What the hell is this thing?
This is the online record of an endeavor I am making to travel the full length of all of the bus routes in the city I live in. I call Harbin, China my home. It’s where I live and work. But it’s a gigantic city and I have only explored a tiny fraction of what it has to offer. One nice thing about this city is its extensive bus system. If you’re willing to brave the heave and press of the dirty masses, then you can get almost anywhere in this city for a couple of RMB (that’s about a quarter in American money).
I love riding the bus. Actually I just love public transportation in general. Which leads me to explain part of my inspiration for this project. I have recently been watching a youtube channel called All the Stations. This was a project by two Londoners to travel to all of the stations on the National Rail Network in Great Britain. It was a lovely endeavor and while it’s not exactly the same as what I am attempting it is very much a direct inspiration.
Quán Xiànlù (全线路) literally means all of the routes in Chinese. And that is exactly what I am trying to do with this project: travel all of the bus routes. I have set a few rules for myself to follow, although I may change and adapt them over time as I progress. The first is that I must travel the entire length of the bus route for it to count. This can be in either direction, although preferably it will be the entire length in both directions. In some instances the entirety of both directions may not be feasible, but the minimum will be the entirety of one direction. This has to be done continuously. In other words if I get off somewhere along the way, I have to get back on at the same stop. The only exception is if I backtrack by other means and ride a portion twice. In general these rules will lead to meeting up with the line, riding to one terminus, riding to the other terminus, and finally riding back to the point I first met the line. Getting off and exploring along the way are acceptable and actually part of the goal of the thing (to explore the city).