User Comments - chanelle77

Posted on: Turn Right, Turn Left

next time i go there i will take a pic: spot poddies in the wild ;-)

Posted on: Turn Right, Turn Left

bit late to the party, but I was shopping in a bookstore in Nanjing and saw miantiao's avatar on a book cover, and in stead of thinking about art I was thinking about Cpod and "hey what Miantiao's avatar doing on a book"! Good to know about the artist too :-)

Posted on: Drunk Driving

My husband and / or driver often drive from NJ - SH and I see a major car accidents every time we go. The most horrible thing I saw was someone who got run over by a truck (could be suicide). There were a lot of flashing lights and police men so I was looking "what's going on here". First I thought it was *just* a pig who was shattered accross the road. Once I understood what I was looking at it was too late to look away. Our driver and my husband and I had to stop after that and get ourselves a bit together to continue our drive. That incident was just too shocking. Never again will I look when there is police with lights etc.

People cross highways without looking. My husband drives to work every day 2 hrs. Once someone crossed the highway at night!!! got hit by his colleage's car and the driver had to pay. Luckily the person survived. I can go on and on about silly unnessary accident, deaths etc. because people cannot drive (i.e. buy their licence) and obviously often lack a moral compass (drink and drive). It seems to be (completely) accepted to drink and drive here (Nanjing).

In Shanghai I had a taxi driver faling asleep behind the wheel on the way to the airport and I suspect was drunk.  I tried to keep him smoking and awake during the drive, but decided to go to the first police offcier at the airport. Guess what happened: they did not even care!

This is a very serious problem in China and needs to be dealt with I think. Sometimes I think people just don't care because a life in China is disposable.

Believe it or not today I had my second car accident here. Someone drove his car into my friends car (no one was hurt) just because he was not paying attention to others and was speeding. There is this funny rule that you cannot move the vehicle until the police comes and that cause much more trouble.

Posted on: A Business Dinner with a Supplier

Unfortunately I have to agree with tal. For me internet has been really slow and with lots of blackouts (even Cpod which is scary). Sometimes my vpn does not seem to work (which surprises me to some extend). I noticed that when I was in Hangzhou certain sites that are blocked in Nanjing do work fine there. Similar with Beijing and Nanjing. So maybe there are even regional differences?

Posted on: To Tip or Not to Tip

I agree with tipping the taxi drivers, I do that as well if they drive well and / or we have a nice chat. For instance about foul language :-). The drivers are often short of small change so I round off to 0 or 5. Also I had them give me money when they made a mistake or just because we had a nice chat! That I find really nice (of course I do not except it, but sometimes they insist). So it sometimes works the other way around...

For the bill: not often have that experience. My husband and I always check it, and they rarely make mistakes or it is something that is not cheating but just a small mistake like the wrong wine or something.

Posted on: Where is the Supermarket?

wb Changye ;-)

Posted on: Ordering Flowers

According to my measureword dictionary there are many measure words for flowers. Yesterday I bought flowers and the lady used "把"  (which is not in my dict.) for a bunch of flowers and I would have expected "束". Is this local Nanjing dialect or can you use 把 for a bunch or "hand?" of flowers as well?

Posted on: Where is the Supermarket?

5 * lesson

Posted on: Express Train or High-speed Train?

I often use the SH - NJ, NJ-SH bullet train and the 1 euro price difference between 1st and 2nd class is well worth it. This train has excellent service and many European companies could see China as an examplar of how one should travel per train, if you ask me.

After I returned to China from a long break I noticed there were new vending machines in Sh station (where the box offices used to be) , which I found really convenient! I was able to use one of the machines in Chinese (i like the mental challenge :-) ), but there is an English button as well. I called the machine piaoji, and my ayi understood, but have no clue if it is correct.

Interestingly the tickets available in Sh and Nj differ per location. My ayi could not buy a ticket from Nj to Xuzhou in NJ, but I could buy the same ticket in the machines in Sh. So this might be a useful to know for other travelers.

Also, if you want to return or exchange your tickets you need to go t a different queue than the one you normally buy the tickets! You pay a % or service charge depending on the time before departure I think.

Side note: never visit Hangzhou during mid autumn festival :-) they say it is one of the most beautiful cities in China and bike friendly etc, but....

Posted on: National Day

Tal, if you contact them anyway do you mind to pass on my order? Love the coat !(36 or S, that is a Chinese M most likely), but want the boots in matching red and stiletto heel.

Maybe I should not ask this, since this might lead this post somewhere it should not go, BUT I cannot stop wondering if there is official PLA underwear. I know for fact that Sweden has not, so they might have a great export product.