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| Chinese Classroom |
The students at this high school in China study physics and
know the theory that no two things can occupy the same space at the same time.
However, the principles seem distorted by the way passengers are packed on a bus.
The wheels on the buses go ‘round and ‘round all through the
town. A bus starts its journey every seven minutes or so in Jinyang, a suburb
of Guiyang, a city with a population of approximately 3.4 million.
Today it appears that there is an attempt to break the world
record for the most people gathered in one place. The passengers continue to
pour onto the bus.
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| View of Passing Bus from our Bus |
The bus driver opens its doors and without
notice my husband and I are engulfed by a bullish crowd who want in at the
same time. Using their elbows and knees as prods, the huddled throng pushes it way
through the narrow passage. Arms extend to push money into its metal coffer. The
army makes its way to the back of the bus losing some of its mass to empty
seats. I cling to my husband’s shirt and am pulled to a sitting position. The
passenger count is fifty-three. The bus doors swish close and with triumphant
force it pulls away with its load. The people on the bus go up and down all
through the town.
At the next stop the bus forces itself to a halt with a loud
squeal and opens its large mouth to allow aboard twelve new passengers who jockey for overhead handles and seat
backs to steady their stance. The horn on the bus goes beep, beep, beep, all
through the town.
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| View from our Double-Decker Bus |
At the next terminal, thirteen passengers climb on board. One is clutching a black plastic bag that reveals its contents with the swish of a tail and the rank odor of fish. Passengers stare at the bag's owner and move
this way and that to avoid contact. Another passenger boards with a bamboo cage
covered with a flimsy cloth. When it is set down it clucks. The motor on the
bus goes chug, chug, chug, all through the town. The noise on the bus is waa,
waa, waa, ring, ring, ring, talk, talk, talk, in a language that is incomprehensible
to us and at a decibel that is ear-drum shattering.
The faces
of the passengers are expressionless save for the girl who smiles generously at
us, the foreigners. We return her kind gesture.
We are
English speaking, reading, writing and listening foreigners who are seated
comfortably on a crowded bus amazed at the attempt to achieve a world record
for the most people in one place at one time.
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| A Bus Stop in Guiyang |
The bus
grinds to a halt and we get off with a short-lived sense of freedom as we are
again engulfed and swept into the flow of the sidewalk crowd.
