Imagine this. You’re carrying an immense backpack on your back, you’re wearing sweatpants, your hair is tied back in a messy bun and you are peeling your eyes open trying not to trip over yourself because you are in a ridiculous state of exhaustion. Now imagine walking into a vast room full of travelers with large sacks sitting in endless rows of seats. You cringe because their presence is revolting. They either eat sunflower seeds (and spit them out) with such might that they soar across the room, or you see locals relieving their sinuses all over themselves and all over the floor. Don’t even think about using the lavatories, their pestilent state will make you sick to your stomach even more than the phlegm-flying inhabitants who are now staring at you as if you were a Martian. In order to keep from an awkward staring contest, you lose the battle and turn your attention to a group of people standing and gathering their things. They stand from their seats and your radar goes off. You sprint to the blue shiny plastic as fast as you can, trying with all your effort not to tip over from the weight of the backpack that is now hitting against your backside with great force. From the corner of your eye you see a man in his thirties make a quick and sudden step forward. He sees the seat as well. He pushes another man over, steps to his left and drops his bag of sunflower seeds all over the white and black checkered floor. To your left, a woman in three inch black stiletto heels grabs her boyfriend’s hand and she’s on the move. Her face changes - she suddenly looks like Britney Spears the day she attacked the paparazzi with an umbrella, only this time the woman is wearing pointy boots and her boyfriend is the tallest Chinese man I’ve seen. The race is on. And the final prize? The opportunity to sit in a dirty synthetic seat, acting like a neurotic hand sanitizing freak, and loving yourself because you won. You now have an audience.
Taking a train in China is not like taking a train anywhere in the United States. You need to get to the train station at least forty-five minutes beforehand, where you are required to sit and wait in a giant waiting room with rows and rows of seats. If it’s a busy morning, the sight of an empty seat results in a race, full of pushing, hitting, and even some potential falling in order to occupy this small piece of plastic just so you don’t have to sit on the germ infested floor. Lucky for us, the Tongliao train station was not tremendously crowded at 7am on Saturday morning. Instead, the seven of us sat opposite each other in two groups while we wolfed down nutri-grain bars and tried not to fall asleep on each other. We were a sight to be seen. We were also being stared at from all angles because the sight of a lawoai (foreigner) in Tongliao is extremely rare. I felt like a caged panda in the middle of a zoo.
The trip to Shenyang took six hours, so we purchased our hard sleeper tickets the night before for (70rmb = around $9) and we were off. I spent the first four hours of the trip sitting in a window seat admiring the enormous expanse of Inner Mongolia. I was in awe of the carts drawn by lame donkeys creeping along the road and the wild horses that roamed among the gaunt farmers who work alone. At one point I looked up and noticed a woman dressed in a conductor’s uniform staring back at me. I am getting used to the unwanted attention so I ignored this and continued reading up on Shenyang. Kim and I had planned a whirlwind weekend in Shenyang for the group, including a trip to the Imperial Palace, which resembles a smaller version of the Forbidden City in Beijing. And since three of us were history majors in college, I asked the rest of the group if we could visit the 18 September History Museum (it’s named after the date when Shenyang was captured by the Japanese in 1931) and they agreed. However, what most of us were excited about was nowhere to be found in my Lonely Planet Guidebook; a western supermarket and an Italian restaurant. So I planned this into the itinerary while the thoughts of what we might find here danced in our heads.
I looked up from my itinerary and found the conductor to still be looking intently at me. I turned to see if any of my friends were awake in their sleepers but no one paid any attention to the conductor who was now looking at my book. I smiled and waved and she stood up immediately. She walked towards me and sat in the window seat next to mine. “Nihao,” I said anxiously, thinking I may have done something wrong. The conductor began giggling to herself and answered “Nihao” back to me. She told me her name was Chen Ai Wu and I told her I was a teacher in Tongliao along with the six others who were either fast asleep in their sleepers or laughing at me and my attempt to have a conversation with a complete stranger. I told her we were Americans, which she found quite shocking because she was sure I was Russian. (If you know me well, you know my strange obsession with Russia, so you can imagine how happy I was to hear this!! Haha)
I told Chen, “Wo shi lei le” (I am tired) and pointed to my hard sleeper. She laughed again and left. I climbed into my middle bed and hoped to get a little sleep before our jam-packed weekend but my new friend Chen visited frequently, and asked to look at my phrasebook (which she found quite amusing). I was getting a little frustrated because at this point I was exhausted and the thought of our schedule for the next two days made me even more tired! Finally, my head hit the pillow and I fell asleep. I don’t know how long I was asleep for but I was suddenly awoken by a tapping on my foot. I opened my eyes, took my headphones off, a little perturbed, and found Kim hitting my leg. “Wake up Sheila, I don't know what she's saying...Help! Talk to her!” Chen was back AGAIN. I gave Kim a death stare and looked at Chen who was smiling vivaciously at my grumpy face. She came back to tell me that Tongliao has a Mongolian influence. (NO WAY? We’re living IN Inner Mongolia) I said sarcastically to Kim, who now thought the situation was hilarious. I told Chen that last week we had eaten at a traditional Mongolian restaurant, where we ate from Hot Pots. I don’t know if she understood what I was saying but she smiled and nodded her head.
