The Great Bubble Wrap Adventure

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Editor's note
This entry was written to test the new ToBeContinued blog and wasn't planned for general release. Several people who received the test asked for more details. To see the final result in the WilsonsInChina blog, click The Great Bubble Wrap Adventure.

The Adventure
We are starting the Big Pack prior to returning to Canada. Dianne decided she wanted some bubble wrap. After reviewing the various entries in the school email system and having several conversations with people ”in the know”, she decided she wanted a roll of bubble wrap that was 1.2 meters wide and as long as necessary.

She heard about a wholesale place that had “half a roll”, about 70 meters. This should be more than enough and we could sell the excess to other movers. Now, how to get it from the wholesaler to the boys’ campus apartments? Hmmmmm, ah yes, let’s have Peter go and get it. I spent a couple of hours trying to Google Map the location but had no luck. Sigh.

Armed with instructions in Chinese (including a backup plan of written instructions for cab drivers) outlining what I needed, I was missing only one thing. What do all the students have when they come to ask a question in the office? Oh yes, a friend for moral support. As it was school day, I enlisted the able support of Lesley Dukowski, another non-working spouse who knows lots of Chinese words and can even pronounce some of them properly.

Just before the appointed hour, the skies darkened, the wind rose and it started to rain. Thunder and lightning added to the sense of gloom I felt as we prepared to leave. But half an hour later, the skies cleared and the mission began.

The instructions said: Take the Qinggui to Xiaolubiao (Metro/IKEA) station. Take the 613 bus to Lubo Bridge. Get off the bus and the Lubo Plastic Mall is across the street. Go to stall 159 and ask for Miss Xie. How could we go wrong?

As we were leaving the Qinggui station, Lesley commented that she must get her money out. I wondered why she wanted money as you need a card to get off the train. Yikes! I forgot to get some cash from the school ATM! She was already thinking of the bus fare we needed. Luckily, Metro has an ATM and that solved the problem.

Well, solved THAT problem. The new problem was where to find the 613 bus stop, not to mention which direction should we would want to go. After all, we had no idea where this “Lubo Bridge” was. While we were standing at the curb pondering this new situation, a cab pulled up to offer us a lift. This never happens when we are trying to find a cab. I showed him the instructions written in Chinese and he immediately smiled and indicated we should hop in. We did.

In this context, a "bridge" turns out to be a highway interchange. The Xiaolubiao Bridge intersection is so weird that I thought we would use the whole 8 kuai drop charge just getting to the other side. As I had no idea where Lubo Bridge was, I had no idea which way we were going. However, in minutes he pulled up in front of a building and indicated this was the Mall. And the fare was only 11 kuai! Wow!

Not only that, but there was a lady standing there with our bubble wrap! How did they do that? We had told them we would be there about 10:30 but this was indeed service above and beyond. We jumped out of the cab and examined the bubble wrap. It wasn’t quite as advertised and was in two sections. This wasn’t going to be easy to fit into the cab along with the two of us. After a brief discussion, mostly in pantomine, we discovered she wasn’t “our” lady. She was just some poor gal who was trying to get somewhere with two big packs of bubble wrap and was accosted by two insane foreigners. All she wanted was our cab!

But we were at the right place! We spent a few minutes reconnoitring the area for the 613 bus stop. There it was. And, talk about Aha moments, it’s “Lvbo Bridge”, not “Lubo bridge”. No wonder I couldn’t find it! On returning home, I found it is only 3.8 km according to Google Maps. We could have walked there! Well, in theory, anyway.

The inside of the Mall is pretty much what you would expect: a series of small cubicles filled with an incredible assortment of stuff. It’s a wholesale mall so there is quite a bit of clutter. Each stall is numbered just like at Erqi except the numbers don’t fall into as well-defined a pattern. We tracked down 159 and showed the lady in the stall the instructions we had been given. She had no idea what we were talking about. She talked to the lady across the hall in a rather animated conversation. A quick phone call and a third lady walked up with a big smile on her face. Miss Xie! With the help of one of the workers, our half roll appeared encased in the rattiest plastic bag I have seen for a while. There were many holes in it but they disappeared under about 5 pounds of packing tape that Miss Xie used to secure our load. A twist tie on the top and the only thing left was to pay! She wanted exactly what I thought it should cost so we were on our way. No more than 10 minutes. Unbelievable!

We are fairly used to being stared at but today we gave folks their money’s worth: two waiguoren walking along carrying a huge red plastic bag. The 613 bus pulled up and Lesley jumped on and paid for both of us. Oops. I could get the bag in the door but not past the cash box. The driver laughed and signalled that I should get off and get back on through the back door which is much wider. Off to Xiaolubiao station!

As we rumbled down the fairly busy road, we pondered how we were going to know when to get off. Metro and IKEA are pretty big and colourful so we weren’t too worried. When they appeared, we bailed. Hmmmm. We are on the wrong side of a four lane, very busy road. At a small break in traffic, we bolted for the other side. People actually slowed down for us to get across safely. Now it was a simple matter to walk to the Quinggui which was about 2 long blocks away.

We managed to get through the turnstiles by each carrying one end and lifting the whole thing over the gates. Getting on and off the Qinggui can be a bit of a challenge due to people pushing their way on to get the seats but, with this big package, we had no trouble. In Jinshitan, we decided to wait until everybody had gone through the turnstiles before trying to negotiate them ourselves. There were plenty of cabs but we opted to walk back. The bag seemed light by this time.

Dianne was home for lunch and very impressed with our success. About 3.5 hours door to door. Considering that two of those hours were spent riding the Qinggui, we were pretty happy with our adventure. The cappuccinos were a nice treat even if I had to make them myself.

Now the packing begins in earnest.

(scroll way down to see the last pictures. The new TravelBlog format has a few oddities, in my opinion).

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Photos

Metro ATM
Thank goodness I realized I was out of cash before we got to the Mall. And that I knew where the Metro cash machine was. We didn't see a bank the rest of our trip although I am sure there must have been one somewhere close.

Life saving cab
We still don't know how to take the bus TO the Mall. But this guy was very cheerful, especially when we tried to steal his next customer's bubblewrap!

Lvbo plastic mall
The door to the Mall. You can tell it is the Mall because the name is above the door.
Note the spelling of the name. It is pronounced Lubo (as in the French 'tu')

More LPM
The next section of the building. In case I ever wanted to go there.

Miss Xie wrapped up in her work
She did a really good job on packaging the bubble wrap. An interesting question. What do you wrap bubble wrap in? Sort of like, what's another word for Thesaurus.

The other helpful staff members
We aren't sure who works for who around here but they were all very helpful.

Are we having fun yet?
Gotta love standing on the Qinggui for almost an hour. Almost home!

Success!
We arrived home safe and sound.

Ready to rock and roll.
Well, at least roll. Seventy meters is a lot of bubble wrap! We are planning on sharing with other staff members who are also heading off on new adventures.