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Published: August 6th 2006
Well actually that's not quite accurate. It's more a case of "Chinese people say no"
China is an amazing place - a land of extreme contrast. Surrounding endless mammoth cities is lush empty countryside. The filthy rich mingle amongst the plain filthy. And for every one person who wants to befriend or help us there's hundreds who would rather walk away.
Of course when people can't or won't help us it's generally because we can't communicate in the same language. However it can lead to some pretty frustrating situations. Today for example we wanted to book a train ticket from Zheng Zhou to Beijing. I went to two places that book train tickets. One said there's a train tomorrow night at 9pm, but you'll have to come back tomorrow to see if there's tickets. The other place just said no. I went online & checked - there's actually 25 trains a day!
So we got a bus here to Zheng Zhou & bought a ticket. We just have to wait 10 hours until it departs. As it happens to balance this morning's frustration I just met a very helpful guy who helped me out at left luggage. He'll never know how great an impact he's had on me, but moments like that restore your faith in the human race.
Travelling in China on a low budget & with very little vocabulary can be a challenging experience. Here's a snapshot of a period of about 24 hours from a few weeks ago that sums up much of what we are experiencing here:
We loved Yangshuo. Although full of tourists everywhere & locals desperate to sell to the crowds it is a generally friendly & welcoming place. The surrounding scenery is magnificent. The food was divine. The accommodation was even cheap.
We haven't made many friends since we left NZ, but perhaps the best friends we have are in Yangshuo. Vicky from a neighbouring province works at the Green Lotus Cafe & Xiao Di from a tiny village is a bicycle guide.
We spent many hours talking, eating & drinking tea at the Green Lotus, and when we left both Vicky & Xiao Do gave us presents. We felt sad to be moving on.
Around 12 hours later we arrived back in Guangzhou. Our purpose was to meet Kylie's Dad, Ting, who was travelling by train from Nanjing - around 32 hours away. We knew the number of the train he was on. We knew (we thought) the time it should arrive. We booked into an overpriced hotel with the most depressing bathrooms we've seen yet (part of YHA as it happens).
Our rendezvous point was outside KFC, an obvious & easy to find landmark visable from the railway station. The hotel we booked into was next door - it couldn't have seemed easier.
The train was due just after noon. By two o'clock there was still no Ting. By now we'd tried the obvious - we went into the station a few times, we tried to ask people, we tried to look at timetables & noticeboards. I thought I'd worked out from a timetable of another train that he should really be arriving about 6pm, so over the next few hours we went back & forth to the station trying to find someone who would help. Not one person would.
I asked at our hotel. I asked at three other hotels that all booked trains. No one wanted to help.
I found a travel agency. I entered & saw a few people waiting to be served. However the people behind the desks were all slouched back, eyes closed & lifeless. For a moment I thought that they were all dead. But no they were all sleeping - oblivious to the waiting customers. I asked if they booked trains. They did. I asked if they had a timetable. They did. But as soon as I explained that I needed to find out what time a train arrived the timetable had vanished.
When I asked at our hotel if ANYONE in this city of over 3 million people could help us, the answer was as usual 'no'
Although there's 123 million internet users in China, it can be hard to find it. All I needed to do was check a timetable. So I resorted to sending a text to New Zealand. Not long later I had an answer (thanks Mark & I hope the potatoes weren't too burnt).
We finally knew when Ting was due. He was no longer lost.
Six o'clock came & went. Seven o'clock came & went. Still no Ting. This time we started to worry. Still no one would help though. We asked again at our hotel if this was definately the right station. They said no we were at the wrong one.... even though they'd told us earlier it was the right one.
As you can perhaps imagine, we were by now just a little frustrated. We decided to go to the other station, even though if Ting had arrived there he would probably have given up waiting for us.
In case you are wondering, we seemed to have no way of contacting him. We sent numerous texts but were getting none back. Kylie tried to ask at reception about making a call to him, but the five girls behind the counter ignored her. Eventually we did call but his phone wasn't working.
The other station was much nicer. However there was no sign of Ting & we had no obvious next step to take - either tonight or the next day. Our entire trip up until now had been planned around meeting him here & now in China.
It seems that whenever we are at our wits end there will normally one person who pulls through for us (I hope I'm not speaking too soon as we still have a long way to go). Someone was determined to book us into a hotel. They didn't understand that we were looking for a person, not a room. Then along came the man who gave us the only concise & genuinely believable response all day. Nanjing trains did not come to this station & there was definately not a KFC here. We may not have found Ting but at least we knew where to look.
We went back, went to bed & hoped for the best. The next morning we discovered that not only had we been 6 hours early for the train, but it had also been delayed & was 6 hours late. Ting had arrived just after we went to bed.
We have come across plently of other helpful & friendly people too. One woman let us share her taxi & paid for it too. Others have given directions that have saved hours if not days of being lost. In some places we've found the whole town or city to be welcoming.
Of course if we could speak more Chinese it would be a lot easier. Kylie's made a lot of effort to communicate & her language skills here are far better than she will admit to. We are of course wallowing in our own ignorance - expecting it to be easier than it should be. After all, why should we expect people to talk English & be nice to us?
Frustrating as it may seem, there's many many cultural differences that are all so small in their own right. However put them together & you realise that the Chinese people are not really the most infuriating people on the planet, rather they are the most tolerant on the planet. What seems like complete total & utter selfishness is actually complete total & utter tolerance. These people will tolerate just about anything from each other. Here's a few of the things that drive us mad that may seem perfectly normal to a billion other people....
