November 8th-11th
The weekend after Kelsey’s birthday, we decided to head to
Chengdu. The goal was to see the pandas
because Kelsey is obsessed with them.
Also, my friend Tao lives there and I had been promising to visit since before
I came to China. So, I -with the help of
Team Lidu and our friend Madi- meticulously planned our trip. We booked hotels, purchased train tickets and
planned yummy treats for Kelsey.
Thursday night Molly, Matt, Kelsey, Madi and I piled into
Mr. Chen’s car and headed to the train station.
Although Mr. Chen is very kind and I appreciate the fact that the school
pays him to drive us around, I was incredibly annoyed when he pulled out his
phone and started showing us video that he had taken of the Chengdu pandas. This, of course, ruined the surprise that we
had worked so hard to conceal from Kelsey.
Kelsey was a good sport though and continued on as if she knew
nothing. Shortly after that brief
interlude of ruining, he drove us to the train station.
Unfortunately, our train was late so we got stuck waiting in
the station. Leave it to the westerners
to find crazy ways to entertain themselves.
Molly immediately pulled out a bottle of liquor that she had stowed
away. Meanwhile, I pulled out some
PB&J sandwiches so that we wouldn’t be total drunkies (See, Mom and
Dad! I am responsible . . .). Alas, the bottle was small (about the size of
a flask) and was soon gone. We went to
the little snack stores in the station and asked around. Apparently, it is illegal to sell hard liquor
inside the train station[i]. Anyway, we wandered into one of the little
stores and Matt, who speaks really good Mandarin, managed to find someone to
sell him liquor under the table.
Literally, he slipped it to Matt under the table, while I presumably
purchased some legal beverage items (Again, Mom & Dad, responsible. I’m keeping everyone fed and hydrated.). Victory was ours! We took our new treasure back to the others
and commenced merry making.
The train arrived and we all pushed through the mass of
people and loaded on to the train. Remember
that whole thing about no lines while shopping?
The same is true for trains.
Except that there are tons more people who are all carrying luggage
trying to shove through the same three exits.
Then, everyone begins frantically walking or running to the cars even
though there is plenty of time to get inside and sit down. It is quite a lot of fun actually. It’s like an obstacle course, may the best
shover win! After escaping from the mass of shovers, we got in our car, claimed
our seats and headed to Chongqing.
Initially, we were heading to Chongqing as a diversion maneuver so that
Kelsey would suspect that maybe we were not actually going to Chengdu
(Seriously, this was an elaborate operation.
There were code names and there was even double-speak. Curse you, Mr. Chen, curses!). However, that quickly changed and then
because our train was late we were unable to meet up with our Chongqing friends
anyway. We ended up checking in at our
hotel and then heading to McDonalds[ii]. We then ended up at this strange, low-key
bar. There were Christmas decorations
and pictures of Barack Obama on the walls. There was a karaoke room in one
corner, which was more like a small closet with glass walls, a TV, a couple of
chairs and two microphones. There were
TVs tastefully scattered throughout the rest of the bar so that the non-singing
patrons could watch the music videos and see the karaoke words as they listened
to the singer sing. After sitting for
some time, we finally convinced Madi to sing.
Shortly thereafter, we convinced Kelsey to sing a touching rendition of “My
Heart Will Go On.” This greatly pleased
the bar attendants and the patrons. We
then decided to call it a night and head back to our hotel. The next morning, after a rather satisfying
McDonalds breakfast (God, thank you for creating hash browns. Amen), we all went back to the train
station. Matt and Molly were on their
way back to Lidu and Madi, Kelsey and I headed towards Chengdu[iii].
Friday afternoon we arrived in Chengdu, and after briefly
getting lost, showed up at our hotel. The hotel was actually pretty nice. Hotels in China are strange places. They are cheaper and safer than hostels. However, every night someone (at almost every
single hotel we have been to) will slip little business cards with pictures of
women on them that you can pay to come “spend time with you.” Now, prostitution is super illegal in China
and sex is a taboo subject so I am not quite sure how this custom became so
popular. I think that it would be really
interesting to talk to these women.
According to a friend of mine, many of these women are university students. It’s not that I don’t understand the motives
for prostitution, it’s just that being a prostitute in a society where talking
freely in public about sex (especially for women) is frowned upon must be
hard.
Shortly after dropping our things, we visited a Starbucks. I know, I know, so much Western food! This trip was more of Western binge than anything
else. We were in the city so we took
advantage of that. Sometimes, you just
need to feel like your back home, so to Starbucks we went. Next we met up with
Tao. Tao went to Knox College in
Galesburg Illinois (for you, Roger Taylor!) with me and is a native of
Chengdu. Wonderful man that he is he
immediately supplied us with Tex Mex and then took us to a club that plays current
Western music, had Western bartenders, and was filled with other Westerners. Like I said, Western binge. It was really nice to not be the only
Westerners within a fifty mile radius.
In Lidu, we are the only ones so everywhere we go we get stared at or
asked a number of questions. It is
particularly hard for Kelsey because she has long, blonde hair and bright blue
eyes. We had a lot of fun dancing and
talking. It was super nice and relaxing
to know that we could dance or drink without being watched or accosted by
strangers.
Tao grabbed us a taxi and we all headed back to the
hotel. Sadly, tired and tipsy me left my
camera in the taxi L. Oh, well.
You win some and you lose some.
It was old and starting to act strange anyway. Besides, if I am going to pretend to be an
adult, then I should be more responsible for my things. Lesson learned.
The next day, we woke up and went straight to Starbucks for
coffee and cinnamon rolls. We then
hopped back on the metro, met up with Tao, and headed to the panda
reserve. It was everything that we had
dreamed of and more. Pandas are
adorable. The red pandas were even
cuter. They look like little foxes! Kelsey and the rest of us had a brief
conversation about whether she should steal one, but she decided that it would
be a bad idea and that China would probably frown upon that.
After a few hours at the panda place, Tao, Kelsey and I
headed back into the city. Madi went to
go visit some of her friends. We wandered
around Chengdu for a bit and then ended up at Pizza Hut for dinner. At which place, we introduced Tao to all the
wonders of stuffed crust. Tao then walked
us back to our hotel and we all said goodbye.
Sunday morning Kelsey and I met up with Madi and got on the
six-hour non-bullet train back to Fuling.
Chengdu was wonderful and I cannot wait to go back there. It is a fairly clean, relaxed, beautiful city
and I highly recommend going there. Everyone
was pleasant and I felt completely comfortable.
I had a great time and sincerely hope that I get a chance to spend more
time there than just one crazy weekend.[iv]
[i] Although,
it should be noted that public drinking is allowed in China and you will not
get in trouble for having an open bottle of alcohol with you. It is frowned upon to be drunk in public,
especially women. You can be drunk, but
you need to be a classy drunk.
[ii] I
hadn’t eaten McDonalds in almost two years.
It was heavenly. Never has a cheeseburger and fries been more loved than
these were.
[iii] I need to point out here that the
bullet trains in China are super nice.
Not only are the seats incredibly comfortable, but the bathrooms are
nicer than any train bathroom I have ever seen.
You know you have lived in China when you rate everything based on how
nice the bathroom is . . .
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