Baoding: First Reactions

The bus was a bus ride. Not too much to say there, except for what we could see through its ginormous windows.

The scenery changed gradually:
-In Shijiazhuang, there were loads of tall buildings, huge crowds, and trash everywhere.
-Very quickly, we hit the highway. All around us, we could see fields and fields of farmland, hills of yellow corn, and hills of trash.
-About two hours in, we passed a toll both, and the farmland morphed into small city buildings. Dirt sidewalks lined the edges of the roads. Men sat on low stools - almost as though they were squatting - and guarded empty storefronts with their bellies exposed. (What does that mean? Lift your shirt up. Roll it up above your belly button. Now just keep the shirt right there and walk around town.) Instead of the rectangular patches of grass that organizes American cities, there were little patches of trash here that did the same thing.
-I don't know why my writing voice tone thingy (yeah, deal with my vocab. I'm an English major!) just changed.
-Then the low-roofed run-down buildings got a little taller, the roads became a little (note: little) cleaner, and the streets became more and more crowded.
-Oh neat! Vegetable markets! Everywhere!
-Street food!
-Construction. At this point, Hannah made a comment: "It's like the whole city is under construction."
-Downtown Baoding is busy. It's bustling and city-like... but it's unlike any city that I've ever seen. Pictures to come... but not quite yet. I need to bring my camera around next time I go out.

I was getting more and more excited as I realized that Baoding was going to be very much... unlike Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong.

I was also having an... interesting time watching Hannah's expressions as we got closer and closer to the city. To put it simply, she was not happy.

And if you've ever watched Lie to Me and can figure out what this expression means:



Ahem. We got off the bus. Went into Mr. Kou’s car – it’s a very small car that just barely managed to hold our combined luggage in its trunk and its back seat. He didn’t buckle his seatbelt, so the car beeped at him every five minutes or so…

In other words, there’d be a couple minutes of silence – then BEEEEP BEEEP BEEEP! – or a couple minutes of quiet conversation – then BEEEEP BEEEP BEEEEP! – then maybe a swerve here and a serve there to avoid oncoming traffic – and then… well, you get the picture.

Twenty minutes or so later, we were home.

Home sweet home.

Welcome. Let me give you a little tour...
Stay tuned for the next post!
It'll be only a couple of minutes, trust me.