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Being from Chicago, I’m used to city transit. I have a Kunming Bus Card which is quite handy. The typical fare is 1 ¥, or about 13 cents. If you use a bus card, the fare is even less.
Just like Chicago’s infamous fleet, riding the Kunming Bus is like being in a human aquarium, where Westerners are the weirdest fish of all. I keep on thinking my fly is down because of all of the stares, but then I remember I’m a white person in China, something as rare to see as Big Foot holding a four leaf clover. Kids will stare and practice their English, saying “Hall-wo’, followed by “Fine, dank-you”, no matter what question you ask them next.
There are bus passengers holding their fresh market purchases, which include live chickens, doves, frogs, wiggly bug larva and vegetables right out of a Dr. Seuss book. On the crowded confines, you’ll see teens texting, pick-pocketers prowling, babies crying, couples cuddling and something rarely seen on a Chicago bus: passengers offering seats to the elderly.
Mind you, not all Kunming buses are created equal. Some resemble long metal twinkies on wheels; others look like mini-airport shuttles. Some even have upholstered seats. All the buses have TV, which is fun to watch, unless it’s super crowded. Then the only thing you see are armpits.
There are advertisements everywhere on the bus, from the back of seats to the plastic grips for standing passengers.
Hopefully, they are advertising hand sanitizers.
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