Cause

I don’t know what kind of mood I am writing this travel note at this time, because it is not originally a travel note - how can returning to my hometown be considered a trip? But when I finally stood in the east square of Wuhu Station at one o’clock in the morning, I realized clearly: I was finally home.

It all started a week ago. On a gloomy afternoon, I was walking alone on the bamboo-shaded road of the Chengdu Giant Panda Base, thinking aimlessly - about work, about marriage, and even about some insignificant things. Giant pandas are not that attractive to me. After all, they are all similar-looking creatures. I will get bored after looking at them for a while and taking a few photos. So this is a great time to fill your brain with whatever it is.

The result of this thinking was the decision to resign. Although in terms of career development prospects alone, the current job is very good. But its low starting salary and the nature of long-term business trips forced me to face the issue of “work-family balance”. If I choose to return to a provincial capital city near my hometown, there will be a job waiting for me with a higher starting salary and no need to travel. So after a fierce ideological struggle, I came to the conclusion: The so-called “development prospects” are all relative. Even if I return to my hometown, it does not mean that there are no development prospects at all. But compared with life itself, the “prospects” of the current job are not worth my continued pursuit. If the ultimate goal of working hard to make money is to live a better life, then when you have absolutely no other choice, you should not give up life itself for the sake of making money. This is putting the cart before the horse.

Therefore, I decided to return to Shenzhen from Chongqing on April 15. After completing the final work handover procedures, I flew back to my hometown of Anhui via Zhuhai. As for the reason for passing through Zhuhai, it is entirely because the final return ticket cannot be reimbursed. In order to save money, I purchased the relatively cheap flight from Zhuhai to Hefei. Most of the time before (when the company reimbursed the air tickets), I flew directly from Shenzhen to Nanjing, and the latter was the fastest route.

start

Just do it. The habit of “minimalist living” that I have developed in my daily life is showing its power at this time - all the personal belongings I have in my two residences in Chongqing and Shenzhen are only the size of a 20-inch suitcase and a backpack. Therefore, I was able to clear two residences and return to my hometown over a distance of more than 3,000 kilometers in just one and a half days.

After completing the necessary procedures, it was already ten o’clock in the morning. I walked out of the company building with my bag on my back and took a taxi back to my apartment. Before getting in the car, I took what might be the last photo of the company building behind me. Our apartment is a four-room dormitory provided free of charge by the company for interns. It is about half an hour’s drive from the company (it takes one hour to get there by bus). After arriving at the apartment, I quickly went upstairs to take off my suitcase and went through the deposit refund procedure at the front desk (I paid a 100 yuan deposit when I checked into the dormitory). Then walk to the nearby subway station, change once, and arrive at the “Shekou Port” station. After leaving the station, we walked for about 20 minutes and finally arrived at the first stop of our trip back home - Shekou Cruise Center. This is a terminal with unique interior and exterior decoration. The internal structure is very similar to a high-speed rail station or an airport: the first floor is the entrance, and the second floor and above are dining or rest areas. The way to get tickets is also very simple. Just put the ID card corresponding to the ID number registered when purchasing the ticket on the self-service machine near the entrance. The flight I took was the passenger ship Xunlong from Shekou Port to Hengqin Port. There are two types of positions: ordinary and first-class, and the price difference is only thirty yuan. First class not only has fewer passengers, but the seats are more comfortable and the view is better. After boarding the ship, I found a very interesting sign with the words “China Merchants Group, founded in 1872”, which instantly gave me the feeling of dreaming back to the Qing Dynasty. The voyage passed the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge and the Macau Friendship Bridge, and passed through the narrow channel between Zhuhai and Macau. During this period, the mobile phone signal drifted to Macau, and I also received a warning text message from the customs. Although just a few minutes were not enough to turn my itinerary code into red, this short “exit” still made me full of emotions. After more than an hour of sailing, the passenger ship docked steadily at Hengqin Port, Zhuhai. I have heard people talk about Zhuhai’s beautiful environment and pure air a long time ago, and this time I finally felt it myself.

twists and turns

But just as I walked out of the beautiful Hengqin Pier in a happy mood, I received a text message that the flight was delayed for three hours. In January of this year, news of HNA’s bankruptcy and reorganization officially came out. At that time, I had the emotion of “watching him build a tall building, watching his building collapse.” But when the flight was delayed by three hours, and the airline happened to be Hainan Airlines, I felt again at a loss as when “the dust of the times falls on one’s head”. Since time suddenly became extremely abundant, I slowed down my pace and took a bus to the airport bus station while enjoying the scenery along the way in Zhuhai. The nearest airport bus station to Hengqin Port is at Holiday Inn Hengqin. This is a hotel decorated to look like a fairy tale castle. Although I have not stayed in this hotel, the external environment alone feels very suitable for staying on vacation. After waiting on the first floor of the hotel for nearly forty minutes, the airport bus finally arrived. On the way to the airport, the bus will stop briefly at the University of Macau Hengqin Campus. This university is across the sea from Macau. Although it is located in Zhuhai, it is administratively under the jurisdiction of Macau. No matter from any aspect, this can be regarded as a model of “one country, two systems”. So during the second half of the journey to the airport, I walked with a group of students from the University of Macau. Although these people are still students, they have already fallen into the bad social habit of “watching videos outside on the bus.”

After arriving at Zhuhai Jinwan Airport, I waited for more than two hours in KFC and the terminal with nothing to do. During the broadcast, a slightly apologetic statement was made that dinner would be provided to all HNA passengers who had been delayed. But when I saw the middle-aged man sitting next to me in the terminal returning angrily with a box of hot lunch boxes, I gave up on this “free dinner.” In comparison, the “Hainan Special Chicken Noodles” on the plane attracted me more.

At 7:30 in the evening, the radio finally informed us that we were ready to board the plane. So I picked up my suitcase again and stood in a long queue, waiting to board the flight that was supposed to take off three hours ago.

#End

Except for Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, almost all the airports in the cities I have visited are located in remote suburbs. This may be in line with certain economic principles, but it actually goes against the convenience of passengers. Perhaps because of the consideration of convenience, Hefei Xinqiao Airport has set up a special city shuttle bus to regularly transport passengers to the train station and other city addresses. After the plane landed slowly at 9:30 pm, I followed the crowd and hurried to the city shuttle boarding point outside the arrivals hall of the airport. I spent fifteen yuan to buy a ticket to Hefei Railway Station. The shuttle bus didn’t leave “on time” until ten o’clock, and it didn’t arrive until 11:08, which was still more than 200 meters away from Hefei Railway Station.

Yes, you heard it right. The shuttle bus destined for Hefei Railway Station did not actually enter Hefei Railway Station, but dropped us off far away from the train station. The last train that night departed at 11:21, which meant that within thirteen minutes, I had to drag my suitcase and backpack over a distance of more than 200 meters, go through the security check, go upstairs, find the correct platform and squeeze into the train. Although the above process was very difficult and tiring, I managed to get on the train just one second before the train door closed.

Since it was too late, I could only take the green car home. So I stayed for another hour and a half in the foul-smelling green van. Finally, I finally returned to Wuhu at one o’clock in the morning.