This is a little digression about the China Culture Club, harking back to 2004-2005 when I was teaching in Yangzhou. I would take the Thursday night train overnight to Beijing to visit Virginia from Texas who was also in the same program teaching spoken English. She had an apartment on the 18th floor of a big high rise and room for me on the couch. I spent maybe 15 weekends here with her. I would get a soft sleeper, like the one we just rode from Y. to B. - comfy compartment with a door (shuts out the smoke from the smoker in the corridor!) with 4 beds. I would always get a lower bunk (more expensive) so I didn't have to climb down during the night. This time I had an upper bunk but managed. Anyway, it was usually me and 3 Chinese guys! Never had a female compartment-mate on all those trips. The train was smooth, no stops between Y and B. Jiang Zemin, the previous president of China, was from Y. and went to Y. Middle School where I taught. Before Hu Jintao took over, J. Z. made sure this Y. train station got built and this beautiful train was running!
When I would arrive in B. it was 6:30 a.m. and Virginia would be busy teaching that day. So I would take my suitcase to this bike rental place south of Tianamen Square and leave it for the day, taking off around B. on a bike. Wandering the hutongs (the narrow, one story home areas around central B. - many of which were torn down for the Olympics!) was one of my favorite things to do here. Then I would meet Virginia in her apartment at the end of the day.
She discovered the China Culture Club, an organization started by a Chinese guy named Feng Cheng whom we traveled with several times. It's purpose is to provide activities with local guides to help ex-patriots living in B. various elements of Chinese life, like classes in feng shui or foot massage, etc. Or take you on guided trips locally or away from B. Our first trip with them was to the ice festival in January of that year. We would travel both ways by train, overnight, stay a couple of nights in a hotel, see the magnificent creations out of ice with colored lights inside - from the pyramids, to the Great Wall, done to scale and big enough to slide down or walk inside! Amazing! Check it out on google - Harbin Ice Festival! We also saw a huge swimming pool cut in the ice of the river, with an ice diving board and crazy Chinese diving in the freezing water. There was also a side trip to a Russian dining room (it's very close to Russian border), Russian cathedral, and a nearby Siberian tiger reserve - where you could buy a live chicken to throw off the bus to them!! I opted out of that!!!
Anyway, Feng Cheng had given us 2 train tickets in B. and said don't lose them! Of course, the day before our return, I couldn't find my ticket! I told him and Rex, the other guy in charge. Rex spent a 1/2 day at the station trying to get me another ticket. No luck! But I'd paid already for the bunk! so Feng Cheng's plan was to give me HIS ticket, he bought a 2 yuan boarding pass - where you could come aboard to help someone get settled and then get off. Then he stayed on and spent the night avoiding the conductress (is that the female name?) who stopped everyone for their tickets! I was SOOOO nervous all night, couldn't sleep! I knew in the a.m. you had to show your ticket before leaving the station. I had nightmares about Chinese jails, etc.! In the morning Rex had the plan. He gathered the tickets from 10 of us, put us in a group and herded us out the gate by holding up the tickets and saying this tour group was with him. Of course, for the 10 tickets, there were 11 of us! I was sweating bullets!! Afterward, Feng Cheng said I would make a HORRIBLE criminal because I looked and acted so guilty!!
So on the trip to Datong this weekend, where Feng Cheng didn't go, because he is busy with a new baby girl, I was telling this story to Andy one of our guides. He laughed (since he knows FC and Rex) and said I should write a book. Andy was to meet with us today for our scheduled hutong/Forbidden City day trip. So we were looking forward to seeing him again as he was a delightful, bubbly guy, working for CCC for 3 years since being out of University. And his English is excellent!
When we returned yesterday from our trip to the Great Wall/Ming Tombs and around the Olympic venues with Lee, our hired driver, there was a message saying our trip today had been cancelled due to lack of registration (I guess it was only the 4 of us). I immediately wrote CCC an e-mail asking for Andy's e-mail to contact him directly and maybe hire him anyway. Marilynn called (at the desk through one of the girls there) CCC and was told it would be 2800 RMB ( a LOT more) to hire a private guide! So we were wondering what to do when Marilynn got a call from CCC at the desk from Andy saying, because I knew Feng Cheng, they were making an exception and they would do the trip just for us, for 400 RMB apiece! This is the way China runs - on guangxi (not sure of spelling!). It means you do for me, I do for you, basically! You run into it over and over. You can't just PAY someone for things, it has to be arranged with a series of obligations back and forth!! At least that 's what I think happened!
So we'll see! It's 5:30 a.m. and it's my chance to write on the internet so I'm an early riser anyway. We're supposed to meet CCC at the local KFC for our tour!
Oh, and I STILL have to go back to Ctrip office today to pay in person for my flight from Guilin-Shanghai on the 16th!! It was cancelled because I still couldn't straighten out PayPal. DO NOT recomment PP for anything!!!! Aargh!
Hugs to all!
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