No Phone for Travel Tips, Everywhere I Wanted to Go Was Closed, and Then an Emergency | Traveling Without a Phone, Day 3

Dear roommate, please remember to charge my phone. It must be so lonely.

If I had my phone, I would set an alarm for nine, book a ride-hailing car, and head to a hot spring at Xuanwu Lake (sorry, I don't know what it's called, and I couldn't get there anyway).

While waiting for the car, I could change clothes at leisure, or sleep a little longer, then open a travel-booking app and ask customer service to have a good breakfast waiting for me by the hot spring.

But that is only a dream.

In reality, I asked a friend to wake me at 8 a.m. Then I opened the Nanjing Transport and Tourist Map, 2015 Edition (《南京交通旅游图 2015 版》), on which I had splurged a (huge) 5 yuan last night at Daxinggong metro station, and started planning the day.

So today's theme: now that I finally had a map, I spent the day touring the front gates of the major attractions.

Visiting friends: no phone, so no cake

Time: 3+ hours Spent: 40 yuan

Apps I needed: WeChat, Amap, Ele.me, Meituan, Xiachufang

In the comments my editor pasted into the backend for me, I saw that many of you were wondering how I would spend the holiday. Don't worry. I'm not lonely.

Last night I took out my handwritten address book and called a friend to arrange Mid-Autumn Festival together. He missed the first call, so I tried again ten minutes later.

Here are his directions: "Take Line 3 to Daxinggong, change to Line 2, get off at XXX and come out of Exit 1. On your left you'll see a China Construction Bank. Keep walking and you'll pass a supermarket, then a barbershop. From the barbershop you'll see a residential compound called XXXX. Come in and keep going. Building X on the right, number XXX, that's my place."

If I had a phone, he would have WeChatted me the address and I would have navigated straight there. As it was, I felt like a complete idiot...

On a night meant for family reunions, I wanted to bring them something sweet, such as a cheesecake. Out of the metro station, I asked passersby for the nearest cake shop. They said I would have to cross a road and walk ten minutes. There wasn't time, so I changed my mind and bought fruit instead.

If I'd had a phone, I would have had a cake delivered to the door!

The three of us spent more than an hour cooking a Mid-Autumn dinner (mostly them; on a 5-point scale, I give them 10):

Plating that tries so hard to look casual. My fault.

Nothing interrupted me while we cooked, but I couldn't follow a recipe app either. At dinner, they didn't open an iPad to "watch something" while eating, yet they tagged me in a Moments post and mocked me for not knowing Weibo's latest meme!

A paper map holds a staggering amount of information

Time: 1+ hour Spent: 25 yuan

Apps I needed: Uber, Alarm Clock, Zhangyue, e-magazines

On my way to my friend's place last night, I had to change trains at Daxinggong. While waiting, I came across a newsstand inside the station, and my heart leapt.

Until then I had not found a single newsstand that sold maps. I promptly spent 5 yuan on one, plus a magazine. I had already finished the copy of Little Dog Sees the World (《小狗看世界》) I brought, during a sleepless night.

The Nanjing Transport and Tourist Map, 2015 Edition contains: a metro map; a service guide (every phone number you might need); an introduction to Nanjing; the timetable for Nanjing station on the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed line; a transport and tourist map of Jiangsu Province; a map of Nanjing's urban area; a list of Nanjing's bus routes; and introductions to 12 Nanjing attractions.

At a glance, I picked today's must-see: the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders. Then I dug out the Nanjing Attractions Transit Routes (《南京旅游景点乘车路线》) the hotel had printed for me on the first day, which said to take Bus 7 to Jiangdongmen Memorial stop.

My plan: the memorial hall first; in the afternoon, Nanjing University, to look into the question about Hui Muslims and look around; then Yin's Soup Dumplings near the university, which a friend had recommended; the university library if possible; other attractions if there was time; and if not, write and upload my piece right there at Nanjing University.

What I actually completed: eating at Yin's Soup Dumplings.

