Character Recognition

I don't like to brag (well, not too much) but due to my recent accomplishment, I feel I am entitled. Since arriving in China eight days ago, I have learned to recognize nine Chinese charactes, and if they are placed together in the exact right order, five words as well. I can say "hello" and I can count to ten on my fingers (no, it's not the same as we do it). At this rate, I should be fluent in about two decades.

I have decided to work on character recognition as opposed to even attempt much of the language. The Chinese language has no articles (a, an, the), no plurals, and no tense - which should make it easy. But what it lacks in past pluperfect, it makes up for in tonation. Tone is very important. The word "ma", for instance can mean 'mother', 'hemp', 'numb', 'horse', 'scold', or 'swear' depending on weather you use a falling tone, a rising tone, a falling-rising tone, a high tone, or no tone at all. I've practiced saying "mother" several times and have gotten some funny looks on the streets.

Bragging aside, I must admit that my five words of Chinese haven't been of much help in getting us tickets from Pingyao to Xi'an. We've developed a theme to our trip. Instead of 'Asia Travels' we could more aptly call this our 'If I could only get a train ticket through Asia' trip.

In Mongolia we learned that it was the small paragraphs in the guide book that yielded the greatest satisfaction - the small out of the way monestary in the hills, the ruins in the middle of nowhere, the hike through the boulder field. But here in China, the small out of the way places, though fascinating, leave you stranded. To get in you simply hop off the train that is headed somewhere else. To get out, well, you struggle to get tickets.

Twice we went to the train station in Pingyao intent on getting tickets, twice we left empty handed. Without a computerized ticketing system, these small towns have no way of knowing if seats are available. The standard answer we've gotten is "not". The only option appears to be trying for an un-reserved hard seat and hoping for an upgrade once on board. Hard seat is where the locals sit or stand or squat (when there are no more seats left) while smoking, spitting on the floor, snoring and coughing. Hard seat cars are over-packed, noise and dirty. "It's NOT an option," I informed John. "Besides a third day in Pingyao would be nice."

Pingyao is wonderful. It is a city that has remained almost completely as it was in the days of the Ming Dynasty and can be traced back 2700 years. It is now part of UNESCO and is enclosed by a completely intact wall (6.4 km in length). The narrow roads and alleys inside are laid out like the pattern on the back of a turtle (hence the city is also called Turtle City). The streets of this ancient city are lined by shops, merchant homes, residents with large courtyards, temples and museums.

Many of the old merchant residents have been made into guest houses with rooms that contain one large brick bed (heated in the winter) that runs wall to wall covering 90% of the room. A small lacquer table is set up on the bed. We felt rather regal sleeping like that.

To add to our Chinese feeling, we rented bicycles to explore the city. I hopped on the seat to give it a try, took one turn of the pedals and my knees hit the handle bars. "Ouch!" Stop one, find someone with a wrench.

Even with the seats raised to their fullest, we were still too tall for our Chinese bikes. But as coasting was more feasible than pedaling on the crowded streets, it didn't seem to matter. When we came to the blocades that marked the walking streets, we used every muscle to lift our 40 pound vehicles over the bar.

I should point out that bicycle riders in China are only one step above pedestrians (pedestrians being on par with ants - if one is squashed, no one seems to notice). There are no road rules, no lanes, no sense of 'keep right'. There are trafffic lights outside the walled city but they don't appear to work, and no one pays attention to them anyway.

Anything goes on these roads and if you have a loud horn you are one step ahead of the game since you can then use it (often) to announce that you are coming through. Having a horn means you relieved of the nuisance of stopping - for anything. Pedicaps have one advantage over bikes- they are slightly bigger; and motorbikes, having both engines and horns, are a menace. Anything bigger is king. If I weren't so busy trying to avoid my own demise, I would have pityed the horse drawn carts we passed.

On our thrid day in the city, we decided to give leaving another try. The people at the guest house were very nice in helping us determine which trains left when and to where - but again we were presented with the "not" that has so characterized our presence at train ticket windows. Unable to speak the language and wearing thin the binding on our Mandarin phrase book, we abandoned the train and opted instead for the bus.

None of the Chinese that gathered around us could agree on exactly where the bus for Xi'an stopped. The girl from the guest house had biked with us to one place and told us it was there. After she left another man said, no, it was somewhere else. A crowd formed. When we got three answers that were the same, we stopped asking. The general consensus of the crowd was that the bus left on the hour until noon - that was at least consistant. One man pointed to my watch.

"No, no, not today," I said. "We're just here checking things out so we know where to stand tomorrow morning." None of this was of course comprehensable to him and John and I simply smiled and thanked them all for their help.

"That took 3 hours," I told John. "Not bad for a morning's work, I'd say." We pulled our legs over our bikes and set off for the walled city again. A truck blasted it's air horn behind me. In retaliation I gave my bike bell a ching. At least I had a bell, that set me one notch above those that didn't. And I used it often on the ride back - Ching ching ching.