|
We woke up at 5:45 a.m., showered, and packed to leave Kaili. We went to breakfast at 7:30, once again wth no breakfast voucher, but they looked
us up. We ate the usual buffet fare (dumplings, bread, etc.), but Craig once again got spicy noodles. There was also some awesome spongecake. A little girl said "bye bye" to
us ain Engliahs and waved. She was very cute. The elevators were very busy and slow, and we had to go up to the 11th floor to get our luggage, and then back down to the lobby to check out. Because of the elevator delay, we were several minutes late for ur 8:30 departure time.
We drove out of Kaili and stopped for gas. Then we got onto the expressway. Since the road was so smooth, I used the time to type up some of my notes. Wang Jun always made the car rides pass quickly by explaining various aspects of Chinese culture. This ride was no different. Wang Jun explained Chinese customs for naming babies. Normally, parents name newborn babies, but sometimes they defer to grandparents or fortune tellers. Fortune tellers base names on a variety of factors, including exact time of birth, Chinese zodiac sign, and the five elements theory. If the baby's composition lacks any of the five elements ( gold, wood, water, fire, or earth), the fortune teller will compensate with the name. Wang Jun's sister believes in fortune tellers and once brought Wang Jun to one for fun. The fortune teller told Wang Jun that he lacks fire and earth. Wang Jun joked that he should change his name to "Stove." Family name is passed down through the father, and a woman doesn't change her family name when she marries. The family name precedes the given name, but Chinese people call each other by their full names. Even Xiao Yi, Wang Jun's wife, calls him "Wang Jun", never just "Jun." Each name is represented by a single Chinese character. Babies used to be identified by 2 characters/names. But with the sheer number of people, this becomes confusing when many people share the same given and family names. So now, each baby must be named with 3 characters (or 4 if they so choose). When a Chinese woman gives birth, culture dictates that she must recover for a full month. During that time, she must stay in bed, and is not even allowed to take a shower. It is believed that she is most vulnerable for a month post-partum. If she overdoes physical activity during this period, she could contract an illness which may affect her for the rest of her life. Oftentimes, the baby's grandparents help to take care of mother and baby during that time. There is also the conceot of a "month nanny," where parents can hire someone to help during that time period. This can be very expensive - the best quality month nannies get paid 30,000 yuan ($4500 USD). I told Wang Jun that my father is the eldest of 15 children. He was astounded. Especially with the single child policy. He started talking to Mr. Zhou in Mandarin. Mr. Zhou's eyes bulged out of his head and he started to laugh and shake his head incredulously. They said that the largest Chinese families they have ever even heard of consisted of 8 or 9 children. I was curious about attitudes towards homosexuality in China, so I asked Wang Jun about it. He said that homosexuality only entered the mainstream consciousness of the Chinese in the 1990's. A lot of people don't understand it, but they have a live and let live mentality. I wondered if the government shared this opinion, so I asked if homosexuality was illegal in China. Wang Jun said yes. This greatly disappointed me. But after further discussion, I realized that he has misunderstood my question. He meant that gay marriage is not legal in China. But there is nothing illegal about identifying about homosexual, and there are no government-sanctioned penalties associated with it either. In fact, many gay couples do hold weddings, and though they are not legally binding, couples do consider themselves unofficially married. I was quite surprised and delighted to hear that China has a progressive attitude toward homosexuality. We arrived at a restaurant at 12:15 for lunch. There were lots of Chinese tourist buses in the parking lot. The large dining room was packed with Chinese touristswho were smoking like chimneys. This made the dining experience less pleasant than it could haave been. It was here that Craig discovered his favorite meal of the entire trip: minced pork with three chilies. Mr. Zhou couldn't believe that he could eat it, and took photos with his cell phone. Craig made me take a close up picture of the food and I joked that it was what Anthony Bourdain would call food porn. We also had sweet and sour cabbage, sprouts, onions and tomatoes, and spare ribs in sweet soy sauce with chilies. Today and tomorrow we would be visiting two of the four parks that make up the Southern China Karst UNESCO World Heritage site. TThese sites used to get very few visitors until 5 years ago when it was named a World Heritage site (one of only 3 in Guizhou). This area is interesting because it is virgin forest on the water, with waterfalls and wild animals. Da Qi Kong (the scenic area we would visit this afternoon) translates to "7 large holes", and