the long winded china stories

(part two)


the drivers weren't exactly sure of where the address i gave
them was. luckily i had the address written down in chinese.
but when i recognized the neighborhood from being here before
i had them stop. when i asked how much the cab was they said
for me to decide. i gave them 20 ruan i think. i instantly knew
i had given them too much by their expression but i had no real
knowledge of cab fares in china. in beijing i didn't take a real
cab. and the people just told me how much it would be. and they
had no meter. 20 yuan is like 3.50 in u.s. which isn't terribly
much but goes much further in china, especially for the common
person.

i exited the cab near an outdoor restaurant. some young
people said hello to me so i went over to them and showed them
where i wanted to go and they pointed me in the right direction.


on the stairs to tiger's apt. i met an old man who was tiger's neighbor.
he helped me to tiger's apartment. the gate was shut but i could
hear tiger teaching in one of the classrooms he has in his apt.
the old man opens the gate and lets me in. i go into the classroom
to say hello and just as i do i look at the students and the teacher
and realize this is not my friend tiger. the old man tells me to
sit down and tells me tiger will be back in a moment. i slump in
the chair and tiger shows up in a few minutes. his first words
being "god you look ugly" (i love you too. why are all my friends
so evil?). we then exchange stories about what had happened.
apparently the reason i couldn't get through on the phone was
that the city code has an extra digit when used within china as
opposed to when you call from outside of china. when he found out
how much i paid for the cab he told me i made that taxi driver
very happy. (ok, so actually he said "stupid! why did you do that??"
and i replied "someone didn't warn me!").

i spent a few days just hanging out with tiger in xuzhou and
meeting some of his students and friends. (it was summer break
but he teaches classes in his home to make extra money). and then
i was off to tian jin.

i had some american friends (mara and j'avex) doing a summer session
in tian jin so i went to see them. tiger took me to the train
where through connections he had gotten me a good seat on a train.
unfortunately my train was over two hours late. if it was going
to arrive at all. so they stuck me on another train bound for tian jin.
the only catch was that i ended up sitting in the dining car.
the whole 10 hour trip on a folding chair wondering if at any moment
someone was going to tell me i couldn't be there. this was a different
experience from the comfort of the train from beijing to xuzhou.
no a.c. just windows and fans. people smoking despite the no
smoking signs. the staff and the other passengers would throw
garbage out the window without any second thoughts. cigarette butts,
glass bottles, plastic bags...you name it. out it went.

when dinner time came two men sat across from me and a young
man sat next to me. we all recieved bowls of rice and their food
came first and they insisted i share there food. when i said
"xie xie" (thank you) they started to babble at me in chinese.
the only problem is my chinese is terrible. and i wasn't use to the
mainland accent which can be quite different from the taiwan accent.
the young man was a university student and knew a little english.
so between their bad english and my very poor chinese we were able
to have a conversation. the fact i had a dictionary with me helped
quite a bit as well. they asked me about the u.s. and how much money
people make a month and the bills. and what school i had gone to
in the states. i went to a small liberal arts college so of course
they had never heard of it. they also asked me about where we were
going and what i thought of china. they were very kind and told me
when my stop was.

when i got off the train i was happy to see my friends. the train
took longer than expected so i wasn't sure if they would still be
waiting or not. we took a cab back to there university where their
had helped them get me a room. they warned me not to open my window
because the smell from the sewer was immense.

the next day we and one of their classmates named
darryl took a train to beijing. a 2 hour ride. we met
someone who spoke english who helped us buy tickets
outside the station. people sell tickets outside the
station. i'm not sure if they are scalping or if they
are just to make it easier for certain destinations.
the man selling tickets wasn't too keen on selling
tickets to us since we were foreigners. but the man
we met had convinced him it was ok since we(er rather
my friends) were students.







part one
part three
part four
part five
home
site map
email me