Well, we went on another bus adventure today to Jinan. We left Beijing around 8 am this morning and traveled for about six hours south to the capital of the Shandong province, Jinan. Along the way we stopped at two “truck stops” to continue to experience daily Chinese life as the way a common person might. Our guide described the stop as a location that a family might stop at as they traveled across the Chinese countryside. The first stop was just for a restroom and food break. It was amazing to find Oreo’s and Ritz crackers next to traditional Chinese snacks. Our lack of understanding also caused a little confusion to one of the fellow travelers in our group. He bought, what he thought was, different hard candies just to find out later that he actually bought different kinds of beef jerky! Oops! The entire group then shared the snacks that they bought with the rest of the group on the bus.
The next stop was more adventurous than the first one. Eating lunch at a travel stop was not the highest thing on my to-do list but it can now be checked off the list. The lunch was provided in a buffet style. Dishes upon dishes were laid out on a long table. The food ranged from white rice and steamed breads to fish heads and soups. There were some other foods that no one in the group could quite identify. We were given metal trays and were able to pick and choose anything we would like to eat. Some of the food was beyond my food tastes but some of the other people in the group found the food to their liking. After lunch many of us were found outside of the travel stop eating ice cream and enjoying the sunshine before we boarded the bus to continue on to Jinan.
Zaijian,
Mr. C.
