After a long day of flying and running around Beijing, I had past out into a deep sleep. I slept late which was nice but had to check out of the hotel by 12pm. I ate lunch in the lobby restaurant and had the most delicious spicy beef ever. The Chinese food is just so delicious it's indescribable! I waited around the outside of the train terminal where it finally hit me that I was the only Caucasian/foreigner in immediate view; it felt good to be a stranger in a strange land, completely isolated by a language barrier. I headed up to my train terminal, after going through security, where I would proceed to wait for the next several hours, reading and studying to pass the time.
On my way up I had to look at the departure board to figure out which terminal was mine. I asked a nice gentleman who luckily spoke decent English and he walked me to the staging area for his was right next to mine. Then it hit me how nice the people here are. In the subway I had three different FEMALES offer to carry my fifty pound bag for me even if only for a short while (yes they were sincere and not just looking to latch onto a foreigner). Then I met the lady at the train station who literally walked me right up to the counter of the hotel. Now this guy was willing to walk me to my staging area and show me exactly where I needed to be and through which door my train would board. I was very thankful to have had such help to get me this far.
While waiting I read nearly half the book I had brought, studied enough Chinese to drive one crazy, and watched this repetitive video that included old scenes of Charlie Chaplin that never got old. It was actually a great time just observing the people and culture. I love how most males will rest their legs by simply squatting, and staying there for lengths at a time. I fortunately had a seat and didn't have to pull the old Chinese squat. It just looks so funny!
Finally the sun had set and my train was ready to board; you would have thought they were giving away free iPhones on the other side the way people were crowding the gates. It was a free-for-all to which I used my bags and size to straight-up clobber people out of the way to get through. One fellow showed me which car I was on and I successfully found my seat. I quickly threw my bags above before space was gone and settled in the middle seat between to hombres. I was glad I boarded towards the front for a shoving match had actually broken out between one of the train attendees and a passenger as to whether or not his bag was going to be stowed above or on his lap. It was quite the scene!
I soon realized that when they say 'hard seat' they mean 'HARD SEAT'. My butt was sore before we even left! I was so happy though once we finally did leave that I knew it was going to be hard to sleep. It was night-time so I couldn't see a thing but it was fun being on this train (at least at first). I felt like I was back on the PLNU bus headed for Fresno for a track meet; everybody just piled in, laughing having a good time. Then when it came time to sleep, everybody struggled. People were literally sleeping standing up, sitting down, on the floor, on each other! It was ridiculous. I just put my backpack in my lap and laid my head forward onto it and was actually able to get spurts of sleep. One hour here, 45 minutes there... I made due.
I survived the first night and was so excited to see China by day and without smog! But then as the sun rose I realized that the smog was still very present despite being some 7-8 hours outside of Beijing. I was depressed :(! My whole intent for taking the train was to see the countryside and all I could see was smog for days.
I had fun though trying to communicate with my seat mates and learning Chinese. They were all very nice people (go see my Facebook pictures!). Back in Beijing I was told that the train would take 30 hours. Another person told me 48 and another 27. So I was positive and thought 30 hours, I can do this! All told the train trip took 46 hours 19 minutes as we traversed the countryside. Finally about 23 hours into it we started to see some beautiful rolling hills covered in lush green foliage. Although still smoggy it was quite a sight. It was interesting seeing all of the little villages along the way. Unfortunately, I came to the conclusion that the Chinese either don't believe in perfection, or simply can't afford it. Everywhere I saw garbage cluttered about; construction sites that were abandoned leaving tons of scrap metal and garbage everywhere; unpaved roads and less than desirable living conditions. We in the US have the luxury of perfection where things get done and get done right. We have manicured lawns, perfect designer kitchens, and excellent infrastructure. These are just a few of the many observations I had along the way.
