Big week in China

Our first week in China – I’ve been toasted more times than I can recall, sweated through spicy meals of what I would prefer to think of as “exotic meats” (e.g. snake, and “fake fish,” which actually is soft shell turtle), seen some of the most stunning mountain scenery I’ve ever encountered, participated in drinking contests for the first time since freshman year of college, and so much more (all while having a bit of a flu).

There’s been so much blogged here by Yo and Yvonne, so I’ll just add some of my travel notes:

Sunday morning, we left HK at 8:00 in 2 hired vans toward the border crossing and the Shenzhen train station.  Hot, wet and smoggy.

Wan Chai was still quiet.  The English team had just lost to Italy 2-1, and crowd of hungover Englishmen was dispersing into the streets.  Hadn’t slept well and no coffee.  Dehydrated.

A lot of waiting in Shenzhen– we arrived 2 hours early.  By that time, I was feeling a bit funky.  Comfortable train ride to Changsha.  Couldn’t believe the 304 km/h signs – didn’t look or seem that fast.  But it was.  Countryside was incredibly smoggy, and built up everywhere.  No break in the thick smog the entire ride.

Getting off in Changsha – unreal heat, humidity and pollution made it seem like another planet.  Huge scale train station, thick cloud of pollution with hot sun trying to burst through.  Never saw the sun look like that before.  Met by Xiao Qing, her husband and her daughter, Nana.

Got into van, greeted with huge bags of snacks (mostly unrecognizable packets within packets), fruit, water, for the 1½ hour drive to Yiyang.  Smaller than Changsha, but still big.  Still no break in the smog.  Was feeling sick by the time we pulled into hotel, and went to sleep.  Big banquet welcome.  Lots of drinking, which I had trouble with.  Immediately followed by Karaoke.  After messing around with some Steely Dan and Eminem, Yo and I did fun duet of Empire State of Mind.

Felt ill the next day, Monday – slept in all day.  Yo delivered lunch banquet remains to me in hotel, and I staggered out to see cousins compete in badminton tournament and even played a bit of table tennis.  Dinner at Xiao Qing’s house.  Incredible house – billboard quality wedding pictures everywhere, well cared for garden.  In the morning, I missed big trip to the cemetery to visit grave of Yo’s uncle, and tour of the local museum.  Also missed post-dinner swimming party, which mostly consisted (I heard) of Yo’s cousins racing competitively.

Xiao Ching and Zhi Hua's bedroom, with their beautiful wedding picture!

Didn’t feel much better the next day, Tuesday.  Slept in until lunch (big banquet hosted by Xiao Qing’s best friend) and went to her cousin’s swimming club.  Club was an old barge with some basic lockers and kayaks on the side of a wide, fast, river of questionable purity.  Glad the kids didn’t get swept downstream, or hit by a barge.  Sorry I couldn’t swim, but at least felt a bit better.  

Happy cousins in the water

Yo's cousins' swim club bought this barge and built the slide on the right, used for kayaks and swimmers

Airborne Oscar

Dinner at another cousin's house, big dumpling fest.

Many hands made the work go quicker

Shen Shen, Ruby and Clara

Started to feel better on Weds.  Long bus day.  Left very early for 3 hour drive to Shimen, then 2 hours to ancestral village (also called Shimen).  Relatives broke out breakfast on the bus – bao zi and a plastic bag filled with spicy duck feet.  Blazing hot, but at least there was some blue sky.  Felt like being back on Earth.  Visit to gravesides, located in someone’s farm, then lots of fireworks.  Rushed off to lunch in a farmhouse, hosted by a cousin (everyone’s a cousin!), then rushed off again to visit local Middle School, where we were sung to and signed autographs!  (Kids happily complied).  Countryside seemed relatively prosperous.  Actually here in FY’s (my father-in-law, F.Y. Wu) home village!

Drove back to Shimen (the town, not the village).  I thought we were going to hotel to shower and rest, but there was more (a common theme this week)…to see library in honor of FY’s father.  Really surprised to see myself included in 1997 Wu Family Christmas snapshot on the wall, right below portrait of Sun Yat-Sen.  Back to hotel, straight to big banquet hosted by another FYs cousin.  Finally feeling well enough to drink a bit, but baijou was very strong.  After dinner, into the hotel room.  I begged off a visit to the cousin’s house, but the sisters and Chris went.  I was about to go to sleep at 10:30 when Yo texted me – smaller group of cousins and sisters out drinking at night market in street.   I went down and had a few bites and beers (they had ordered a mere 8 dishes to wash down the 3 liter beer pitchers… didn’t we just eat a banquet?), and finally slept well.

Thurs – set off for Zhangjiajie, in the mountains of Western Hunan.  Felt much better, but now, Oscar was sick.  2 hour bus ride to tourist town, dropped Yo and Oscar off in ratty hotel to spend the day while we met our guide and headed for the main attraction, the huge extrusions that inspired the movie Avatar. 

Non-stop movement (our guide urged us in English to “cherish the time” = hurry up).  In the bus, up the elevator, in the bus, through the trails.  Scenery incredible, but hard to appreciate fully.  Distracted by heat, crowds, etc.  Very few foreigners…Chinese tourists treated Ruby like an attraction, asking her to pose for pics.  Bus, then cable car, then bus down the mountain to the main bus, then straight to dinner, drop off Oscar at hotel then on to Cultural Show, which completely exceeded all expectations (cast of thousands on a mountain range, with lights and loud.  Audience almost as loud.  Main characters were “foxlet” and “foxy lady”; best line: “tonight I want to be my wife and for you to be your husband”).  Weird hotel problems (Oscar locked in his room, etc.), not entirely unexpected at dubious “four star” Chinese hotels (like since when do four star hotels automatically turn off the a/c at night?)

Fri – morning bus ride to forest walk, which was nice and cool.  Then to caves – absolutely incredible.  Long walk and boat ride, nice gardens outside.  Boozy late lunch, then sad farewell to Shushu and his wife and daughter.  Then bus back.  Everyone slept.

A Few Themes and Thoughts for the week:

• After almost 30 years with the family, I’ve discovered this athletic, competitive, hard-drinking side of the Wus.

Yo's 80 year old uncle still competes in and wins ping pong tournaments

• Toilets in China are always disgusting, no matter how fancy and modern the context.
• Hunan food is like the Southern cooking of China – oily, porky and heavy, but very satisfying.
• This pollution problem is really a much bigger deal than I had thought, and I already thought it was pretty bad.
• It’s amazing to think what Yo’s cousins and uncles/aunts have been through in China in the past 65 years since her parents left – from absolutely nothing and real privation into fully modern lives that actually look a lot like ours if you squint a bit.
• I feel very fortunate to have seen and experienced all this.  I'm sure 99% of foreign tourists never make it this far into China.