In July of 2003 I commenced publishing stories about my life in China, here at Magic City. Today I want to provide again, one of my earliest stories. If you have never read any of my stories, go to the following link and from there you will find a record of all text and photographic articles published at Magic City Morning Star News and KingsCalendar.com.
My Trip to Chibi.
This is a True Story.
On May Second 2003, my brother and I made a trip to the historical site of Chibi in Hubei Province. We were accompanied by two female Chinese Teachers, identified here only as S and Friend.
We met with them (as arranged) at the bus station at 8 am. They told us that we would have to take a taxi, so after much arguing with drivers, 'S' bundled us into one. The driver was charging us 15 yuan to drive us "someplace" where we could meet with and take a bus over to Chibi.
As it transpired, I had in fact ridden the bicycle along this road, but had not gone quite far enough.
We traveled for 10 minutes or so at who knows what speed (but fast), and finally pulled up alongside a bus. It cost us 12 yuan (for the four of us), and this included the trip by barge across the river.
Now this river has a funny name (Chang Jiang) and although told it many times, we could not seem to remember how to pronounce it.
Some students had told us that it is the longest river in China, but then again, they say that there is a floating Island in it that over many years travels up and down the river (turns out it is just a sandbank).
We were under the impression that the Yangtze River was the longest, but no one seemed to know, because they had never heard of it.
So we get on the bus to discover that it is full of people wearing masks to protect against SARS, but of course when they wanted to spit, they just removed the mask and spat on the floor.
"S" of Course, who had told 'US' to bring masks, did not herself bring one, and so to stop the SARS virus from infecting her, she held her nose.
Yes! Yes! Yes! I know, but try and tell her that will you!!!!
Now please note that 'S' is a Maths teacher. We paid 15 yuan from town to the bus and 12 yuan from the bus to Chibi, ferry crossing included. This is very important to remember for the return trip.
Finally we arrived on the other side of the river and set off on a 500 metre walk up a goat track to a little village.
There we find this impressive ticket booth, with (believe it or not) signs written in English. It was the first sign in real English (not Chinglish) that we had seen.
The admission price to the historic site is, according to the sign, set at 25 yuan per person, but when we got there, there was a big blue (argument) going on between the staff and two chines women.
It turns out that the newspaper had published an advertisement or an article stating that for this 'May Day' celebration week, admission was at a special price of only 4 yuan. ooops!
After everything had settled down (quite some time by the way) 'S' bartered our ticket prices down to 20 yuan each.
There was quite a lot to see, although as it transpired we did not end up seeing everything. There was lots of walking, and for a fee one could do as I did, and take a 5 minute ride on a horse. Actually I was led around by the guide, rather than actually take a ride on the horse.
He kept insisting that I hold the reigns with both hands and every time he looked away I would let one hand go. Finally he let go of the horse, screamed at it and it bolted. Marvelous horseman horseperson) that I am, I reached down, pulled the reigns down and the horse stopped????????
Strange that!! The foreigner can ride a horse. I pointed out (sign language) that it is only a little horse. In Or Da Li Ya (Australia) they are twice as big.
We wandered around the market stalls; walked down the long steps to the river, and back again; had photos taken with locals and then on the way to the old Fort, we came across a big map,in the far corner of which appeared the words 'YANGTZE River'.
As there was no river associated with the name we asked 'S'. She told us that this is the other name of the river we crossed, the Chang Jiang....ahhhhh!! The mystery is solved.
As for the fort, it is very old and made of large bricks and mortar, and would have been a magnificent site in its day. It is now a museum (in progress) and quite interesting. There are wax works depicting historical figures, as well as ceramic statues, a grave, and other assorted items.
As I've already said, we did not see everything at the park. As the bus was returning at 1:15pm and I was starving, we decided to head off to the village to eat. On the way I was greeted by a Chinese lady who is an English teacher from that side of the river.
As we talked, she misunderstood when I said that we had come from Hong Hu and thought I had said Hong Kong. She asked if we were flying back. As I was clarifying the situation, 'S' was walking away (she doesn't talk to strangers from the other side of the river).
Later 'S' told me that the reason that the lady did not know of Hong Hu was because it was on the other side of the river. That's definitely Chinese Logic!!
Do you believe in Miracles? Get this - I was begging to go into a Chinese restaurant to buy lunch and was quite prepared to pay for us all. But 'OH NO', 'S' would not hear of it! "These are strangers" she informed us, "you cannot trust them. No No No!!!!! We have to take the barge back across the river".
You can't beat a woman's logic, so off we headed to the river. When we got there, 'S' insisted that we should not wait for the bus on this side of the river, but rather that we should take the barge and wait on the other side.
