We are in Wuchang

We made it to Wuchang.  I had previously referred to this city as Wuhan, but Wuhan is actually made up of 3 citites, Wuchang being one.  The flight on China Southern from Hong Kong was uncomfortable, the food suspect, but the flight was fairly short: about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Our guide Wei met us after we picked up our bags.  She lives in Wuchang, and seems very nice.  She will be with us for the next 6 days or so.  We hopped in the van for the 1 1/2 hour drive from the Wuhan airport to Wuchang.

The drive took us through very heavily trafficked areas.  A lot of cars, and pedestrians.  Wuhan is home to 8 million people.  Cars dart in and out of their lanes, and from side streets, and pedestrians cross in front of vehicles regularly.  The areas we passed through were a mixture of semi-modern buildings, run down buildings, buildings and housing either demolished or in the process of being demolished, and new construction.  There was not another Westerner in site.  When we finally arrived at the Best Western Wuhan, our guide checked us in and escorted us to our room, then bid us adieu until tomorrow morning at 9 am.

So we were on our own, and in need of a bite to eat.  We were a little intimidated: unlike Hong Kong, where everyone spoke English (or so it seemed), no one seems to speak it here.  We chose one of the hotel restaurants.  Fortunately, the menu had pictures, but there was very little that appealed to either of us.  Strange sea creatures, chicken feet, black chicken (literally, a black, featherless chicken, head and all, in a soup bowl), etc.  I ordered scallops and shrimp, which were edible.  Jen ordered a pork spare rib, which she actually liked, but also ordered beef brisket in chili sauce.  It was the hottest thing I've ever tasted, and she ate only a few bites, just to be polite.  She ordered a Coke, but got Coke Light with Lemon.  Not too bad, though.

After dinner, we decided to venture out.  We were hesistant at first.  Our fear stemmed from the fact that a) we didn't speak the language, and no one spoke ours, and b) we stood out like sore thumbs.  We finally decided to overcome our fear, however, and walked a few blocks from the hotel.  To our pleasant surprise, we really didn't see anything that I would consider to be "strange" - just people going about there daily business - and the experience was actually quite nice.  At the end of our stroll, we crossed under the street via a pedestrian tunnel, which led straight to the Wuchang McDonald's!  Jen pointed to "Ice Cream" in our Chinese phrase book, and the girl behind the counter brought out a picture with a sundae on it.  Perfect!  They only had pineapple and strawberry topping, and so we went with just the plain 'ol vanilla ice cream.  It was delicious!

Tomorrow is a free day.  Our guide is going to take us shopping in the area.  Should be interesting.  Hopefully we'll get some sleep tonight: neither of us has had much lately.  Talk to you soon!

Our plane at the Hong Kong airport

Sign at the airport with our flight into Wuhan, CZ3076

Sign outside of the Wuhan airport

Typical street scene

The old, and the new behind it

More rubble

Busy traffic

View from our hotel room