Yangshuo: Day Four

One our last day in Yangshuo, we decided to split up. Chase, Mandy, and Kalen wanted to ride scooters to a place that was advertised as having "minorities." I on the other hand wanted to relax in the city and explore a couple of the extremely well maintained parks in the town. Before splitting up we had breakfast together at the same restaurant we went to the day before. We were the only patrons there and the whole staff was watch Brittney Spears music videos at 11am. After breakfast Chase, Mandy, and Kalen found the tour guide from yesterday and hired her again. I spent the rest of the day wondering around the town, watching boats as they came in on the river, and looked through all kinds of neat little shops that were hidden. At one point while I was near the pond, one of the local fisherman came out with his birds to catch fish. He had maybe 8 birds that he released into the pond. Each one had their necks partially tied so they wouldn't sallow the fish. These birds swam very well. While floating in the water they would all of sudden duck down into the water and shoot across the pond. Their bodies moved as if they were a seal or some other water mammal. They could stay under water for quite some time and go under and around rocks and crevasses. The fisherman, an old man, would stand on his little bamboo boat and direct the birds. He would tap (or hit) them on their head to make them dive. Then he would bounce up and down on the boat an yell. I'm not sure what that command was but it seemed to help get the birds back. We met back up at around 6pm and then got a quick dinner before having to leave for our bus.

The bus was a sleeper bus. It had three rows of bunk beds with two aisles. The beds were not very comfortable. They were at an angle so your head was above the feet of the person behind you. It wasn't a continuous angle either. It slanted a little then leveled out, then slanted a little, then leveled out. They were short and narrow too. I can't imagine the beds being longer then 6 feet and the bed was about as wide as my shoulders. They also sold the aisles. There were people sitting and sleeping in the aisles where people walk. This was illegal as it was over boarding, but we were in China. At one point we stopped and there was a lot of shouting from the driver. The people in the aisles quickly got up and ran off. We drove for about 20 minutes before picking them up again. Apparently they had a van waiting to drive these people a certain distance. There must have been a security check point or something that the bus was not able to pay off.

In any case, I did not sleep on the ride home. It was suppose to be 10 hours to Shenzhen but it took 11 (everything leaves on time, nothing arrives on time in China). The ride was through the night but I was still able to see a lot of China most people don't. It is the part of China that tourist don't go to. There were rows after rows of concrete slab buildings. All exactly the same which perhaps some Chinese writing on them. Each building had a metal door in the front like a garage door. That was it for the first floor and it wasn't much wider then that door. There were no colors. If I had driven through this place during the day it would have looked the same. Gray is gray. There were some people outside. All seemed depressed and disconnected. The streets were absolutely filthy. Many of the streets could have just as easily been a garbage dump, but the concept of "garbage" seems to have been lost. At one point we stopped for a bathroom break. The place the bathroom was located was disgusting. It was a simple square cement block building with a wall in the center to divide between men and women's restrooms. Inside there was no lighting or ventilation. Instead of toilets there was one continuous ditch with very short walls to create "stalls." There was the sound of water which I assumed was to run through the ditch, but the smell suggested it has been years since it had been cleaned.

The bus finally made it to Shenzhen and it was early Tuesday morning. The problem was the bus basically dropped us off outside of the main city along the highway. They told us this was our stop and we got off and they disappeared. Fortunately we were near a regular bus stop. We walked over to that stop and had Mandy translate the bus schedule. We figured out what bus we needed to get back to the boarder crossing. It was another hour before we were back at the boarder. At that point I was pretty happy to be back in Hong Kong.

