Formula One Racing in Shanghai

Late trains never happen in China. When a train is late, about 1,000+ people are stranded, waiting and irritable in train stops all along the prescribed route. Did I mention that standing in line a foreign concept to the Chinese, as well?

At any rate, I’ve gone to Shanghai six times since the end of February and my train has been delayed 50% of the time. This is a new phenom, my friends. It's never happened to me before March of this year. It’s unexplainable. I’m stumped. This, however, is doable if you can gird your loins and your temper and just go with the flow (being jostled to and fro, of course).

The central Shanghai train station is a nightmare when a train arrives. It’s even more so when the train arrives at 5pm on a Friday night. As I am not a wiz a math, I will explain this in simpler terms:

(Surplus people + taxis shortage) * 1000 people with frayed nerves + Fri night = “Wow, I can’t find a legitimate way to get to my hotel…”

So, I hailed a motorcycle:

Exhilarating.

I got on the back of this electric bike with my bags on my shoulder (I packed light, thank goodness) and zoomed off in between the cars in Friday night Shanghai traffic. It was only $3.00 –US dollars—for the ride. Convenient and fun, what’s not to love?

I had the good fortune to meet up with my friend, Pam, in Shanghai (I visited her in Taiwan last week). She was in town to watch Formula One (Euro car racing, anyone? I’ve no idea what this is except the cars go faster than NASCAR). Many people were excited about this race and traveled from near and far to see it.

The race is over, Jensen Button won—racing for McLaren— and now there is a big problem. This problem isn’t in China, though. It’s halfway around the world.

Who would’ve thought that dust and ash could be such a problem for the entire planet?! I certainly didn’t, but then I got back to basics, studied some science-like stuff and realized that wind can blow ash – from, say, a neighboring Icelandic volcano named Eyjafjallajökull—all the way across the European continent. Flights were canceled wily-nily by the UK, France, Germany, and Russia. If you’re traveling that way, it’s enough to make you say, well, Eyjafjallajökull .

The weekend was quite exciting in Shanghai. I've new restaurants that I must review in my coming posts. It's thoroughly exhausting having fun. I'm back in Nanjing with my cup of tea and a good book. I'm about to rest but then again, I have some work to get done early in the morning before class on Chinese ethnic minorities. Can't catch a break, can we?

Eyjafjallajökull.