September 10 - China: Yichang to Huangshan

 We left Yichang at 9:00 for a 4.5 hour bus trip to Wuhan Airport.  Unfortunately, the bus had just enough seats for the 13 of us, but no room to stretch our legs.  The bus seats were designed for such small people that it was physically impossible for me to sit with my knees in front of me.  And for whatever reason, the bus driver wouldn't put the air conditioning fan on full blast so we had just a hint of cool air - just enough to tempt us.

Wuhan Airport

We checked into Wuhan Airport, which was a very new and very clean airport.  Our 3:25 flight was unfortunately delayed 50 minutes to 4:15, so we sat around in the waiting room reading and talking to each other.  

There was a television nearby showing some Chinese cartoon at full volume.  Chinese like their audio SUPER LOUD.  This includes TV, karaoke, music, and even speaking to one another.  We experienced it on the boat rides the other day and in various forms along the trip.  Most guide books tell you not to assume that two Chinese people yelling at one another are angry - they are usually just speaking normally.  I think it propagates itself, actually.  At some point someone started doing something at an excessive volume and now everyone's ears have adjusted to the sound so that anything quiet is impossible to hear.

The flight to Tunxi was a quick 1.5 hours flight that was no problem for us (except for the speakers which played loud music of course).  When we arrived in Tunxi we got our baggage and loaded a bus to Huangshan.  This bus, thankfully, had a bit more legroom.  The ride to the hotel was only about an hour, and our bus driver didn't want to be driving on the mountain roads in the dark.  So he was speeding pretty quickly along the windy roads in order to beat the sun.

Huangshan

We arrived at the Tao Yuan Hotel, which is nestled into the windy mountain road.  As soon as we arrived, the hotel staff offered us back massages, foot massages, and various other spa-like services.  The group met to go to dinner down the road.  I had a huge headache and wasn't very hungry, so I took a shower and napped while Jon went to dinner.  Then he came back and did laundry and hung them up off lamps, doorjams, etc.  Our room looks like a laundry mat again - but you gotta do what you gotta do.

More Random Ruminations:

• The eggplant is phenomenal here.  Each time we order an eggplant dish it is absolutely delicious.  I have no idea why this is, but I'm definitely becoming an eggplant convert.
• The spitting habit is repulsive.  We also experienced it in Nepal and Tibet, but it's getting very tiresome.  And I'm not talking about topical spitting.  I'm talking about deep, dark, from the gut, give-it-all-you-got spitting.  Everyone does it.  We read that Beijing is trying to encourage the public to stop the spitting habit in order to improve their image for the 2008 Olympics.  Good luck!  These people have no concept that it's so disgusting - for them it's just a way of life. 
• Everywhere we go, we are stared at because we're westerners.  But this is different from the staring we experienced in Egypt and India.  In Egypt it was a scornful/lustful stare that looked us up and down.  In India it was a How-Much-Money-Can-I-Fleece-You-Out-Of stare.  Here, it's a stare that seems to say, "Wow.  A Westerner.  Now THERE'S something you don't see every day."  So we don't mind it at all, and say "Nee-How" and smile to everyone who looks at us with amazement.