It was no use trying to convince her that we would still have to wait for the same bus. She insisted that we would be able to catch another one on the other side. Now we may have been dumb "Lao wei's" but even we could tell that there was no regular bus service running into the river at a piss stop.
So off we go and halfway through the crossing the Ticket lady informs us that we must pay 20 yuan for the 4 of us. Remembering that it cost only 12 yuan to take the bus and the barge, it was a bit steep (but then foreigners are all millionaires).
When we arrived on the other side, there were of course no taxis and no buses. It really was a piss stop, with a couple of cafes of sorts where people can eat and drink while waiting for the barge.
'S' now decides that these people are also dangerous strangers and informs us that we should leave. Very nice 'S', we are in the middle of nowhere on a goat track, with no idea of which way to go, but go we shall.
And so we walked, and walked, and walked, and walked. After half an hour or more, and two failed attempts to get the girls into a local motorised rickshaw, they finally succumbed, and we paid 4 yuan to take us to the main road.
Well the Brisbane Ekka has nothing on a motorized rickshaw ride. The thrills and spills are definitely more exciting. My back which had felt like it was out, was miraculously cured, while my brother's which had been OK was now in need of physiotherapy.
Eventually we arrived at the main road and there we were to wait for a bus to take us to Hong Hu. Now there were only two things of which 'S' was sure. The first was that there would be a bus eventually, and the second, that she did not know when there would be a bus. Chinese Logic!
As I was thirsty, I offered to buy us all a drink. The girls however wanted pineapple. This involved waiting while the seller cut and trimmed the pineapple, and this of course gave time for the locals to gather around the 'circus freaks'.
Two boys in particular were a little cheeky so I told 'brother' to get his camera ready, as I intended to rush at them and grab them. Everyone had a good laugh when I did that. Then a little kid cried out something about the foreigners. 'No!' I screamed out 'Laowei? Laowei? Bu Laowei! Zhonguren!!! (Foreigner? foreigner? Not foreigner! Chinese!) The townsfolk cracked up laughing.
Next thing you know, 'S' grabs a taxi and throws us in! She did not feel safe there! So off we go again.
Now this time we only have to pay 10 yuan to go back to town. Aaaahhhhhhh! I will soon be eating!!!!!
Bugger me dead but the thrills and spills haven't finished yet! As you arrive at the edge of town there is a right turn to follow a long road that leads us to another right turn and down to the school. We got only halfway along the first road, when a truck went past us, throwing up a rock that smashed the windscreen.
The Taxi Driver stomped on brakes, spun the taxi around and pursued the truck at high speed. We are now of course travelling in the opposite direction to home. The driver finally catches up with the truckie and cuts him off forcing him to a stop. He got out of the taxi and with much abuse and threats, demanded money from the truck driver.
The truckie naturally tells him where to take a flying leap, drives around the taxi and starts to disappear. The Cabbie jumps back in the car and again takes off in pursuit, forcing the truckie to a stop at a 'T' junction back at the end of the road at the edge of town.
Well, we had had enough and decided to do a bolt. We threw 10 yuan at the taxi driver and ran.
There is of course, always a bright side to everything. I really wanted to get some biscuits at the markets and brother decided that he really needs more meat, so we decide to take the opportunity to go look for some.
Very quickly a local bus comes by and stops, but as we go to get on it 'S' grabs us, forcing us off. We had a short argument with her before indicating to the driver to keep going.
So what's wrong now!!!! She, it transpires, does not know where this bus goes!!!!! aha!!!! BUT, (as we not so politely informed her), if you go one street past the supermarket you will come to the river road, and that is the bloody road we are now on!! No matter where the bus ACTUALLY went, we would end up at the markets near the supermarket, or down at the markets by the other river bridge. It would not have been a problem!!!!!
Just as well that they had foreigners with them or they would never have made it home.
So while we are walking and waiting for another bus or cab, we spotted a fruit and meat market (of which we had not previously been aware). I should point out here that 'S' who grew up in this town did not know that there was more than ONE market. We knew of that and regularly visited them. This day we discovered a fourth.
So we ducked in, and shocked them all. (Many people in this neck of the woods have never seen a foreigner before, and my Brother and I are the only two in this whole town!)
We bought some meat, took some photos of the people crowding around us, and then paid another 5 yuan to go home by Taxi.
It cost 27 yuan to get to Chibi and 39 yuan to come home.
(Hopefully my writing style has improved over the years.)
R.P.Bendedek
Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com
_______________________________________________________
R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (www.kingscalendar.com), and is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he currently teaches Conversational English in China.
Photographic Stories from China: http://www.kingscalendar.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=viewnews&id=128
"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.
