Joining the Bicycle Population

The holiday has wrapped up and it's back to teaching! No more holidays for the next four months. And what a holiday! It was a lot better than last year, because this year I have friends and know my way around town. Since going to Jingdezhen, I've hung out with a few old students and friends.

On Wednesday, one of my old students (who is now Jodi's student), Brian, picked us up in a car. Several other old, sweet students came. Brian somehow convinced his 20 year old cousin to come to Nanchang to drive us around in his cousin's brand new bread van.

Bread vans are relatively inexpensive, thinly constructed "vans" that are popular in China. It is more like riding in a paper box. But, still, it was fun to ride around town with some of our students. The cousin, however, was extremely nervous and didn't know his way around Nanchang in holiday-rush traffic. He was almost shaking, and he forgot to shift gears many times. At one point he dropped us off under an overpass in the middle of the city to find parking, and we lost him for nearly an hour.

However, we finally made it to where we were going. We visited a 1,000 year old temple and pagoda in the middle of the city. The Buddhist temple was quite active, and people wanted us to burn incense. That was a great opportunity to explain why we wouldn't do that. We were respectful, but firm.

Afterwards, we wandered around the annual temple fair (see the "Where's Waldo" pictures of me in the thick of it that Jodi took). We went last year, and this time it didn't overwhelm me as much.

We parted with them in the afternoon and then my old student and friend, Wendy, came by after arriving back in Nanchang on the train. We took the bus downtown, where I had just come from, and we bargained for a bicycle. There was a whole street lined with bicycles for sale on the sidewalks. And there were so many choices - do you want this bike with one gear in gray, or this bike with one gear in black? Or how about this bike with one gear in dark blue?

Bicycles are more prevalent than cars, and they still look just about the same as they did in 1950. I ended up buying a bicycle which the shop owners claimed was made in America. I told them that was impossible, and they weren't too happy I said that. I still ended up buying it, though, because it was the biggest one I could find, although it was still too small. And they threw in a basket and bell. It also comes with only one gear and a rack on the back for a friend to sit on while I pedal. It is a very typical Chinese bike, but I am proud of it.

So we finished bargaining for it just as rush hour hit - in the middle of downtown. I had to figure out how to get it back to campus, which is a 25 minute bus ride away. My only choice was to ride it back. Let's just say that I was thinking to the Father most of the time. So I merged into the steady, thick stream of other bicyclists and mopeds with Wendy perched on the back.

I'm pretty sure I caused a nice spectacle. It's rather difficult to navigate a too-small, wobbly bicycle through crazy traffic in a city of 4 million people with a 110 pound girl sitting on the back of it. For several minutes, I was swerving around trying to get my balance and not run into other bicyclists. There was one point where I very narrowly missed running over a live duck, which was for sale on the curb. I don't know how Wendy didn't fall off because of my poor driving skills. I think Chinese people are born riding on the back of bikes. In addition, everybody was very amused, confused, or practically in shock seeing the giant foreigner pedaling right alongside them.

After about 10 minutes of this, I convinced Wendy to take the bus back to campus and I'd meet her there after a while. So I continued to pedal all the way back to old campus by myself. Maybe I should spare you all the details (especially my parents), but I traversed alongside the Chinese across countless jammed intersections and roundabouts, with buses and cars and motorbikes everywhere. It was pretty thrilling.

I actually ended up getting back to old campus before Wendy, because her bus was stuck in the traffic. And I was so thankful to be alive! So I've also included a picture of my new bicycle with this blog post. On Thursday, the last day of our holiday, Jodi and I pedaled to a nearby lake. Don't worry, I'm being careful!