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February 5, 2006
Home Stretch
The next day was filled with more of the same-- big meals with lots of family, hefty baijiu drinking, getting stared at on the streets, and using the outhouse with the chickens. One highlight included David meeting up with a classmate he had not seen in 15 years. I was blown away by their lack of affection and by the fact that I was the subject of their discussion. Didn't they have, oh, say, about fifteen years to catch up on? I guess that's what happens when a foreigner comes to town for the first time ever.
The next morning was a bit rough. Neither David nor I had slept much because some friends of the family had stayed up until about 5am playing mahjong right next to our heads. David's aunt made us noodles for breakfast but about two bites in I realized they were the exact same beef noodles that we had eaten about 5 days ago (not the same recipe but the same batch) and I got minorly sick to my stomach. I couldn't finish the bowl and I just had to get some fresh air. It wasn't pretty.
We walked to the bus stop though and once I napped for a while I was good to go once again. We headed into Changsha, this time to see the Provincial Museum, famous for the most well-preserved mummy in the known world. Very cool! It was found in the seventies and dates back about 2200 years to the Han dynasty. There were incredible artifacts to go along with the body and I was amazed by the musical instruments most. They had a number of string instruments and even tuning forks that were almost exactly in line with the western octave scale. Incredible. There was also an incredible display about calligraphy from different dynasties that was breathtaking.
I must admit that I have been somewhat spoiled by my previous travels to Rome and Israel. I saw some amazing sites and artifacts that were extremely old and decently well-preserved. I expected to find much of the same in China, given its long history, but so far had been disappointed. This was the jackpot. I could have spent 2 or 3 days in that place just staring at some of the stuff they found. So cool, and so very different from the items I saw in Jerusalem or Pompeii.
We took the bus back to Zhentou, made it back just in time for dinner with his aunt & uncle, and had one last night to spend with the family before taking off for home sweet home. A number of family members came to see us off the morning of the 5th and it made me sad to see them so upset saying goodbye. I guess when you only see your brother/nephew/cousin once every two years, it's a pretty big deal when he leaves. We took some pictures and then hopped a minibus to the Zhuzhou train station.
Traveling during the spring festival is awful. There's just no way around it. Train tickets are almost impossible to buy so I figured we'd have to suffer through the bus again. As it was, David's brother knew somebody who worked in the train station so he hooked us up with tickets... or so we thought. We were told that it would be 150 kuai for a hard sleeper back. That's a pretty good deal--conditions are good and you can sleep the day away. Well we arrived and some dude came out and said it was 200 a piece. We asked why, he said it's spring festival inflation. Fair enough, except that when he handed over the tickets and hopped out of the car, we saw that the tickets were for hard seats at a face value of 45 kuai. Ugh.
The hard seat section is just chaos. We got on to the bus and literally had to step over people sitting in the aisles to get to our seats. They sell standing room tickets that people buy and just sit in the middle of the floor. It was loud, it was dirty, it was filled with cigarette smoke, and it was hot. Not ideal, but at least we wouldn't have any traffic, right? Wrong. Our train was a special added train for the high traffic holiday week and thus had to move aside and let all scheduled trains pass whenever they needed. That meant that our 7 or 8 hour trip ended up taking about 13 hours. Add in the fact that the bathrooms were locked (not that I could reach them anyway) and it all made for a torturous ride. I read for a while but then I got a headache and couldn't focus.
We arrived back in Guangzhou at around 2am and tried to grab a taxi. Once again, they opportunistically wanted to charge exorbitant amounts to take us home. Uh uh. We went over to the buses and literally fought our way through crowds to get on the bus. There were police there regulating but it didn't stop a few people from throwing punches after getting elbowed out of line. Serious stuff. After we eventually got on, I stared out the window at all the familiar sights. It was nice to be home, that was for sure. I got back into my apartment and took a shower. Then I took another shower. Why? Because I could.
As I went to bed on my comfortable queen-sized mattress, I tried to reflect back. It wasn't the most fun vacation I ever had but it sure was the most interesting. I think I experienced things that very few westerners will ever get to see or do. That right there made it all worth it and I definitely feel like a lucky guy for having the opportunity. I have no idea how I can ever top that, but I will certainly try. Special shout-out to David for inviting me along and being such a great travel companion. We'll definitely have to do it again sometime.
