2011SU Update: Young Gambian Reporter finds Himself in New Traffic

AIPS Young Reporter A. Bah on his metro journey to the Universiade Village

SHENZHEN – Coming from a country that only has road, river and air as means of transportation, AIPS Young reporter Abdoulie Bah from The Gambia narrates the story of a totally new traffic he finds himself in.

First every morning, its seminars focusing on international Sports organization’s and lectures on what it takes to be a good sports journalist. Then right after lunch, everyone heads out for the daily assignments. Whilst other colleagues spend money on local taxis, some the shuttle buses, I head to my favourite Subway metro station. A few meters walk from our base in the “Shanghai Shenzhen Hotel” to the Long-gang metro line is always fun despite the scorching heat.

The Long-gang line is the start of a 1 hour journey to the mainUniversiadeVillageand venues where we hunt for our stories.

But the interesting thing is, the moment I or any of my African colleagues enter the train, Chinese people pull out their cameras scrambling for shots at us. And as if that’s not enough, they view us – like a colleague best described it to me – “specimen in a museum”. It’s fun though.

After four stops, I drop off the metro line from Huaquian Rd, to take the connecting metro heading to theUniversiadeVillage. This one takes approximately 30 minutes. Upon arrival at the Universiade station, one could see the exuberant nature of this well planned and structured area called the “Universiade Village” twice the size of “Metropolitan Kombo” in Gambia. You are greeted with smiling Chinese faces and fantastic transportation buses criss-crossing every single moment, a stranger certainly needs a map for guidance or easily gets lost in this city of 10 million people.

From the Universiade metro line, I am finally on bus no. 4 heading to my final destination to find my daily stories after which I take the same route back to the hotel.

This is truly a whole new wonderful experience and adventure for me.

AIPS Young Reporter Abdoulie Bah/Gambia