Spitting
You may have heard about spitting in China - it's almost like an olympic sport. Perhaps not the Olympics, more the Grammys because it's the sound not the distance that count. Maybe later tonight, perhaps when cleaning your teeth you could try to spit for me. As you do, listen to the sound. You'll probably find there's not much to it. However these people have managed to develop the most incredibly vile chhhhhhrrrssssssshhhpppttttttttttit sound that lets everyone in a good 100m radius know that it's coming. Spit on roads I can handle. Spit in bins is okay. But they will spit anywhere - indoors or outdoors. In fact people sat next to us here & now have been happily spitting while I write about it. Put your bag down without checking & you'll most likely pick it up & find spit on it.
Staring
I'm not that bothered by the staring - you do get used to it. It just seems odd - a few years back you didn't see many white faces in China (except a few Russians) so staring seemed more appropriate but now there's not just white faces here, but also all over the tv & magazines. Sadly the stare is just that - a gormless & sometimes accusing stare. Rarely is it a friendly or smiling one. The easiest way to deal with an unwanted stare is to stare right back or shout Ni Hao Ni Hao! It normally stops the stare or breaks the ice.
Traffic lights
Okay, I know that people across Asia & (many other places) ignore traffic lights. But here it seems to have gone to an extreme. Red lights & pedestrian crossings are just for show, not literal use. We have been known to gently shove a few motorbikes that have crossed our paths at crossings - perhaps they'll think twice next time. There is one great place - Nanjing Road in Shanghai, which is supposed to be the central shopping area in the city. It's been turned into a pedestrianised walkway - however they forgot to close off the side streets. Hence thousands of people walk up & down the street thinking it is safe from the insane cars, bikes & busses, when in fact there's traffic crossing every few hundred metres. There are of course pedestrian crossings but the people don't expect them as it's pedestrianised & the cars of course ignore them.
Beeping Horns
Again, common across Asia, but again a new extreme - in fact I would bet money that some of these horns have been modified to record breaking levels. As no one looks where they are going when walking or driving it is perhaps essential to constantly toot on your horn. The other day we were waiting for a bus so I thought I'd count the number of beeps I heard. They averaged around one every other second. Imagine hearing a horn every other second. And these are not just your average toot. This is toot toot toot, or TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT or both. When a bus passes through a sleepy village in the middle of the night it tends to hold the horn down for the whole journey through, just to let them know it's there. No wonder people are all leaving the villages.
Toilets
I won't dwell on this as some people may be offended. Needless to say that toilet habits leave a lot to be desired. Perhaps my favourite is the guys that couldn't wait for the 'queue' so rather than nip out to the bushes went there & then on the toilet floor.
Pushing, shoving & queues
Got a train ticket with an allocated seat? Then surely whenever you board the seat will still be there? Best you still push & shove with all of your force as soon as the gate opens. Want to get on the underground? Best push & shove with all of your might against those disembarking rather than let them get off first. Need help at the bank? No need to wait in line, just push in front of the person already being served. What's more bizarre is that the teller will stop serving the intitial person serve the intruder! I really am surprised by the sheer force people will use against you. Fortunately, although our backpacks are heavy & bulky, they make excellent weapons in crowds & 'queues' People will ALWAYS push in front of you if they can - wherever it may be.
Noise
You could cross reference this with all of the above (yes, including toilets). Here's perhaps my favourite episodes so far:
Sleeper Bus - as you may expect, this is a bus that you sleep on. They travel overnight & can be surprisingly comfortable. On our most recent journey the driver kindly turned off the tv soon after dark came. For the next 10 or so hours he shouted at his handful of buddies that were sat next to him at the front. I see no reason at all why they couldn't talk, they were side by side. But no, they shouted & while we tried to sleep. Of course he was tooting on that horn the whole way too.
Pillow Fight - another overnight journey, this time on a train. We were in bunks, I was lucky enough to be surrounded by half a dozen teenagers. Lights go out, people go to bed. The teenagers play music, giggle a lot & at around 2am start a pillow fight. Apart from the noise I also repeatedly get hit on the head.
Jingle Bells & Scarborough Fair - every so often a random piece of music will make it's way into your subconcious. It normally takes a few hours to realise that reason you are still humming it is because a rubbish truck or ice cream van outside your window has been playing that same piece of music over & over again for the past few hours.
Other sounds that we'll never forget are that of a lady eating a pear as if she were slurping an ice cream as big as she was, a woman being sick on a bus & of course the cellphones. Why talk when you can shout!? Especially when people are trying to sleep.
Being ignored - shops, ticket booths, you name it, we've probably been ignored there. Perhaps sometimes because they are intimidated by us, but often because they are busy sleeping, texting or gossiping.
At times I think part of me loves the way people are so tolerant of each other. Other times it drives me insane. Is it because there's so many people that it's like this? Is it because of the past? Was I more tolerant last time I was here? Has it changed? Will it change in time for the Olympics? It's just the way the country is though & I'm trying to accept it (& help Kylie to too). Despite these things I know it's a stunning place. We've seen amazing sights & met great people. Even if most of the time we seem to be on a train, bus or waiting for one there's something special about not knowing what will be outside the window the next time you look -lush paddy fields, mountains or another nameless city. Some of the best people are those who speak no English but are determined to help us - through our phrasebook, sign language or pictures. They make it all worthwhile.
As I mentioned before, we haven't seen much internet - hence I haven't published any blogs lately. Lots of internet bars were closed down, officially not because of censorship as you may expect but because people kept dying in them (incidentally you'd be shocked at what people are looking at all around us...). Hopefully normal service will soon be resumed!
Tomorrow we'll be in Beijing. If you want any Maomorabilia get your orders in fast!
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Chris Good
non-member comment
"Get your orders in..."
1 Panda please.... ;)