The last 5 hours of our trip was just breathtaking as we neared Kunming. The countryside was gorgeous and reminded me of the Yampa Valley in NW Colorado. Flowing waves of grain and beautiful little cottages were everywhere. The air was clean and clear and the colors were full in the fall season. I was relieved to know I was going to be living in such a beautiful place. For the past 46 hours and 19 minutes, I had subjected myself to complete isolation (mentally), complete discomfort, and complete anxiety. Yet as tired as I was, I am so grateful to have had this experience. Mark Twain once said that "A man who carries a cat by its tail learns something he can learn in no other way." That's sort of how I feel about this trip. The train ride was complete and I had arrive in Kunming! The girl who sat in our section had given me a little souvenir of the Great Wall before we departed. We had all become as close as strangers can within 48 hours and I really enjoyed laughing with these people. Once again I was floored at the generosity and kindness. With the trip over, it was time to find my apartment and meet my new roommates!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
My Arrival in Beijing
I've finally found a proxy server to access my own blog, yay! For those who are unaware, the Chinese government blocks several websites including Facebook, MySpace, Youtube, and recently Blogger. But as always there are ways around it and I've finally found one.
Anyways...
I arrived in Beijing after a pleasant 12 hour flight from San Francisco on a beautiful day. Beijing can get very smoggy (LA X 10) but when I arrived we could actually see some blue sky. We got in around 2:30pm giving me plenty of time to make the 7 o'clock train I was hoping to catch headed for Kunming. I took the Beijing lightrail (subway, whatever you want to call it) shluffing all 85+ pounds of my crap all the way across town. One and a half hours later I had reached the station where I needed to get off.
Walking up to street level some older Chinese man saw me carrying all of my stuff, ran down, grabbed my 50 pound duffel bag and helped me the rest of the way. It was a very nice gesture but then, as he reached the top of the stairs he just turned the corner and headed off towards the taxi's (yea, I guess I kind of stick out and perhaps look like a sucka). He flagged down a man on a little bike/rickshaw thing and just through my bag in the back of it. I had kept up though and knew he wasn't going anywhere for I had mentally gotten myself into track mode! It was all good though; I showed the cyclist on a map where the train station was and he already seemed to know that's where I was headed. I barely fit in this thing with all three of my bags but held on for dear life as this man motored me the one mile distance to the train station via little ally-ways. It was finally nice to just sit back and take in Beijing as the sun was getting lower. The people are fascinating and so are their ways of life.
He finally came to an abrupt halt where I proceeded to unload, practically tumbling out of his rickshaw. I paid him the 10 kuai ($1.50) it cost for the little ride and made my way towards the train station. I was glad I had made it this far with no hassle and was hoping to get a little further by catching this train.
Fortunately it wasn't too crowded at the ticket counters so I didn't have to wait that long. I was two hours early and couldn't wait to get on my sleeper train to conk out. Then the lady at the ticket counter, who actually spoke English (thank goodness) informed me that all trains to Kunming were full until the next night!! I was losing daylight and didn't know what to do; finally I just decided that the next day was my only choice. So I booked the ticket, which was a hard seat (there are four different ways to ride the train; listed from best to worst: soft sleeper, hard sleeper, soft seat, and :( hard seat. I also noticed that I was on the train K471 which is worse than the train T61 (I'll tell ya how worse in my next post). Now it was time to find a hotel.
A nice lady outside the terminal figured out my gestures and body language attempts to communicate 'hotel' and walked me right up to the front desk of one that was attached to the train station. It was only $50 for the night which was great. Everything here is cheap cheap. I cleaned up and went exploring a little; I found a grocery store and loaded up with two loaves of bread and 4L of water for the train ride. I wasn't sure if food was readily offered on the train nor how much it would cost. After checking the place out I came back to nestle in for the night. I had traveled some 6,000 miles and had a few more to go. I was anxious for the coming day but excited at what might happen on this adventurous train ride!
(See Facebook for pictures... although I am ONLY using Facebook to share pictures and not to communicate)
Anyways...
I arrived in Beijing after a pleasant 12 hour flight from San Francisco on a beautiful day. Beijing can get very smoggy (LA X 10) but when I arrived we could actually see some blue sky. We got in around 2:30pm giving me plenty of time to make the 7 o'clock train I was hoping to catch headed for Kunming. I took the Beijing lightrail (subway, whatever you want to call it) shluffing all 85+ pounds of my crap all the way across town. One and a half hours later I had reached the station where I needed to get off.
