After a solid 11 hours of sleep, I woke up feeling healthy! Hurray! I had “wet toast” for breakfast at the hostel. I didn’t know what to expect, but I got something similar to French toast. The other day Colette ordered a “muffin” and it turned out to be a waffle. I wonder where they get these translations from…
After eating, I took the subway to the end of the line and then took a taxi to the airport. I had some difficulties communicating with the driver. I said airport and pointed to my flight ticket, hoping he would understand. He kept saying “fejichang?” but I didn’t understand what this meant so I just stared back blankly. Then he started yelling it “Fejichang?! Fejichang!?!?!!! FEJICHANG?!?!” Of course, him repeating the same word again and again, just louder did nothing to help me understand what he was saying, but I guess he didn’t get that. Eventually, scared and intimidated, I just said “yes” (hoping that maybe he was saying airport) and then he shrugged and started driving. I should have looked up the word for airport before getting in the cab or pulled my phrase book out faster. Not doing so ahead of time was rather stupid of me, but once I was in the cab and he started getting so loud, I was just intimidated and didn’t think of getting my phrase book. Plus, this was my first time traveling on my own like this, and I’ll admit that I was not as prepared at times as I should have been. But that’s okay; it’s all a learning experience. One thing is for sure, I doubt that I will ever forget that “fejichang” is indeed Mandarin for “airport”.
Now I know how it feels to be on the other end of the language barrier. All too often I notice people repeating the same word, just louder, in their attempts to get others to understand, of course to no avail (I’ve probably done this myself on occasion as well). Now I understand how frightening that experience can be when you are the one who does not comprehend the language.
The driver successfully got me to the airport and, unlike many other Shanghainese cabdrivers, he did not rip me off and actually charged me the less than the woman at the hostel told me the cab would cost (it was 19 Yuan, less than $3 for a 15 min cab ride! So cheap compared to in the US). I passed through security remarkably fast and went to the waiting area.
The airport and boarding process was similar to that in the US in many ways, although I didn’t find that security was as intense. I was able to keep my liquid soap, deodorant, water (in my Camelback) etc. I think these were not actually allowed, but no one said anything. Others that I talked to said they had all these things confiscated, but somehow mine managed to get through.
Boarding the plane was interesting… Everyone mobbed the ticket counter and the woman frantically collected all the tickets, without paying much attention to the people handing them to her. Then everyone crammed onto a bus (and I mean crammed! There was hardly any room to move around. But I just kept laughing about it). The bus took us to the loading dock and then everyone mobbed off and then mobbed the loading ramp. It was insanity!
I was the only non-Asian on the flight, but they still made all the announcements in both Mandarin and English. The flight landed in Guangzhou around 1:30. Guangzhou was previously known as Canton. The language is Cantonese and this is the region where Cantonese cuisine originated (food is a big topic of conversation around here)
The hostel was rather easy to get to and this time the directions on HostelWorld were spot on. One of my roommates was there when I arrived. She’s from Tennessee but is studying abroad in small city about halfway between Shanghai and Beijing. She was on her break from school and making her way to Hong Kong. Unfortunately, she had to spend her time filling out paperwork for her home university, so she wasn’t able to explore with me.
I went to make my way to the Peasant’s Movement Institute and Martyr’s Park. I was reading about the Koumintang Legacy in China, which consisted of influential leaders such as Sun Yat-Sen, Chiang Kai-shek, and Zou Rong. Sun-Yat Sen was one of the first revolutionaries to break away from the imperial system and is often considered the father of modern China. He was less formerly educated than others of his time, but had spent a good deal of time traveling in the west and knew far more about the US and Europe than the others. He wanted to revolutionize China, to bring it into the modern age. He worked to mobilize the peasantry and also took a great interest in developing China’s railway system. He also spent some time at the school that later became the Peasant’s Movement Institute. He led several revolts in Guangzhou, founded the National People’s Party (Kuomintang) and established the San min zhuyi (“Three People-ism”) philosophy that became important in Chinese politics. The first San min zhuyi is min zu “the people as a family/tribe”, which referred to the uniting of the Han people against the Manchus (although later it was recast as anti-imperialist). The second is min quan “people’s rights”, which is “often translated as democracy and refers to the right of the ordinary people to have ultimate control over their government…[he developed] the “five-power constitution,” in which American speraration of powers were added to the Chinese institutions of a censorate or inspectorate and a system of examinations to screen candidates for government positions.” The final San min zhuyi is min sheng, “people’s livelihood,” which “embodied the Henry George scheme and other projects for regulated capitalism and economic growth and expressed a compassion for the sufferings of the Chinese people that was not common in elite reform or revolutionary circles,” (From Mountain of Fame by John Wills).
