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On the Road to China
with George... page 3
Breakfast came with the room at the Red
Coral Hotel...
July 11, 2006
For me this is quite elegant. It is an old hotel 1092s or earlier, right
next to the railway station. A style that has been lost
in the USA. Breakfast was a buffet, no doubt some of the finest
buffets I have ever had. Many of the dishes I have never
tasted before. I ate at 6 am so I had the place to my self along
with 4 waiters all dressed in black vests, white shirts and black
ties. Linen tables, deep red carpet fresh flowers on the
table, the only incongruously, there was a TV blaring in each
corner of the room. After I was taken care of, each waiter
stood in front of the TV there seems to be quite a fascination
with the TV here.
Seems to be the new opiate of the masses. The only
eggs were hard boiled, there is a home fried potato dish that
I recognized, a cucumber dish, they seem to like cucumbers, the
dish was slightly spiced and had a peanut souse on it. A
very tasty cabbage, hot green beans, and cold green beans, the
cold green beans had been cooked in peanut oil and sprinkled with
sesame seeds. A crusty meat craps that was delicious, a
spin like dish but it was not spinach that was in a light vinegar. Being
a vegetarian would cause no problems here, as a matter of fact
it would be quite easy to do. Correction, there are now eggs,
a chef just showed up to cook them. He has done a great job.
I thought it was raining outside, but it is just the usual smog.
I haven't seen the sun in two days. There was a Typhoon
headed to Shanghai, at least the outer bands were expected to
hit with heavy rain, I thought it might be headed this way, but
no sign of it yet. I can't tell you anything about the news or
weather, I don't understand a thing on TV and I can not figure
out how to operate the remote on the TV in the room. All
the instructions are in Chinese, I have enough trouble using a
remote when they are written in English. If the TV in the
dinning room is any indication, the Chinese are big on N.B.A.
basketball and European football. Chris indicated as much
to me too.
The buses are all right...
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
They are clean, and orderly and if your
going to have an accident, there is
nothing safer than being in a bus. It's the mass confusion
of the bus terminal that's the problem. Without help, God
knows what part of China I'd be in right now. Chan, who
helped me at the terminal in ZhenZhou was perplexed when we tried
to find the bus to Pingdingshan. There must have been 2
hundred buses in that yard,in the space of a football field,
and people rushing about like sugar ants. He put me in one spot,
left me for about 25 minutes. Still unable to find the bus, we
stood at the entrance waiting for the bus to come through the
gate only to have it show up directly behind us, while it was
loading passengers.
Chan did not leave me until I had loaded my luggage, put
me in my seat and spoken to the driver and his assistant, (each
bus had a kind of stewardess). Getting off was exciting.
Arriving in a place where no one speaks your language, I was going
to try to take a cab, but I decided to go into the information
desk and see if they would call Chris at the University.
They called both numbers, but they got no answer at either.
just as I was beginning to get concerned, a young man, come up
behind me and says my name. it was Chris of course. I might
have been able to find my way but it would have been difficult.
I don't think excisions would be a good idea until I have
a grasp of the language. That is the reason I want to get
to Xian. There there are westerners there and the western
language school has people there, so I will be fine. I have gotten
into the habit of having people write out where I am going and
what I want. For example, before I left jin-jow I had chan
write out the name of the city that I was traveling to, and the
name of the university. that way when i am lost, all I have
to do is show the paper to someone and they point the way.
It has worked pretty well a couple of times. And I
have had Chris do the same thing. it is very helpful. Well
it's late and I'm going to go back to sleep.
Love, George
Sport and Local news
July 12, 2006 7:24 AM
Forget about writing an article, I going to write a book! I went site seeing
today, but, I just enjoy seeing the people. Site seeing
takes a lot of energy, It's much nicer to hang out. Right
now I'm at an internet bar, drinking beer, talking to foreigners,
It is odd, you come all this way to see a foreign country and
you end up talking to people and associating with people
from Arizona, Holland, Brooklyn, Germany Spain, etc. and and most
are in their 20's and 30's.
I am writing down everything I see, it's just too much
to be able to send over the internet. I sent a couple of
hours each day just writing and I still miss things. Next to my
room is a huge balcony that overlooks this busy intersection,
I took two roles of film. On the way from ZhenZhou I took 36 pictures,
without having any film in the camera. The room by the way
cost me $12.50 a night, and almost as good as the Ramada.
And I am across the street from a westerners hangout, Xian Ludao
Bin Guan Hotel. Please forward this to everyone of interest.
Is there any important news in the States? The big
news here is the Korea rocket launches. In the papers here,
the Chinese can't seem to understand why everyone is so upset.
The is also a lot of news about Israel and Lebanon. Wow, what's
going on there.
I have totally lost track of time, I couldn't tell you
what day of the week it is or what day of the month it is.
It's like being in a time warp. With love, George
©All rights reserved...George in China
On to the journey...
page 4