Blinkin Park and Other Apparent Contradictions

The first round of Blinkin Park was the past couple of nights. Blinkin Park is a singing contest analogous to American Idol. Charlie and Jacque entered as a duet and sang "My Love" by Justin Timberlake. Needless to say, it was the only English song of the night. As I sat there watching the performances, I could help to notice some ironies that seem like contradictions to how many of the other Chinese have been acting. For the most part the locals are not out going at all. My roommate, Martin, and I are the only Westerners in out flat and there 5 rooms. The locals that live in my flat hid from us and spend as little time as possible in the common areas. Once my door was open and one of our neighbors came out and as soon as he noticed my door open he raced back to his room and slammed his door. I have only talked to one of the flat mates briefly. It is so bad neither Martin or I could tell you with confidence how many people we live with. Everyone else is having similar experiences. Westerners might be somewhat intimidating to the locals, but the thing is they don't even socialize often with each other. Sure you see some groups of Chinese friends around campus, but never outside of school. No one goes "out" and no one stays up late with friends. The campus bus system stops running a little past 11pm and Hong Kong's train/subway system stops running at 1am. Aside from not socializing, similar patterns emerge in class. The locals are terrified of speaking. In a Western classroom students are highly engaged by asking questions and giving their opinions. But here that is never done. In one of Jacque's classes taught by a Western professor, the professor asked the class to introduce themselves. All the locals promptly got up and left the classroom.

There is also an issue with conformity. You read about how China is a "collectivist" society (versus an "individualistic" society like America) but you never really understand it until you spend some time in the society. Every day, at lunch time in the canteens, groups of students will come in and perform. It is sort of like a dance (there is stomping and clapping for example) but not really singing (more of a chant). The thing is though, every single person is doing the same thing. Some times the girls and guys will do different things (the groups are mixed) but otherwise it is very uniform. They always where the same thing but its different each day. It reminds me something the military would do (they make no eye contact and are very serious the whole time). I never understand what they say since most of the chant is in Cantonese, but the name of the group frequently comes up. They yell it over and over upon marching into the canteen, marching out, and often during. I have even seen them around campus practicing walking in unison. For the most part, the Chinese place very little value in "standing out."

So why would they make such a big deal out of a signing contest which emphasizes outgoing individuals? They had giant posters and banners made to advertise the contest, built a stage, and the first round was over several nights. The short answer is I'm not quite sure. The locals who sang certainly had less flare then Charlie and Jacque. Their performance was about what you expect in the states. They dressed up and had a dance planned out. The locals didn't move much and sang much slower songs. One guy even had his hands in his pocket. Granted, back home there are lots of people who would feel too nervous to go on stage and try to sing, but none of the locals went all out and tried to just have fun with it…or at least that is how it looked to me. Charlie and Jacque most definitely stood out.

Lan Kwai Fong

Considering it was a Friday night, Jesse, Jacque, Chris, Charlie and I decided to go to a district in Hong Kong called Lan Kwai Fong. Lan Kwai Fong is a bar district that westerners go to. The streets were pretty much shut down with people walking everywhere. All the bars were very small and very upscale. The vast majority of the people there were Americans and Europeans with the average age probably somewhere near 30. My guess is that most of the people them are young business professions working on an international career. Hong Kong has no open container laws so a lot of the bars were essentially a window to the sidewalk and every one walked around on the streets with a drink in their hand. Unlike certain places back in Miami, no one was binge drinking. It was a party atmosphere but no one was crazy. Later we headed to a night club called Cliq, where a party for university students was being held. The building that it was in had five different clubs that you had to line up for and had dress codes. Once we got in (free cover for students) we walked through a fancy lobby to the elevator that would take us to the club (each had its own elevator with an attendant). I had never been inside a legitimate upscale night club before but the inside was what I somewhat expect. It was mostly black with all kinds of lights that spun around and did various other things. There were also a lot of TV screens that played trippy video on a long loop. The drinks were expensive but I had one just for the experience. It was really interesting watching how differently the locals acted to the westerners. The best way to describe how the locals were behaving would be a middle school dance, where all the guys are on one side and all the girls on another with no one knowing what to do. The westerners were a lot more relaxed and could mingle with anyone. The cultural clash was quite amusing as some locals would run (literally) away when a westerner got near while others would get all excited. Chinese society is definitely not one based on social mixers.