Today I rode the 22. This route runs from near the Gonglu bridge (松花江公路大桥) in Daoli (道里区) out into central Xiangfang (香坊区). It starts out heading towards the river on Heliang street (河梁街) before quickly cutting down Heluo street (河洛街) to Hayao road (哈药路) and winding Southwest away from the river. It then turns Northwest up Xinyang road (新阳路) and then Southwest again across the Anfa bridge (安发桥).
The route follows Anfa as it becomes Jiaohua street (教化街) and tunnels under HIT (哈工大) before heading onto Wenchang bridge (文昌桥). It then jogs down Wenfu street (文府街) and up Heping road (和平路) to the Provincial government headquarters (黑龙江省政府) on Zhongshan road (中山路).
From there it follows Zhongshan road Southwest to Gongbin road (公滨路) where it turns West and passes by Shangzhi park (尚志公园) before heading South again on Hongqi street (红旗大街) which then becomes Tongxiang street (通乡街). It finally turns Southwest on Jinxiang street (进乡街) which it follows to its terminal stop at the Nuodingshan community (诺丁山小区). The only differences in the route going the other direction are at the final few stops in Daoli, where many of the streets around the Dadao street (达道街) terminal stop are one-way.
I started my journey at the Jiaohua mall (教化广场) and headed across the Anfa bridge towards the river. As always I saw some cool architecture in Daoli and even a few interesting murals. At the Dadao street terminus I wandered around a bit but didn’t go too far before hoping back on the bus and heading out to Xiangfang.
The 22 uses a new rolling stock that came out at the beginning of this year (2018) and has a very cool shotgun style seat up front next to the driver. If you can snag this seat you gain an excellent view both out the front windscreen and the right side window. If possible I always try to grab this seat on buses that have it. I know the 21 also uses this new rolling stock and I believe a few other lines do as well. It’s the closest felling you can get to actually driving the bus.
I wasn’t able to grab it when I got on at Jiaohua, but getting back on at the terminus I was. I ride this route quite frequently between Jiaohua and Zhongshan road, so I don’t usually think much about it. But the tunnel under HIT is definitely a very cool piece of engineering, with the road cutting through the base of the hill on which the university sits.
As we passed by Shangzhi park I saw there were a number of people out practicing ballroom dancing. Line dancing in the parks and squares is a common activity in China, but it’s less common to see traditional ballroom style dancing. After turning onto Hongqi street we began to hit more suburban and countryside scenery.
The Chinese version of suburbs is very different from that of the USA, but it has a distinct feel from the more urban parts of the city. The buildings are more spaced out. There are significantly more gated skyscraper communities. And there are noticeably fewer office buildings. Although there is usually still plenty of commercial space dedicated to small shops and restaurants.
At the terminus I got out and wandered around the newly built community for which the stop is named, Nuodingshan (诺丁山小区). This is truly on the edge of new development. As I walked past the first few buildings I began to see several construction sites working on adding to the community and beyond that was just a vast expanse of undeveloped land. It was really a very interesting juxtaposition city with countryside. After exploring for a bit, I decided to head back into town for dinner.