And, finally, here is the photographic evidence of the madness. Enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03
Posted by awolfe at 4:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 2, 2006
The Good Chairman
We got up bright and early and headed out to Shao Shan, birth place and hometown of Chairman Mao, architect of the People's Republic. I was extremely curious to see what it would be like to see this bit of Chinese history and I was not disappointed. We arrived to this main section of the Xiang Tan district of Hunan and were greeted by thousands of cars from all over China, parked anywhere and everywhere. It was just teeming with people.
We paid a small fee to have access to the bus system going between the various Mao sites and were on our way. We opted not to pay an extravagant amount to get into the park that held reproductions of Mao's various homes from around the country. Umm, 50 kuai to see something that Mao never even touched? No thanks. Instead we made our way to the main museum and the huge Mao statue. I was blown away by the hundreds of people who all seemed to be praying and bowing in front of this statue of the Chairman. It really seemed like they were worshipping some sort of deity.
I also found it interesting that people were setting off TONS of firecrackers and lighting candles by the statue, acting much in the same way that David and his brother did at the graves of their parents. First of all, Mao isn't even buried here--his body is in Tian'nanmen Square in Beijing! Second, these people have no relation to the guys whatsoever! Third, while Mao certainly did some incredible things for China, he is also responsible for the deaths of upwards of thirty million Chinese. Is that something to deify?
The museum itself was interesting but there was no English so I was definitely at the mercy of my imagination and of David's translation whims. Not surprisingly, there was no mention of the Great Leap Forward or the Cultural Revolution. I was tempted to buy some of the ridiculous trinkets available in the gift shop but I resisted. I wonder what Mao (or any of the founding members) would think about the fact that the museum is charging a huge admission and ridiculous prices for souvenirs bearing their faces. You can get anything with Mao on it and I mean anything. Mao keychain? Obviously. Mao sweater? Sure. Mao pen? Definitely. Computer generated picture of you standing next to Mao? You betcha. It was wild.
At lunch David and I had an incredible conversation about international politics, government shortcomings, economic globalization, the merits of civil disobedience, and constitutional ethics. Wow. There's nothing like a really smart guy to get the blood flowing in your brain. I was constantly amazed by David's knowledge and insight into matters that are generally misunderstood or misinterpreted by other Chinese I know. We chatted for hours, ate overpriced food, and generally had a ball.
Mao's actual house was a big let down but it was worth it just to see everyone else's response. Ohmigosh! Mao's brother's horse's stable! Wowzers! An old kitchen table! They went nuts and it was entertaining to see that sort of reaction to a bunch of non-descript items that had probably been replaced by imposters years ago. Maybe I'm just a bit of a cynic in this arena.
On our way out of the house and back to the town, I noticed a father holding up his son's legs so the kid could defecate right there in public. Once again, is this necessary? No one else seemed to mind but I just can't get over the use of any and every place as a restroom. What gives? There was definitely a bathroom within 50m. I find it hard to believe he couldn't have made it. And if it was an emergency, at least try to do it way off to the side or something! The funniest part is that at that point I didn't even flinch--just another area of the sidewalk to sidestep.
We were going to stay two nights in Shao Shan but at the end of the first day we realized we had pretty much done everything. So we booked a single night at a cheap hotel, negotiated the room-price down about 300 kuai, went out to a park, hiked up the hill, came down, had dinner, and watched a non-dubbed version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith back in our rooms. Good times.
The next day was pretty uneventful. Waking up late, we slowly made our way to the buses and headed back towards Zhuzhou. Naturally, a girl threw up on the bus right next to me during a particular bumpy section. Why me? Not so sure. But again, at that point it was all part of the experience and I sort of assumed something gross would happen during the ride. No big deal.
Back in Zhuzhou we attempted to find David's friend that he hadn't seen in 18 years. We knew her name and general location but had no other contact info. Kinda like searching for the proverbial needle but I enjoyed the ridiculousness of it. We were unsuccessful (no surprise there) but had fun wandering around. We went to a dumpling place for lunch and feasted on some tasty jiaozi. As usual, we drew a ton of stares and some conversation to go along with it.
David and I got sick of telling the same old story (I'm from America, we're coworkers, blah blah blah) so we started making up stories to tell people: David is my translator and I'm from Iceland; David is my tourguide and I'm from Finland; David is my half brother and we're taking a heritage trip; and last but not least, I am David's Israeli bodyguard. Ha!
Back to David's uncle's house, we spent the night watching Beijing Opera on TV and eating more youzi. It was somehow comforting to be back to the routine of washing your feet and all that. I could do without the cold rain, but it was nice to have the couple constantly feeding us again.
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