Sun Yat-sen had many great ideas for his country, but he had no interest in power. He wanted power and money to be distributed amongst the people, not in complete equality but certainly more equal that the imperial system that existed up until his time. He was not a member of the communist party, which was only a minor party at this time (early 1900s).
Mao Zedong also attended the school at the Peasant’s Movement Institute and his personal quarters are still intact there.
My main purpose in going to Guangzhou was to see several of the museums focused around the revolutionary period. Unfortunately, the museum was closed by the time I got there. I assumed I could just go the next day, so instead I went to wander in Martyr’s Park. The park has many statues devoted to the revolution; I just wish I had visited the museums first so that I had more of an understanding of what I was observing. There’s always so much to learn… how can I possibly find the time for all of it?
There were two major uprisings in Guangzhou that focused on overturning the Qing Empire (which had Manchus in power). The first was in 1895 and was a failure, after which Sun Yat-Sen went into exile. The second began “on 13 November 1910, [when] Sun Yat-sen, along with several leading figures of the Tongmenhui—such as Zhao Shen, Huang Hsing, Hu Hanmin, and Deng Zeru—gathered for a conference in the Malayas. Having experienced countless failures in previous uprisings, they plotted a decisive battle in Guangzhou against the Qing Government.
On 27 April, Zhao Shen and Huang Hsing commenced the uprising in Guangzhou. The revolutionaries fought fiercely with the Qing Army in the streets, but the rebels were eventually outnumbered and lost. The remains of 72 rebels were later collected by members of Tongmenhui and interred together at Huanghuagang,” (Wikipedia)”
These uprising were a part of the Xinhai Revolution of 1911-1912, which overthrew the Qing Empire and led to the founding of the Republic of China. The Chinese Nationalist Revolution occurred from 1926-1927, which ended the rule of local warlords and unified China under Kuomintang (KMT) control. The KMT’s power house was in Guangdong province with Guangzhou as the center city. The National Revolution Army, made up of students trained at the Whampoa Academy led the revolts. This academy is also in Guangzhou and on my list of places to visit the next day. These uprisings created many martyrs who are now memorialized in Martyr’s park. I suggest researching the Kuomintang period in China and how it led to the rise of the Chinese Communist Party; it’s a fascinating history.
So I wandered around the park, observing the statues (but I couldn’t read the inscriptions. They were all in Chinese). Then I met a young man who was sitting and eating bananas. He offered me one and I set to chat with him for a minute. With a huge grin of innocence on my face I asked, “Ni xiang gei wo zou peng you ma?” (“Want to be my friend?”) and he nodded in agreement. He hardly spoke any English and I only know a few sentences in Mandarin (not Cantonese, although most young people are educated in both languages). He asked where I was from (in English), but he had never heard of California, or he didn’t understand. I asked where he was from (in Mandarin) but I did not know where his province was. I asked if he liked to climb mountains, he nodded and said something that I could not understand at all. So the conversation mostly consisted of one of us asking a question in the other’s language, but then not being able to understand the response. We just laughed and laughed about our inability to communicate. Then he motioned that he wanted to show me something. He couldn’t say the words but he got the point across. He seemed really excited to show whatever it was that he was reaching into his bag for. Then… he whipped out his nunchucks! He showed me his mad skills and the whole interaction was thrilling to me. Then he got a phone call, however, and motioned that he needed to take it, so I signed that I was going to keep walking then I waved good-bye to my new friend.
After leaving the park, I wandered around looking for a good place to eat. I wanted to find a place that was packed with locals and just ask for whatever the employees recommended. I found this place that had a line out the door, all Chinese, and no available seats. Perfect! I asked the cashier, “Ni xihuan nage ma?” ( I don’t think he understood me at first, the tones are so difficult for me to get right! Eventually he understood that I was asking what he liked to eat). He pointed to one of the dishes (written entirely in Chinese) and I agreed.
