Adventures in Guangzhou!

I decided on two last sights to see before having to leave for home. The first was the Changchun Temple, a Taoist temple dating back to the Han Dynasty. I had never been to a Taoist shrine of any sort so I was excited to see how it differed from a Buddhist Temple. Not having studied Taoism, I'm not quite sure how much of what I saw was typical so my observations are probably not generalizable. That's okay. While clearly influenced by Buddhism, the ceremony I saw was actually very different from the Buddhism I've seen and studied. There was quite a bit more audience participation, so to speak, as everyone worshipping put on a robe and chanted along with the monks. They even joined in and circumambulated around with the monks playing various instruments. However, on the other hand, the main temple room had statues of the same four guardian kings as the Buddhist temples I've seen.

After watching the ceremony, we started out towards the exit and passed by a group of Chinese making a whole bunch of paper cranes. I really wanted to stick around and learn how, but sadly they just sort of ignored us and I felt too self conscious. Maybe next time. Before we actually left, I popped into the gift shop. Feeling minorly guilty for not paying an entrance fee (the guy just smiled and waved us in), I decided to throw some money their way and bought some prayer beads. I figure, can't hurt, right? I actually really like the concept behind the meditative benefits of the beads and will keep them around in case I'm inspired.

The next stop was a quick jaunt around Wuhan University. Located right down the street from where Mal and Tyler live and teach, the University was founded in 1913 and is known as being one of the four most beautiful campuses around the country. It was also the site of something called the "Wuhan Incident," a lengthy battle of sorts during the Cultural Revolution in which some members of the intelligentsia placed machine guns on top of the library and dug supply tunnels through the hill. I didn't see any remnants of the incident, but I did see a very beautiful campus complete with flower gardens, fields for football, old buildings, and a very active student population. It was a beautiful day and it seemed like every single student was either laying out on the grass or playing some sport. I was impressed.

Mal wasn't feeling all that well so we headed back to their apartments. I packed up my stuff and Tyler and I enjoyed some green tea over Shrek 2. I was sad to leave, but unfortunately work called. My train ticket was for 7pm and I figured I'd leave around a quarter to 6 or so. The train station was only about 10-15 minutes away so I figured that was a solid cushion of time. Normally I'd be right except for one small detail--I went out to grab a taxi to head over and for the first time in my China experience, I could not find an empty taxi for the life of me. In Guangzhou I don't think I've ever waited more than two minutes. In Hangzhou and Shanghai it was never more than five. The rest of the time in Wuhan it was also about five at most. For whatever reason, Sunday night was apparently rush hour for taxis and there was not an empty cab to be found.

I got to the main street outside the gate at about 5:50pm and raised my arm to hail a cab. It was futile. After 10 minutes I crossed the street and waited another 15 there. No luck. I walked down to the bigger street down in the direction of the station and was met by at least 5 other people trying to get taxis as well. I tried every corner without any semblance of acknowledgement from any driver. They really all had passengers! Around 6:30pm I'm starting to panic a bit. Think, Ari, think. I had no cell phone to call Tyler to ask Philip for advice. I decided it was useless to wait around any longer so I walked to the nearest bus stop.

I approached a group of 3 college-aged girls and asked them in Chinese if they spoke English. No such luck. In my broken Chinese I explained that I needed to get to the Wuchang Huoche Zhan (the Wuchang train station) but didn't know which bus to take. They walked over to the list and gestured that I needed to go to the next stop down. I explained in more broken Chinese that I had a train at 7pm and their look of shock told the whole story. One of them grabbed my arm and ran with me to the next stop to check the list. They started listing off the different buses I could take and happened to look over and see a bus that would work. They shoved me on and waved me off.

As I got on the bus I realized that it wasn't a regular city bus. It was a little smaller than a regular bus and there was some lady selling tickets. She asked me something I didn't understand and I responded with "huoche zhan," train station. This seemed to be a satisfactory answer and she asked for 2 kuai. I now faced the task of having to figure out where to get off the bus since I had no clue and have yet to learn those characters. I struck up a conversation with a mother and her daughter and in basic Chinese, explained that I needed to get to the train station but didn't know where it was. I also explained that my train was at 7pm (qi dian) and everyone around us began freaking out and pointing out the window to cabs. I proceeded to point at the passengers in the back seats and I think they understood my predicament. The woman selling tickets, initially quite solemn and bitter-faced, at once shouted up to the driver something along the lines of "hen kuai!" which more or less translates to "step on it!" in this context.

The driver immediately began to floor it, thank god, and we got closer and closer. I looked at my clock and saw 6:51pm. I was definitely pretty stressed at this point because technically they say that they close the doors to the train 10 minutes in advance. I've never actually seen that happen, but it is the written policy. As I walked off, the mother/daughter team told me to follow a guy who was going to the station as well. Apparently he missed my whole situation because as we get off he started taking a Sunday stroll in the direction of the station, explaining that there are two main doors and that I needed to know which one to go to. I grabbed his shoulders and shouted, "wode huoche! qi dian!!" which means "my train! 7pm!" and he immediately started running with me. I asked him to guess which entrance would be for the train to Guangzhou and he pointed me towards the center.

In my best 1999 sprinting form, I took off on a mission. I even hurdled a parking barrier in the parking lot (seriously). With my backpack on, I'm amazed I didn't clip it and lose a limb in the process. I ran to the door, prayed it was the right one, showed my ticket and the lady's eyes opened wide. I shouted, "wode huoche, zai nar?!" which means, "Where is my train?!" and they pointed me up the stairs. Luckily, I had chosen wisely once again. In true movie form, I ran up, showed my ticket, they closed the doors behind me, and 30 seconds later we were off. Naturally everyone else in my car had already set up all of their stuff and they all turned to stare as I stepped in panting and sweating like crazy. As if I don't stick out enough as it is! Regardless, I made it and I was pretty psyched. As I was attempting to problem solve on the bus for what I would do if I missed the train, I figured it wasn't the end of the world. That being said, I'm really glad I didn't have to deal with it. That night I slept directly on top of my bag, figuring I shouldn't push my luck. We rolled into Guangzhou Central at around 6am and I had just enough time to take the subway, switch lines, grab a bus, shower, check my email, and go teach a class. All in all, an excellent weekend that I will not soon forget.

Once again, if you'd like to check out pics from the weekend, feel free: http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/1201189/