Day 2 - The Bus Trip
We unloaded the plane in Yanji at what looked like an abandoned airport. One baggage return, one restroom, three people on security, and tons of people crowded around to get their bags. There was a bit of a smell in the air and it looked like the airport hadn't been cleaned or sanitized for awhile. But it also might have had a lot of people through it that day. Hard to say.
I scrambled to find the receipt for my bags, because apparently they wanted to make sure you didn't walk off with someone else's bags. I've never had to show a receipt for my bags at an American airport. Good thing I kept mine.
We took the bags outside and loaded them onto a large box truck and then boarded a charter bus. Nate Clement is working here in China now, and he welcomed us, passed out water, and told us what we could expect on the hour and a half drive. We basically are driving along the river that is the border between North Karea and China. We are driving about 40 miles an hour on a winding two lane road. It is amazingly dark outside right now. There are a few houses with internal lights but hardly any outside lights. The highway reminds me a lot of old Highway 66 around my home town of Phillipsburg. Lots of potholes, lots of curves, no shoulder, and not much traffic.
It's hard to see much in the dark, but the houses are shaped in unique layouts compared to what you would see where I live. The billboards are something like twice as large as the ones in America and about one third the distance from the road. They are literally right in your faith. Some of the buildings are abandoned, some of them have a single light bulb on outside or inside.
We stopped at a toll booth with about 10 gates. Only two were open, which tells you there's not much traffic at 11:30 pm in rural China. Once we went through the toll both, the road has gotten a little better. Now there are guardrails and a few less potholes. I put the link to the route in my blog a few days ago, but here it is again: http://tinyurl.com/c9go8h
On the way back 7 days from now, we will be driving in the daylight, so I'll try to have some pictures and/or video of the countryside.
But we finished up the drive, made it to the hotel, and now we are in. Gotta get up early tomorrow for church, so I won't be on long tonight.
More tomorrow.
--
Dr. David B. Fincher
VP of Academics
Central Christian College of the Bible
Moberly, MO 65270
660-263-3900, ext. 137
dfincher@cccb.edu
I scrambled to find the receipt for my bags, because apparently they wanted to make sure you didn't walk off with someone else's bags. I've never had to show a receipt for my bags at an American airport. Good thing I kept mine.
We took the bags outside and loaded them onto a large box truck and then boarded a charter bus. Nate Clement is working here in China now, and he welcomed us, passed out water, and told us what we could expect on the hour and a half drive. We basically are driving along the river that is the border between North Karea and China. We are driving about 40 miles an hour on a winding two lane road. It is amazingly dark outside right now. There are a few houses with internal lights but hardly any outside lights. The highway reminds me a lot of old Highway 66 around my home town of Phillipsburg. Lots of potholes, lots of curves, no shoulder, and not much traffic.
It's hard to see much in the dark, but the houses are shaped in unique layouts compared to what you would see where I live. The billboards are something like twice as large as the ones in America and about one third the distance from the road. They are literally right in your faith. Some of the buildings are abandoned, some of them have a single light bulb on outside or inside.
We stopped at a toll booth with about 10 gates. Only two were open, which tells you there's not much traffic at 11:30 pm in rural China. Once we went through the toll both, the road has gotten a little better. Now there are guardrails and a few less potholes. I put the link to the route in my blog a few days ago, but here it is again: http://tinyurl.com/c9go8h
On the way back 7 days from now, we will be driving in the daylight, so I'll try to have some pictures and/or video of the countryside.
But we finished up the drive, made it to the hotel, and now we are in. Gotta get up early tomorrow for church, so I won't be on long tonight.
More tomorrow.
--
Dr. David B. Fincher
VP of Academics
Central Christian College of the Bible
Moberly, MO 65270
660-263-3900, ext. 137
dfincher@cccb.edu
posted by Central Christian College of the Bible at
11:40 AM
