Category: China

Reading Time: 4 minutes The air ticket from mid-west USA to China is getting more expensive after the cut of American Airlines (AA) and United Airlines (UA) ORD to PVG or PEK flights since pandemic in 2020. There are some alternatives nowadays. Besides the cross Atlantic routes below, there are direct flights from Delta Detroit (DTW) to Shanghai (PVG),

stlplace
January 27, 2024

Reading Time: < 1 minute 再过几年,如果不出意外(knock on the woods),我会送我的老大去上大学。希望是一所她理想中的学校。今年是我大学毕业30周年。也就是说我是34年前(也就是1989年夏天)开始去上大学的。我家在宁波,我的大学在武汉。那时候国内火车没有现在那么发达。但是那时候有轮船,有客运的海轮和长江轮船。宁波到上海一般是坐海轮或是火车,上海(十六铺码头)到武汉(汉口,忘了几号码头了)有长江轮。大学生坐火车有半票,轮船没有这个优惠。火车要相对快一些,但是有时候(很多时候)会没有座位。轮船较慢但是有床位可以睡觉。可以说各有利弊。其实还有飞机,宁波到武汉有运七(Wiki, Baidu))的飞机,很可能是螺旋桨的飞机。我没有坐过(因为机票更贵),但是我有镇海中学的同学坐过。 第一次去大学 我第一次去武汉上学是坐了两个/趟轮船,宁波到上海,上海再到武汉。我爸爸送我到上海。宁波到上海一般是坐/睡一个晚上。上海到武汉,长江逆流而上,是72个小时,大概是两天三夜。武汉到上海顺流而下大概是48小时。还有长江轮其实有两个分公司,江申号是上海的(上海简称是申),江汉号是武汉的。 轮船一般会有不同等级的仓位,一般坐四等仓较多。我有一次坐了回长江轮的五等仓。那一次好像是我表姐带着我去买票,她可能有点节省惯了,她建议我买五等仓,我就买了。 四等仓和五等仓 五等仓的一个房间人/床比四等仓就更多一些。四等仓我印象中是十二个人,五等舱可能是二十四人。还有就是五等舱是在最底层,机器的声音好像也响一些。我现在美国呆久了,我住的地方也有不少华人。我觉得华人有一点是有待改进的,那就是攀比和歧视。轮船的仓位也是有歧视的:我记得当时五等舱的同仓里面好像有上海知青一家人。男主人说:他们有些人认为我们是穷人(他用了穷鬼这个词),其实我们并不是没钱,我们只是想省钱。我觉得他的话也是有道理的。其实除了五等仓,还有一种叫散仓,就是给一个折叠床和被褥,一般可以放在船头。有一回,大概是1993秋天,我刚毕业不久,出差从青岛回上海坐海轮,没有床位,大家都坐了散仓。 我第一次去武汉坐了四等仓:我记得当时同仓有几个国家排球(青年)队的几个队员,湖北人,他们说的湖北话我基本上不懂。不过武汉/湖北话其实跟普通话较接近,到了学校以后很快就能听懂了。有一个小小的笑话,有个湖北同学,我们两个可能是到寝室最早的,他说:我的“鞋子”(孩子,湖北话鞋子听起来像孩子)(从窗口)掉下去了。 我印象中四等舱和五等舱的价格大概差别是十几/二十块钱(五十几🆚七十几)。我记得火车票因为是半票大概是二十七块钱。那时候十几/二十块钱对我来说还是值一点钱的:我印象中到我大四的下学期,我爸爸妈妈大概会给我一个月一百块钱的生活费(主要是吃饭的钱,加上零花)。我倒推一下,估计我大一的第一学期,可能一个月是五十块钱的生活费。 总的来说,坐船比坐火车还是舒服很多。因为火车,尤其在春运期间,不仅没坐的位置,有时连站的位置也没有。我以前在这两个博客文章里也讲过, search for “train” (blog post 1, blog post 2)。我记得,有一次,我从宁波回武昌,从南昌转车,经株洲,最后到武昌,总共大概站了十几个小时。那时候是绿皮的火车。我记得有一段时间,我站在一个东阳到武汉大学上学的师姐(88级),她给了我一个苹果,削了皮的。 餐厅 轮船上有餐厅,当然也不会很便宜。很多时候,我应该是吃方便面的。那时候好像还流行火腿肠。偶尔有时也会去餐厅买个饭。记得有一次同仓的有个在武汉上学的师姐(比我高一级的女生,她家可能是马鞍山的),她的男朋友也会上船,她见到男朋友自然很开心。 轶事 有一次,好像是冬天,有个人跳下去了,是白天(我估计这个人不是真的想自杀)。结果很快被发现,大船掉头,放下小艇把那个人捞上来,费了一点时间。 我为什么去武汉上学 有一个原因,我家里人,主要是听我妈妈说去北方要吃黑面包(馒头)。我们南方人本来就不喜欢面包,好像有个老乡去了北方(天津还是西安)回来说的。我估计,我妈妈可能希望我上学的地方近一些。结果我第二志愿报了武汉(第一志愿是上海某高校)。因为武汉是吃大米为主的。我有个山东同学,在老家主要是吃馒头(面食)。他们一帮山东老乡在校门口的饭店吃饭,问有没有饭,结果拿上来的是米饭,很是失望。那时候在学校里,听到苏南,上海,绍兴等地的话都是感觉较亲的。

