Friday, 27-August… Rush hour.
Dalian – where a $2 cab fare can sometimes get you a micro City Tour! This morning on the way to the office the traffic was TERRIBLE… I began to think that maybe my “Little Hometown” of Dalian had turned into the Nine-Day Beijing Traffic Jam (see http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100824/ap_on_re_as/as_china_traffic_jam). My driver and I hit it off well when he didn’t know the address for my office and I told him (via interpreter) to ‘just get close and I’d guide him in the rest of the way’. He and I bantered back and forth in our opposing languages and hand signs, so he took off to the sidelanes to get us out of the glut of traffic on the main roads. Wow! I should have done this sooner…. 🙂 We honked our way through little one-lane streets that I swear weren’t intended for cars. Oh, they were real ‘streets’ (they were paved) but it was “MARKET TIME”… so all the vendors were out hawking fruits and fish. (And let me tell you folks… no matter how many trips I make over here… I will never never ever get used to the smell of raw fish @ 8am!) Even with the ‘smells of the ocean’ tearing at my tummy, it was still a most perfect way to start my Day in Dalian… Now off to see my team! Ni hao!
