The Bus From Heaven
The Bus from Heaven
BUZZ NOTE: This article was posted by my about 6 years ago when I was living in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, and as I was reviewing some old articles I had posted on NT I came across this one, and it brought back the memory of a pleasant experience. I hope you enjoy it as well. Perhaps you have a "bus story" to tell as well.
I'm sure many of us have stories to tell about the trials and tribulations of horrible bus rides - the bus ride from hell. Well, surprisingly l just experienced the nicest experience on a bus that I can remember.
(photo of a typical city bus in China, taken from the internet)
One doesn't usually think about bus drivers other than about whether they are good or bad drivers, but yesterday I was totally turned around by a woman bus driver here in the city in Central China in which I am living. I had to go from almost one end of the city of six million population to nearly the other, a trip that took an hour. Normally, one might become rather tired of such a tedious trip, stopping every couple of blocks to take on and drop off passengers, waiting for endlessly long traffic signals to change and sitting in traffic jams. For the first time that I can recall, in this case I was almost sorry to reach my destination.
Virtually every bus I can remember, whether old or new, was strictly business, visually cold, utilitarian, void of any warmth. When I got on this bus I was personally greeted by the driver, which I discovered she did with every single person who entered her bus. The first thing I saw was plants and flowers. She had surrounded herself with potted plants (not in any spot that would impede the safe operation of the bus) placed red fake roses at the base of the windshield, and strung overhead red Chinese lanterns and fake lilies from the ceiling throughout the bus. The bus was immaculately clean, not a common situation. Even though the bus was owned by the major city bus company, I must assume it was the one to which she was regularly assigned. I wish I had taken my camera with me - it was a lesson to me to have it with me at all times.
Her driving was courteous to other drivers on the road as well. Although there is an automatic recording announcing the name of the street location of each bus stop played for the passengers on all city buses, she would use the microphone to announce, on her own accord, the next few stops being approached.
My first wife used to call me Hamlet accusing me "Of thinking too precisely on th' event" and not doing what should be done. In this case I should have written down her identification number and the bus number, then written a letter to the bus company about her, suggesting to them that they should name her Bus Driver of the Year and give her an award (preferably a bonus). Now its too late. Its not likely I will get on the same bus again - there must be thousands of them in a city of this size, and so many on each route. We must usually think of bus drivers as kind of robots, doing the same job, the same movements, every day, and never take notice of them. Well, what I have now seen is a real human at the helm, a person who made her work-place into a home, and a welcoming place for others.
By the way, the bus fare? 1 rmb - the equivalent of around 15 American/Canadian cents. I must say, at least, that I am thankful for the experience.
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Has anyone had an unusual (in some way) bus ride on a city bus?
Why are you surprised they use CNG? It's most likely cheaper than petrol. Chongqing is my wife's Hukou, and I go there in June each year to renew my visa. There is an excellent elevated monorail system there.
Unfortunately CNG is not used universally, and the number of gasoline-burning cars used every day (in Beijing especially) is staggering. During the 2008 Olympics they passed a law that cut the car traffic in half as well as forcing many local factories to suspend operations and it pretty well cleared the air. There are a lot of other causes of pollution there, such as farmers burning their fields after harvest, garbage burned on the streets in smaller towns, coal-burning power stations, polluting industries that are not curtailed due to the need for economic development and employment....etc.
Ever heard of the Oil Lobby?
I just thought this old article might be of interest to someone, so I have promoted it to the Front Page although I'm sure it will get wiped off in an hour or so by Trump articles. Thinking of the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio "Catch Me If You Can", in this case Catch It While You Can.
What a great ride you had Buzz. Thanks to one person that made it their goal for their passengers to feel ''at home''.
BTW, I loved that movie with Leonardo DiCaprio...