Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

When we first arrived in Dalian, we had good intentions of contacting our friend, Carolyn, who lives in the southern province of Guizhou in the city of Zunyi. Carolyn was the visiting Chinese teacher who lived with us in Portland for the 2005-2006 school year. Armed with only her email address, we were disappointed after numerous attempts to contact her were left unanswered. Of course, she had given us all her contact information, but it was sitting in storage in Portland. I racked my brain to see if there was anyone who would possibly have more information than us. My only hope was to go through AFS, the exchange program that facilitated Carolyn’s stay. Sally Ann, the volunteer coordinator, was thrilled to help, as she loves these kinds of reunions and had just the information we needed. The next day, I was able to call Carolyn at her home and began to make plans to visit her and her family. She had been expecting our call, but hadn’t checked her English email account in months. During her 10 months in the US, she left behind her husband and daughter, who is Saylor’s age. We were eager to meet them and her extended family. We coordinated our trip with our friend’s (Bill Geister) arrival. For the past few months, we’ve been asking parents and teachers about the dates for the kids’ last day of school. The frustrating reply was always, “We still haven’t been notified, but maybe around July 10.” We went ahead and made plans according to that information, only to find out that school didn’t officially get out until July 21! We ended up pulling them out early, but even that was very anticlimactic, since Lanie was the only kid in her class on the 16th! All the other families just stopped coming after final testing was finished.
Thursday night, July 15, Bill and I left on the overnight train to Beijing, with the rest of the family following the next night. We thought this was the best plan, since our family was in Beijing in May and already visited the main tourist attractions. Bill and my sleeper bunks were initially separated by 5 train cars, which would make meeting up the next morning very difficult. After I dropped him off in his car (there was a large group of teachers from Inner Mongolia who didn’t want to split up, but were kind enough to help him out), I went to see if there anyone on my car who was willing to trade. As I left, I tucked Mark’s business card with my cell number in his shirt pocket, and told him I felt like I was leaving my baby on the first day of kindergarten. He said I worried too much. In my car, a very nice woman asked if I could help her out. She had friends in Bill’s car and wanted to trade tickets! After the train started rolling, Bill was surprised when I showed up in his car, although he was doing just fine on his own. He’d been offered a middle berth (a very nice gesture, since we were only able to buy top berths which are even difficult for me to get in and out of), and by the morning, he’d made friends with the teachers, using the English teacher as the translator. As soon as the train rolled in, the rain started. By the time we got in line for a taxi, it was pouring. The taxi line wasn’t moving very quickly, so we floated to the subway ticket line which didn’t move at all (too many people cutting) and back to the taxi line. Apparently, indecision is my specialty! During this time, many entrepreneurs were approaching “the foreigner and his interpreter” offering to take us to our hotel for 100 RMB ($15 US or 5x the going rate). That just made us more determined to stand out in the rain! After we were thoroughly drenched, we decided to move away from the train station and see if we could snag a taxi at a hotel or on a busy street. After walking for about 20 minutes, we found an empty taxi. At first, the driver said that he couldn’t go to our hotel. We offered 50 RMB, but he said it wasn’t a money problem, but that he couldn’t go to our hotel. My imagination got away from me, and I started to think about the Chinese mafia and ancient lines that were drawn. He then offered to help us by making a phone call, and started to put our luggage in his car. It was only after the car started to move that I understood he was taking us to our hotel. In my limited Chinese, I had misunderstood “didn’t know how to get there” for “couldn’t go”. A simple phone call and a 10 minute taxi ride brought us right to the doorstep of our hotel (close to Tiananmen), and the driver would only charge us the metered fair of 20 RMB! After we dried out, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking in and around Tiananmen and the Forbidden City. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, but because of the rain and the late start, we decided to find an indoor activity for the evening. Our hotel was able to arrange tickets and transportation to the Beijing Acrobats. We had choices of tickets ranging from 180 to 680 RMB ($25 to $100 US), and were glad that we chose the cheap seats because we ended up in the sixth row with a perfect view. We were both in awe of the performance, especially since some of the performers were as young my kids’ age!
