The bus journey to Jianshui gave us evidence that perhaps so far we'd been really lucky with public transport in China. This one left late, there was vomit on the outside of the bus and every so often a faint whiff inside, it was completely full, the driver tried to move us from our seats with legroom to ones without (but we insisted that people climbed over us instead), and almost all the guys chain-smoked, leaving me marvelling at how our lungs still functioned on 78% cigarette smoke and 22% vomit-tinged air. (I've hardly seen any women smoking, but they spit with as much gusto as the men.) The road was rough for most of the way (as in passengers were airborne occasionally). In the 2 years since my RG was published, things have clearly moved
... read more
