April 28 Buying a bus ticket in Nanning - sometimes it pays to be a nuisance

Tired of seeing huge cities and paying ten times more for hotels than I did
in Southeast Asia, I decide to make my next destination Guiping, a small
town chosen at random from my guidebook, between Nanning and my ultimate
destination -- Guangzhou, from which I would head to Hong Kong. Arriving in
the morning by train from Kunming to Nanning, I go straight to the bus
station to get a ticket for the same day, thus avoiding the need to find a
hotel in Nanning.

As a means of making life (somewhat) easier, my guidebook shows the names of
words, including city names, in Chinese characters. This way, even if you
don't read Chinese, at bus and train stations, you can match the characters
to the list on the wall and see what time a train or bus leaves for your
destination. In Nanning, I check the list for the name "Guiping" on the wall
beside the ticket office and see buses leaving at 10:40, 11:30, 12:40 and
throughout the day. I decide to have breakfast, returning at 11 to buy a
ticket. I ask for Guiping and write "11:30" on a piece of paper for the
ticket agent so she'll know which bus I want to take. The agent takes my
paper, crosses out 11:30 and puts "13:00" on it, handing it back. What? I
start gesturing at the sign beside her window, repeating "Guiping" and using
my worst Chinese to say, "Shi yi dian ban" (literally, "11 point half). She
shakes her head. I'm now worried she doesn't understand where I want to go
and wants to put me on a bus to Guilin, a popular tourist destination, at 1
p.m.

A line starts backing up behind me as I try to communicate with the agent.
As there's nothing like a tourist causing a delay to bring out an English
speaker in the crowd, soon a teenage girl comes to my rescue. She talks to
the ticket agent and explains to me that the 11:30 bus is late and leaves at
1 p.m. Assured it will go to Guiping, I agree to take the bus. The agent
asks for 50 yuen, which I hand over, and starts to issue me a ticket but, as
she does so, she says something else to the girl who tells me I can't get
the 1 p.m. bus at this station, I have to go to someplace that sounds like
" London Station" to catch it. I quickly consult my guide, which shows no
other station in the city. The girl explains that it's outside of the city
and I can catch the No. 2 or No. 3 city bus to get there. I start to
complain again, saying all my bags are checked in at this station and I
don't know enough Chinese to get to wherever she wants to send me. I
purposely become a nuisance to see what effect comes of it. The ticket agent
and my helper exchange some more words (as with most Chinese "conversations"
it sounds like they are arguing heatedly with one another, and I am
beginning to feel a little guilty at putting my helper in this spot).

Finally, I am issued another ticket and given 10 yuen back.

" You come to Gate 8 here at 12:30," says the girl. "You get bus to Guiping."

OK, so, instead of having to go to a second bus station for 1 p.m. and
paying 50 yuen, I can leave from this bus station earlier for a cheaper
fare. Hmmm.... which option do I choose? I never found out why I wasn't
given this bus ticket option to begin with. My only guess is that the first
one was an express bus that the ticket agent assumed I would prefer. I
return to the central bus station as told at 12:30 p.m. and get to Guiping
with no problems at all.