There is such a thing as a "phone directions hotline"

Time: over half an hour Spent: 0 yuan

Apps I needed: Amap, Dianping, Zhihu

The service guide in the lower right corner of the Nanjing Transport and Tourist Map, 2015 Edition lists many numbers that could help me (editor's note: if anyone picks up).

At 9:15 a.m., I first called the "Lukou Airport Information Desk" to check tomorrow afternoon's flight and when I should leave the hotel for the airport. No one answered.

Then I found a number called the "phone directions hotline", 16885156. I tried it and soon got through. I asked in detail how to get from the Confucius Temple area to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders and to Nanjing University's Gulou campus. The operator recommended taking the metro all the way and gave me the routes clearly and precisely.

I wrote them down with a pen.

I also asked whether there were attractions along the way. The operator suggested that after those two stops I go back to Line 2: get off at Minggugong for a museum, and at Xiamafang for the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum.

With that, my route was more or less set. Traveling at "the slow pace of the old days" takes longer, and compared with searching on a phone it means talking to far more people. I'm glad I haven't got a sore throat, because I've done a lot of talking these past few days.

So far, everything seemed to be going smoothly.

The Monday closure rule

Time: 2+ hours Spent: 10 yuan

Apps I needed: Douban, Weibo, WeChat, Safari, Meitu Xiuxiu

At 10:30 I reached the gate of the Nanjing Massacre memorial. The sculptures outside looked very familiar: the National Museum of China has smaller replicas of them. I badly wanted to Google the artist, but I had no phone.

I also wanted to WeChat a friend: "Look, I'm at those sculptures that moved us so much last time." I couldn't do that either.

At the entrance, this is what I found:

Annoyed, I quietly set off for Nanjing University. Near the memorial, a man was selling the very map I had already bought. Out of curiosity I asked the price. He said 5 yuan. I waved him off, and he said 4. As I walked away, his price kept dropping: "3 yuan, 2 yuan, fine, take it for free..."

After Nanjing University, I realized the Nanjing Museum wasn't far. By the time I had struggled over there, it was past one o'clock, and this is what I found:

While I was deciding whether to try the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, I struck up a conversation with two young people nearby, a woman who works in Nanjing showing her younger brother around. She told me the Mausoleum was only half open today too, so I gave up.

That made two and a half wasted trips, but I still decided to go back to the Nanjing Massacre memorial tomorrow morning.

Crossing Nanjing University without finding the person I needed

Time: 2+ hours Spent: 128 yuan

Apps I needed: Amap, Weibo, WeChat, Renren, Douban Local, Safari

Besides the soup dumplings, I had another reason to come to Nanjing University: a question left for me by yesterday's friends, the ones who did 100 points of damage: why does Nanjing have such large Hui Muslim neighborhoods?

Information that once took a single search now meant finding a book on it in the library, buying one at a bookstore, or simply asking a history student (editor's addition: who may not be easy to find either).

Nanjing University is split into a residential area and a teaching area. Perhaps because it was a weekday and students were in class, everyone seemed in a hurry, and even when I asked for directions or a restaurant, people weren't very warm.

"Everyone has a smartphone" seems to have become people's default assumption. When I asked people my own age about things an app could solve, they usually said, "Can't you just check Baidu Maps?" or "Can't you just look on Dianping?"

Faced with that question, I was the odd one out. Older people, by contrast, are used to living at "the slow pace of the old days". To them it is natural: "You ask me where it is, I point the way or walk you there." In their view, this kind of "zero-online" help is perfectly normal.

After walking all morning, I was worn out. I decided to call my colleague "Xixi", who studied history, for help in the evening. I really wanted to open my phone's health app to see how many tens of thousands of steps I had walked, but I couldn't.

Near Nanjing University, I saw this kind of bookstore:

It didn't have the book I wanted. Among the newsstands and small bookstores I came across, the "travel guidebook" seems to have left the stage of history for lack of demand.

I was starving. I stocked up on snacks at a roadside shop for tomorrow's flight and spent 128 yuan. New users ordering through Baidu Nuomi got 22 yuan off. Of course, I didn't.

