Taking the wrong bus can be a liberating experience
I’ve never actually taken the wrong bus, but on two occasions the right bus going in the wrong direction. The first time occurred in Spain and the second here last year when road works meant an adjustment to the bus route of which I was unaware. As I was not time constrained it was a bonus as I got to see unexpected vistas. I simply stayed on to the terminus, waited till the bus was ready to depart and got off at my original destination. It also taught me that going into the unknown is OK although I am still pretty conservative about that. I didn’t stop at any of the termini as I don’t speak the language & am too alien to feel comfortable on my own in such parts.
I wasn’t influenced by the Chinese saying, on the photo below but I am conscious that available clear days are limited so I need to get out and about. The day after Mid-Autumn Festival was another pretty good day in terms of sky colour and temperature and I had no classes. I intended to take photos from the 12th floor of the Main Building but all the doors were locked for rest time so I headed for a bus stop to start some more bus journeys. I took 3 routes; south, north and north-west through and out of the city.
The sports field and a teaching building are behind the saying. You’ll probably need to enlarge the photo to read it.
Route 3, south
I had to change buses and the map shows the route until the bus passed off the map. I had wondered why train lines were shown at odd places on the map and I discovered that they went there to service heavy industry such as steel works. The bus drove over a river, into the country past fields of corn, near more housing and industry, past scruffy little villages and stopped at another scruffy little village with multi-level housing for factory workers. After a brief stop it, drove over to the opposite side of the road and collected enough people to fill the bus and headed back. .
Map of Xingtai showing my route in red from the college to where I changed to the bus maked in yellow and where it runs off the map.
Train tracks across a main road and going into an industrial site.
The best of a bad bunch of photos of the river.
Rural industry
More rural industry with fields of corn which are very common in these parts.
Seen in one of the villages. Don’t know if its the biggest load of recycled bottles I’ve seen on a tricycle but it must be up there.
What appears to be a department store and housing opposite the bus terminus.
Trolley bus lines leaving the village and heading off . No doubt there is a mine to which workers are bussed.
Route 25 northwest
I had planned to take a bus heading east, but I missed the right bus stop, either because I did or the route had changed since my map was printed, both of which are possible. After travelling on a bit further I hopped off and decided on Plan B which was a bus back to college and route 25 from outside it.
Route 25 was soon in the country driving along narrow roads roughened by the addition of hardened dirt from construction works . It was about a 50 minute round trip in mainly rural surroundings. The driver reached a certain point in a very rural village and turned around. Occasionally a gap in a field of corn would be bare to reveal a car or two and some marking out on the ground.
The newest college building , seen from the main road and opened a couple of months ago.
Food stalls at the next intersection.
Entrance to the medical college in the next block.
A roadside bike repairer hard at work.
A roadside food vendor. The bike is electric but many are normal muscle powered tricycles with a much less elaborate structure. It was in the country outside a big gate to a housing or employment centre. She was finishing the making of a Chinese hamburger and the driver waited the extra minute required to allow the man to board.
One of the gaps in a field with a couple of vehicles and marked off dirt. A car was parked in one such marked off space somewhere and the space was little bigger than the car. Possibly the site for future shops.
Vegetables, corn and a farmer
A fruit and vegie seller at a crossroads not far from the college. The lions behind are part of a stonemasons stock which is all I managed to take of the stonemason display. There are several stonemasons in a street behind where the bus did not travel.
A high school opposite the medical college.
Route 12
This is the route we took to see the reservoir and I wanted to see what else was to be seen. It headed due north and made few deviations. I was on the wrong side of the bus at the wrong time of the day to photograph any of the orchards. It travelled past dusty, scruffy rural villages, an almost dry river, near a couple of small hills and after around 45 minutes reached its terminus in a village and turned around. Its route too was mainly rural apart from the growing apartment blocks on the city outskirts.
Map showing bus route number 12
This tree is one of many along the road and opposite the bus stop outside the college entrance. The ?flowers are quite striking when seen in the right light. I was too busy concentrating on photography and didn’t see the bus approach until it was too late. The drivers will never stop unless you are right at the bus stop; a metre or two away doesn’t count so instead of having the perfect connection between two buses I had to wait 15 minutes.
Some of the traffic on a main intersection in the north of the city.
One of the many dusty village streets. Many of them had piles of products covered up outside or near shops. Most would have been bags of fertlizer but one shop did have multiple boxed home appliances such as refrigerators sitting outside the shop.
Country scene of cows and cow herd.
The remains of a river.
Corn and hills on the other side of the road.
A bus stop where some men were playing Chinese chess. The bus stops in the city have started to have sturdy metal seats installed.
Two people inside a large compound of some sort. Corn and something else which I can’t see clearly is being dried. Corn was being dried by the roadside at other places on my bus trips.
Road construction on the route.
Another dusty village.
A housing development on the outskirts of the city, one of many such enterprises.