Walking up to street level some older Chinese man saw me carrying all of my stuff, ran down, grabbed my 50 pound duffel bag and helped me the rest of the way. It was a very nice gesture but then, as he reached the top of the stairs he just turned the corner and headed off towards the taxi's (yea, I guess I kind of stick out and perhaps look like a sucka). He flagged down a man on a little bike/rickshaw thing and just through my bag in the back of it. I had kept up though and knew he wasn't going anywhere for I had mentally gotten myself into track mode! It was all good though; I showed the cyclist on a map where the train station was and he already seemed to know that's where I was headed. I barely fit in this thing with all three of my bags but held on for dear life as this man motored me the one mile distance to the train station via little ally-ways. It was finally nice to just sit back and take in Beijing as the sun was getting lower. The people are fascinating and so are their ways of life.
He finally came to an abrupt halt where I proceeded to unload, practically tumbling out of his rickshaw. I paid him the 10 kuai ($1.50) it cost for the little ride and made my way towards the train station. I was glad I had made it this far with no hassle and was hoping to get a little further by catching this train.
Fortunately it wasn't too crowded at the ticket counters so I didn't have to wait that long. I was two hours early and couldn't wait to get on my sleeper train to conk out. Then the lady at the ticket counter, who actually spoke English (thank goodness) informed me that all trains to Kunming were full until the next night!! I was losing daylight and didn't know what to do; finally I just decided that the next day was my only choice. So I booked the ticket, which was a hard seat (there are four different ways to ride the train; listed from best to worst: soft sleeper, hard sleeper, soft seat, and :( hard seat. I also noticed that I was on the train K471 which is worse than the train T61 (I'll tell ya how worse in my next post). Now it was time to find a hotel.
A nice lady outside the terminal figured out my gestures and body language attempts to communicate 'hotel' and walked me right up to the front desk of one that was attached to the train station. It was only $50 for the night which was great. Everything here is cheap cheap. I cleaned up and went exploring a little; I found a grocery store and loaded up with two loaves of bread and 4L of water for the train ride. I wasn't sure if food was readily offered on the train nor how much it would cost. After checking the place out I came back to nestle in for the night. I had traveled some 6,000 miles and had a few more to go. I was anxious for the coming day but excited at what might happen on this adventurous train ride!
(See Facebook for pictures... although I am ONLY using Facebook to share pictures and not to communicate)
Monday, October 19, 2009
A Leap Of Faith
So life begins... I mean the first 20 some odd years are really just a learning phase in life. Now with my degree in hand, supposedly I've acquired a 'higher' education and have learned a sufficient amount of knowledge to make it on my own. And even though school may be out for my peers and me, it seems that humans never stop learning. But now its time to start applying what we've learned; and if there's one thing I've learned it's that life is too short to deny myself the pleasure of discovering the many different cultures, languages, and landscape that this world has to offer. So why settle down and deny my passion of adventure...
Yes, you can make life work just about anywhere. If I so desired to stay within my comfort zone among my family and friends, I could. But since life doesn't always go to plan, we must take the doors that are open to us even if it's uncomfortable. Therefore I'm off to Kunming, China for a life adventure as many of you now know.
I’ve decided that human beings without question have free will within the confines of God’s great, mysterious ways. I’ve prayed for some decision to magically pop up in front of my face that I could easily grab. But God has provided too many options for me with very little guidance.
That’s where the Leap of Faith comes in…
No matter what we do in life (as long as we give it our best efforts), God will always be there to support us. I have no clue what my living situation will be like or what I will do to earn an income; but I know that if I take the leap, God will catch me.
So I’m off… I don’t know when I’ll be back but trust me friends when I say that God is with us each and every day whether we sense Him or not. If you are afraid of making a big life decision right now... follow your heart, relax, put your faith in God, and take a Leap of Faith!
Night fisherman on the Li River
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