Roomie and I made a trip down to the 云和梯田, or the Yunhe Rice Terraces during the long holiday in week 5.
I confess. I was scared.
It was in a superbly secluded district and we were going to stay at a super remote village in the mountains.
Mummy always tells me that I had better be careful or I might get kidnapped in China.
I had never felt her words as much as I had on our journey there.
But you know what, it was worth it!
Much paranoia and many overshot buses later (*stares at Roomie*) … we arrived.
The air was crisp and fresh, and the mountain scenery was just breathtaking.
Layers of paddy fields stacked up against each other, creating a gentle gradient.
Water buffalos grazed while ducks scoured the bottoms of the paddy fields, their white duck butts poking out from beneath the water.
Wild flowers grew abundantly, dotting the mountains with their many colours and butterflies danced in the soft light.
A rainbow even appeared while we were resting in the village inn.
So.
Perfect.
And all the worry was gone because there was no way that anyone could kidnap us in such a pretty place.
In the morning we hiked up to catch the sunrise.
Next we headed to Shanghai, because we needed a big city holiday after all that uluness.
But that’s another story!
On today’s guide to ALP: Collecting your Taobaos from the campus area.
I was really scared when I ordered my first Taobaos. Where do I collect it? When do I collect it? How do I collect it? what do I say???
And the worst one of all, what if they don’t understand me when I collect it???
Disastrous.
Fortunately I’ve gone through all these problems so that anyone who reads this doesn’t need to worry as much as I did.
The following is a Taobao collection walkthrough, written on the 14th of June, 2016. (Things may change next year, who knows?)
1) When you checkout your Taobao Online, leave a small note, requesting for 百世快递 (Baishi Delivery),申通快递(Shentong Delivery), or 圆通快递(Yuantong Delivery) services.
These are the few delivery services that are closest to the place we are staying at.
If you don’t specify the delivery service provider, you might just have to walk a couple of hundred meters under the hot sun to collect your Taobao. We don’t want that, do we?
2) When your Taobao arrives, you will receive a message asking you to collect your parcel, along with the code.
Check for the name of your delivery service provider on Taobao, then ask around for the location of the provider.
3)Show your message to the person in charge.
They will find your parcel for you, and ask for your name or your student card as verification of your identity.
4) If you did not receive a code in the delivery message, your parcel is probably at 中通快递（Zhongtong delivery).
Tell the service staff that you live at the 留学生公寓 (liu xue sheng gong yu, Foreign Student Condominium), followed by your name, and your handphone number.
That’s about it for the Taobao collection collection walkthrough.
I know it seems terrifying at first, but you will get over it, and then you can truly experience the joys of Taobao.
