Good Bye Hefei

May 29, 2007 Tuesday

While checking all of the drawers and closets, I found the source of the mosquitos. I hit the head of the bed and a whole bunch of them came out from behind the bed. I would have been out buying bug spray if we weren’t leaving.

Miss Hua, the cleaning lady came early to help carry the suitcases down. Chuck was told that he shouldn’t carry heavy things and our suitcases are definitely heavy. I think that we must be a source of gossip among the Chinese – we have SO MUCH STUFF.

I took one wheeled case down myself. Chuck took his briefcase and the computer case. Miss Hua and I took a none wheeled one. Then Xiaolian came, so she and Miss Hua took another none wheeled one and I took the last wheeled. So I had done 8 flights. Chuck went back for the water and a last check around.

The car came just before 8:00 and we loaded up and said our goodbyes. Hongfang got the keys and my Hefei calling card with the remaining minutes. Miss Hua got towels, table cloth, leftover food, sodas and beers.

It was a pretty uneventful trip. We left at 8 and arrived in Wuhan at 12:30. Along the way, we saw a truck backing up on the highway (I guess he had missed his exit). This could be what contributes to the rear end accidents. We are supposing that they have a lot of them, because there are a lot of signs warning about it. We also used the shoulder to pass two trucks that were occupying the 2 main lanes. I tried to sleep a little, but because the driver speeds up and then has to slow down for trucks passing, police warning zones, etc. it was a little hard. The driver had a GPS so we could see what to look for out the windows.

Xiaoyen met us at the Wuhan guest house. This one really looks like a hotel. It has 12 floors and several dining rooms. It still doesn’t provide bottles of water and still is very chintzy with the toilet paper. The air-conditioning is great though, which is agood thing. Wuhan is known as the furnace of China.

After lunch we went to the provincial museum. We drove around a lake to get to it. Wuhan’s traffic is hard, because they have a lot of water (lakes and rivers) in the city. We were really lucky. The bell concert was just about to start when we got there. It lasted about 15 minutes, which was just the right amount of time. Chuck really likes the Chinese bronzes. There were some really good ones here. (1 flight)

Getting a cab at 5:00 was difficult. This is the shift changing time in Wuhan. Got back to the hotel at 5:20 and took a quick shower before dinner. If it continues like this, I will be taking showers all the time.

The whole group went for dinner. (1 flight) We fell into bed at 9:00 unable to keep our eyes open another second.

10 total today