discovering my neighbourhood

' Is it Xia-che-lu stop?' I asked the driver for the direction for the post office.

'Yes, you get off at Xia-che-lu stop. The post office is just at the left corner.'

But..., Xia-che-lu is new name for me. It means' get-off-bus road'. How strange the name is! And I have never heard of it, although I live only 15 minutes' walk away.

The bus pulled in at the stop. I GOT OFF THE BUS at the GET-OFF-BUS stop.

I went there to pick the parcel express delivered from my hero housekeeper from Suzhou Glamour Hotel. They must totally understand my difficult situation of having no right glasses,(Thanks alot).

This is a new street, or to be more exact, an extension part of an existing one, but who chose such a name for it? I am really so interested.

And I should say this is my second discovery for my neighbourhood today. The first one was: in the morning I put on my old frame glasses, regardless of all blurred vision, just so as to find the penalty office for my overdue tap-water charges.

On the notice there's the address only. I clearly know the street, for it's the one right in front of my university campus. However, I don't know on which end No. 1 is. So anyway, I went to the middle part, to whose north is the campus. The street has been expanded a lot and there are much more new apartment building and stores on it than before.

However, after I got the clue for direction and began walking down in the southern direction down the street. The scene there surprised me. Compared to the new stores and expanded street other side, the south part seemed so forgotten. The old dirty markets, houses, narrow street, none public buses. What's going on?

And there I saw the alley Tai-ping-men alley. I haven't heard of it until two days before I met a driver who once based his 'special service' beauty saloon there. It was in the hotel restaurant when he and a tour guide began talking loudly and excitedly about their experiences, prices and all details in Hangzhou and Beijing respectively while we were accompanied by 60-70 people having dinner in the same restaurant lobby. He said he had about girls working for him but he had strong competition from others on the same street. He talked about the pricing system between him and his girls. He was so proud of one girl who once did some stripping dance and other thus earned him 1800 yuan. In the end he didn't answer why took a job of driver but he expressed if one day he's going back to this business, he will do only classy girls, instead of cheap ones.

It was not special alley; and it was now still in the morning, Sunday morning. Maybe at night it would become wild again. But were his girls still working there? I wouldn't like to think more because very soon I found the office and completed my task.

It's like another day of travel, although it was around my neighbourhood.