So… just a quick review of what happened in the last post. We were stuck in a service area because of our flat tire, and we needed to wait for the next morning when we can get visit the local town for new tires.

The technician called for like at least 100 million people and then regretfully told us that there aren’t any tires available for our kind of car. When we are all depressed and stuff, suddenly the technician discovered something: there was a rubber ring blocking the tire to be inserted! He removed the ring and tried to insert our spare tire that failed last night, and it worked perfectly. Wow!

Our family was so happy that my dad ran to the “supermarket” (more like a tiny store) and bought a watermelon for them (which apparently was like heaven’s food for them (remember, we are in central China)) and ate together. Man, my dad even ask me to take a picture of him and the technician! (Sorry for the bad exposure)

After they finished all the final touchups and stuff, we started heading for the road.

And this was the repairing company name – “Shang Rao Service Area Repairing Department”

I must say, China has really impressed me with their highway network. On our trip, we switched to about like 5 highways but never got lost. They have neat signage and a clear code system. Not bad, not bad!

We have around 1000km to go today. The car’s license is expiring at midnight, so we have to arrive at Shenzhen by today. Since we have quite a long journey, we did not stop over at one of the largest city in central China, Nanchang, but to head for Shenzhen directly. We then therefore had to eat in service areas (again). And mind you, although the highway system is neat, the service areas are definitely not. There are flies around and the cafeteria looks just as bad as our school’s. But, what can I complain?

I don’t think I need to tell you again about the scenery and stuff. Feel free to visit my Picasa Album again, though. Oh wait, except for this:

Apparently, there is a town in Guangdong called “He Ping” (pronounced H-ugh Ping), which means literally “Peace”. (Don’t believe me? Check the characters on About.com and compare it with the one in the signage. They are the same characters.) So, in a sense, we are only 26km from peace. (yay!)

So we just drove, drove, and drove, and finally arrived at Shenzhen at 11:30 pm. We were dead tired when we arrived, and decided to find a motel to sleep instead of searching for blankets from our luggage and sleep on them at our new house. It wasn’t bad at all, only like 200RMB (25USD) for a double bed room.

And… that concludes the road trip. Next post: “The Move In” Thanks for reading!