Across the longest trans-oceanic bridge in the world!! Or.. Liz's Ningbo Furniture Trip.

I took this trip in March but neglected to post the details for all you hungry readers.

From Wikipedia :   At 35.673 km (22 mi) in length, Hangzhou Bay Bridge is the longest trans -oceanic bridge in the world, but it does not have the longest cable-stayed main span. It is also second in the world in overall length, with the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in the United States being 2.8  kilometers (1.9 miles) longer. Construction of the bridge was completed on June 14, 2007, and an opening ceremony was held on June 26, 2007 to great domestic media fanfare. But the bridge was not opened to public use until May 1, 2008 after a considerable period of testing and evaluation. The bridge shortened the highway travel distance between Ningbo and Shanghai from 400 km (249 mi) to 280 km (174 mi) and reduced travel time from 4 to 2.5 hours. Cost to build the bridge 11.8 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion).

Here is a map depicting the bridge.  You can imagine what the route use to be, quite circuitous.

It took us 2 hours to hit the outskirts of Ningbo where the furniture district is located. My friend Kate and I made the journey and we were advised to bring our own lunch and snacks as there wasn't any place to grab a bite.  We did find this one rest stop on the highway about 20 minutes from Ningbo.

Jason, our driver, waving below, he just loves going on these trips to see the new bridges or towns.  He is an enthusiatic adventurer.

And you could get a snack if you wanted........

We passed on the snacks and headed to the furniture factory. 

Some interesting outbuildings framed the court yard.

This is a small temple.

We browsed all 4 floors and it was a fairly dirty experience.  The prices were fair, but not super cheap.  $60 for a small wooden chair, $92 for a small bedside table, $190 for a small chest of drawers.  I know it may sound like a good deal to you but, since there is no guarantee as to what the furniture is made of and no guarantee as to whether it will last more then a few years due to potentially poor workmanship, poor materials, hazardous materials, if made of wood, wood could have bugs in it.  Once it gets to the states the  dry air could crack it open, etc, etc. The list goes on.  I know about these situations as I have friends who bought "good" furniture (at another shop), brought it back to the states and then the wooden top cracked open or separated from the base. The list goes on. 

We did not buy anything and I am pretty sure I will not be going back. I am however glad we did the trip. I had not seen my gal pal in ages so it was nice  to spend one on one time in the car happily chatting away the time.