As I was brushing my teeth that night, I laughed out loud to myself, imagining Mark (the foreigner) and his four kids on the overnight train to Beijing. We are already a tourist attraction in and of ourselves, but a father with four kids must have been a sight! Their trip was uneventful, and we easily met up with them and our friends staying in Beijing (the Pan-Weiss family) at the train station the following morning. Georgette Pan graciously offered to charter a van to take our large group to a different section of the Great Wall that our family has not explored. It was a little further from Beijing, but the distance paid off in a smaller crowd at the Wall. Addison had a heat related problem on the climb up the wall (even though we took a cable car most of the way up), and it was amusing to watch several of the vendors attending to her like she was an empress. These same vendors followed us for a long length of the wall before applying carefully cultivated pressure to buy their wares. We escaped from their guilt trip only to find ourselves in another tourist trap: the zipline. Even though it was very expensive and was over too quickly, the kids and I felt like it was money well spent. Then, we took a short boat ride to meet up with Mark and Bill who had opted for cold beverages. Back in Beijing, we had just enough time to eat dinner and clean up in Georgette’s hotel room (conveniently located across from the train station) before we got on the train to Zunyi for 36 hours!
We spent two nights and 1 full day on the train. A group of kids from Zunyi who had been sightseeing in Beijing were scattered throughout the train, but we had 6 middle school boys in our car. They loved learning American card games and especially liked Coleman. This was so good for him, since most of his life has been lived surrounded by girls. Several times, Coleman felt the need to retreat to his bunk just to get some quiet time! We had to do some ticket swapping on this train, too, but it all worked out well. We had 7 lower and middle berths, in three adjacent compartments, but really wanted to have a whole compartment with 6 berths. During a long trip like this, the lower berths are used by all people in the compartment during the day, so it would be more convenient and private. Bill noticed that an older couple had top berths, and since his own experience was still fresh in his mind, he wanted to make sure they were able to have lower berths if they wanted. We ended up doing a three way trade with some of the school age boys, who can climb in and out of upper bunks with ease. The couple was so thrilled, they insisted on giving Mark some of the food they brought for the trip and wanted to pay the small difference in fare. He felt obligated to take the food, but turned down the money. The two hardest parts about such a long train ride are the squatter toilets and eating convenience food for 4 meals, but we managed to survive.
We were so excited to arrive in Zunyi. Carolyn and her daughter June (Fang Junqin) were at the train station to greet us. Based on the Chinese favor system, her cousin once removed was also there to act as our driver. We settled into our hotel, and were then treated to a feast at a famous local restaurant. In the afternoon, we had ice cream in Carolyn’s home. June came back to our hotel to play with our kids while the adults took naps. The whole time we were in Zunyi, we had a relaxed schedule. We had dinner at a delicious hot pot restaurant and were introduced to an old high school friend who was taking three days off from work to accompany us around Zunyi.
The highlights from Day 5 included a historical tour of the sight of the Zunyi Conference where Mao Zedong rose to power. We hadn’t realized what a significant role in communism this part of China played. We had another great meal at a local specialty restaurant. Zunyi is also called “oxygen city” because of all the beautiful green space. We “hiked” up a mountain, which had over 300 stairs and a paved road. When Carolyn lived with us, all of my cooking was compared to her mother’s. When I proudly served her my version of Chinese food to her, she took one bite and said, “This is not Chinese food.” After she left, I served the same food but called it “Chinese-American food”. Knowing what a food junkie (not to be confused with the junk foodie) I am, you can imagine my anticipation when I learned we were going to Carolyn’s mother’s house for dinner! She clearly spent a lot of time preparing for our visit. She says that she only spent 2 hours cooking, but there was much more prep time involved, probably days. All the stops were pulled for this meal. There must have been 12 different dishes cooked for over 25 people! Carolyn’s family is so large and tight-knit; we even met her 1st cousin twice removed, a cute little girl who was so shy while we were there, but cried when we left! The food was pretty exotic compared to American standards, and I could easily see why Carolyn didn’t think my cooking was authentic. None of the animal is wasted and many dishes used local ingredients such as a type of grass and garden fresh or preserved vegetables. As soon as we were done eating, I was shooed away from the table, and the women (some of whom I don’t think even ate) started clearing up the evidence of the meal.
