Racism in Linzhi

---

I'm currently watching a Bollywood song to the tune of a Tibetan song. The Chinese people who turned on the Bollywood song are too stupid to realize the two don't go together. The beats aren't even the same - that's part of the sad part. They think both are Hindi. Only the Tibetans and I are looking at each other like "this is interesting".

I finally got picked up from the hotel - 25 minutes late (time that I could have been sleeping). Only after we picked up another group of people did we find out it would take 11 hours to get to Linzhi - the town we were going for the day. I slept for a while wnd then woke up to find the most beautiful river ever in the midst of the mountains. I spent a long time staring at it and then we went down to an island in the river. When we got back on the bus I was almost immediately bored. There's a hot Malaysian guy behind me who played his MP3 for me and let me play Mario on his phone until he got a phone call. A bit later I wrote Michael a long text and Cam called me. I told him I was bored and he said "just sit there and miss me. You'll be there soon" I laughed and told him of course I missed him. Sitting in a beautiful place with him calling me just makes me miss him more. Now unfortunately our guide is talking into the microphone. Someone needs to teach her to pull it away from her mouth a bit or not to scream into it. These past couple days if anything happened wrong we couldn't hear him. Now I feel like I'm being screamed at every now and then. At least her screaming means we're almost there. And this time I'm not the only one on the bus who can't understand her fully - there are 3 Koreans who know absolutely no Chinese.

We just got out to see one of the oldest trees in China 2,600 years old. Vincent and I played up where the stairs ended. When I got back a woman from Hong Kong told me I don't speak like an American. My English is too formal. Not as much slang as she's used to with Americans. I guess my English has been forced to change over the past couple of years with being around so many people who didn't understand English and teaching it. I just never imagined it was really that different before. I've dropped most of the cuss words but we did that way back when I was a camp counselor. As for the rest who knows.

Wow; I just went to racist hell and back. Good morning sunshine! After dinner we went to check into our hotels. I got the good pick with the Malaysian, Japanese and 3 Koreans. We walked into the hotel to get our rooms and they gave us all keys - in rooms next to each other. We started walking up to our rooms when I was stopped "Can we see her foreign pass to be in LinZhi please?" I pulled everything out and found the photocopy of the pass that I was given. Immediately ruckous brokeout amongst the hotel manager and tour guides. "What happened? Why didn't they ask for ours too?" one of the Koreans asked. "Because you look Asian" someone said. "Oh!" they all laughed and told me it would be okay and went up to their rooms. The hot Malaysian guy stayed behind and I went to sit down. I knew the problem was that I was white and knew there wasn't a damn thing I could do but sit there and await the fates. Soon I was told the police often come to that hotel and I wouldn't be allowed to check in without the original pass - which the travel agency had and hadn't given me. Apparently LinZhi is more strict than other places because they rarely ever get foreigners. I heard the Malaysian guy say "Why is this happening here? It wouldn't happen in Malaysia." In the end the Malaysian guy came outside to bring me in. "I'll explain what happened." "I already know. I'm white." "No, they saw you were white and wanted to see your pass. They didn't ask for ours because we're Asian looking". It's times like this one that make me think back to all the random times in India when I hated my skin color and wanted to get rid of it. Fortunately I've either gotten used to it a bit or China is better than India in that respect but I don't have to feel that way as often here.

Now they've got me checked into another hotel that "doesn't look as carefully at the pass". That really makes me comfortable. Plus this hotel is very obviously not of the same standards as the other one. I don't know what I should do besides thank the Malaysian dude tomorrow - he took off after explaining things to me when I was trying to calm down - and of course insist they give me the original pass. Maybe some money? I don't know what I'll do.

Michael helped talk me through the whole thing. Merry helped a bit with the agency and I called Cam for technical emotional support. He was in a meeting but called when he got out. I got to talk to Eason too which was really great. Cam was funny as usual "what did I tell you about going to small places in the middle of nowhere? Of course there's going to be racism! Are you okay?" "Yea, I'm just worried about my safety." "Well go to another hotel." "That's the problem. They won't let me cause I don't have my real form I just have my fake one." "Okay well be careful. I'll see you next year" "Next year?" "Yeah, next year." I laughed and we both hung up. I just asked Shina to explain to him that I have to register with the police when I go to stay with him so hopefully the same thing won't happen. I asked her to explain cause I don't really know how to - especially if he asks me a question about it and I might not even know the answer to his questions when she will.

---