1. Beijing Day 2: As we drove back from the Summer Palace to the hotel through evening rush hour, a car swerved toward our bus as we drove in the middle of three lanes. To avoid the collision, our driver tried to get into the outside lane, but the SUV in that lane decided not to yield the space, and the two vehicles collided side-to-side. Neither was moving very fast, and no one was hurt, but the SUV lost a mirror and the bus was scraped. Things proceeded just like they would at home -- insurance info exchanged, SUV passengers escorted to the sidewalk. The SUV driver wanted the cops called to make sure the official version made it the bus driver's fault. Beside his chair, our driver had hung a ceremonial Olympic gold medal, given to him for his excellent work driving athletes during the Beijing Olympics. He did not look happy at this blot on his record.
2. Xi'an Day 2: China Air was flying us from Xi'an to Guilin early in the evening. We were all dozing off for the hour and a half flight when Wham! The plane came in for an unusually hard landing. Consensus was that the pilot was lucky not to blow a tire. Most of us forgot it until...
3. Guilin Day 1: To alleviate the boredom of taking their boats loaded with tourists down the same stretch of river they traveled yesterday and the day before that and the day before that, the Li River boatmen jockey for position in the curving channels, playing a mild version of chicken. Our boat lost one round, banging against the side of the winner, forced out of the channel as the victor sailed triumphantly ahead.
At that point, the people on the Holland America excursion put our crash experiences together, assuring one another that crashes come in threes, that we had had our three, and that we were consequently safe for the rest of the voyage.
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