Restaurants always hurt me

Time: 1+ hour Spent: 215 yuan

Today in the metro station, I saw QR codes everywhere:

Good grief! What are these? I don't recognize a single one!

I had forgotten lunch yesterday, so at 3 p.m. I went to eat at Nanjing Impressions (Nanjing Dapaidang). The restaurant accepts mobile payment and takes orders through WeChat, while all I could do was keep raising my hand...

I recommend their crab-roe soup dumplings: the springiest wrappers I've had so far. You're welcome.

Four in the afternoon, and still quite crowded

While I ate at Yin's Soup Dumplings, the guy next to me was watching a variety show and laughing very loudly. I really wanted to hit him.

If my phone is my sweetheart, then everyone on their phone is a couple rubbing it in

Today's spending

Total: 403 yuan (including dinner and other costs not mentioned)

With a phone, I could have saved: books 25 yuan, taxi 15 yuan, wasted metro trip 10 yuan, restaurant discounts ?? yuan

Moments I wanted my phone: looking up travel tips, reading your comments, sending WeChat messages, searching for the sculptor, searching for information on Hui Muslims, binge-watching shows, scrolling Weibo, listening to music...

Today's Easter egg

My editor screenshotted the past two days' comments and left them in the backend for me. Very touching. A few replies:

• To clarify, the one drinking coconut juice was me. My parents read every word of every comment, so to prove I wasn't drinking alcohol or soda, well...
• About the 200 yuan: I'm very sad.
• Shanghai Hongqiao is all high-speed rail, so I made up my own category. The other stations hardly have high-speed trains, do they?
• Crab-roe soup dumplings, done. Chicken-broth soup dumplings, done. Beef potstickers, done. Chestnuts, in progress. Crab, done. I don't like glass noodles.
• Tomorrow I leave Nanjing, and there will be a short wrap-up. Love you all.

Editor's Comments

From today, at the end of each update, we will give our two volunteers a few comments. Today's jabs:

• Some hotel rooms have alarm clocks, so look around the room carefully. Besides asking a friend to call, you can book a wake-up call at the front desk. And if you really do oversleep, leaving whenever you feel like it is also part of "the slow pace of the old days".
• Hot springs can be booked by phone, too. But don't be fooled by the ads on the map. The editor is a little worried.
• To share the mood of a trip with friends, you can use WeChat to share instantly, or think of other ways. Personally, I love receiving postcards. Try asking tourists who rarely look at their phones, or your parents, how they recorded and shared the small moments of travel before there were phones.
• Museums closing on Mondays is common knowledge. The editor is even more worried.
• How did dinner actually go, and why wasn't it mentioned? The editor is as curious as the readers. (The emergency below has the answer.)
• You can't look at your phone while eating, so think about what people did at meals before phones. Please give readers some tips: if you're eating alone and your phone happens to be dead, besides concentrating on the food, how else can you beat boredom? Also, hitting people is wrong.
• When you go out alone, keep your belongings safe, and don't stay on a remote street. Just before publication we received an emergency update. The editor is worried x3.

Emergency

I didn't mention dinner because I wanted to finish writing quietly, then go eat, and maybe catch my goddess Jun Ji-hyun in Assassination.

For the past half hour, I have been bawling on a Nanjing street. My bag was nearly stolen, stolen, stolen. First, admire how theft-proof my bag is. To open it, you have to undo the clasp before you can pull the zipper:

Because I'm extremely ticklish, I noticed the instant the thief undid the clasp, and turned around... Then I screamed in terror, he snarled at me, I bolted into a convenience store, and then I fled back to the hotel in a panic...

I don't want to see any movie now, and I don't want to go out tonight either. Boo-hoo.

As for beating boredom when eating alone, here's one way: take the lotus root tips you ordered, dip them in the free fried rice puffs, and roll each one round and round in the puffs until you feel like a culinary genius:

Got it? I'm off to the restroom to cry for a bit.