Advertisement
Published: March 21st 2011
Edit Blog Post
"....why they changed it, I can't say. People just liked it better that way."
When I took the job I am now doing here, this city was called Xiangfan, within a week it had decided to change it's name to Xiangyang. Now, I'm not saying these two things are related, they're almost certainly not, but (they're not) it would be quite a good way (they're not) to drum up some publicity (they're not) before a big event, wouldn't it? Like I say, though, it's probably just a coincidence, I'm sure these things happen all the time.
Unnecessary and humourless dick-swinging* aside, the weird thing about it is that the reason it was changed, according to everyone I've spoken to, is that Xiangyang is a better known name in China (because there is a another city called Xianyang, which, unsurprisingly is pronounced exactly the same as Xiangyang) and this will help to put the city on the map a little bit more. As far as I can tell this isn't a joke because I've spoken to quite a few different local people about it and they have all said the same thing, and, with no hint of a smile told
me that it is a good thing and that it will help the city in lots of different ways, and none of them have understood my confusion about how it can possibly help in any way to have the same name as a bigger, better known place. Isn't it a bit like Lincoln renaming itself London to try and trick people into going there?
The fact is that it's a fantastic city in it's own right and it actually seems a bit wrong to me that everyone thinks it was necessary.
There are about 600,000 people in the actual city and a further four and a half million or so in the surrounding area, making it bigger than Costa Rica and not all that far behind London, although as you'll appreciate, in Chinese terms this is tiny. A point which was proved by the fact that of everyone I told I was coming here, including people who live in China, only one person had heard of it. Hi Terry.
One of the things I read about the place before getting here was that the city has an intimate feel to it. Obviously, this sounds ridiculous in a
place with so many people in it, but it is true, and I think it's down to the friendliness of the people who live here. I have lost count of the amount of people who've come up to us in the street, down by the river, or when we've been sitting in the square minding our own business and just started talking in broken English. Some have asked about us and why we are here, some have asked about England, and others have just said 'Welcome to China' and 'I hope you like my city'. I couldn't imagine this happening in any other place I've ever visited. Even more than this, people on the street, of all ages, just say 'Hello' as you walk past them. Clearly we stand out like sore thumbs here - I haven't seen a Westerner who wasn't one of the other four teachers at the same school as me since I got here - but people walking, or riding bikes, or even people stuck in traffic jams, just shout 'Hello' to us as we walk past. It's about a five minute walk from my flat to work, and this probably happens three or four times
on that journey everyday. Amazing. Even a few weeks in it still makes me smile.
The flip side of that coin is that the people who don't say Hi, do have a tendency to stare, because as I said, they simply don't see Westerners here and so I guess it'd be like seeing an Eskimo or a giraffe walking through the middle of Leeds. You can try and be as cool as you want but you know you'd look. Strangely though, even that happens in a friendly way. It's staring in a double-take kind of way, rather than a Friday night in Yates' manner and I've actually come to find it quite endearing to the point where I now just smile and wave, which sometimes gets me a wave and a Hello back, and sometimes just seems to bemuse them more and results in a 'shit, I think it's trying to communicate with us' look coming to their face.
At the risk of sounding gushing, one of the most beautiful and heart-warming things I have ever seen happens in the People's Square most evenings. The square is a reasonable size, probably similar to Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester, and
attached to it is a kind of park with people playing table tennis, doing Martial Arts stuff (sometimes with what look like swords!) and what I have been assured is a haunted house. All in all it's a lovely place to live over the road from, particularly if you like people-watching** What happens in the evenings makes it even more brilliant. From nowhere, in the middle of the general hustle and bustle, someone will turn up with a wooden cart (like in a Western) that will have a stereo and speakers attached to it (not like in a Western). The person who owns the cart will then start playing music - really loud music, usually some kind of modern dance stuff although I have heard American Pop and Bhangra too - and then starts doing what is best described as line-dancing to the beat. Then, and this is the brilliant bit, other people walking past start to join in. I think they pay one Yuan for the privilege (about ten pence) and then they join the group. Last week we sat down on a bench just as it was starting and within three songs there were nearly thirty dancers. Every song has a routine and it all seems to be totally unspoken, no one tells anyone what to do, they just know. Locals who were watching with us told us that it is for 'old people' (their words, not mine) and is a kind of keep fit exercise thing. The range of ages seemed pretty big to me though, probably mid thirties up to eighty odd. There were three of these going on in the square on that night and everytime I've been through at dusk-time, the same three have been there, each with thirty or forty dancers looking like they're having the time of their lives. I was thinking of buying my own cart and stereo and introducing them to joys of line-dancing to Belle and Sebastian and R.E.M, not sure how to establish myself and break into the market though - maybe a namechange would do it.
Pura Vida
Dave
*my spellcheck didn't recognise this as a real word so it suggested carol-singing as an alternative.
** being nosey.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.083s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 14; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0568s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Chris Lloyd
non-member comment
china in your hand
the first of Dave's travelogues I've read. Dave the holiday programme awaits! Sounds amazing and written with same humour we all miss at 2hr (that's the hospital radio Dave) lol anyway there's always a song in the air and you do truly seem to have china in your hand. I could add some pics of Huddersfield but just doesnt seem to have the same ring Xiangyang. Keep on trekkin (I know) Chris