After fumbling around in my seat for over five minutes, trying to make myself comfortable, I noticed that there was this teenager sitting across from me who was trying to look at me, without making it obvious. So, I decided to stare back at him, to try and make him feel uncomfortable; it seems rude, but it works the best.
As it turns out, he spoke English, and quite well. He couldn't understand me as well as I would have liked, (he's studying German in Berlin, so he actually knew German as well). It definitely made the six hour ride much better than just looking out the window. As we started to talk more, more people started to look over at our six-seat spot, because they heard people speaking English. Half-way through the ride, the conductor came by, and for some reason, my ticket had fallen from my pocket into the seat-cushion. Luckily, my Chinese friend intervened for me, and explained to the conductor that I did have my ticket; eventually she left, confident that a foreigner wouldn't have tried to sneak onto a train in China.
The startling thing about the train ride was the striking difference between big-city Beijing and the rest of the country. Once you leave the city, its a completely different world. Just recently, the average income rose over the 1000 Yuan mark, which was big news (1000 Yuan is equivalent to 700 Can) The only problem was that it highlighted how much the upper-class was making compared to the lower class, which hadn't changed. The wealthy are getting wealthier, and the poorer were still the same. Taking the train through China was an eye-opener; once you leave the city, all you can see are incredibly poor hacienda-style houses, who survive on subsistence-living, feeding themselves with whatever they produce. For many of these communities, wells are still used as their primary water source, they have no plumbing, and their houses are made of mud-style housing, with corrugated steel as their roof. For myself, I could remember reading articles about how China is an up-and-coming nation, ready to become the next major world player. I couldn't help but think how far China is from becoming a developed nation. There will always be striking differences, but this was much more than I was expecting.
Doing things in my typical style, I had no accommodations booked in Datong, where I was heading. Greg, my new Chinese friend, actually lived in Datong, and he let me know right away that for a city of over 2 million, tourism was clearly a struggling industry. Greg was able to book me accommodations before I even got into Datong, which was an answer to prayer after finding out that there was only a few hotels.
On the way to the hotel, Greg introduced me to two Japanese girls who were in China studying Chinese, but were on their summer vacation touring the country. We were all staying at the same hotel, so we walked together there, go our rooms, and I settled in for the night. I was thinking and trying to figure out what I was going to do tomorrow, when the two Japanese girls knocked on my door, and after ten minutes of struggled English, invited me to join them on their tour the following day. They had hired a taxi to take them around to the Yungang Caves, and the Hanging Monastery. They had agreed on the price for the whole day, so we could spend as much time as we wanted.
Both the Yungang Caves and the Hanging Monastery were amazing - the Yungang Caves were dug in 400AD or so, and the amazing thing is that all of the stone carvings were done by hand - before they were dug, it was a flat wall of stone. The Hanging Monastery is still used, and we were allowed to walk nearly anywhere we wanted, without being allowed to interrupt private rooms. I had a great time with both Naomi and Yoshino, and they were clearly an answer to prayer, because without them, I would have been lost as to how to go about visiting both sites.
After visiting both sites, I had one hour, before catching what I was told was going to be a sixteen hour train ride. My ticket was previously a standing-only seat on the train, which was somewhat stressing me out. After praying about it, I went back to the Chinese National tour agency, and after agreeing to pay at 40Yuan commission, he was able to secure me a hard-sleeper berth, which was the simplest form of bed on the train ride (which was an amazing answer to prayer, because somebody had just turned in an extra ticket before the tour agency worker had asked the ticket worker if there were any extra sleeper seats.
After picking up necessary toiletries (bathrooms in China do not carry toilet paper, or soap, or anything else but the squatter toilet/whole in the ground) I met up with some Polish backpackers (who, answer to prayer) were actually on the bunk next to mine, and they knew English fluently. The ride turned out to be 18 hours after numerous delays on the track. I was blessed to have a girl of five (who also knew English, at least enough for me to communicate with. There was also a man, who upon hearing English, came over and sat, just to practice his English. Two hours into the ride, he hands me the phone, and asks if I'm willing to talk to his sister on the phone. I said sure, and for twenty minutes, I talk to his 24 year old sister, who's just elated to be talking, for the first time in her life, to a native English speaker. She was so excited, I had to ask her to repeat herself consistently, because she was just talking so excitedly that I didn't understand her. Upon complimenting her, she couldn't stop saying "thank-you, thank you", because she was just so happy to talk to a native English speaker. But that's China - appearing ignorant to foreigners, but when you get to talk to the real Chinese people, you find a country that's just craving to learn English. On both train rides, people would crowd around, just to hear English being spoken; whenever they didn't understand, they'd all ask each other, and they would talk around, until they all understood. And then they'd practice saying it in English, with me helping them with pronunciation.
In the end of my time in Datong, I was a little disappointed. I was planning on trying to see the Great Wall in Datong; the un-restored part of the Great Wall. In the end, my Chinese tour guide did not understand what I was talking about, so I wasn't able to see the Great Wall at all. To go to China and NOT see the Great Wall seems like a massive oversight; Mao himself is quoted as saying "No man is a man until he has climbed the Great Wall". I would have to disagree with Mao - the time I spent on both train rides, including my time in Datong, made me realize how happy I was to be traveling alone and meeting real Chinese people; not the side of China that you see when you travel with a tour group.
Coming soon - Pt.3 of 5 -
again, apologies for the length - but just as I tried to complete China in just eight days,(which I discovered can't be done...) there is no space to tell all of the stories that I encountered while traveling in China- I could fill a book with all the blessings and experiences I encountered; And my trip was only half done.....check my pictures site for more pictures of Datong, etc.