Jackie and I have been busy traveling lately. Last weekend, we went to Suzhou, this weekend, we planned to go to the little water village, Xitang, the place where the end of mission impossible three was filmed. I went there last year with Stephen and Sarah so I was pretty confident in my ability to lead Jackie there. First we had to take a bus to Jiashan then a minibus to Xitang. A friend wrote it in characters for me, but I've gotten a little cocky lately and didn't bring it. So, Sat. morning we headed to the long lines at the east bus station. I got up to the fiberglass window with the ticket lady on the other side, and the little microphone. "Two to Jiashan" I said. *static static mumble* shan?" she asked. "Yes". She gave us the tickets and we got on the next bus to Jiashan. I had remembered the ride only being 1.5 or two hours. An hour and a half passed, two hours passed at the three hour mark I got nervous. I was sweaty b/c there was no air and I had to pee too. I called my friend Bob and passed the phone off to a bewildered passenger who obviously wanted nothing to do with two foreign girls. The phone circled back. Bob:"Um, you are going to Xiaoshan in Ningbo." me:"but I don't want to go there! How far is it from Hangzhou?" Bob: "about 5.5 hours" me: "shoot a monkey."
There was nothing to be done. We couldn't get off the bus. around 3 we arrived in this Xiaoshan. We were optimistic (well, Jackie was) that there would be at least something interesting to look at. We wandered the unfamiliar streets and harassed the locals to tell us a place that had "lots of meaning". The people there spoke their local language and our Chinese is pretty bad anyway. We ended up at a noodle house and took the next bus back 5.5 hours to Hangzhou.

Sunday, however, we were determined to get it right. We headed off early again, this time armed with the characters for Jiashan. One hour and a friendly conversation with a Chinese grandmother later, we made it to Jiashan and then to Xitang. It was beautiful of course, and completely worth even the mistaken trip the day before. Watch out for those tricky shans.