I’ve always heard Charles talk about the west side of Michigan, where there are a lot of beaches. I took advantage of the American Independence Day holiday and went to see it. It was about 254 miles and 3 hours and 35 minutes by car from where I live. I left at around 10:30 and played along the way. It was already night when I got to the hotel.
Everyone says that the map of Michigan looks like a left hand, and they always use the parts of their hand to explain the direction. Then I went to 1 and 2, which should be on the upper surface of the wrist.
Chicago Michigan Indiana Travelogue Background Music: What A Wonderful World!
I’ve been here for so long, and I’m used to the road conditions here. I didn’t take the wrong road this time. I have a very clear feeling that I prefer to use the car navigation system, and I don’t want to use the phone navigation (the phone battery is not good, and I don’t want to bring a power bank when I go out). The reason why for me that the car navigation system cannot be replaced by the phone navigation system is that the car navigation system’s map is almost the same as the actual one, and there is rarely a problem of outdated maps; in addition, the area I am in is not a big city, and there is not much traffic jam, so using the car navigation system is enough (although I don’t pay attention to whether the car navigation system includes traffic (congestion) information). Occasionally, because of local road repairs, I have to switch back to phone navigation. And I was told on Ford vehicle, the navigation is using google map with traffic info (his impression). And one of my friend in US, he prefers to use Waze for navigation, in which customer's feedback for road info will be displayed. I don’t like to use car navigation in China for my car (MY2016 Focus) because updating car navigation maps is very troublesome and extra cost, and road conditions are not updated in time. America is a developed country, so maybe, there is not much demand for map updates. I think this is also why localization is important. Companies need to understand the local needs of different countries and adapt to them according to local conditions in order to fit the current market. Nowadays, in EV, the navigation is real time, so we don't need to rely on phone for traffic info.
Why do I still not want to use my phone even though there is wireless charging in the car? One thing is that charging is slow, whether it is USB interface or wireless charging, the power is relatively small, and the phone charges very slowly on my rental car (MY2021 Ford Edge). In addition, when wireless charging, the phone will be hot (feel from touch). As a battery engineer, I know that overheating of the battery is not friendly to its performance and life, so I prefer no charging in the car. The wireless charging position in the car does not have active heat dissipation, the air conditioner can’t blow it. I hope to see an improvement in this area, to introduce cooling air duck. Regarding the problem of phone charging power, some China domestic car companies have corresponding solutions for higher power.
Going from Detroit to Chicago, another difference from China is that it’s such a short distance that it crosses time zones. I didn’t know this before. The car navigation system defaults to show the local time when you arrive, but when I was driving along, I found out that there were still 290 kilometers left. Why did it only take more than an hour to get there? It was very confusing. Later, I changed the display to show how much time was left before arrival, which was better, but this didn’t suit me either. I still prefer to know when I will arrive…
So today when I came to Chicago, my life inexplicably gained an hour~
I was worried that it would rain on the beach today. It rained on the way too, but American rain is really strange. It feels like in The Truman Show, it only rains in one area. When you leave that area, it stops raining. It really rains locally (in the weather forecast)… The weather was nice. It didn’t rain in the afternoon. It was sunny.
When I arrived at position 1, it was already 1 pm. I had lunch first (I still ate burgers and fries when I go out), and then went to visit the beach. The cost of traveling in America is mainly gas, food and accommodation. Parking fees are basically none. There are free parking spaces everywhere. But there are also some areas that charge fees, such as Silver Beach’s paid parking lot here, which feels quite expensive (non-locals pay $15 per time), so I parked a little further away and walked over for 7 minutes:
There are a lot of people on this beach, similar to China. Last year Celine and I went to Weihai, it was like this too, but the lake breeze here is not salty:
This one was taken on Weihai’s sea. It would be nice if Celine came out with me today. All responsibility lies with America…
I always thought that only seaside had beaches before. I didn’t expect that lakeside could also have such beautiful beaches. And there are no pebbles on this beach here. It doesn’t hurt your feet when you walk. Everyone likes to come to the water in summer. I feel like I’m here to escape the heat. Although it’s not very hot in America now, the temperature is only a little over 30 degrees. I’m still wearing long sleeves today:
Americans also like fishing, and the key is that I found that every river I’ve been to can fish for free. Friends who like fishing can consider coming to US:
Recently, because of the mountain fire in Canada, the air pollution is very serious. Detroit is also very serious. I couldn’t see the blue sky for the past two days…
Silver Beach’s light house:
I enjoyed the slow time, and I had to go to the hotel now. But on the way, I found another place, which is the Indiana Dunes National Park Marsh Trail (position 5). I especially like walking. My colleague said that trail is very safe. He never heard of anything bad happening on the trail. So I decided to go for a walk. It was a coincidence that I met an old couple that day. They were 170 years old together, but they looked young. They said they lived nearby and often drove here and walked around. They said this place used to be a residential area, but later, for environmental protection, the people here moved away and the land was returned to the state and became a national park. They were German immigrants and came to America in the 1960s. We chatted for a long time. The lady said that her son was born in America, but he didn’t speak much English before he was six years old. They spoke German at home, hahaha. But later he played with his buddies and his English level improved quickly. When he was seven or eight years old, he could translate German and English for his grandmother. We talked about food, cars, and he said he had three Ford cars. He also said that Celine should find our company’s legal team when she comes to America. The company can invite Celine over, and that should be possible… I thanked him and said I should have met them earlier.