Xiao Qi Kong (which we would visit tomorrow) translates to "7 small holes." These names refer to stone bridges within the parks which each contain 7 arches. The larger bridge is at Da Qi Kong. In order to get to Da Qi Kong, we had to drive through Xiao Qi Kong. In order to pass through the latter without paying its entrance fee, you are issued a timed entrance. You enter the gate at that time and must drive straight through to the exit without stopping. We got a 2 p.m. entrance time. As we drove through, we saw beautiful scenery. "Don't look!" joked Wang Jun (at least we think he was joking...) "This is for tomorrow!" As we drove, we chatted about the trip so far. It is a very sepcialized trip, and Craig mentioned that whenever he had pictured visiting China, he had expected to see some of the more standard tourist sights, such as pandas, the terra cotta warriors, and the Three Gorges. Wang Jun said that we should plan a return trip, visiting Chengdu and Xi'an, cruising through the Three Gorges, and then returning to Guizhou to see the Sister's Meal Festival, a Miao festival which is even bigger than the Lusheng Festival that we were unable to see yesterday. He told us that he feels a connection with us that he doesn't fully understand, but he would really like us to return. He said that he is a very good cook, and he would like to cook for us at his "nest" (as he likes to call his condo). This sounded great to us! Little did we know that in just 6 months, we would return to do exactly that trip! We exited Xiao Qi Kong and got to the entrance of Da Qi Kong Scenic Area. Mr. Zhou parked the van. Wang Jun purchased our tickets, and the three of us entered the park on foot. There was a beautiful cement pathway with cement railings made to look like logs (with so much variation that it looked quite natural). It was impeccably clean and well-maintained. And there were very few visitors. It was very tranquil. We took our time walking along the Zhangjiang River, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere. There were beautiful but camera-shy butterflies and iridescent dragonflies everywhere. Some Chinese tourists passed by in a boat on the river and waved to us. We walked with Wang Jun until 3:15 p.m., and then he left us on our own to continue to the end of the pathway and meet back in the parking lot at 4:45. We continued past limpid turquoise pools of water which cascaded over river rocks. Again, the tourists were 99% Chinese, even though this is a Unesco World Heritage site. We ran into a young Chinese couple and the adorable young woman was so excited to see us and asked for a photo. When we said yes, we thought she was going to jump out of her skin. Squee! I got a photo of Craig with the two of them as well. There were small waterfalls on the river, and we passed an interesting bird who was trying to catch some fish. We walked through a 73-meter-tall archway in the natural bridge made of carbonic limestone and marlite. It was the perfect time of day to pass through the so-called "Oriental Triumphal Arch", because the late afternoon sunlight was illuminating it with a golden glow. When we got to the end of the pathway, we could see the large gaping mouth of Yaofeng Cave towering above us, in the sheer limestone rock face which created a canyon along the river. The landscape here is so beautiful! It was already 4:15 p.m., and we were supposed to be back at the parking lot at 4:45. We needed to retrace our steps, and with his MS, I swasn't sure how quickly Craig could walk back. Luckily, the walkways provided very even and safe footing. Apart from needing to "swim upstream" against a torrent of Chinese tourists who were hurrying in the opposite direction to get to the stone arch before the sun went down, it was a relatively easy walk back. When we got to the suspension bridge, we stopped to use the restrooms. A Chinese man and his friend took a photo of me on the suspension bridge with the Oriental Triumphal Arch glowing in the background. On our way back to the pathway, Craig saw a black snake in a small pile of leaves on the ground. Constant vigilance! We really hustled and got back at exactly 4:45! We were sweating when we got to the van and Mr. Zhou jokingly fanned Craig off. We drove to Libo City to our hotel. As with everywhere in China, there was a ton of construction and we got stuck in a traffic jam where a new bridge was being built overhead. We enjoyed watching the progress way above our heads. The Libo Sanli Hotel was another skyscraper. The lobby had oversized wooden carved chairs and benches. We checked in and were on the 11th floor - room 1117. The hotel had a minibar, condoms, socks, and underwear for sale in the room. We met at 6:30 for dinner. We walked around the corner from the hotel to a little place which had both indoor and outdoor tables. We opted or indoor since the outdoor tables were right on the street and we could smell fumes from burning plastic. Most people were eating in private rooms (including one with a closed door labeled 666). Craig got a Snow beer and I asked for a Sprite, mostly because I wanted a cold drink and I know that most places carry it. Wang Jun