Chinese bloke cycles 500km to get home... in the wrong direction A migrant worker in China, hoping to cycle back home for Chinese New Year, realised a month into his 2,000km trip that he had been going the wrong way. Originally from Qiqihar, Heilongjiang province in China's extreme northwest, the bloke had been working in Rizhao, a coastal city between Beijing and Shanghai. Not only had he …
I don't like the fashion in some circles to describe people as trolls. For me a troll is someone who deliberately posts something to stir up trouble. Giving someone wrong directions doesn't fall under that definition.
Coming back to the previous post: Surly if we go for "other stereotypes" we should go for the Irish "I wouldn't start from here", or "if you're all the way in the west, you've gone too far" :-)
Or perhaps the UKIP answer, "this is a local road for local people... there's nothing for you immigrants/strangers here".
> For me a troll is someone who deliberately posts something to stir up trouble.
An internet 'troll'* is not related to Billy Goat Gruff. It is a fishing term where a hook is pulled trough the water, usually at or close to the surface. Technically the hook and line, or message, is the troll, so the person would be a troller**.
* There are disputes about whether it rhymes with 'doll' or with 'roll'. In my view the fishing term rhymes with roll and the mythical Scandinavian rhymes with doll.
** This message is a troll.
I've come to the conclusion a long time ago that if you ask people for directions, the outcome is usually worse than just driving/walking in a random direction. Whether it's trolls, people who have no clue but don't want to admit it, or other reasons, generally the chances of getting correct directions are worse than 50/50.
Really, if my satnav fails for some reason, I just try my luck. Usually works out better.
There's a couple of things I can see contributing to this situation, without needing any malicious intent on anyone's part:
i) There is likely to be a significant language barrier in China for someone who's 2000km away from where they came from.
ii) My understanding is that the Chinese (and Japanese) consider it rude to refuse to help, so will often say 'yes' even if they don't know the answer, rather than give offense.
> There is likely to be a significant language barrier in China for someone who's 2000km away from where they came from.
China has (mostly) a common written language made up of symbols that indicate meaning, but there are dozens of spoken languages that use the same symbols for those different sounds. Thus they can write to each other (if they can write and read), but not necessarily talk to others.
Right On! I've done that for people before too - you can call it "paying it forward" or whatever you like, I don't care. I figure that sometimes it's just the right thing to do - anyway, I've been there too, admittedly not to that extent but who knows about tomorrow.
Out on the piss in a neighbouring town, me and a mate once staggered drunkenly towards the train station hoping to catch the last train home because we'd missed the last bus. When we got on to the platform we realised we'd missed it by barely a minute. Facing a twelve mile walk by road we reckoned the train line was probably shorter as it ran in a mostly straight line, so we jumped down onto the track and started walking. A couple of hours later I had mostly sobered up and slowly realised that the stars were all wrong. It became apparent that we'd forgotten that the usual train reversed out of the station to head to our town, and we'd been walking in the wrong direction. Oh, how we laughed...
We left the track at the next bridge, climbed up the embankment and found ourselves on a country lane which eventually led to a road with a signpost pointing back to the town we'd started in. The sun came up about an hour later and traffic started to appear, but no-one would give us a lift. Eventually a cop car came along, and the copper decided to pull up and ask us what the hell we were doing out there so early. We told him, and asked if there was any chance of a lift. "Nah. Piss off."
After he'd driven away, we looked at each other and both said at the same time, "We should have keyed his car!"
So in summary:
To pissed to find own way home and to tight to get a taxi, walk along a train track (bloody stupid thing to do), surprised people don't stop for two blokes walking along road who clearly have been on the piss and then a copper refuses to be a free taxi service.
I guess you've never taken just enough to cover what you wanted to do that night, and no more, as a way of controlling your spending? Also, what a caring society we live in when 2 people walking down the road can't get help from passers by. Doubtful they were still drunk at that point and probably just looked tired. As for the professional public titty sucker, he could have given them a ride. It's not like those guys help pay for that titty sucker's salary. But no, the titty sucker is SO much better than the tits he sucks from. At least these 2 guys weren't drinking and driving, and the titty sucker could have been thankful for that and given them a ride. But no, he chose to be an arse instead. Great way of building public relations. To top it off, the titty sucker was probably going their way anyways. Arsehole titty sucker...
I guess you've never taken just enough to cover what you wanted to do that night, and no more, as a way of controlling your spending?
Yes thats why I always used to to make sure I hid some money somewhere else from the rest, covering spending also means money to get back home, if you have no decent plans to get back home, then you are merely an amateur pisshead and deserve no kudos.
Also, what a caring society we live in when 2 people walking down the road can't get help from passers by.
Depending on where you live it could be quite a mistake to stop and pick up a couple of randoms in the dark/ early hours of the morning. I doubt I would have.
Also possibly the police have better things to do than act as a taxi service to two people? Especially if they seem able bodied a healthy twelve mile walk is a good lesson in well, step one ..keeping your fare money.
Given the media full of nasty scare stories so general public thinks crime rate is massively high, that climate of fear means chances of 2 (presumably fit & healthy) males getting offered a lift are quite low as drivers will be envisaging theft, rape, murder whatever scenarios.
Artificial climate of fear has negative effects on likelihood of random acts of kindness.