When we parted, I asked if I could take a photo with them. Grandpa even asked me to email him the photo right away. I wish them a long life~
The ecological environment in America is better. Here you can hear birdsong, running water, flowers, blue sky, white clouds, green grassland.
After saying goodbye to them, I set off for the hotel (position 7), but I had to find a place to eat first. There’s nothing to say about eating, still salad, fries… But they seem to like cheese very much. They put 8+1 pieces of cheese on a plate of pancakes. She said the one in the middle seemed to be special honey cheese. I tasted it and didn’t like it, so I just ate the pancakes…
At night, I saw people setting off fireworks. Americans also like fireworks. Besides Independence Day, when else do they set them off? We seem to only set them off during Spring Festival (Chinese Luna New Year).
The next day, from morning on, it rained all the time, reminding me of China’s rainy season in June. At noon, it stopped raining a bit. I thought, I still have to go to Chicago and have a look. So I drove off. I wanted to experience as much of the local as possible, so I planned to drive to a subway station (position 9: Garfield station), and then take public transportation to downtown, where I could walk around casually and then come back.
It took only half an hour by car from the hotel to the subway station, but it was still raining on the way, which made me wonder if my decision was right…
I took a picture of the train station near Dunes National Park yesterday. The big difference from China’s train stations is that this one is open:
Chicago’s subway and intercity train system connect the surrounding areas and downtown closely. The subway system is named by color, such as red line, green line, orange line, purple line, yellow line, brown line and so on. But unlike China’s map app that can integrate a lot of information together, like all the travel-related information can be seen with one app, here Google map does not integrate all the information I need together; for example: I can’t tell from Google map what time is the last train of Green Line from Washington/Wabash station to Garfield station; because I want to arrange my travel plan based on this information; this information has to be specially found on CTA website which is subway & bus service provider here; I don’t know why but it’s just a little bit (not that much) troublesome… So it feels like integrating information this aspect is not as good as China’s app; maybe I didn't find the correct way...
Chicago’s subway stations don’t have security checks; you just swipe your card and enter.
I bought a one-day tourist pass at Garfield Station; before buying it; I specifically consulted with station staff; he later let me in directly, didn’t let me swipe my card, he told me that my ticket started counting from the first time I swiped my card into the station, valid for 24 hours, so he wanted me to use it more tomorrow. I thanked him after I got in, and was about to take the train, but suddenly I was not sure, I came back and asked him how to exit, in China you also have to swipe your card to exit the subway station. He said you don’t need to swipe your card to exit, it’s really like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden...
This is what I took at Garfield Station, looking at the picture suddenly reminded me, the BLVD behind is French Boulevard Avenue, I see here road naming, Drive is also road meaning, I think it is car road.
I just checked:
- Dr, drive, driveway, generally refers to the section of road that connects private residences and streets/highways.
- Blvd, boulevard, city avenue, similar to avenue, or because it comes from French, it seems more graceful, such as: Sunset Boulevard
- Ave, avenue, city avenue, with green belts, wide, mostly commercial areas, bustling.
- St, street, city street, little or no green belt, narrow, mostly residential areas.
- Fwy, freeway, highway, basically equivalent to expressway, can also refer to urban expressway, China’s highways are collectively called expressway (perhaps freeway comes from toll-free way, free highway, so China does not apply).
- Rd, road, road, can be used for ordinary roads (national roads, provincial roads, county roads), can also refer to ordinary streets in the city. Link: https://www.zhihu.com/question/19976848/answer/13547941
Compared to China’s subway stations, this one looks very simple. There are no screen doors or security checks. Not only this Garfield station. The other stations are similar…
This is Washington/Wabash. It’s also very simple. You just go downstairs from here and exit. Look. Bicycles can be taken on the subway. Isn’t that nice?
This is when I took the subway to Chinatown. At Roosevelt subway station waiting for the train. There are no screen doors here either. There is no good decoration either. You can see the lines. It feels like industrial style…
This is when I took the subway back to the hotel at night at Cermak McCormick Place station. This station is also simple:
Let’s take a look at the station names of Green Line. They seem to be very casual in naming them. Some of them may be named after roads. For example: 43rd Street. 47th Street. 51st Street…
Foreign subways information system display screen really use large fonts. I often wonder if foreigners can see the English on China’s subways clearly.
