TRAVELLERS IN CHINA…..1997

We went to China in August of 1997. My in-laws were aghast…………` but they’ve just cracked opened their doors……. you don’t know what’s hiding behind…..and you’re taking the child with you?’ Actually my mother-in-law had gone from telling me in the early years ………. it was soya sauce that was causing my regular colds…………to using a dash of it in her food several years later………….………..soya sauce was then exonerated. The aunt, the ex-general’s sister, however, had jumped on the band wagon much earlier……….used great lashings of it in her food and later evolved into an expert in sweet and sour chicken…………. Coming back to China……….. by the time we visited, travel throughout the country was allowed………but with a state official present. So we went on a guided tour to China with `the child.’ We were tourists, not really travellers. Travel would imply trials and tribulations ………………trudging through the country in boots and a rucksack, unwashed, using a map, getting lost, finding yourself in a remote village untouched by civilization……. No we didn’t belong to that intrepid lot. But to us it was an adventure all the same………………especially since it was for 21 days. But we almost didn’t go………..in my frenzied haste to tidy up before we left for the airport at night …….…….…………I threw away the tickets…………. `Where are the tickets?’ asked Yiannis………….` I’ve not seen them’ I replied………………` I left a white envelope here’ he went on panic stricken……….` Gosh I thought it was junk mail’ I said. He rushed out and retrieved it from the rubbish……..I lost a bit of credibility there.

We met the group in Athens……..all as equally excited as we were. Our guide was a wonderful lady in her late 50’s, who had been an air stewardess with Olympic Airlines when it still belonged to Onassis. We flew to Frankfurt, took the train to the city………..did a little tour……. and some beers and pizzas later returned to the airport and took a flight to Beijing……..somehow Peking sounds so much more romantic…….more old world. After around 14 hours or more we arrived at the capital of China. It was early in the morning, we were bleary eyed, jetlagged and desperately needed to go to the toilet…….our first culture shock…………..the toilet doors were like the saloon doors of the wild west…….legs and head visible when you stood up……. Somebody said…….`imagine if they were squatting toilets’………….we were in stitches, almost wet our pants……… and attracted a lot of attention. When we got on the coach at the airport, the last passenger to get on was a grim-faced Chinese man in his 40’s. He was introduced as Mr Chen, the Chinese official who would escort us from Beijing to Canton……to see no evil, hear no evil and above all………..speak no evil……..

Right after depositing our luggage at the hotel……..a magnificent 5 star hotel………we were dragged off………tired and almost zoned out…..to visit temples………..one ran into the other, they all looked alike and the only one I remembered was…..the Heavenly Temple. The next day…….. we stepped into the pages of history when we arrived at the Great Wall Of China. I was struck with wonder……………… a page torn off our history book at school. The guide, Mrs Maro, gave us two choices to ascend the wall………. through the Juyong Pass which would grant you a certificate……. for the go-getters or………….the Mutiayu Pass…….more children friendly and for the laid-back………… and no certificate. Yes……..we took the laid-back one…………we just wanted to enjoy the splendour of the wall with its fortifications, snaking up the thickly forested mountains and running like a row of crooked teeth along the ridges. But Annie, then 10, was outraged at our decision………..she was fiercely competitive and wanted to get her hands on that…… certificate. We ignored her and sauntered up…..they tricked us………..the beginning was a gentle gradient…………then the incline got so steep we had to bend forward for fear of toppling back…….. it knocked the wind out of us……we deserved a certificate. Nowadays I hear they’re giving out certificates for all the passes. Michelle Obama took the Mitiayu Pass not too long ago and I’m sure……. she got a certificate. Anyway when we got down……..all puffing and sweaty….. Annie wouldn’t talk to us……….she had no certificate.  But hurray!………there were souvenir stalls selling certificates…………….all very official……………stating,………… ` I climbed the Great Wall Of China.’ We bought one, filled her name in and the stall owner stamped and sealed it. Then we conspired with Mr Chen…………who was now convinced we were not spies and was very friendly with our noisy group of Greeks……….to officially present the certificate to our daughter. He gave it to her at this beautiful restaurant……..…..which had photos of dignitaries plastered on the walls……..Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher…………no….. they didn’t come together holding hands …. Deng Xiaoping, Li Peng  and other heads of states who had savoured the Peking duck there. Mr Chen was shaking with laughter as he presented that rolled up piece of parchment to Annie and we all applauded loudly……….she was the only child in the group.

The following days we walked around the Forbidden City, strode through manicured gardens with ornamental koi ponds, jostled to the front of the Empress Dowager Cixi’s marble boat and got our photos taken……….. August in Beijing was steamy and hot………………..crawling with tourists and one forgot that a parallel Beijing existed…….. the commercial capital with hundreds of cranes poking into the sky and forests of high rise buildings in different stages of construction. There were more bicycles than cars on the roads. Troops of cyclists closed ranks for the lights to turn green………then charged forward with eyes narrowed with determination and purpose………you wouldn’t want to get entangled in those wheels.

On the last day in the capital our coach took us for a ride around the city. In the evening glow we saw hundreds of people, sitting pressed up against each other, fishing on the banks of the Grand Canal. As we moved on, darkness descended……. the low yellow street lights came on and……. we saw bodies like victims of a massacre strewn on the wide grassy verges of the roads.……..horror of horrors!……..……another Tiananmen Square mascacre!……..But Mr Chen assured us that those bodies had just come out to have a bit of a lie down and gaze at the stars……………apparently a popular summer evening recreation……….We didn’t know whether to believe him because when we had asked him about Tiananmen Square………..he uttered with a pan face………..`don’t know what you’re talking about………never happened……’ We were relieved when we saw some of the bodies moving………………..some even sat up and ate from tiffin carriers.