Some can be I was in Thailand with a GF who had twisted her ankle, we were leaving a concert a few miles out from the city and public transport hadn't been well organised, so it was a rush to cabs which were driving down from the nearby airport, which we were loosing badly due to limping GF.
So we were walking along the road everyone overtaking us, and it was looking at being a long time before we made it back. Cop car stops, copper gets out, doesn't say a word just puts us in the back of a car (you don't argue with Thai cops they have a reputation for sometimes being dodgy, and there is the face thing people have been shot), last thing we see is our friends gesturing to us from other side of the road and looking worried but reassuring us they knew we had been picked up.
He drives along the road in front of the crowds pulls his car across it blocking part of the road and stops the cabs standing in the road, with his hand resting on his holstered .45. Then hustles us out of the cab and tells the cabbie to take us home.
What a dude.
OTOH back in the 70s went to see The Who in Wolverhampton, gig ended and made way back to train station just as they were closing (2230). Had day ticket so dived under barrier and went to waiting room. Mates weren't quick enough and got stuck on other side of barrier.
A little bit latter some officious railway bod turned up and wanted me out. Refused, next I can see him gesticulating and complaining to some Transport Cop. Cop comes over and asks to see ticket and I explain the issue, and how I'm not giving up a nice warm waiting room. Cop smiles and walks off, railway guys runs after him still complaining at cop that couldn't give a shit.
At about 0200 my mates find there way through the barrier. Railway guy more incensed. At about 0400 another railway guy appears and says there is a staff train stopping here in 5 minutes get on and keep your heads down so that he don't see. It will get you into New Street Birmingham and you'll be OK there.
> Facing a twelve mile walk by road we reckoned the train line was probably shorter as it ran in a mostly straight line, so we jumped down onto the track and started walking.
I was going to point out how dangerous that is. Inebriated folk do have a tendency to grab a quick kip and walking all long a track isn't the best location to be when that happens. But not only is it dangerous, I can't think of anything more stupid and ill prepared. Tell me, just where did you expect to find a kebab shop on that route?
Having been in a Chinese city or two, riding a bike was probably the fastest way for him to get home. From the city I was staying in, to the next city - where the UK consulate was based - was about 300 miles; the train took FIFTEEN HOURS.
And yeah, no chance of following the sun, you really cannot see it most of the time; 6 months through the summer in southern China, and I had NO tan at any time; that yellow skin colour is nicotine and dust.
What did you expect? - PuTian to Luo Yang is about 1600 kilometers (~1000 miles) between two regional cities with no direct rail connection or airports.
It's about the same as trying to do a Cardiff (wales) to Valls (Catalonia) trip by train... it will take you a good 27 hours IF you use the eurostar between London and Paris and the TGV between Paris and Lyon. if not the trip is in excess of 36 hours.
Some 10 years ago a co-worker made a bike from Kidderminster back home to Northern Thailand on a bike he found abandoned in the company bike shed. It got stolen in Samarkand. Trip took him 5 months.
http://kidderminstertothecaspianbybike.blogspot.co.uk/2006/11/stolen-bike-and-central-asian-heatwave.html
"Silly question" yes "but don't they have road signs in China?"
If you can't read a map you don't know what signs you should expect to see.
"I mean 500km and you would expect to see a familiar sight or city."
China's big. According to the article even if he were going in the right direction he'd still have been 1500km from home so what he'd see might not be familiar.
Not a silly question at all. The issue at hand: Hanzi (not to be confused with kanji). Speaking of kanjii: same applies to Japan by the way, not everyone can read those. And it's not because they're stupid or anything, but because the language is massive.
We have our alphabet with 26 letters in them. Hanzi, the Chinese characters, amount up to around tens of thousands. Where sometimes a small detail like a strike can put a whole new meaning to a character.
And guess what? Those road signs will usually be using hanji. There are plenty of people who can't read those, don't believe for a second that this guy is an exception or stupid or something.
Originally from Qiqihar, Heilongjiang province in China's extreme northwest,
You mean northeast since if it was northwest then going west would largely be the right direction. Of course if he started in Rizhao and wound up in Anhui province then he went south, not west. He'd be in Henan or maybe Shanxi if he went west.
«The man, who is unnamed, is unable to read maps and was relying upon others for directions.» The original story states that 交警上前盘问，骑车男子称是别人告诉自己上高速骑行的。据了解，该男子靠打临时工生活，比较拮据，因为长期在网吧上网，钱用完了。男子就想春节骑车回家，沿途一直问人，结果走错了路。([When] the police officer stepped forward to question him, the bike rider said that someone had told him to ride on the motor way. From what we understand, he supported himself by working at temporary jobs and had it tough ; because he had been using internet cafés to go online for quite some time, he had run out of money. [Therefore, ] he decided to bike home for the New Year holiday, and asked people for direction all along the road and ended up taking the wrong direction.)
Nowhere in the article does it state that the man was unable to read maps, much less that he was illiterate - how many illiterate people frequent internet cafés to such a degree that they run out of money ?...
The interesting thing is that the cops and the toll station staff seem to have chipped in and bought him a ticket home (捐了些钱，买了回家的车票)....
I hold with NoneSuch above : «As long as there are people out there willing to buy a guy, who is down on his luck, a train ticket the human race has hope»....
Henri
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