The Adventures of Tai'an

We went to book our ticket home and found out that there were no seats left on any of the trains. We didn't want to risk our luck and decided we would take a bus. After all the come every 30 minutes.

We arrived at the bus station at 3.30 pm. We sat on the bus until 4.40 pm before we departed. Yes whilst the bus can run every 30 minutes, the bus doesn't leave until it is full!

On route the bus then stops and picks up more people. These people sit on little camp seats in the aisle. We stop 5 times before we even leave the city!

By 6 pm I still didn't recognize anything and was starting to panic that perhaps we were on the wrong bus. Eventually I saw a sign that said Jinan. I knew that once we hit Jinan it was 1.5 hours until we arrived in Tai'an. We finally got home at 7.30 pm.

I would rather stand for 2 + hours then sit in a bus for 4 hours.

Barbara and I had decided to take a trip to Zibo to check out the sights. We went to the train station and booked our tickets. We were so proud of ourselves because we got the tickets without to much drama. Later that night Barbara was studying the ticket and rang me to tell me that she thinks that we don't have seats.

The next day we went to see the Chinese teachers who confirmed Barbara's suspicion. Apparently in China once the train is full they still sell tickets but these are standing. This was going to be a long journey. A little over 2 hours standing. Not much we could do about it. Explains why the ticket was only 29Y.

So off we headed to the train station on Tuesday. Train left at 2.31 pm. We left our apartments at 1.30 pm. Better to be early than miss the opportunity to stand for 2+ hours!

The train arrived we boarded. We really didn't know where we were supposed to stand. We decided we would stand between two carriages. A couple of moments after the train departed we got a whiff of the bathroom. Barbara said that if she had to stay here any longer she would be sick. I was already covering my nose.

We moved into one of the carriages. There was a seat that no one was sitting on. I told Barbara to sit down. With her best Marcel impersonation she asked if anyone was sitting there. There was really no confirmed answer so she sat. This Chinese boy on the other side of the aisle with English as clear as day said, "Someone is sitting there." Barbara said, "that's OK when they come back I will get up." The Chinese boy started a conversation with us. Before you knew it I had a seat. So basically the whole trip we had seats. We scored well.

Basically we had our driver from 9 - 5 on Wednesday and Thursday.

We walked to most places when we didn't have the driver and normally caught a Taxi home.

On our last night we caught a taxi from dinner back to the hotel. The hotel was on the inbound side and we were coming from outbound. The hotel was on a 4 lane road with a traffic island in the middle. I was sitting in the front of the taxi when the taxi driver decided instead of going around the block that he would drive into incoming traffic. All i could see where headlights coming at me. I thought we were going to die!

We had decided we would leave the apartments at 9 am on Saturday morning. We would catch a taxi up to the long distance bus station. Although this is a short distance from the apartments it appears that the others would rather catch a cab up with their luggage.

At the bus station we bought our tickets and were escorted to our bus. Whilst buying our tickets we also met up with Michael and Shan who were also going to Jinan but only for the day. The bus cost Y22 and takes 1.5 Hours and leaves every 30 minutes.

The bus was really a coach. It was quite comfortable with lots of leg room and air conditioned. On the way to Jinan the trip was pleasant enough except for the man who sat in front of us snoring all the way there. When we arrived I woke him up.

The bus trip home was rather boisterous. Some Chinese men got on the bus who had been on the soup all day from the smell of them. They wanted to sit next to us. We moved them on. They wanted to take photos of us. Which we avoided. They had to ask the driver for a toilet stop.

One of the most frustrating things is there is little information in English to guide travellers. It alarms me even with the Olympic Games about to start in a little over 5 weeks.

Even asking a local they cannot give you directions. The response would be something like this, "I think you go and catch no 2 bus and then a no 4 Bus." If you ask where to get off or on they can't tell you!