Chinese New Year post
Fighting The Day after Tomorrow
Right now, the whole China (at least the south, where cold winter weather is rare) is fighting the freezing winter weather. My hometown Yueyang is at the north tip of the worst affected province, Hunan. Going back home was a scary thing for me. One city called Chenzhou had been without water and electricity supply for 8 days. 27 thousand vehicles had been stranded (tbc) on the highway for 3 days along 160 KM. Thousands and maybe millions of people are suffering from the extreme winter weather.
As for my personal experience, I feel really lucky that I was able to fly from Shanghai to Changsha 2 days before the Chinese New Year with only 15 mins delay. My scheduled flight should arrive at 3:45 pm. The last bus from the airport to my hometown is at 4pm. But my flight arrived at a bit past 4pm. My dad arranged a car to pick me up at the airport. A big thank you to my dad! The high way was not too bad from Changsha towards north. A friend of mine was less lucky. Just after the bus entered the high way, the driver refused to keep going because there are not enough passengers on the bus (I know this is another WTF TIC moment). My friend was pissed and threatened to report the bus company to the press. In the end, the bus returned to the station and moved the passengers to a smaller bus. My friend was able to return home.
I had the impression my hometown is colder than Changsha. In Changsha I don’t see so much snow or ice. But here in my living community and city there was snow and ice everywhere. I feel so cold. Although the weather is probably -8 to -4 degrees Celcius, it just feels so cold. There is problem (wasn’t a problem) with the apartment building too. The quality of the building is good, I was told it could last for one/two hundred years. But it wasn’t designed for energy efficiency and keeping the warmth in side the apartment. So the result is, inside my room is as cold as outside. Despite of the coldness, I still feel lucky that I have a roof on top of my head. I have water and electricity.
Here are a few pictures I took in my living community when I was home. The snow was not fresh snow. It was there for several weeks!
Here is the back (there is a balcony on the front side) of my parents’ apartment.
今天早上我非常担忧， 父亲起来觉得头晕， 脚不听使唤， 感觉像喝醉酒的样子。 后来就好点儿了。 因为明天就过年了， 上午父亲就叫上我一起去了妈妈工作的医院拍了CT。查了血压。 查出来有些眩晕症。 还知道了父亲有些动脉硬化。 后来陪老爸去买菜， 买了只乌龟（呵呵， 不要骂我， 日本人吃鲸鱼， 美国华人吃鲨鱼翅呢）。 回来在bus上爸爸说上次搭车有年轻人给他让座。 哎，无法接受父亲老了的事实。我应该承担更多的责任了。