Min and I boarded a long-distance bus in Guangzhou at 7:55 for what we thought would be a 3 hour drive to Lianzhou. Much of the distance was covered quite quickly on a smooth new highway, smooth enough for me to get some more sleep under my belt after an early morning. When I awoke, we were coursing through the mountains, mountains covered with lush green trees. Then, we were soaring over huge valleys supported by massive columns of concrete rising dizzily through the air from the ground hundreds of meters below. Seeing the latter, I couldn’t help but marvel at how all of this was accomplished, betraying a prejudice against China I have with regards to something I clearly take for granted elsewhere.
The highway ended. It wasn’t finished yet, and as our bus turned onto a smaller, ruttier, country road, we passed by several dozen highway workers piling rocks and pouring cement to form the reinforcing walls for the next small section of what can only be a very, very long highway to wherever it is going. The country road was bumpy, narrow, but still full of cars, motorcycles, and other long-distance busses going to and from wherever it is we’re headed. Unable to sleep any longer, we bobbed up and down over the uneven and spotty concrete road…until the bus came to an abrupt stop behind several cars and trucks also stopped ahead. It was around 11:40am by now, already nearing the four hour mark, already one hour longer than we anticipated…and we weren’t there yet.
Dammit, we’re going to miss the free lunch.
The best part of the bus ride was the old Cantonese couple sitting to the right of us, across the aisle. They were a weathered sort, very rural, but endearing precisely for such characteristics. The old man clearly had become a few fries short of a happy meal in his years. This became glaringly obvious while I was dozing and suddenly sensed his hand reaching over…first lightly patting over my right pocket before moving further over toward my crotch where it briefly hovered like an arcade machine claw being positioned to pick up a stuffed animal prize. I expected myself to panic but, surprisingly to even myself, my hand only quickly, deftly, but also lightly seized his hand and gently returned it to him. His old lady immediately noticed what was happening and was already leaned forward, embarrassed, and smilingly explained in Mandarin to me that his mind wasn’t very clear anymore. I had surmised as much and bore them no grudge, and nodded back with a smile.
Throughout the rest of the trip, the poor woman patiently kept him in line each time he tried getting up and exiting the bus. I wasn’t quite sure why he was so intent on doing so until later when he had given up, pulling a cigarette out and then reaching into his pocket for his lighter. I reached over and tapped on his shoulder, kindly indicating to him that he can’t smoke in the bus. The first few times he listened and his old lady admonished him in what I can only assume to be Cantonese, as she would every time he was setting himself to do something inappropriate for the circumstances he was in. Later, though, he ignored us and managed to light one up, though in reverse, with the filter of cigarette filter flaring up and him puffing vainly from the unfiltered end before the chastising by his wife prompted him to move to the empty seat at the rear with a window he could open, you know, one that would allow the outside wind to circulate the smoke inside the cabin instead of letting it out.
All of this happened throughout the bus ride, both before and after finding ourselves stopped on the country road, unable to continue our trip, unable to turn back. A single traffic cop was blocking the road, stopping traffic. Eventually, after getting off the bus to eavesdrop on the cop talking to other impatient motorists, I learned that a truck and its trailer had rolled over ahead of us and the traffic department would arrive soon to clear the wreckage.
We got moving around 12:30, with everyone rubbernecking past the wreckage site. The truck itself was being towed away while its trailer was still at the bottom of the hill the narrow road was paved on. Suddenly, I didn’t feel quite safe riding on the bus, what with its massive size and higher center of gravity, bouncing and bobbing its way along that narrow road.
Fortunately, we made it to Lianzhou without any rollovers, off the road and down any hills, happening to ourselves. Lianzhou is a small backwater city/town by Chinese standards, but still had plenty of high rise apartment complexes. The banners hung on the light posts lining the streets advertised a developer’s apartment complex, selling for ~1800 RMB (<270 USD) per square meter. Compared to Shanghai where property prices for decent apartments go for 20,000 to 30,000 to 40,000 RMB per square meter, it sounds cheap. But, for Lianzhou, for the city we were beholding, it might actually be somewhat pricey.
It took another 30 minute taxi ride from the bus drop-off point to get to the Lianzhou Underground River scenic area where CNBloggerCon is being held this year. All the while, Min and I were cursing under our breaths over how remotely located the conference was this year, openly wondering how many attendees there might be this year. Min said past attendance was around 300 people, thinking there might be around 100 this year, noting that there were only 39 paid and registered attendees on the official conference website. Cynical and mean, I exaggeratedly declared I’d be surprised if there were 30-50 people. Even if there were more attendees, I wagered the rest of them were lost like us, unable to find where this damn conference is being held in the middle of nowhere.
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Lianzhou Underground River, Middle of Nowhere. Quite pretty, actually, after you get there. Half of the conference was (and is being) held in that big hole up there.
Wuhan-native and England educated Xue Ying of BloggerInsight kindly took our calls as our contact, and as the head organizer of the conference. We could imagine how beleaguered by her organizing duties but she made sure we made it to the conference.
She also made sure several lunch boxes were saved for us.
We arrived at CNBloggerCon 2009, around 1:30pm, over five hours after departing Guangzhou, with over half of the the first day’s talks and speakers already over.
The lunch boxes were pretty tasty though.
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Okay, not IN the big hole, but right at the MOUTH of the big hole, HERE. Imagine this space with a projector, some banners, benches, chairs, speakers, and conference attendees. Oh, and wifi.
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