Cold is not a big enough word to describe today. It is well below freezing and a slight breeze made it very uncomfortable. I had been up by the river exploring the Swallow Tail Rock and was on my way home. Bus 33 was full as usual and we were static at the bus stop for 5 minutes before we were able to move. It became very hot and I started to shed layers.
After about 15 minutes I was able to get a seat and was very grateful for it. I put my head against the window and started to move in and out of sleep. I was jolted from my repose by a hissing noise and panicked shouting “driver, driver, open the door, open the door”. When my eyes fully opened I could see that the bus was filling up with a kind of smoke.The fire extinguishing had gone off.
After what seemed an age but was probably only a few seconds, the bus driver opened the entry and exits doors People started to exit but not fastest enough for the passengers behind them who started, in a typical Chinese way, to push.
Unfortunately at the time of the disaster we were stopped by some roadworks and so, when the bus doors opened everyone had to pile out onto heavy duty barriers. This created its own problems as people could not move away from the bus quickly and of course this created just a bit more pushing and shouting.
One man jumped down from the bus and put his foot into a roadworks barrier where it became stuck. Another man and I prized his foot out eventually. It was all over quite quickly and after the bus driver turned the fire extinguisher off we were all allowed back on.
Just another day on the Nanjing buses.