THE DREAM IN ACTION

My last day in China was another amazing one. I decided to head solo to Tongli, one of the ancient water cities in China. I was to arrive at the bus stop by 8:30a and travel for about 2 hours by bus to Tongli. I chose Tongli because my guide book said that it was less touristy, thus less crowded, and I wanted  to experience authentic, rural China on my last day. I wanted the reverse culture shock to be as drastic as possible as I came back into the States . I wanted the sites, sounds, and smells of China to be as memorable as possible as I returned.

The Sprint through Shanghai

That morning I decided to take the subway to the train station. I got on the subway about 45 minutes before my bus was scheduled to leave. Plenty of time, so I thought. Well, I some how misread the map and went one exit too far. This added an extra 10 minutes. Then, when I finally got off at the correct stop, I asked a woman, “where exactly is the train station?” I was pointed in the direction of the Shanghai Stadium. At this point I had about 15-20 minutes to spare. The stadium however was a good 10-15 minute walk from the subway station. I started walking. As I check my watch at 8:25am I realized I was really pushing it. Picture this… a white man, standing 6’3, with a full day pack, absolutely sprinting through downtown Shanghai. I became the laughing stock of many Shanghainese that morning!

I finally recruited someone to help me find the train station at about 8:31am. Me and my recruit were both running towards the train station and all around the stadium, neither he, nor I, had any clue where exactly this station was. How I convinced a commuting Chinese guy to run through downtown with me, I’ll never know. As we arrived at the station and ran to the counter I didn’t need to understand Chinese to understand that my bus had left and there wasn’t another one coming…all day.

At this point I really wasn’t upset at all. I just decided there’s gotta be somewhere else that would be cool for a day trip. I refunded my ticket for 80% of the cost and purchased a ticket to Xitang, another water city. This one was about an hour and fifteen minutes away. Closer but much more touristy.”Oh well”, I thought, “better this than nothing”.

“Be Back On-time!”

I got the bus to Xitang about 9:15am and we were on our way. I read as much as I could about Xitang but my guide book didn’t include much other than saying, “this place is touristy”. No biggy, I’d explore none the less, and I was excited to be traveling solo again.

I continued to read ‘The 4 Hour Work Week‘ on my drive and really enjoyed the chance to read, take it the country side, and get out of the city for at least one day on my trip. I also met a guy named Paul (English name) who had lived in LA, and now in Shanghai, but was from Taipei. I love how traveling around the world, everywhere but the US, is normal. I make a promise to myself that life won’t stay in one country, I will live outside the US at some point. 

As we get off the bus I had Paul ask if I understood what time to be back, I responded, “Yes.” Then I had the bus driver show me a sign with the departure time, asking, “do I understand”. Finally, as I was walking away, a girl name Christine (real name) grabbed me and asked if I was sure I understood what time to be back to the bus. I confirmed, “I got it, I’ll be here at 4:00p and we’d leave at 4:15p”. I appreciated that they were helping but I felt absolutely helpless. I felt like those kids who travel alone under the age of 10 and need a stewardess to assist them between gates. At somepoint in time, I was that kid, but I’d like to think I’ve grown out of that. Apparently, not in China. Oh well.

The Serenade

After walking around Xitang for a while, bartering for gifts, and taking some pics, I was looking for a spot to chill and grab lunch. I decided upon a place where I could sit on the second floor overlooking a popular bridge (where they filmed part of MI3) and the river to watch the boats. I have no idea how to say the name of the place but somehow without speaking good Chinese, I got a HUGE plate of fried rice with egg, and a big bowl of veggy dumplings. It was amazing, and I paid a total of 38RMB = $5. Awesome. As I was wrapping up lunch, this lovely man (video below) decided to serenade me for a few minutes. 

I didn’t want to give him cash so I started drawing a picture of him (also below) and he loved it as my form of payment (he later came back for real money and I obliged). I guess the bartering culture worked in my benefit this time! This was a perfect way to wrap up my $5 lunch of veggy dumplings and fried rice, overlooking the river. Although touristy, Xitang was proving to be a great day adventure!

Kung Fu Fighting

At the end of my lunch the waitresses of the restaurant brought out a friend of theirs who spoke minimal, but some, English. He proceeded to tell me how much he likes Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, and Kung Fu. I called him on his interest in Kung Fu and politely asked him if he would show me some Kung Fu. He obliged and I got a 2 minute Kung Fu show. He then called me out and I tried out a few kicks myself, which obviously got a laugh from everyone. The kid who spoke English was Allen (English name). Allen and I ended up spending the next few hours together, walking around the town, seeing a home or two of local Xitang-ites and grabbing tea. He clearly took me to the most expensive tea place he knew of in the city but at a total of 8 bucks I was ok with it. I told him of my need to be back to the bus by 4pm and we started towards the buses at 2:30p. As the afternoon went on his comments about how much money I must have started to slightly annoy and I worked hard to redirect the conversation. He was relentless with bringing up how much money my family must have since I was American. I thought we were connecting on the fact that both of our families owned a Honda. I left out that my Mom drives a Mercedes as that would definitely just drive more money related questions. After a while Allen got me to the bus stop but I was about an hour early. I thanked him for my Chinese lessons and the tour around Xitang, he asked for more money and cigs, I said sorry about 100 times and thanked him again. We parted ways and in that moment the difference in culture, attitude, and privilege was made extremely apparent. For the next couple hours as I returned to my bus (on time), I felt bad for Allen. I felt guilty for not being able to give him more, and I felt intrigued by the drastic difference in lifestyle between us in the west, and the many impoverished in the east. This is a world need that I’d like to be able to address later in life. I will be back to China.

A Close to Xitang

On the way home I was back to reading and gazing out the window at still very crowded rural China. Soon I’d be back in the the big city. Knowing that I’d leave the next day, and be back with the guys, I tried to make the most of each minute of that ride. I spoke with as many people as could understand English on that bus and even made some more Facebook friends. 

Thought on Facebook: Facebook is brilliant and has literally brought the world together. So many people I met in China are on Facebook and I will no easily be able to stay in touch with brief but memorable friends from across the world. I hope to return to China and when I do I’ll definitely leverage the relationships that I made in China, via Facebook. Any web start-up, or community driven company not looking at how Facebook will affect them either as partners, or competitors is seriously missing the boat. The breadth of their reach is far greater than I had imagined before my trip.

The trip would be over the next day but with the help of my Flickr account the memories would be shared and would last a very long time.