On our third day (Day 6 in total) in Zunyi, we hiked in the Yunmentun Forest. Even though it was a long drive to get to the trail head, half of our group decided to stay with the cars. Saylor and Lanie were in this group with Carolyn’s family and niece. I allowed them to stay behind, because I knew that it would be good for their language skills as well as be a chance to bond with June. We saw some amazing wildlife, and it was enjoyable for those who went. We were invited to Carolyn’s older sister’s house for dinner, which is in the same complex as her mother and father’s home. We were again humbled by the amount and variety of food that she prepared. We were treated to salted duck eggs, chicken feet and smoked pigs’ ears, among other things. All members of Carolyn’s family were extremely warm hearted toward us and generous beyond belief.
Early on Day 7, my body strongly objected to something that I had eaten or drank. I wasn’t in any pain, but I was worried about the long car ride. We were heading south to the city of Guiyang, but our day trip was 2 ½ hours past the city. The trip was slow, with many long tunnels through mountains and winding roads around rivers and valleys, but it was beautiful country. We saw small mountains with rows of corn like stair steps up the side that were obviously being hand farmed. We stopped in Anshun for lunch, but I was just looking forward to the van emptying so I could get some uninterrupted sleep. Carolyn’s husband, Fang Yen, works for the national tax bureau. Mark, Bill and the kids were treated to a feast by several of his old classmates. (We were just starting to learn that he has old classmates in every city in the province.) We finally arrived at the Huangguoshu Waterfalls. A lot of money has been invested in making this area accessible to tourists. We walked behind the massive (both wide and tall) waterfall which is the site of the famous Monkey King stories. We had planned to see this area in one day, but ended up only seeing one of the three parts. The ride back to Guiyang was long, especially knowing that we would drive the distance again the next day to finish seeing the sites. It was important to go back to Guiyang (rather than stay locally), because another of Fang Yen’s classmates had arranged a meal at a beautiful restaurant. The display of fresh food was so large, that it almost felt like a zoo. I don’t think we actually ate any alligators, sea turtles, snakes or various large creatures, but they were fun to see.
The next day, in addition to seeing more beautiful waterfalls, we got to explore some ancient caves. I tried to convince the kids that the first huge cave was the scene from the 6th Harry Potter book, but only Coleman believed me (we hadn’t seen the movie yet). The Dragon Cave was our next stop. It is famous because you enter by boat. The girls and I couldn’t help but sing “It’s a Small World” as we entered; we figured since everyone was already staring at us, we might as well give them a good reason. Even though we were at the premier tourist attractions for the region, most of these people have never seen a foreigner. Many people stopped to ask questions and take the kids’ pictures. We had the local hot pot for dinner, which was a sour soup with fish, tofu and vegetables. The taste was so familiar and delicious, but I couldn’t put my finger on it at first. It reminded me of fruit loops. After translating back and forth, and actually seeing the bottle of oil that gave the soup its flavor, we realized that it was lemon grass oil (commonly used in Thai food).
Our last day in Guiyang was very relaxed. Late in the morning, we met up with one of Fang Yen’s colleagues (who had previously treated us to dinner) and his family in the old section of Guiyang. Through his connections, we received free admission which included a tour guide. Our group of 15 had such a diverse set of interests ranging from learning history to buying souvenirs that our guide gave up on us after about 30 minutes. Yet another of Fang Yen’s colleagues and husband treated us to the biggest feast of all with so many local dishes that it looked like a freshly set table even when we were all stuffed. We returned to Zunyi for the night, preparing for our trip back to Dalian.
The original plan to get to the airport in Chongqing, three and a half hours from Zunyi, was to ride a shuttle bus. Our problem was that there was no student discount for me and the kids, making it exorbitantly expensive. Fang Yen graciously volunteered to drive us there, hoping to make it back to Zunyi in time for June’s 11th Birthday party that evening. The plan deviated again with Saylor and Bill going to Xi’an to visit the terracotta warriors while everyone else went back to Dalian.
I’ve always wanted to take a transportation vacation, and this was probably as close as I’ll ever come. We chose to take the train on the way down south for two reasons. First, it allowed us to stop and do some sightseeing in Beijing. Second, and more importantly, we could really see China as we passed from city to city. The kids were able to visualize the distance (literally and figuratively) between our lives in Dalian and our destination. By flying home, we squeaked out as much time on our trip as possible. Mark had to be to work the very next day, and our friend Michele was due to arrive in Dalian the next evening for more adventures.