said that Sprite isn't good for you, and he instead brought me a Chinese soft drink made from herbs that tasted like sweet tea. It was called JDB. I loved it! There was a plate of soy nuts on the table, and they were a delicious crunchy snack. We had spicy octopus, lotus roots, pearl meatballs (pork inside a little ball of rice, served in a bamboo basket like dim sum), and spicy green peppers. Wang Jun told us not to fill up because another dish would be coming. It turned out to be delicious fried dough balls with sugary icing for dipping. They were heavenly! There were a dozen of them, and we gobbled them up. People were getting more and more drunk in the private rooms. A young womn came out and sat at a table next to ours, giggling, with her hands over her face. Her friends came out and harrassed her. The staff got great entertainment out of the whole thing. Wang Jun and Mr. Zhou came over to check on Craig's pepper consumption. They definitely have different palates than we do, as things that we find delicious they find too hot, and things that we find hot (like the green pepper dish), they don't at all. We assured Wang Jun and Mr. Zhou that we were very comfortable walking back to the hotel by ourselves, so they left to get some rest at 7:45. A man with glasses who was eating and drinking in one of the private rooms came out and sat with us and had his girlfriend take a picture. He was very excited. When we left around 8 o'clock, he and a bunch of other hard drinking guys were smoking outside the restaurant. They immediately offered Craig cigarettes, which he politely declined. They all wanted photos with us. We had a blast with them. They kept speaking to us in Chinese, and we tried to explain that we didn't understand. We told them in Chinese that we are American ("meiguoren"). I took out our little photo album in which I have a lttle U.S. map wth Boston labeled. "Boston!" They started miming throwing tea into the harbor (Alice in Beijing had also told us that all she knew about Boston was the Boston Tea Party). Then they started miming basketball. "Celtics," I said. They kept getting more photos in different configurations. One older man put his hand on his heart, linked his index fingers in a gesture of friendship, and made a gesture to invite us to go drinking with them. They looked like they were getting into a car. As much as we would have loved to, we thought it wasn't a good idea, especially since we can't speak the language, and Wang Jun wouldn't know where we were. But we thanked him for the invitation. The various girlfriends and restaurant staff were getting a big kick out of the whole production, and were taking pictures from inside. We walked around the corner back toward the hotel. Across from the hotel was the square. Just like in Kaili, people were congregated doing group dancing, and there were activities for the children. There was also a movie playing on a large LED screen, and folks were sitting watching. Even some cars, motorbikes, and bicycle rickshaws had pulled up, as if it were a drive in movie. We watched the dancing for a while. We attracted a lot of attention and once again mingled with the locals. We walked past the movie to the children's play area where there was a sandbox and a large elaborate bouncy house. We said "nihao" to the kids and parents. One grandmother invited us to sit down and wouldn't take no for an answer. It was very sweet, and we happily took a seat. One little girl in the bouncy house was playing peekaboo with Craig, and kept doing things to get his attention. The kids were adorable. We went back to the hotel at around 9 o'clock, when things were winding down in the square. We looked out the windows and could see some kind of cultural show going on across the river. We had left one of our key cards in the room wall socket so that our room would stay air conditioned while we were out at dinner. We tried using the other card to get into the room, but it just flashed red and wouldn't let us in. We didn't really know what to do, as hotel staff didn't speak English and Wang Jun and Mr. Zhou were already asleep. Luckily, a nice young man was just leaving his room an saw our predicment. He came over, looked at our room number on our paperwork, tried the card, and verified that it didn't work. He used his cell phone to call the front desk and explain the situation. He waited with us and chatted with us a little bit. We explained that the only Chinese words we know are hello, thank you, beer, American, and toilet. He laughed. He asked where we had been on the trip and we named the cities. By then, the woman had come up and let us into the room. We thanked the guy for his kindness and said goodnight. We downloaded photos, wrote in the notebook, and went to bed at 11 o'clock. Da Qi Kong Scenic Area |
 Bridge at Da Qi Kong Scenic Area  Da Qi Kong Scenic Area  Da Qi Kong Scenic Area  Oriental Triumphal Arch, Da Qi Kong Scenic Area  Da Qi Kong Scenic Area  Da Qi Kong Scenic Area  Yaofeng Cave, Da Qi Kong Scenic Area  Oriental Triumphal Arch, Da Qi Kong Scenic Area  Da Qi Kong Scenic Area  Dinner  Enthusiastic new friends in front of the restaurant 
|
|
 |
|
 |