When I got to Washington/Wabash in the afternoon. It was still raining. I wanted to walk around nearby. But it was still raining. I just casually got on a bus and thought about having a bus tour (just like when I was young, still young now). The result was that this bus was raining outside and drizzling inside. Luckily I found a seat without rain. I think it should be safe on the bus. This bus goes west all the way along a straight line and then comes back. When I came back there was a woman holding a little doll puppet in her arms. When we was at a bus stop there was a police car parked in the middle of the road, the woman shook the doll on the window and shouted help. It was very scary but the police officer didn’t seem to notice her… I didn’t say anything…
It rained that day and there was water on the window so I couldn’t take clear pictures. This is a picture I found on Google Street View. It feels like there are a lot of places like this in big cities too. The houses are not very tall and similar to where I live in Detroit:
Finally it stopped raining when I came back and got back downtown. I saw a Macy’s store Macy’s Department Store and went in to see what was inside the store. There didn’t seem to be many places to eat inside. I don’t know if it was because I went to the wrong place but our domestic malls always have one floor of places to eat or more than one floor… I saw a watch store and went to look at watches left and right they seemed pretty good and even asked the clerk to try them on but unfortunately I couldn’t afford them~~
In Chicago’s downtown area; I found a Japanese restaurant; ate a bowl of fried rice~~ because I wanted to go see today’s city car race after eating…
This place and Shanghai’s Bund buildings are quite similar, except that the Bund buildings face the Huangpu River, and this place faces the park.
Today I ran into a city car race NASCAR, but I couldn’t get in, backpackers weren’t allowed in, umbrellas weren’t allowed in either, if you want to get in you have to throw these things away, so there were a lot of people who threw these things into the trash can, but I couldn’t… So I could only watch from outside. There were also a lot of people outside. Everyone was very interested. You could always hear the roar of the engine:
This is the audience inside the stadium:
Yo, I also saw the sign of the electric car charging pile. It’s rare in America. Americans seem to like to play with cars. You can see all kinds of cars on the road. You can also hear the sound of the engine in the car race. This is something electric cars don’t have…
And unlike China’s electric cars, which are all green plates, here it may be because of freedom, each state’s license plate style is different, electric cars are not green plates either, it’s hard to tell if a car is an electric car or not, unlike China where you can clearly tell by the color of the license plate, so the wave of electrification is more obvious in China.
Below are some cars I took on the road. It feels like as long as they are driven by engines and fast enough, they can go on highways:
I guess China OEMs need to design like-these electrical vehicles to obtain US people in electrification revolution...
Ready to go back. Just at this time. I found China Town on Google map. Chinatown. It’s not far away and it’s on the way. Let’s go and have a look. It turns out that Chinatown is where Chinese people live. There will also be some shops. Sichuan cuisine can really open all over the world. I casually walked around Chinatown and then took the subway back. I’ve been in America for so long. This is the first time I have nightlife. Because friends always remind me to be careful at night. I think big cities should be safer. I drove back after getting off the subway. I shouldn’t run into any problems. Tonight is a full moon night. There are pictures below. Unfortunately my phone can’t take clear pictures of the moon but you still can tell that foreign moons are not rounder than China’s.
Chicago Chinatown:
Yes this is the moon taken at the hotel door:
The third day; time to go back; I have to go rent a car again at night; every month I have to go to the car rental place once… I still want to go back to Indiana Dunes National Park and walk around; decided to stroll along the lake; walk along the trail; play with water; step on sand; didn’t expect to run into deer (there are videos).
National parks in the United States charge $2 for admission.
There is traffic in the United States too. I live in the countryside near Detroit and this situation is not common here.
The beach here is not as good as the beach two days ago. There are small stones here, not all fine sand, but children can still play happily.
I went to the river first and then walked along Trail 8. I didn’t expect to walk so far and met a deer. I think this is why everyone likes to walk on trails.
Most of Trail 8 is sandy, and I walked barefoot because it’s not easy to wear shoes. Later, when I walked to Trail 2, it became a primitive forest with only footprints left by people. I think this is why deer like to stay here.
The style of Trail 2:
My car was parked at the train station next to the park. On the way to the train station on foot, you will pass under a high-voltage power line. It’s strange that on a sunny day, you can clearly hear the hissing sound on the power line (I don’t know how high the voltage of this power line is, but it’s not very high). I have never felt this way before in China. I don’t know why. It seems that some people on the Internet also mentioned this situation. Some people said that Americans also care about this issue and houses near high-voltage lines are difficult to sell.
I left the national park and am ready to go home!
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