April 8: Xinjie to Jiangcheng via Luchun

At 7:30 we boarded the bus again and off we went. The first bus ride went well. The only problem was that I couldn’t stop to take pictures. For 100 km we went up and over mountain passes and past hillsides of rice terraces. The hillsides were every bit as beautiful as those around Xinjie, but without any viewing stations. We got into Luchun only 20 minutes late.
The next bus to Jiangcheng left in 10 minutes so we just made it in time. However, Joan had to visit the WC so we delayed the departure by 5 minutes. The driver seemed unconcerned because we picked up 4 more passengers during those 5 minutes. The adventure started 20 seconds later when the bus stalled on the bus station up ramp. Two passengers blocked the wheels with stones and then the driver became a mechanic. He had a tool kit on the bus and he opened the engine cover inside the bus and got to work. The engine kept stalling because gas was not flowing. 1 hour and 2 phone calls later the bus was declared fixed and off we went. Again the ride took us through impressive territory. The hillside terraces remained but now we started seeing tea fields. They looked like well trimmed hedges all growing neatly in rows. The ride was going well, we were averaging 35km per hour, and then we hit construction. The river we were following had been recently dammed. The original road was underwater and we had a dirt road through the mountains for 30 km. Now we were dusty and dirty as well as late when we arrived.