I spent 8 days living in a small Chinese town south of Shanghai, and my experience was quite memorable. In order to arrive at Wuyuan, I had to take an 8-hour bus that left at 8 p.m. and arrived at 3 a.m. The bus station was packed with hordes of people rushing home to celebrate the Chinese New Year. All of the buses were going to small towns, so naturally I didn’t see too many other foreigners.
The bus station itself had three things that specifically caught my attention. First, there was a machine that weighs and measures people for half a Yuan. My only guess is that most Chinese don’t go to the doctor very often and likewise have few opportunities to be weighed and measured. A decent amount of people were using the machine. Second, people were using a vending machine to purchase over-the-counter medications. Again, I would think this has to do with the fact that most Chinese rarely go see a doctor. Third, I saw a large outlet that people could use to charge their cell phones. The machine had different types of chargers already plugged into the outlets and could be used for a small fee.
I didn’t have time to eat dinner, so I bought two bananas and took them with me to the waiting room. As soon as I walked into my bus’s waiting room, people started staring and assumed that I had walked in by mistake. After I pulled out my ticket, people began asking me how I learned Chinese. The bus was completely full, and I was sitting next to a young guy who was on his way home. He spoke with a very thick accent, but I picked up that he was 19 and working in a suburb of Shanghai. As soon as the bus departed, all the lights went off and Chinese music started playing. Unfortunately, I realized that the bus had no bathroom. I asked around but no one seemed sure of when the bus would stop for a bathroom break. Trying to distract myself from my present discomfort, I used the book light that I brought to read Alan Greenspan’s Autobiography. I thought it was a little funny that I was reading about Clinton’s budget proposals so that I wouldn’t think about having to pee. We ended up making two bathroom stops, and finally arrived at close to 3 in the morning.
Wuyuan is the hometown of one of my close Chinese friends, but I ended up staying with her good friend, who is a guy. My friend thought that it would be best if I stayed with a boy, or else people would think I was her American boyfriend. I was absolutely exhausted when I arrived and looked forward to getting some sleep in a bed. While I knew the town had no heaters, I was nowhere near ready for how cold it was going to be. Outside temperatures were close to 30 degrees Fahrenheit, and the inside of the house didn’t feel much warmer. I was very cold the first night and made sure to dress appropriately. From then on, I slept with a long-sleeve cotton shirt, a wool sweater, a Northface fleece, a pair of shorts, a pair of wool long-underwear, a pair of jeans, two pairs of socks, and shoes. I wore all of this while I slept under 5 blankets. Incredibly, I was still cold.
Because the weather was cold and raining, we decided to take it easy the first day and eat lunch at my friend Qiqi’s. As soon as we walked in, we had to take off our shoes and change into slippers that her parents gave us. It is a custom to take off your shoes and put on clean, warm slippers given to you by the host. This was true of every family I visited.
I should mention that I have been basically wearing crocks throughout winter and Wuyuan was no exception. As a result, everyone was very worried about my feet. Wherever I went, I would be asked to take off my shoes and soak my feet in hot water. After the soak, we would all heat our feet on an electric heater. It amazed me that so much attention was paid to cleaning and warming our feet, yet I couldn’t find any hand soap. My friend Weiwei explained that the Chinese believe the feet are one of the core parts of the body, and that their condition will influence other parts. This experience reminded me of how different Western and Eastern cultures are from one another. While I am constantly worried about how clean my hands are, I never think about washing my feet before I eat. On the other hand, a Chinese person will feel fine not washing his hands before eating, but feel uncomfortable if his feet feel dirty. To attract less attention, I bought a pair of snow boots for 25 Yuan.
We spent the rest of the day chatting until we went back home for dinner. Weiwei wanted to be polite and offered me some Baijiu. Baijiu is a strong Chinese liquor that tastes like paint thinner and Lysol. Unfortunately, I felt it would be impolite to refuse and drank a cup to show my respect. I ended up drinking at almost every meal trying to be polite.
I was very impressed at how modern Weiwei’s house was, and discovered that it was just built last year. Since Weiwei is an only child, the house felt very spacious. Even though it was a modern house, all the toilets were squatting toilets. Fortunately, my months of just-in-case-I-have-no-other-option training finally paid off.
Seeing the Countryside
It snowed badly the second day I was there, and this reflected a trend all across Southern China. Weather was so bad that major airports were shutdown and many people couldn’t get home for New Year. At that point, I couldn’t buy any tickets to leave town, and I was worried I would be stuck there for at least a few weeks.
While I thought the small town was very authentic, I wanted to go see the real countryside. I told Qiqi I wanted to see the poorest areas and she told me there was a chance we would have to stay in a hotel for a night. It would be under 100 RMB for all three of us so I told her no problem. A few minutes later she called a friend of hers in the countryside to set everything up. Five minutes later, I find out we will be staying at her friend’s home in one of the poorer villages.
Undeveloped transportation to and from the village is one of the main reasons for its stagnation. Everyday one car would take villagers to the town center in the morning and bring them back for lunch in the afternoon. This car is not owned by a corporation and does not meet any government standards. The driver is one of the few villagers who has a car, and consequently is the only option for villagers to get around. When the village family heard I would be coming, the father decided to come to our town and make sure I found the car alright. I was so touched that this man was not only hosting me in his home, but also taking a few hours of his time to make sure everything went smoothly. We met the father near the town center and he told Weiwei which car we should ride. Strangely, the father didn’t even look at me, no matter how many times I tried to start a conversation. Weiwei explained that the father was not sure what to say to me and didn’t want to make me feel uncomfortable.
