May holiday sunshine (and crowds)
Thursday, 3. May 2007, 14:22:55
May holiday sunshine (so far) has brought the full extent of crowds onto the streets and all forms of public transport.
Having spent May 1st waiting 30 minutes for a bus that never arrived, then wondering the streets for about 20 minutes in search of an available taxi, I can tell you that public holidays are still living up to their fearsome reputation for tainting people's free time.
Nonetheless, myself, and tens of thousands of other people, happened to be at JinJi hu (yes, that's Golden Chicken lake) here in Suzhou. And despite a somewhat hellish journey for most people to even get there (most number 68 buses resembled cattle trucks, with some people's faces scrunched up against the panes of glass as the pressure of about 100 people crammed into the double-decker bus forced new extremes of inter-personal proximity), the sun shone, people bought and flew kites, paddled in pools, canoodled in the shade, rode rented tandems, and generally lazed around in a contented fashion. Here are a few pics:
Having spent May 1st waiting 30 minutes for a bus that never arrived, then wondering the streets for about 20 minutes in search of an available taxi, I can tell you that public holidays are still living up to their fearsome reputation for tainting people's free time.
Nonetheless, myself, and tens of thousands of other people, happened to be at JinJi hu (yes, that's Golden Chicken lake) here in Suzhou. And despite a somewhat hellish journey for most people to even get there (most number 68 buses resembled cattle trucks, with some people's faces scrunched up against the panes of glass as the pressure of about 100 people crammed into the double-decker bus forced new extremes of inter-personal proximity), the sun shone, people bought and flew kites, paddled in pools, canoodled in the shade, rode rented tandems, and generally lazed around in a contented fashion. Here are a few pics:
WIDGETIZE