stlplace
December 15, 2023

Reading Time: 3 minutes And eat some moon cakes. I just realized I wrote something about mid autumn festival way back in year 2007. I believe I was in Shanghai when I wrote this, and it was after we had honey moon in San’ya, Hainan, China. Time flies. Now we have 2 kids, and I don’t see any special

stlplace
September 29, 2023

Reading Time: 5 minutes I put the double quotes around because looking back I don’t think I would die. Probably “scared to death” is more appropriate. But at the time I was really scared. It was probably in my 1st grade or 2nd grade, I cannot remember exactly. Maybe my parents or siblings or the aunt who helped me

stlplace
September 8, 2023

Reading Time: 6 minutes At the Detriot airport #DTW Delta Airlines international departing gates, I waited for about 12 hours before boarding the PVG bounding flight. I walked inside the terminal from one end to the other a couple of times. I passed by the London bounded gate, and compared to the PVG bounded flight, I can sense the

stlplace
April 2, 2023

Reading Time: 6 minutes (Update 04-28-2023) Please note the airlines no longer ask/need #COVID #testing from April 29: 4月29日起飞往中国不再需要核酸检测,自测抗原即可。登机前航空公司不再查验检测证明,只需海关健康申报二维码。source: #flychina https://flychina.com/update.asp || This is good news 🙂 (Original) I have a twitter thread here, and quite a few YouTube shorts or videos on this trip (hashtag: #ChinaTrip2023). But I think it’s probably worth an article or two for me

stlplace
April 1, 2023

Reading Time: < 1 minute Zero covid analogy A hotel in Sanya #Sanya (below tweet appears since deleted) But there are more similar Covid Test scenes. A building in #Shanghai Yangqu district sudden locked down:

stlplace
August 15, 2022

Reading Time: 2 minutes iPhone Health 深度好文:台湾为何与我们渐行渐远?原文作者:廖信忠 (baidu) || I just noticed the article from Twitter. Also noticed A City of Sadness (悲情城市) from the comments. Personally my earlier view on re-union between mainland and Taiwan was shattered after seeing the Russia / Ukraine war since Feb 24, 2022. And it also reminded me of the recent Zero Covid

stlplace
August 7, 2022

Reading Time: 2 minutes (Update 09-20-2020) It looks like the 9th court temporarily blocked the WeChat ban (NPR). The TikTok ban became irrelevant because there is the new deal with Oracle / Walmart (theverge). (Original 09-18-2020) CNN: US will ban WeChat and TikTok downloads on Sunday. Quote: “The only real change as of Sunday night will be [TikTok users]

stlplace
September 18, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes I was travelling in China for 9, 10 days recently, and I can see those two payments method everywhere. From the small food stall to KFC, one of those two methods are widely accepted, and in many cases cash transactions are very rare. I noticed this trend about 1.5 years ago during my China trip

stlplace
January 3, 2018
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