest, and the little towns and stores on the side of the road with their doors open....
The scenery in HuangShan is just gorgeous, it's probably the Yosemite of China. It is probably the cleanest and the most pristine place I had been to in China so far. Aside from the cable cars and the little tourist traps along the path that is. (One can probably say the same about all the shopping center, and ice cream shop in the Yosemite Valley.....). I opted to stay at the top of the mountain for a night, and watched the famous sunrise before I headed down.
The Five Policemen
You see policemen/guards everywhere in China. In GuangZhou, there is one in every street corners, and a guards at every gate or doorway, but in some way this hardly qualifies this as a police state, because they really do little than just sitting around. Our bus once went head to head with a police car while trying to pass and ended up with three cars side-by-side on a two lane highway, and nothing happened. Who knows?, maybe this is actually legal in China. :-)
Been in China for about a month now, never had any troubles with the police, but this is all about o change. In those next three days, I manged to ran into not one, not two, but...FIVE of them.
The FIRST policemen I met was up in the HuangShan Mountain @ this dorm that I stayed and dined. This young policeman and some of his co workers also eat there. Nice guy, we ate at the same table and shared a bottle of beer.
The SECOND policemen I met were at the same dorm room I stayed and we went and watched the sun rise in the morning and shared the hike back down the mountain. The guy were on vacation.
The THIRD, the FORTH and the FORTH one I met @ HongChun....
HongChun and SiDi are two famous villages on the World Heritage Protection Site list establish by the United Nations on preserving some of the fast disappearing culture and communities around the world. The place in probably more famous for being the filming location of the movie "Crouching Dragon, Hidden Dragon". There is one catch, this site is currently close to foreigners (myself included) without a permit (which are hard to obtain for independent travelers, hearing from a fellow traveler). So... being a law obeying American, I went to the local police station when I came down the HuangShan and asked for a permit, which to my surprise were issued in less than 20 min.
These places were very nice!!! one villages (SiDi) were surrounded by mountains, bamboo forest, rice paddies, and streams.... The second (HongChun) had perhaps the clearest lakes I had seen in China so far. And the centuries old buildings... then one of the guards asked me to show him my permits, which I promptly provided, but I was asked to take a ride to the police station with them anyway. That's where I met No.3, No.4, and No. 5.
We got to the police station and asked to sit down, and give them my passport...Then one of the guy bought in two extra chairs, and I was suddenly being interrogated by these three guys. Things I had only read about.... :-)
Well... apparently, the police station on the HuangShan area have no authority to issue the permits. "How am I suppose to know that?!" That's when No. 5 bought out the little booklet on foreign travelers laws and regulations.... .Okay..... This lasted for about an hour, and after they accompany me back to my hotel room to inspect my luggage, I was released with a warning on not to over staying my permit, and not to go out at night after 7PM.
All these guys were pretty nice through the whole thing, in their words " we are responsible for the traveler's safety, if you get into trouble, we are in trouble".
So.... my friends, If you don't hear from me in the next couple days, then I am probably in a Chinese jails for violating my curfew and get caught on the way back to the hotel. Hahhahahh.... :-)
I just hope this policemen trend just doesn't continue .... :-)
posted by 54 at 2:03 AM
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