Travelling down a canal in Suzhou, a picturesque city of waterways and bridges…….the Venice of the East……. we saw women squatting on stone embankments, washing baskets of clothes in the brown waters of the canal ……….` Panagia mou!’……My most holy Mary!……..is the best I can translate it…..…..shouted one of the women in our group…….`Is that where they washed our clothes?’ What she feared was that at the hotel in Beijing they may have…….. dragged our clothes out to the Grand Canal and gave them a good scrub in the murky waters……. We journeyed through the provinces and cities, using various modes of transport …………coaches, planes and trains…………waiting in `soft seat lounges’ ………..we paid extra……….the locals used the…..`hard seat lounges’. We went to Xian and marvelled at the clay soldiers, crossed the Sichuan province, ate their fiery peppercorns and strolled around in Shanghai with its tea houses and beggars. By then we had run out of clean clothes and didn’t care where they washed them. I remember ringing the laundry service and starting with……….…………` I wonder if you could…….’ `Ah?…..’ went the woman at the other end of the line…….I tried again……`Could you please………’`Ah?…’ she went again. Yiannis grabbed the phone from me and said…….`laundry… room 453….come!’ There was a shout of relief at the other end……….……`I come!   I come!’

In Guangxi province in the south of China we took an idyllic boat ride along the Li river through Guilin. The otherworldliness of the place is hard to describe…….forested limestone hills……like numerous green cones swathed by mist and clouds……a fairyland……. and peaceful green waters with cormorant fishermen gliding on their slim flat rafts. At lunch time we sat around tables on the boat and gazed out……….. huge jars with a vile looking brownish green liquid in them sat on a wooden bar in front of us……. each one had a snake coiled up in it……….quite dead, staring at us with glassy beady eyes……….just drink a small cup of it for extra potency……a natural viagra……. Then the food arrived………rice and flat pieces of something whitish……..they said meat……but it looked like cartilage. Somebody said it was snake’s meat………..maybe from those jars. `Ah sto kalitera’……….. …………best leave it…..said the Greeks.

Travelling across Guangdong, the southernmost province, we passed swathes and swathes of paddy fields of emerald green with women in conical rice hats bent over, ankle deep in water. As we sped towards Canton ……….now called Guangzhou……how I prefer the old names….. there were numerous flats in grey blocks with glinting objects on their doors………..they were little mirrors. The Chinese believe that evil spirits roam about freely, whizz into your house and visit pestilence on your family. But if you hang a mirror on your door……… they see their reflection …….. their malevolent faces in the mirror……… shriek in fright and bolt away. Besides the mirror, the threshold to every flat or house is raised……… the Chinese are clever that way…….. if those malignant spirits try to dart through an open door………..they stumble, fall flat on their faces, jump up and flee for their lives.

Canton….Guangzhou…..was our last stop in mainland China.  The live animal market was stacked with cages of creatures that would end up on the dinner table………hissing civet cats, sad eyed Persians, tabbies and other house cats, yelping dogs, huge furry field rats, baby rabbits like soft toys ………..waiting to be slaughtered and barbecued……. snakes pulled out of baskets by the dozens and hanging like squirming ropes over the vendors’ arms and eels and turtles in water barrels ………to be boiled down to a rich thick broth……..shiny beetles and mounds of black lacquered scorpions………to be tossed into a wok and given a quick stir fry……all waiting to be served sizzling hot in restaurants offering gourmet dishes. We were more conservative in our tastes………..`excuse us very much………… …………no fine dining……just pork, beef and chicken please.……….’ The view from our hotel window overlooking the harbour was like a watercolour painting. In the burnished evening sky………the junk ships were like charcoal sketches on a sea of beaten gold.

The next morning we took a train to Hong Kong………a city of towering skyscrapers tightly wedged against each other……..of hotels, offices, shopping malls and flats and more flats………..blocking out the sky……. and congested streets with honking cars. In the harbour there were boat houses…….rows and rows of them with numbers like houses in a street. One even had a bedraggled cat tied to a corner of the boat……..waiting………… its days were numbered. Victoria Peak was a respite for the eyes……… green parks and a breathtaking view of Victoria Harbour.

The next day we were at the airport ready to fly home……….but of course……..we had to visit the toilet first……….Annie got locked in………she couldn’t slide the bolt. I panicked…….Yiannis came running in, ready to charge and break the door open. But one of the ladies in our group…….a seasoned traveller………she had visited toilets all over the world……at airports, restaurants, hotel lounges etc………raised her palms and signalled for us to calm down…….there were no handles on the doors ……..but with her vast experience she told Annie to push the door and slide the bolt……. Annie came out pale but free. The saloon door toilets in China made a lot of sense then…….you could always crawl out from underneath.

In retrospect………things are somehow always wonderful, enjoyable, exciting etc in retrospect………..……..traversing China was exhausting but rich in experience and beauty. Call us tourists……skimming the landscape…….but we’ve ticked all the boxes under hardship……. and now……..in retrospect………. …….we were travellers in China.

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