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China, September 2005 Day 2 We were up at the crack of dawn, or 5 a.m., unable to sleep a second more. We waited until 5:30 a.m., just out of courtesy, and then called my dad. We decided to go to breakfast at this congee place my dad had gone to the night before. When we got there, we noticed that they accepted the Octopus pass as payment! Our breakfast consisted of congee, fried noodles, Chinese donut, Chinese donut wrapped in rice noodle sheets, radish cake and sweet soy milk. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by the Tin Hau (Queen of Heaven) temple, only to find it closed. Right behind the temple was a huge market street, just starting up for the day. We wandered around, looking for fruit, but alas, nothing great was to be found. Went back to the hotel to gather our stuff and check out. Today was the day we were going into China! But first we had to pick up my mom from the airport. When this day started, we didn't know it would be a day of planes and a train of automobiles. We got my mom from the airport (the plane) and arranged a ride from the airport to the border of Shenzhen. Our first driver was relatively safe, but made me sick by pumping the gas pedal repeatedly. (I just can't understand why you can't just keep your foot on the stupid pedal!) He took a relatively un-congested route through the countryside to the least busy border crossing. There he dropped us off and we had to walk across and get our passports stamped and our bags checked. On the other side, another driver was waiting to take us into Shenzhen (Long-gang). This driver was much better and the ride was smooth as silk. This was also my first lesson about the differences in Taiwanese and Chinese etiquette. In Taiwan, you address the drivers as "xian shen" which basically means "mister" but in China, you address them as "shi-fu" which has a totally different connotation and means "master." Anyway, the master drove us to the Lailai Restaurant in Long-gang where we were met by our factory driver and our friend Ms. Martha Chang. We had a small snack there (Poobie was stared at the entire time by the uniformed staff) and drove to the factory (1/2 hour) where we stayed for an hour as my mom dropped stuff off in their room and my dad packed for the trip to Nanjing and Shanghai. (Everyone who works at the factory lives there too.) We were then ferried back into Shenzhen proper to the Zhong Ge Cheng Hotel where we would stay for the night. Before we went to dinner a travel agent delivered our tickets to the hotel for our flight the next day to Nanjing. A couple of first impressions on driving in China: first of all the roads were blessedly smooth and clean. The drivers are, to our "civilized Western eyes," safe, but insane. The lanes mean nothing, mere suggestions on where the cars should go. There are pedestrians on the FREEWAYS. Casey saw 4 people on ONE motorcycle. (I contend that you can fit at least 1 more plus a dog.) We passed a semi going the wrong way on the freeway in the right hand shoulder. There are tons of bicycles but also tricycles and some things that look like the bastard child of a riding lawn-mower and a tractor, but with a really big bed for hauling stuff (I think my uncle used to drive one of those things when he lived in SuJiaWan). No one wears seat belts or helmets of any kind. Not everyone turns off the ignition when fueling at a gas station. Tiny cars, huge cars, everything in between and the funniest looking domestically produced cars with Mercedes styling in the front, but a Japanese hatchback in the rear (lime green). Dinner that night was "Taiwanese" style, but not really. What I mean is that the best Taiwanese food is not overly greasy and is relatively simple. This stuff was "Chinese-ified." More fancy and greasier than it should have been. We did have some classics, but it was just OK. After dinner we went for a massage. Martha went with us and if she hadn't, I would have been seriously sketched out. There were young ladies greeting us at the door in full length red dresses. It had the feeling of a place of ill-repute. But it wasn't. The ladies that worked on us were very professional and the massage was conducted while you were fully clothed and covered in a giant towel. The entire time we were there the lights (and consequently the A/C) kept going out. We were stretched and pummeled (it kind of hurt, but apparently that's how the Chinese like it) for three hours and it cost us 76 RMB per person ($10). We left around 10:30 p.m., perhaps a little looser than when we got there and went back to the hotel. When I asked what time they closed, they said that they didn't close until 3 a.m. and that their nightly rush hadn't even started yet. Back to the hotel for the night. Our bathroom had a sauna, a fancy elevated porcelain bowl sink and a shower with curved, sliding french doors. Poobie could even plug his shaver in as they had a 110v outlet as well. We both took a much needed shower and then crawled into bed, only to discover that the bed was rock hard. It was springy, but about as firm as firm can get. Still, we were tired and fell asleep rather quickly. In the morning we would marvel at how comfortable the hard, hard bed really was.
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