Traveling West in China
Traveling in China in 1990 was a far different experience from traveling in today’s China. In 1990, I returned to China and traveled west with two college-aged friends I had met the year before.
Xian has been a very happy place for all of us. We hooked up with three boys from Hong Kong and a Japanese girl who was assigned as my roommate in the hotel. One joy of traveling is the serendipity of these instant, congenial, short-term relationships that form between tourists. We ate tons of delicious watermelon to cool ourselves in this horrendous heat. I also saw here something I haven’t seen in other parts of China. Prostitutes surrounded the hotels. I probably wouldn’t have noticed because they didn’t look very different from any other Chinese girls, but the boys picked them out easily.
I have had the longest, hottest, dirtiest trip of my life getting to Lijiang in Yunnan Province. We took the train from Xian to Chengdu where we got off for a few hours and tried to eat. However, the food in this part of China is much too spicy for any of us to eat. As a matter of fact, the boys really haven’t enjoyed any of the food since we left Hangzhou. It’s too different from what they’re used to. We boarded another train for Jinjiang. And, we arrived at Jinjiang just in time to catch the ten-hour bus trip to our destination, Lijiang in Yunnan Province.
Although we were thoroughly exhausted, the bus ride to Lijiang was spectacular, with gorgeous terraced rice fields and banana trees, interesting villages and minority folk along the way. Our bus driver must have been practicing for a race because he sped along wildly with me hanging out the window snapping pictures as we careened around curves. In a remote area, we had to rest because the driver had blown out two tires. Since he only had one spare, we had to wait until another bus came by and loaned us another one.
After days on trains, my main need was for a shower. We were able to get into a dormitory, but the group showers with hot water had been turned off for the night. Very early the next morning, I woke the boys up and we moved to another place where I got a double for them and a single room for me. It wasn’t the right time for showers there either. Chinese believe that people should shower in the evening before bed. The western habit of showering in the morning, or perhaps twice a day, makes no sense to them. However, I took thermos bottles of hot water for drinking and washed my filthy hair. The basin turned positively black with dirt.
Once we all recovered from the rigors of getting to Lijiang and were once again clean, we looked around and saw what a nice city it was. Lijiang has a charming old city with a large population of a minority called Naxi. It’s one of the few matriarchal societies. Thankfully, it was also cool in Lijiang, so cool in fact that I bought a sweater for Russell and a jacket for Richard.
Our spirits soared up into the deep blue sky and the marvelous mountains. We breathed the unpolluted air greedily. Some local girls, attracted to these Chinese young men from the richest part of coastal China, showed us some of the highlights of their very beautiful hometown. To my western eyes, the four of them acted more like teenagers than in their early 20’s.
Both boys thought they must be in heaven. They said they wished it could go on forever and didn’t know how they would be able to deal with their boring, confining, small hometown jobs.
August 10, 1990
I sit amidst some of China’s mountain beauty and am closer to Tibet than I’ll ever be. We even needed special tourist permits from the Chinese government to come here. The scenery could be many places — Switzerland, Austria, Washington state. This way — a snow-capped mountain. That way — a green-treed slope. Down there — a powerful gorge. In the gorge, the water runs, jumps, skips, flows, falls. It reminds me of life — racing to where, to what, why? It doesn’t make much sense. Nature makes more sense. At least it’s following gravity. What am I following? I don’t know, but I, too, keep on going.
It’s not silent in the mountains. It has voice and sound and timelessness. And most of all, it has the wonderful ability to release me from the burdens of emotions and relationships.
We are on a tourist trip, so the boys are enjoying our international companions. Russell particularly kept looking at a pretty, long-legged blond from Sweden. Later, he says to me with a little self-conscious laugh, “Maybe hairy legs aren’t so ugly.”
Tags: Travel, Xian; Lijiang in Yunnan Province; Naxi minority; Tiger