After we got into the car, there were only 2 empty seats left. Nonetheless, the driver decided we should wait another hour until more passengers are ready to leave. So for the next hour the driver took us all around town running errands. He would stop his car at a store and leave for 20 minutes. The other passengers had had enough and got out of the car. When the driver came back, he looked at us and calmly asked why other passengers would leave. So much for leaving on schedule.
We finally headed out about an hour later, and I understood why the driver wanted to wait for other passengers. While only two empty seats were left, we managed to squeeze another 5 people into the car. Each person paid 10 Yuan and the ride lasted about 45 minutes. At first, I was very impressed at how smooth the roads were and how easy it was to get around. I had read about the bumpy dirt roads leading to the Chinese countryside, and I was surprised we hadn’t encountered any yet. All of a sudden we hit a major bump and I nearly flew into the roof. Then this happened again and again. We had arrived to the notorious dirt roads of the Chinese countryside. The next half hour felt like a rollercoaster at Six Flags, but much more dangerous. A truck in front of us had fallen off of the road because the dirt was too slippery and wet. Our driver stopped so he could help the other men get their truck back onto the road.
After 30 minutes of the dirt road, we finally arrived to the village. Secluded in the mountains, the village looked like it has not been changed since the 16th century. The first thing I saw when I arrived was the corpse of a pig that had just been slaughtered. Blood and hair were all over the area. The Chinese have a tradition of eating pigs to celebrate the New Year, and many pigs were going to be slaughtered the next few days.
As I walked through the area, I saw women washing their clothes along a river that runs through the entire village. Every home looked identical and had some sort of Mao poster in the living room. Our friend Huahua took us to his home and told us to get ready for lunch. Huahua was born and raised in this small village, but is a university student studying in a large city in the Jiangxi province. Since the village has no school after kindergarten, Huahua had to attend upper school in the town nearby. He lived at dorms from middle school onwards. Huahua explained to me that the village has no hospitals or stores, and everything but food had to be brought in from other towns.
The One-Child Policy is actually a Two-Child Policy in the countryside. This is because people living in the countryside need the extra labor and help that comes with a second child. While Huahua’s mother and younger sister were preparing lunch, I went to use the restroom. The restroom was a wooden bucket in the back of the house neighboring the family’s two pigs. I saw a mouse about a foot above my head while I was using the bathroom. It surprised me that most families have a TV before they have running water.
We sat down to eat after I came back from the restroom, and Huahua’s mother and sister acted as if they were our housekeepers. They eat standing up even though there were plenty of chairs available, and they looked down while the rest of us were chatting. Weiwei explained that male and female roles were much more traditional in the countryside, but that the situation has greatly improved in the last 15 years. In the past, many girls in the countryside would not be able to get any schooling, while Huahua’s sister may be at university next year.
Being consistent with my other experiences, I was strongly encouraged to drink Baijiu at lunch. Despite the fact that I horribly dislike Baijiu, I still drank it to be respectful. After dinner, we went to sit on the couch and warmed our feet. Unlike in the nearby towns, people in the countryside don’t use an electric heater to warm their feet. Instead, they burn coal.
The weather was so cold that we stayed inside for the rest of the day. Huahua showed me around the house and we talked about what the future holds for China. I was too cold to think clearly, so I changed to a slightly simpler topic: Pigs. I was very interested in how they slaughter the pigs, and asked Huahua all sorts of detailed questions that he was not expecting. I later explained Kashrut to Huahua and told him that we try to limit the pain inflicted on the animal. After we discussed pigs for a while, Huahua’s father arrived and we ate dinner. Unfortunately, the father was very adamant on drinking baijiu with me. It only took a few cups until I realized that I was drunk.
Around 9:30 Huahua took us to his uncle’s home across the village so that we could sleep in a bigger bed. As soon as we walked in to his home, the uncle insisted that I take off my socks and soak my feet. He took my socks away so that he could heat them, and we went straight to bed. The three of us slept in the same bed and shared two blankets. I was given my own thinner blanket while Huahua and Weiwei shared a much larger one. Weiwei asked Huahua if anything special was going on tomorrow in the village. Huahua waited a few seconds and answered, “Many pigs will be slaughtered.”
I was slightly drunk so I fell asleep very quickly. However, I woke up at 2 in the morning because I was so cold. My blanket had fallen off and our room was literally at freezing temperatures. To make things worse, I had gone to sleep barefoot and now was worried that my feet would actually freeze. At the same time, my stomach started hurting and I was worried I had eaten a parasite. Huahua’s mother did not wash her hands before she cooked and left the food out for a few hours before we ate. I spent the rest of the night trying to keep warm while in enormous pain from the cold. I thought about all of the doctor visits I would need once I got back to Shanghai. Those 6 hours were unquestionably the most painful of my entire stay in China.
The next morning Weiwei quickly noticed I was not feeling well, and suggested that we take it easy that day. I was very relieved because my stomach pains forced me to the bathroom every few hours, and I had no desire to do any walking around. Naturally, we started off our light day by hiking 5 km to the next village. As we were leaving the village, we heard a pig screaming while it was being slaughtered.
We tried to hitchhike but couldn’t find anyone until we were a 100 meters away. It was nice that every car stopped for us and asked us which direction we were headed. When we finally found someone going in our direction, we jumped into the back of his car and quickly arrived at the next village. We toured around other villages for the rest of the day, and my stomach was continually in pain. I decided to buy some cookies and the more I ate the better I felt.
I will post the second part of my trip in a few days.
Make sure to check out the pictures.
