I like to travel on buses not just because they are the cheapest (1 yuan) ways to get around town, but because of the things that you see that you would otherwise miss-out on.
The buses in Changchun are very well used, pretty much all day running at or above capacity.
Something funny that happens very often is when I have an empty seat next to me and the bus is full – people are standing – and yet very few people will fill the empty seat next to me. It’s like I have a disease or something. Many Chinese seem to be afraid of sitting next to the foreigner, and the only people that do reguarly sit next to me are students.    

I reckon there is a potential market to be exploited in starting up a bus operation from certain parts of the city, as the network is focused around several parts of town, and more importantly, bus services start to stop at 5pm – even in the summer! Hard to beleive but It’s true!  Again another example of the Chinese not understanding the basics of demand and supply – just doing things as they have always been done. 

 There is only one major bus route that goes on past 8.30 in the evening and that only goes up and down Renmin Dajie (the central street in Changchun).  Not many can afford taxis and at 1.3 yuan a km,  I try to avoid them too.    I do use them is there is no other alternative, and often vocal Cabbies will stop at bus stops get out of their cars, and ply for trade – 2yuan to so and so, per person, 5 in a car – means they make a decent profit while satisfing the punter.

  So for a major city, there has to be a market – even if only in the summer months.   Now that the weather is hot the buses are always full to bursting with people.  Unlike the West, there’s no worries about the safety of filling a bus with standing people to the point where people have to get off the bus just to let others on.  The bus driver always lets people on even when there is no space – i dread to think what would happen if there was a serious accident.

Took this picture as it’s very seldom that you actually see these people in  Changchun. 

 The soldier standing in the middle of the road with the white helmet is not regular PLA or police, he is one of the so called ‘elite’ communist party soldiers.  They answer directly to the communist party (unlike the PLA) and act to protect it’s interests.  I watched him for a few minutes and he was stopping only cars with white number plates, that is communist/government vehicles.  But what made me most interested was the respect this person commanded -probably generated through fear more than anything else- he would stand in the middle of the road and simply point at a vehicle and it would steam to a halt.  The soldier would march over to the vehicle, salute and I guess ask for papers.  Even those 4x4s that drive like maniacs and go through all the red lights and ignore every traffic law known to man, stopped. They must have been looking for someone or something, though I’ll probably never know.

 Even though I tried to take refuge behind a nearby tree, the chap with the bike is taking a long stare.  Look closely at the people on the bus, they are staring too.  The guy with the bike’s face says it all, curiosity, bewilderment and surprise.

Remember when first coming to China thinking that this was a playground for children.  Infact there are many of these public areas with exercise equipment, and they are for adults, not children as I first thought. The areas are often frequented by old folk – especially early morning – eager to keep themselves flexible.  I often see groups of retired people dancing to traditional music, or not so traditional music (phil collins, kenny G amongst others) in the evening.  Sometimes if i’m up and about (5-5.30ish so not very often!) you’ll see ceremonial sword dancing and 武術 wu shu – martial arts.  Wish I could get up reguarly at that time, as i’d like to find out more.

Just experienced my first power cut for a long long time.  Was in a net bar, and everything just went dead. Lights, computers, everything – off. 

I these parts power cuts used to be pretty frequent, but in the last few years the government has got its act together and  is generating enough power – infact (so i’m told) in a few years time there will be a massive over supply problem as many of the newly constructed plants come on-line.

I just wish they’d consider other alternatives to burning coal, as it’s so disgustingly dirty and bad for pretty much everything associated with the environment. It’s cheap and readily available and that’s it. I was thinking wind farms would go down a treat in dongbei, afterall, it’s windy all year, it’s flat and easy to construct here- and there’s no shortage of free space.  However renewable energy is a long term solution, and people in power round here are short term thinkers.