I didn’t want to be rude, so I got down from my bed and sat next to the window again (Chen really wanted to have a conversation). The next thing I knew, there were two police officers sitting at the foot of my bed. Now everyone was wide awake and the entire train was looking down the aisle. The police officer was very difficult to understand so I simply said, “Wo men shi Meigoren” (We are American). He burst out laughing in my face. I took out my dictionary and searched frantically for some sort of response because this was the most bizarre situation on a train; sitting with a conductor and two police officers. I looked desperately at the rest of the group, but they were no help!!! Suddenly, Chen grabbed the book from my hand and opened to a page. She looked at the police officers and then to me and stated with excitement, “Ni shi nuli!” (You are work hard). The police officers nodded aggressively in agreement and I smiled and said, “Xie Xie” (Thank you).
ps. the picture below has coffee and the USA today in the hotel...I love America.
Shenyang is a lively city in the Northeast of China and is located in the central part of the Liaoning Province. A little history lesson for all you fellow history buffs…Shenyang was a Mongol trading center and later became the capital of the Manchu empire in the 17th century. It has been a city with multiple identities, dominated in history by the Japanese, the Russians, and the Chinese Communist Party. Okay that’s enough history…Before we left for our trip; I spent 45 minutes with our Chinese friend David who tutored me about how to buy train tickets. We only were allowed to buy a one way so I listened intently to his directions and wrote down exactly what to say so that we would all be on a train home! The pressure was on!
After we got off the train in Shenyang, the girls went to the ticket office, while the boys invaded McDonalds. I have to admit, this was a stressful situation. The lines for tickets were long and I felt the least confident I have felt since being here. With the help of an English speaker behind me, the ticket purchase was a success... sort of. There were only four soft sleepers left, which meant that three of us would have to be in the “standing car.” We all decided that we would decide the following day, after analyzing the physical and mental state of each person after a night in Shenyang.
We looked at our watches and realized that a trip to the Imperial Palace was impossible so we concluded that we’d drop our stuff at the hotel and go shopping! We split from the guys and explored this very western city (full of Haagan Daaz, Sephora, Burberry, Nike, COFFEE and Wal-Mart). When the four of us walked in the doors of the four storied Wal-Mart I felt a sense of embarrassment towards my country. I could feel the capitalism and exploitation in my bones but I followed the group and watched the girls almost faint at the sight of Barilla Pasta and Heinz Ketchup.
To be honest, I felt overwhelmed by the entirety of this Western city. A couple of us were discussing how great it would be if we spent a year in Shenyang but I didn’t agree. This trip made me appreciate my time in Tongliao, a city where white people are so scarce, and KFC is the closest thing to anything American. I think it would have been a completely different experience if we lived in Shenyang, one which I did not envy.
Funny story time- We walked into our hotel and every single one of our mouths dropped. A few of us were speechless at the sight of who was standing in the lobby with us. I remember not being able to speak for a good minute at the sight of a group of OTHER WHITE PEOPLE. I wish I could explain the feeling I had but there are no words. We whispered amongst ourselves, “Oh my gosh look over there!” I FELT LIKE ONE OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN DOING THE SAME EXACT THING TO ME FOR THE PAST MONTH. We met people from France, Germany, Russia, and India, and each time, I felt a sense of homecoming, being in the same room with these total strangers.
We had the greatest night in Shenyang. We all took really hot showers for the first time in a long time and got all dolled up (we felt like girls!) We went to dinner at “Lombardi’s Italian Restaurant,” and it was hysterical. I have never seen people get so excited over carbs in my life…Dr. Robert Atkins would surely be rolling in his grave if he ever saw the scene my friends were making! The dinner was followed by a visit to two bars and a Chinese nightclub. We found so many western drinks, it was shocking…Mike nearly cried over finding Guinness, and we all took full advantage of all the tequila we could find!
Sunday morning was painful. We cancelled our journey to the 18 September History Museum, I blamed the tequila and we all enjoyed our last HOT shower. While everyone got ready, I ventured out alone to the beautiful green letters that were practically smiling back at me. When I walked into STARBUCKS, I almost jumped on the baristas and ordered two grande cappaccino’s on Sunday morning. It’s just a shame my body didn’t love the coffee back. It could have been the shock of this foreign substance in my body, but again, I blame the tequila.
The seven of us painfully made our way back to the station where we knew we’d have to discuss the inevitable question of who would be in the soft-sleepers and who would stand for six hours in the “cattle car.” Our decisions the previous night suddenly seemed disastrous ones. Like gentlemen, the guys gave us the soft sleepers which are even better than the hard sleepers. As we approached the Tongliao Train Station six hours later, we became incredibly nervous that the guys would be asleep, listening to their iPods, or so out of it from standing that they didn’t know it was time to get off. So I volunteered to be the one to sprint the full length of the train from the first sleeper car (our car) to the last standing car in order to wake them or snap them out of their delirious state.
I sprinted as fast as I possibly could until I reached the end of the train. As I passed each car, I looked frantically for one of their heinous blue and red Boston Red Sox hats but I came up with nothing. At this point, hundreds of people were staring at the crazy white girl, looking like death, and running like a psycho. I turned back, thinking I probably missed them until I saw and heard Cait screaming, “SheShe, they got off!!!! They sat the ENTIRE time!!” She yelled this with a bit of disgust, realizing that we had worried for no reason. They ended up having a great trip and were offended that we had no faith in them!
