Highway Code Ignored By Chinese Lorry Driver in Beijing.
Our Chengde train tickets had been booked, but we had forgotten to book a taxi to take us to the Beijing Railway Station. Leaving the flat at 5.30 in the morning, on a bitterly cold day, we hoped to pick up a taxi fairly quickly, but that was not to be. Zhong and I rapidly walked to a bus stop on the nearby ring road and arrived to see a loaded lorry driving on the wrong side of the road and against the traffic. The driver had either taken the wrong turning or was taking an unofficial short cut. We boarded a bus already packed tight with passengers, and arrived at the Beijing railway station, about three minutes before departure time, just as Hong, who had given up hope of seeing us, was about to get off the Chengde train. The crisis was over !
The Best Food In Chengde Is Where The Chinese Eat !
 Chengde, in the days of the Emperors was the, "Escaping The Heat Resort", but when we arrived in Chengde, to be met by Hong's friend, the only heat to be found was in our air conditioned Chengde hotel. For our lunch on that day, Chang took us to a small Chinese restaurant in one of the back streets. There were no tourists' coaches here, just bicycles and mopeds, a good sign that this Chinese restaurant in Chengde was well regarded by the local people, and having enjoyed a wonderful but inexpensive lunch, we shared that opinion. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do", is good advice in whatever country you happen to be visiting, unless you can't live without a McDonalds or a KFC lunch !
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Well Disciplined Children In Chengde School Yard Behind Locked Gates.
 Lunch time was over when we were walking past a Chengde school yard to hear a teacher or headmaster speaking from a first floor window to the Chengde children below, who quickly went into lines facing the school doors, until they were told to enter. There may have been some special punishment for disobedient school children, but at this Chengde school the pupils were well disciplined. School teachers in China are not highly paid, so for many of them it is a vocation rather than a means to earn a living. The educational system in China is somewhat different to many of the Western countries, as I have learned from a Chinese friend teaching English in a far from prosperous China town in the countryside.
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If you are interested in the links below, just click them !
A Selection from Robert's Wild Cards
| The start of these personal webpages and the Vietnam pictures, followed a chance meeting with a young man named Hoang in 1979. Hoang was one of the "Boat People" from Vietnam who arrived in the UK. In due course I was given the responsibility of teaching him some English. A few weeks later I met his family and friends, and subsequently their families and friends, and friends and families, of friends and families.... and so it was that the ideas for the personal webpages began. |
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| Browse through the many China pics on the personal webpages and enjoy again a meal of Peking Duck with pancakes at the Qian Men Restaurant in Beijing. See what happens to the floor of a Ming Dynasty Hall after Buddhist Monks have stamped their feet for hundreds of years, as shown in the China pics from the Shaolin temple on the personal webpages of Robert. |
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