The Kidnapping

Well, I am back in mainland China and I'm stuck here until the 14th. My visa was only a double entry, which I have now used up. Not that I am disappointed about this. Quite the contrary. I do fluctuate a bit between thinking that everything I am doing and seeing is so amazing that I can't believe I only have 2 weeks left and thinking longingly of a real bed, a real shower, real western food, and a California summer. Jake, the British gap-year student I met in Guangzhou, doesn't go back until the end of August. He has months of adventures left in front of him and I only have 2 weeks! It seems so small in comparison to the 9 or so months I have already spent in this wondrous country. Has it already been that long? Incredible. An entire gap year, nearly finished.

I love pouring through my Lonely Planet (aka the "bible"). I just finished a particularly indulgent session as a way to pass time on this 14+ hour train ride to Xiamen. Reading about possible activities, pouring over maps, flipping back and forth between provinces and cities as I try to figure just where I can get to from somewhere else - it is amazingly addictive and time consuming. I think I have figured out my next couple of moves: I am trying to continue in a northerly direction up the coast until I get to Shanghai which I should reach sometime close to my birthday. But the next city on my to-see list (Hangzhou) is a 25-hour train ride from Xiamen (!!). I'll pass, thanks. So instead I am going to do a more manageable 10-hour night bus to Wuyi Shan in north western Fujian, known for its river rafting and hiking and scenery. From there, a short 2-hour bus into the next province over (Jianxi) puts me at a much more pleasant 10-hour night train from Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province and only 2 hours by train from Shanghai. I can then use the rest of my time (if I have any) to explore Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Yangzhou before heading to Shanghai and flying to Kunming. Sounds like quite the plan, doesn't it? Now if I only had one more week, I COULD fly to Kashgar in northerly Xinjiang province and explore the historic silk road, but I guess that will have to wait for another trip.

Enough of the future, I need to talk about the past. Yesterday morning (was it only yesterday? It feels like forever ago) I woke up bright and early and caught a bus for Taipa, one of the islands of Macau. Buses are a bit confusing and require that you use the exact change, fun considering Macau has its own currency. I didn't quite know where to get off and wound up in an unpleasant construction site next to a stadium. Was just about as charming as it sounds. With much map reading (now if only I had a huge awkward camera around my neck and a goofy sunhat, I'd REALLY have the tourist look down) I found my way to Taipa village, a small area that was supposed to have pleasant cobblestone streets and colonial architecture. It did, more or less, but on a much smaller scale than I expected. And the colonial architecture was kind of ruined when I saw that it housed venues such as McDonald's and Starbucks. There were, however, helpful maps everywhere accompanied by signs that read "Pak Tai Temple, this way" . I do have to admit that Taipa has the abundance of restaurants and food stalls that it is known for. An entire street is just lined with Macanese, Portuguese, and Chinese restaurants and cafes. I didn't end up eating much at Taipa, but I found that didn't really matter. Just knowing that the options were there, that I was not far from great food, was a comfort. Around 11:30, I negotiated my way onto a bus back to the peninsula where I enjoyed a great decaf cappuccino (my mother's drink) and an ham and cheese sandwich before gathering my things, checking out of my guesthouse, and heading towards Pier 16 where I was promised passage back to China. 2 hours and a bit of immigration hassle later, I found myself in Shenzhen and on what would prove to be a very long bus to the train station. Just how big can one city be? I was on this bus for 2 hours at a reasonable clip before we reached the station, and not once did we leave what felt like the center of the city. It was enormous. Farewell tiny, walkable Macau - I am back in China.

On the train back to Guangzhou, I sat next to a very sweet Chinese girl named Zhiyuan Yang from Xian, who spoke no English. She was in Guangzhou visiting her big sister. After only talking for a few minutes, she decided to give me her bracelet of fish eyes which she had bought in Shenzhen and was for good luck. I was very taken aback by her generosity. She invited me to have dinner with her and her sister, which I thought would be fun. It turned out to be a bit more than I bargained for. When we got to Guangzhou, we first took the metro to my old hostel where I checked in and took my first shower in 3 days, and then we got into a taxi. I thought we were going to her sister's university, but it turned out that we were just going to another hotel in a sketch neighborhood 45 minutes away. Yang took a shower while I chatted with her sister (age: 24) and ate fruit. I found out the real plans for the evening: he jiu hen wan - drink alcohol and have fun. Haha, ok. As long as I get some food first. We were joined by the sister's three guy friends and were off. After eating, we went to a Chinese disco sort of place. I have been to similar places before, but I tend to avoid them as the music is to loud and the drinks over priced. It was fun, though. We found couches, ordered more food, and started playing a drinking game with dice. Everyone has 5 which they use to make bets on how many dice there are in total, eg "eight 2s". The bets have to increase in quantity or the number being bet on until some one challenges, then all the dice are revealed and counted. When I had played this with my family, the loser had to give up one die and when you ran out of dice, you were out of the game. This meant the game would eventually end. In the Chinese version, the loser of each bet would have to drink and the game could potentially go on forever. We played for HOURS. It was great fun, though. Everyone got really into the game and after every round, there were cheers and high-fives all around. Because the music was too loud to hear, we used Chinese sign language to communicate our bets. Numbers 1 through 5 were pretty obvious, but I had to learn the rest really quickly. 6, for example, is a fist with the pinkie and thumb fingers splayed. I found myself at a bit of a disadvantage trying to keep track of the sign language AND play the game, and the consumption of alcohol wasn't helping my concentration at all.

After several hours of this game and dancing, I decided that I needed to go home. My friends agreed and said that we will all go home after we get something to eat. So we went to a restaurant and ate snails and clams and a mystery meat soup. They started telling me that I shouldn't go to Xiamen the next day, that I should stay in Guangzhou and hang out with them. We'll go shopping and swimming. They were going to take me to the station to change my ticket to the following day and - this is my favorite part - they were all going to go with me. Xiamen is more than 14 hours away by train! Ok, I will think about it, but first I need to go home and sleep. The story gets better. They wouldn't let me go back to my hotel because it was too far away. I should just stay with them. What?? I really didn't want to be rude because they had treated me so well that night, taking me out and showing me a good time. But I had to get back! My new friends made it clear that they weren't going to let me return, so I eventually gave up and spent the night. The next morning, I decided that I needed to put a stop to the whole thing. I got Yang to take me back to my hotel so I could get my stuff which had thankfully survived the night. We were supposed to come back right away and have lunch with her friends and then they were going to take me to the station to change my ticket, no ifs ands or buts. At my hotel, I found a person to help me translate and as diplomatically as possible had him tell Yang that I couldn't travel with her and her friends. It took quite a bit of convincing, but finally after many thank yous and hugs and promises to keep in touch, we parted ways. Freedom! I spent the next few hours walking around tranquil Shamian Island, drinking coffee and looking up train schedules online. At 5:00 I headed towards the train station. I was off, ready for a new city and a new adventure.

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