Xuzhou

My friend Benson invited me to spend Chinese New Year with him and his family, so after 11 days touring the highlights (and braving the public transit system) of Beijing I bade farewell to my friends there and hopped a plane to Xuzhou to meet him. I was somehow lucky enough to get here without encountering the crowds that notoriously fill airports and train stations every Spring Festival – kind of a shame, really, as it would have made for great blogging.

Xuzhou is quite different from the overwhelming metropolitan (and at times shamelessly touristy) experience of Beijing. Blue-collar and totally off the tourist map (save for one attraction, a recently unearthed 2000-year-old emperor’s tomb, which doesn’t seem to draw any foreigners), Xuzhou is refreshingly laid-back and real, and a good place to experience my first Chinese New Year in China. Oh, and it’s also got the craziest driving I’ve ever seen. I thought Chongqing was lawless. Pedestrians in Xuzhou wander casually through six-lane highways, where drivers frequently pull sudden u-turns without signalling, and motorcyclists, scooters and mopeds are apparently allowed to drive against traffic. Overpasses, underpasses and crosswalks simply do not exist. Sidewalks, narrow alleys and bustling outdoor markets are also fair game for drivers here; I almost got hit by a car driving down the sidewalk yesterday. Let’s hope I survive the next three days here.

Chinese lesson of the day:
冒险
mào xiǎn
Adventure (noun); to take risks (verb)