I didn’t know what else to do while waiting for my food, so I took notes on what the people were doing (this was also to prepare myself for what I was going to be eating, because I had no idea what I’d ordered). Three people worked preparing the food. One woman on the right took ingredients out of several of 20 or so bowls and cooked them it what seemed to be eggs and broth. I think she was preparing soups. To the left of her were four stoves with half-cylindrical covers where one woman takes ladles full of some kind of batter and makes a very thin sheet of noodle about 15in x 20in large. When each noodle sheets is ready, the woman places it on a cloth sheet and passes it off to another woman who prepares some meat and veggies. Once these are cooked, she wraps them in the noodle sheets, cuts it into quarters and folds it again. The dish I ordered ended up being a concocsion of beef, green onions, mushrooms and some other veggies that I couldn’t distinguish. It was coated in a sweet sesame-soya sauce and it was DELICIOUS! Turns out, this restaurant has been named “the best snack local of Guangdong” several years in a row (at least according to the plaques on their walls). I guess I picked a good place!
I returned to the hostel and went to bed early. I hadn’t made peng you’s to hang out with in the evening, so I figured it was better to read a little and go sleep than wander around alone.
I left my hostel and 6:20 AM, prepared for a day of revolutionary history! I was rather nervous leaving though because there was a group of guys outside, apparently still drinking from the night before. They were clearly not locals but Westerners of some sort. I think they noticed me even before I exited the hostel because I could hear them talking about me in their slurred drunken speech. This made me nervous at first, but then I realized there was a policeman of some sort inside the hostel and I assumed he would react if these guys tried to pull anything. So I left the building and just walked away as fast as possible. The guys tried to stop me, but I was not about to turn around.
I hate that things like this happen in our society. I should feel comfortable and safe traveling alone, even as a woman. Why do men feel it is acceptable to call out to a woman as she’s walking; they have no right to make me feel so uncomfortable. Luckily, the guys didn’t try to follow me and I made it to the subway safely.
I went back to Martyr’s Park to do some morning exercises with the locals. I found a group doing Tai Chi in front of the Museum of Revolutionary History and joined in. At first, I looked ridiculous. I had no idea what I was doing; I just followed the people in front of me. Everyone else clearly did this often and they all knew one another. No one spoke English, but they still smiled at me and I smiled back. Everyone was laughing because I clearly did a lot of things wrong and looked very out of place, but that’s the fun of it! When it was over, one of the members gave me two good luck coins for the New Year. I felt bad that I had nothing to give back in return. Then I made my way to the museum. On the way, one of the employees found me and I found out the most disappointing news… all the museums in Guangzhou are closed on Mondays! L
So much for my day immersed in the revolution… I should have flown down here earlier so that I could have visited them all on Sunday (which was the first day they opened after the New Year)… if only I’d known…
So I just headed to the train station to go to Hong Kong and meet up with the ship. At first, I went to the wrong station and they sent me to the right one all the way on the other side of the city. Luckily, there was a train leaving about 45mins after I arrived so I got a ticket and headed south. Even though I didn’t get to see the museums, I still had my book of Chinese biographies so I just read more about the KMT and Mao Zedong. Not quite the same but at least it was something.
The train ride from Guangzhou to Shanghai was about 2 hours and then I had to find the ship. For some unknown reason none of the cab drivers would take me to the pier. I figured maybe it was because it was too close so I started walking. I asked a girl in a Starbucks where it was and she told me it was about a 20 minute walk. So I just walked towards the water and then along the promenade, hoping I’d find someone. And finally I did! I ran into this guy, David, and he was the first person I’d recognized in over two days! I never thought I’d be excited to see the ship, but it felt great to have finally made it there! After a quick shower I headed over to Stanley on Hong Kong Island. This is a small town that’s hidden away from the huge skyscrapers of Hong Kong. I took a public bus to get there and the ride was the best part of the journey. It took me up and over the island so I could enjoy the scenery from a distance. Stanley itself didn’t have much to offer other than shops, so I headed back down shortly after arriving. I was shocked by how much greenery there was along the way though! I had an image of Hong Kong as only a huge metropolis of glass, concrete and lights but it’s actually surrounded by beautiful mountains and numerous trails.
It was clear that Hong Kong is a more international city. I wasn’t receiving the same stares that I got in the rest of China and I felt invisible again. English is much more common, which makes sense since it was owned by England until 1997.
That night, I decided to go out on the town since apparently it’s a common thing to do in Hong Kong. My purpose wasn’t to drink, but I thought it might be a good idea to have some social bonding with the other SASers, and so far this was the only port where I’ve felt okay with that. I didn’t go into any of the bars because I didn’t want to be harassed about not buying anything (my friend ToBen got kicked out of one place for not buying a drink) so I just danced in the street. We got a mad dance party going in front of this one place with SASers, other travelers and locals! But after awhile, everyone else just started getting on each other and I took that as my sign to leave. People were getting sloppy and the locals were laughing at them (not in a good way) and the whole scene was making me uncomfortable, so I went to bed.
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