Finally, we left Xi’an. We took it easy in the morning, had breakfast
at the hotel and did our laundry, and went to a mall around the corner, not
before a hotel staff member offered Ada some candy. It looked sweet and tasty
and in the perfect shape to get stuck in Ada’s esophagus and kill her, so we kindly
refused. We found the floor that had kids’ stuff, but it mostly clothes. Like
this garment, which could be useful if you intend to take your toddler to the
Folsom St. Fair*:
* if you’re not familiar with this, the Folsom St. Fair is
the main yearly event for the San Francisco leather community and other BDSM enthusiasts.
We had a cup of coffee while Ada had her morning nap and
finally had a chance to chat like grown-ups. When Ada woke up it was time for lunch,
and we had that in the mall as well. It wasn’t bad. Towards the end of the meal,
Ada pooped, and it looks like she has diarrhea now. We evacuated quickly, found
a bathroom, changed her, gave her a quick rinse in the sink, and went back to
the hotel. Jiujiu was already there waiting for us. He accompanied us on the subway
all the way to the railway station. We said our goodbyes and went into the
terminal.
For the first time in China, we were not allowed to
transport the stroller on an escalator. Instead, we were told to wait for somebody
to escort us to the elevator. We were very confused, but when another family with
a stroller were told to the same and complied, we followed along. We were
relieved when someone showed up not to long afterwards. The elevator in question
turned out to be the freight elevator, which is mostly used for trash.
The train ride was fine, and other than people wanting to
know where I’m from, where’s Julia from, why are we going to Taiyuan, if Ada
speaks any Chinese (at one year old), why is Julia’s hair shaved on one side, and
if Ada is not cold, it was uneventful. Oh, and somebody offered Ada sunflower
seeds. I swear, there must be a contract on Ada’s head.
We got to Taiyuan and went to get a taxi. There’s a line you
need to stand in and it takes forever.
The taxi driver, who refused to listen to Julia and instead of
putting the exact address of the hotel, was trying, with little success, to
search for the hotel on his navigation app while driving on the freeway, somehow
managed to get us to the hotel without killing us all. I am really impressed by
the navigation app – it’s very similar to Google Maps, but with two main
differences: first, in complicated intersections, the screen splits into two,
and the new section shows a diagram of the intersection and arrows showing you
exactly where to be. It’s like a few other things that the Chinese figured out how
to tweak to make them way better than what we have in the west. Another example
of that is cash – it’s almost completely obsolete at this point, and so are credit
cards. In China, pretty much all transactions are done through WeChat, an app
similar to WhatsApp, but on steroids. You can use it for anything from ordering
a taxi to paying at a restaurant. Vendors, including the shittiest hole-in-the-wall
restaurants, have a QR code of their WeChat account on display. You scan the QR
code, transfer money to that account, and a receipt with a barcode is shown on
your screen. The vendor would confirm that you paid whether looking at your
screen or scanning the barcode, and hand you the goods. It’s unbelievably
simple and efficient.
The second difference between the Chinese navigation app and
Google Maps is that the Chinese app is very micromanaging. Not only does it tells
you, way more often than needed, where to turn, but also to slow down, stay in
your lane, and be careful. It blends well with the rest of the constant noise
of devices and people telling you what to do.
Anyway, we got to the area of Taiyuan where our hotel is. The
amount of LEDs in this city is insane, and the scale of everything is huge.
Have you heard of Taiyuan? No? Well, it has 4.5 million people in it.
We settled in quickly and went out for dinner. The main
streets around the hotel are some sort of a fashion district, and perhaps
because it’s the weekend, they were packed with young people. The alleys, on
the other hand, are peppered with tiny hole-in-the-wall places to it. The place
we found was a hole-in-the-wall gone wild. There are several stations where you
can order skewers of all kinds that you get in a little cardboard bucket. Julia
was a little overwhelmed, so she got us some dumplings, a soup, a couple of Bao-zi,
and a scallion pancake for Ada. We went to bed way too late – early in the morning
tomorrow we leave to Xingxian.
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