a family affair

After quite a late arrival in Nanjing and some beers with Ruth and Nick’s Australian expat friends for ANZAC day, Matt and I crashed in Ruth and Nick’s house in Ya Dong.

Waking up on Saturday morning I was greeted by Anna and Helena, who (I realised as I was flying over to China) I hadn’t seen in two years. Hellos, brief explanations about current activities and speedy breakfast were followed by a taxi ride into the city of Nanjing where Nick, Ruth and Anna were to run around the lake (around nine kilometres worth).

As Matt and I hadn’t brought runners, had only just arrived in China and honestly thought running around the lake was mad, we leisurely wandered around, taking everything in. We also provided public entertainment as many of the people around the lake stopped and stared as we walked past.

Having left cold, drizzly London only a day before, Matt and I were a little shocked at the warmth in the beautiful sunshine as we wandered around the lake.

It was so peaceful, even with so many people and there were so many different activities going on. One of the coolest that we saw was a large group of people of all ages doing tai chi with swords (I’m sure there’s a proper name for that). We had walked the wrong way when we saw them, but it was worth it.

As we were only walking and not running with the others, I did receive one text message from Ruth making sure that we weren’t lost and I had sent one teasing text message to my mother telling her we’d arrived safely and were currently walking around the lake.

We finally made it back to the bakery that was the meeting point where we enjoyed quite a good coffee and an exceptionally good piece of blueberry cheesecake. We then headed back to Ya Dong with Ruth and Anna.

Following on from lunch, Matt and I were having a little trouble staying awake and a lot of trouble deciding what to do next. We’d said a big hello to Alex who on our arrival was waiting somewhat impatiently for an AFL game to start on television.

While we were contemplating out loud, Nick suggested that we take their electric bike for a spin around the area.

It sounds like a blast and it was. With Matt driving and me sitting like a princess on the back (well, as much of a princess as one can look sitting on a little metal tray at the back of a bike), we took off to explore Ya Dong.

Road rules are interesting in China. From explanations, it seems that they are more guidelines than rules which means that sometimes red lights are ignored, lane lines indicate a minimum number of cars that can squeeze alongside one another and people on two wheels (eg. us on a bike) don’t have to follow any rules at all. We were told to watch out for drivers turning right as they are allowed to do this at any time and not just when there are green lights.

Again we found ourselves being a bit of a public spectacle. At one point a car slowed down (the bike does a maximum of around 30km/hr) so that the driver could stare at us as he drove along. We provided a large amount of entertainment for a group of teenage girls as we had put the stand on the bike down so that we could take a few photos without having to hold the bike up. Unfortunately Nick hadn’t shown us the skill of flicking the stand back up again and as we were wrestling with it, trying to make it go up and me imagining the audience we’d get as we carried the bike home on our shoulders; a girl came running up, flicked a lever on the left-hand side of the bike and the stand popped up. We sheepishly yelled out “Thank you” as she run back to her friends giggling.

On Sunday Matt and I visited Purple Mountain. There are quite a few amazing sites on Purple Mountain. The two that we visited were the Mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yat-sen and the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum. There were quite a few people but we managed to find some quieter areas to simple sit and take in the atmosphere around us.

It was at these sites that Matt and I were first introduced to the Chinese’s love of stairs. Luckily we’ve both travelled around Europe and know much about stairs, so they didn’t phase us too much.

After a number of hours wandering through these sites we had our driver (oh, how exciting, we had a driver) take us back down into Nanjing - to the Golden Eagle shopping centre. It was here that we were to meet Nick (who had a dentist appointment earlier - and there were bad jokes made with regard to this that I’m not going to regale to you) and go to get a back massage.

We met with Nick, but it was a little later than originally thought so Nick walked us over to the massage centre and then gave us instructions on how to get home.

An hour and 15 minutes later Matt and I left the massage centre feeling incredibly relaxed and having lost the rest of the plane crinks that usually tend to take days to walk out. We wandered through the streets, looking in shops (I brought a few DVDs) and soaking up the city feeling. Ruth had laughed when I asked whether the shops would be open on a Sunday evening and responded “China comes alive at night” and she was right.

It was hunger that encouraged us to find a taxi, say “Jin Ling, Ya Dong” as we’d been coached by Nick and hand over the card we had that shows the characters and pinyin and off we’ll go. It appears that we found one of the only taxi drivers in Nanjing who had no idea where Ya Dong was. After he put his reading glasses away and asking a few questions (to which Matt and I could only shrug) off he went. Matt and I chatted away, looking out the window at the city and enjoying the ride. Ya Dong (where Ruth and Nick live) is a little bit out of the city of Nanjing and so in the few taxi rides we’d had previously we knew that we headed out of the city on a motor way, but it wasn’t until he stopped at a random compound and indicated to us that this was where we wanted to go that we decided he still wasn’t 100% sure where Ya Dong was.

We shook our heads “No” as he pointed to the gates and said “Jin Ling, Ya Dong” (as this was the only explanation of our destination that we knew). The security guard for the compound came over to the car and as they chatted, Matt and I sat in the back, trying not to laugh at the absurdness of the situation and occasionally throwing in exclamations of “Jin Ling, Ya Dong,” just for good measure.

A phone call to Ruth, where poor Anna was called upon to try and explain where we wanted to go, and then a phone call to who we only can assume was his taxi company (but you never know) and we were back on track.

Matt and I started to recognise a number of landmarks and after chastising ourselves for not paying more attention the other times we had made this trip, our driver slowed down at a T-intersection and gestured the universal sign for “Which way next” (this consists of frantic arm movements to the left and then to the right and then an exaggerated shrug). Matt and I looked at each other.

“50/50 chance,” I pointed out helpfully.

“I think it’s to the right,” Matt responded.

“Give it a shot then,” I decided.

And we were off. At the next intersection, I glanced over to the left.

“Isn’t that the McDonald’s opposite the school we drove passed on the bike yesterday?” I asked.

“I think you’re right,” said Matt and he leaned forward and tapped on the taxi driver’s plastic cocoon. Gesturing wildly to the left, Matt got the taxi driver to take the next left and continued this way of directing until we reached Ruth and Nick’s compound.

“Xie xie” (”Thank you”) we both breathed out, relieved and still trying not to giggle as we got out of the taxi and paid him.

The taxi driver said a nice, departing speech (well, we like to think it was nice, we couldn’t understand it) and then laughed as he drove away. We fell through the door to Ruth and Nick’s house laughing and repeating “Jin Ling, Ya Dong”. For a moment, I think that my family were scared that they’d broken us.

Instead this became a running gag for the entire trip between us all, as it was said that you could get into a taxi, say “Jin Ling, Ya Dong” and you’ll make it back. Our theory was then that no matter where in China we were, we should be able to get back to Ya Dong - as long as you get the right taxi driver.

It keep Matt and I entertained for days.

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