Cushion Crisis and Changsha

Saturday, October 4. We sleep in a little this morning, then head back to the artisans market to see if there is anything else we can't live without. Tara scores an amazing book about Yankee imperialists and the Vietnam War - in English! Great example of propaganda for her history classes. I buy a few more stamps and a little wooden stand for my teapot.

We check out of the hotel and take a taxi to Starbucks where we plan to spend the next few hours until it's time to go to the airport! Such luxury: comfortable chairs, clean bathroom with a Western toilet, and coffee! We sit outside for awhile until it starts to rain then move indoors. Tara is a great companion because she is happy just to sit and read!

As we are sitting in the comfortable chairs inside, I remark to Tara that the Chinese don't seem to understand the concept of cushions, as most chairs/beds are hard. Tara replies, "Yes, there's definitely a cushion crisis in China!"

There is a lot more to see in Nanjing but I feel we have hit the highlights. Certainly I have seen most of the things that were at the top of my list so the rest can wait for another time?

We try to take a taxi to the bus station to get the bus to the airport but the taxi driver misunderstands (intentionally or unintentionally, we're not sure) so we have a nice (and expensive: 100 yuan or about $15) ride all the way to the Nanjing International Airport. Although we have tickets, we actually don't know which airline we are on so we go to information desk to find out where to check in. But even the check-in counters don't have the name of any airline on them! So we just stand in line with a lot of Chinese people, some of them checking huge boxes of goods, filled with what we do not know. We get our boarding passes and head for the gate. Turns out we're on China Southern airline. We pass a sign that indicates the direction not only for the gates, the toilets, the security checkpoint and the police office but also for "drinking water." In China, this is important.

The flight to Changsha is eventful only in that it's a short flight and we are actually served dinner (chicken and . . . rice, what else?). I've decided that I'm giving up on the long-distance trains. It took 17 hours to get to Nanjing and one hour and a half to get back! Also, with the airlines, you can buy round-trip tickets, unlike the trains, so you don't run the risk of getting stuck somewhere.

We land at the Changsha airport but unfortunately it is too late to get an airport bus to Zhuzhou so I crash at Tara's apartment for the evening. Will get train back to ZZ tomorrow.