TRAVELING IN CHINA

The Western New Year came and went. December 31st was a quiet night. We went to a New Year's "Ball," run by students, which was poorly attended. We enjoyed ourselves on an uncrowded dance floor. At 9:30, the usual end of dance time, we strolled back to our apartment and watched a video and Chinese TV. At midnight we listened for noise but heard none. I think in the big cities, like Chongqing there was some. The Chinese New Year was not until January 25 so January 1st was not a big day for them. I got to watch some bowl games thanks to a computer feed and enjoyed the short break from school. We had to make up the three day holiday. For us that meant rescheduling classes and compacting our exam schedule. We had to have all our grades ready and turned in by January 6. By grace, we did it.

January 7 we left Yongchuan for Chengdu. We had three days of inservice training. Mostly we were looking forward to seeing our friends from the summer. We had only seen the few who live in Chongqing. The language test went well and we both felt good about our progress. Thanks for your prayers. The sessions were long but the laughter was real. We met some new people, China 13's, and enjoyed them. We had some good meals with friends. We were able to explore the area around Sichuan University, so we feel more at home in the city. Two discoveries are worthy of note -- a Turkish restaurant and a bookstore/library called The Bookworm. Some China 13's introduced us to the restaurant, complete with hookahs, though we didn't sit on the floor on cushions the way they do in Turkey. Nor did we personally sample the pipes. The Bookworm bears some similarities to Borders though it is much, much smaller and most of the books are donated oldies but goodies. There are plenty of comfortable places to sit. Best of all IT WAS WARM. Rich and I had special fun reading a few books to two wee Chinese, a brother and a sister.

We left Chengdu to start our solo travels on January 11. We were helped to the airport by a student from my model school class, who seems to know all sorts of important things like the airline will send a van to pick you up if you have purchased your ticket ahead of time and you have it it hand. Yippee. Everything seemed to be going so smoothly. Then.... At the counter getting our boarding passes it was discovered that I had another volunteers passport and he probably had mine. We remembered that we had checked into the hotel at the same time and the mixup must have happened then. After some negotiation back and forth in second languages we were given boarding passes based on my copy of my passport -- take note *** one should always carry a copy of one's passport*** and my work permit (It has my picture and it lists my passport number) We left the errant passport at the airport for someone to pick up and hoped my passport would be forwarded to me. Security was skeptical, but we got through. The fight was uneventful but we wondered about our other flight and hotels which require passports. (Later the Peace Corps security person told me that he never heard of the airlines allowing someone to fly on the copy of a passport. The passport was never forwarded, and we spent all of our travels without one.) God is good.

We arrived in Kunming and were met by Li Yanlin and her father. We had met Yanlin on a previous trip to China, and she is now a student in America who has visited our home. They graciously got us dinner and drove us to where we would be staying on the Yunnan Agricultural University campus. We had a great four cold days in Kunming. It is the city of eternal spring, but not for our stay. We visited with Yanlin and her family, saw the campus, visited some sights around the city, and even explored by bus on our own. We felt good to be able to manage this, eat and make purchases. Most of all we got to meet some great people as we gathered at night around the table at Yanlin's home, Among them was a teenage boy whose English is better than most of my College Junior English majors. We also visited some young Chinese whom we had met on our trip to Kunming several years ago with Clifford Liu.

From Kunming we flew to Lijiang in the mountains of Yunnan Province. We were concerned about the cold, but the sun shown everyday and we were able to walk about without our winter coats. Lijiang is beautiful. The scene of Snow Mountain hovering over the pool of Black Dragon Pond is gorgeous. Each day we explored a little more of the old town, but there is still more to see and do. One exciting thing about our stay was that we were at Mama Naxi's Guest House. It is a "lonely Planet" recommended place. It was full each night with young people from all over the world. What a delight to sit around the table and talk with them. A second highlight was going to an unregistered church. We were escorted by a young Chinese missionary to a home on the outskirts of the city. What a great experience there and also with his family for the day. A third experience was in our search for a Buddhist temple. We could see it but we couldn't find a way to get there. We asked a number of people in our "great" Chinese. They kept pointing up. We went up. Near the top of the hill we still could see no signs of a path, so we asked once more. A wonderful man motioned that we should follow him. That was not too unusual because Chinese are very kind and often go out of their way to take us to a place we are seeking. However, he took us to his home where we had tea and fruit and a half an hour or more of conversation in two languages. Then he took us to the roof of his house and showed us the Buddhist temple on another hill (You can't get there from here.) The panorama was worth the climb in itself. We returned before we left Lijiang and had lunch with him. He says to come back, so maybe we will return to beautiful Lijiang. One funny thing about that second visit was that they were expecting company, the first ever visit from their son's girlfriend's family. The lady of the house was pretty upset with her husband for sitting around and saying he was not busy when she pretty obviously thought he should be. We couldn't understand the words, but the intent seemed pretty clear:)

Next we moved on to Dali. We did this bus totally on our own and got to our destination the Three Pagoda Youth Hostel just outside the north gate of the old city. We strolled the city and then returned to see what dinner around this table would be like. Totally different. The guests were Chinese, and English was at a premium. During dinner we expressed our hopes for the next day. After dinner as we talked with the receptionist trying to set up our day when two of the dinner guests appeared, and soon we were all planning. We had a delightful day with them and the receptionist and a private driver and even a meal. The two were teachers from Taiwan on holiday. One of the highlights was a performance by the Bai people which included the serving of "three cups of tea." I wish I had my book here so that I could read the significance of those three cups in Three Cups of Tea. But the day wasn't over. A young couple heard that we wanted to go to town for a Tibetan dinner and they invited us to join them - two more teachers, this time from Chongqing. A good meal and great conversation was had by all as we walked the city before and after dinner.

We were off to Kunming in the morning by bus. An accident on the road made it a long day. It also allowed us to experience the worst public toilet we have seen in China. IT was truly "any port in a storm" and it served the purpose. We returned to Yunnan Agricultural University for the night. There we had a feast of a dinner with the young English speaker's family and our hosts. Of course, everyone had to have breakfast together and then we experienced a mad dash to the airport in the congested traffic of Kunming. It was harrowing, but another memory for our growing memory bank. We will also remember lots of warm beds, which were very hard to leave each morning for the rest of our world, which was usually not at all warm. Even Lijiang and Dali started each day in chill mode.

There was some time constraint for our trip because of the Spring Festival which we were to celebrate with our Host Family from the summer. THAT IS THE NEXT STORY!