Briefly, Nanjing – The Lessons of Old Nanjing

It was only in the Xuanwuhu Tunnel that I noticed flashlights about once every ten seconds or so.  I asked the driver what those were.

“Those are cameras.  They capture the cars that pass by, thereby tracing the movement and direction of every car in the city.”

“Only in the tunnels?”

“No, all over Nanjing City.  They are on all roads, you didn’t notice?”

Indeed, I did not notice.  From the airport to the city, I rode on the airport bus.  Under broad daylight, I simply did not notice cameras flashing.  The airport bus dropped me off at Nanjing Train Station, I then caught a cab to go to my hotel.

When I asked for a cab ride, the cab drivers pointed me to this driver.  I told him that I wanted metered taxi.  He said, either meter or by negotiation.  He quoted ￥40.  When I got into the cab, there was simply no meter.  Too late now, I thought to myself, ￥40 and so be it.  This was what the Chinese people call “cattle car (huangniuche).”

There was quite a bit of conversation on this 15-minute ride.  I asked about the famous Xuanwu Lake, and the driver told me that we would be going around the Lake, via the Xuanwuhu Tunnel, to arrive at the hotel.

“So, in fact, these cameras are for surveillance?”

“Surveillance and control,” he replied in Mandarin.

I noticed that he kept saying “OK, OK” in his mid-sentences.  I figured that even though I spoke Mandarin, he thought of me as some sort of a foreigner, and the only English speech that he could do was “OK.”  It was quite humorous.  Maybe I spoke Mandarin like a foreigner does.  It has been almost twenty years since I lived in Beijing.

The first impression of Nanjing was how neat and orderly it was, and I judged it so by the way that the travelers’ baggage were handled at the airport.  There was no employee at the pickup carousel.  When the baggage came out, someone has laid them orderly for pickup already, with a uniform spacing in between each and the handles on top.  I was impressed—the way that Nanjing welcomed its travelers certainly surpassed that of Hong Kong.

I said that it must be so nice to be living in Nanjing city.  The driver said, “well, it is a second-tier city.”  I asked him what the first-tier cities were.  He said, “you know, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen.”  I assured him that Shenzhen was in no way comparable to Nanjing.

There are about 8 million Nanjing residents.  Adding 2 million people from other provinces (waishengren), the population of Nanjing is about 10 million.  When I learned that, I thought Nanjing is a major city.  Only when I was visiting the city the following days did I fully appreciate this figure and its consequences on daily life.

The driver showed me some key transportation along the way, pointing me to the metro stations, the bus stops and introducing me to the surrounding areas.  I sensed that he thought there was no need to do taxi’s at all in Nanjing.

There was an inkling in my heart that I should tip him some, but for some reason, I ended up not doing so.  That turned out to be wise.  I learned on the last day of my trip (the only other time that I took a taxi) that a metered taxi on the same journey, and with traffic, would only cost ￥25.

This driver made one of my first impressions of Nanjing.  He was a man of the street, knowing the city very well and maneuvering the roads with great ease.  He also knew the lone female traveler’s gullibility.  It would be fair to call him Old Nanjing (note: not to suggest that the Nanjing people are deceitful, as they certainly are not).  I was actually glad that I met him.  The conversations were priceless.

It would be too late to visit the Xuanwu Lake that early evening.  I opted for a sumptuous dinner at the famous Lion Bridge (Shiziqiao) food street.  I will write more about the food of Nanjing in later entries.

What a wonderful first day.