The Heart of China

I haven't posted the past few days because I've been crazy busy trying to figure out our National Holiday vacation. We've booked tickets for Shanghai and I leave tomorrow morning. We'll spend two nights in Shanghai, then Monday morning, we depart for Hangzhou. Hangzhou is one of the most beautiful cities in China. In the center of town is West Lake, a beautiful and clam lake. Also, Hangzhou is nestled inbetween small mountains and has an eclectic feel (as eclectic as you can get with 3+ million residents). We spend two nights in Hangzhou and Wednesday we head to Suzhou. Suzhou is one of many local watertowns. The watertowns of China are much like Venice. Small canals run through them and the most popular towns Zhouzhuang and Tongli have no roads at all. We aren't staying the night in Suzhou but instead we head back to Shanghai for Wednesday and Thursday nights. We leave early Friday morning back to Beijing. This trip has crept up on all of us. With school and still recovering from our Qingdao trip (not literally) we haven't had much time to plan for this trip. We have places to stay and a loose itenerary but we're basically going to wing it most of the time there.

Since I have nothing interesting to write about concerning my life here (same old, same old: school work, gym, hanging out, etc.), I think I'll give everyone a glimpse of some things I have forgot to mention. These things are so distinct to China, and occur so regularly that I have completely forgot to tell everyone about them. Most of them you might have heard rumors of or inferred them from my stories but now I'll go into a few details.

First, and most recent, my marketing teacher. The Chinese people are extremely welcoming (most of the time) to foreigners. So much so that during my first marketing class, my teacher welcomed us to China and profusely apologized on behalf of his country about the milk problem going on. He said something along the lines of this:

I am so sorry that you have to come to China at this wonderful time in China's histor and are unable to drink our milk or eat our dairy. For many of you, this is your first time to China and I am ashamed that are here while this is happening. Don't worry. The managers and owners of the companies are being severely disciplined and soon I hope it will be safe to drink our milk again.

He was extremely sincere and I was personally touched by his apology. He had no need to apologize for that company or for the problem in general. It was quite a moving experience.

In addition to this sincerity, I probably haven't mentioned another gesture that shows the Chinese character. Many times, if you go to a restaurant, expecially a small family-style restaurant, and they do not have a Sprite or Iced Tea, the waitress will personally run down the street to the nearest convenience store and buy your drinks. This often happens when they serve us hot tea on a sweltering day and it makes you feel terrible. They will never tell us that they don't have our beverages, they simply reappear carrying a bag of 6 bottled waters and 2 iced teas. It makes all of us at the table feel terrible. We wouldn't have ordered those drinks if we knew they would have to go through all that trouble. Something like this would never happen in the United States.

Another example is when we were in Xi'an. We were famished after a full day of sightseeing and all of us were irritable with hunger. After walking around our hotel for 15 minutes, we were getting angry wandering around. I asked a gentleman where we could go to eat and he asked us what we wanted to eat. I told him something quick and cheap and the next thing we knew he was escorting us down a side street. I tried to tell him that he could just point us in the direction but he simply wouldn't have it. He took us to a street full of restaurants. At this point, we easily could have found a restaurant on our own, but no way, he took us to a place and we sat down. It was a kabob place with very cheap food, but some of us had had stomach problems for a few days and weren't about to try something interesting. I told the gentleman that we would like to eat elsewhere and right away he said OK! We walked to another restaurant which was much better and not only did he help us find it, but he stayed and helped us order food. We invited him to eat with us but he kindly refused stating he was on his way home from work and had to go home. I also doubt this kind of thing happens in the US.

Additionally, last one for today, was the woman at the China Mobile store in Xi'an. I had run out of minutes on the Silk Road Trip and I wanted to fill my sim card again. I asked the woman if she had Beijing minutes to sell and she did. I didn't have my wallet or my phone with me so I returned the next day. This woman was so helpful and so kind we spent well over an hour talking. She complimented me on my Chinese (which is about a 3 yr old vocabulary) and we were able to communicate on my limited vocabulary. She has a son, who is 19 who is learning English. He goes to a local university in Xi'an and she was so proud of him. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she saw her son in me. She asked if I had eaten some of the local Xi'an foods and recommended me to order certain dishes explaining what they were and how they tasted. I forgot the name of the one thing she liked the most, which was a breaded something or other and it sounded spectacular. Before I knew it, I was almost late for dinner and thanked her for her conversation. She wished me good travels and safe studies when all I wanted was a few minutes for my cellphone. It was a great experience.

Thats all for today. I have a whole list of more stories, so whenever I have nothing to say about travelling, I'll share some more.