Internet, Buses and Trains.

Shortly after completing my blog post last week I encountered connection problems with the internet, now this is not an unusual event here so I was not alarmed, figuring it would all be sorted out shortly. A little while later in the day I called a Chinese contact to check on the problem and to make sure it was not just me experiencing problems.

I was ensured that the internet was very slow that day and it would be sorted out soon, the problem was not just the speed (or lack of) of the internet, it was also a connection problem, before a page would load I would lose the connection, it might only be for a few seconds, but each time it required the router to be reset. Another foreign teacher in the same building was experiencing similar problems. Then, all of a sudden the problems mysteriously go away and all is ok again. Just one of the joys, I guess of being behind the firewall here in China.

About this time of year I am trying to find some work to see me through the Spring Festival Holiday break in late January and most of February. I also have a few places that I do some promotional work for, to help them recruit some more students for the next term or semester. During the week I had a call from someone I hadn’t heard from in almost one year. His school is about one hour to the north west of Wuhan and could I go there to work two hours on the evening of Christmas Eve, December 24th.

He assured me that he would drive me back to Wuhan that evening as there were no trains or I would be stranded in the city centre and I have classes the next morning. Yes, Christmas Day is still a normal working day here in China. So I went off to buy a train ticket for the 24th. The small city of Xiaogan has been well covered by trains to and from Wuhan, so getting a ticket has never been a problem in the past. Now the station in the city centre is not used as much, the city has two other new stations that are served only by high speed trains. The first, the East station had no available seats for that day, all trains, including standing tickets were sold out. The North station, on a different route had plenty of available tickets, so I bought one and sent a message of my arrival time and could I be met at the station.

It was at this point that I found out that the North station was in fact a long way north, Xiaogan is just 60 kms from Wuhan, the north station is 120km from the city it is supposed to serve. So the ticket was no good. I left it with him, if he wanted me to go and work those two hours (it was already seeming to be more trouble than it was worth), then he had to sort out the transport for me.

Another place I occasionally work is in a city called Yingcheng, again to the north or west of Wuhan and not too far from Xiaogan. They were now asking if I could work there the weekend of the 23/24th of December. I told them of the commitment to Xiaogan and we have tried to arrange it so that I finish my work there in time to then get a bus between the two cities and keep everybody happy. Ironically, Yingcheng only has three trains to and from Wuhan each day but tickets were easily available on this route, just to safeguard my easy return I bought a train ticket back from Yingcheng in case it all goes wrong with getting to Xiaogan.

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