Trip to Dongbei-Haerbin (4)

Today began with certain misadventures, or just what life is like in a foreign country. I needed to send some scanned pictures of my passport to my boss because he needed them for reasons too complicated to tell. So, the hotel lobby had a scanner and computer. But, because I don’t speak Chinese and the Chinese don’t have a ‘line’ mentality, so the simple scanning took an hour, 55 minutes more than planned. So Dave and I finally headed off to a Japanese germ warfare museum outside of town. Apparently the Japanese had some “alternative” warfare experiments at a base near Haerbin during the Sino-Japanese War. Well, the guidebook said the bus to the museum was near the train station. Unfortunately, the train station in a city of 5 million isn’t exactly a small place. And, after much searching and asking, we found the bus stop-in an alley behind an office building; which was otherwise used as a trash dump. The search for the bus took about another hour. The bus ride was also a bit longer than the guidebook indicated, so we arrived at the museum about ten minutes after 11:00, only to miss the lunch closure by ten minutes. As the search for the bus ride and the walk to the museum had made us pretty chilly, we grabbed a bite to eat. After lunch we headed back to the train station and met up with Danthemanstan and Lynn, who had gone to the ice festival. Lynn is a friend from CIEE who just finished her teaching at a university in Xuzhou, in the northern part of Jiangsu province. She had come in late the night before and as an avid snowboarding enthusiast, wouldn't miss a trip to the frigid north. During the ice slides of the night before, I had forgotten to take my phone out of my exterior pocket, and the screen had cracked and was pretty difficult to read. So, while walking through an underground shopping center to cross a busy street, I noticed some cell phones. So, with a little bartering, I purchased a new phone. Now, in the States, I usually head to the T Mobile store to buy a phone, so I can be assured of quality and return policies. Well, I bought my original phone here at the main China Mobile store downtown. I had recently had some hardware problems with it, so I asked many people if it could be exchanged or refunded (I still have the receipt). The people I asked looked at me like I was crazy. So, because there are no warranties, customer service, or refunds, I figured I might as well buy my phone from a stall in the underpass market.

The four of us (me with a new phone) met up and headed rapidly to the train station. We had a pleasant 5 hour trip to Jilin City in Jilin province, which is south of Haerbin, so we were headed to warmer ground. Once here, we were quite hungry, so we headed to a restaurant listed in the guidebook for its stew. While looking at the menu, David was pretty sure that he saw the characters for 'dog meat'. Well, he was right, and actually, about a third of the menu was dedicated to dog meat. Muslims don't eat pork, and Hindus don't eat beef, and in America we don't eat dogs. These are all cultural differences and preferences which can be traced back through generations. For Catholics, during lent, meat is not consumed, because it holds a cultural (in this case religious) significance. In China, dog meat has been consumed for thousands of years. It is believed to hold medicinal value in helping the body stay warm, and thus is very popular in the winter. Jilin province is one of the areas where it was especially popular. David and I decided that we would try it, and we did. The dogs used for meat here are raised as livestock, just like the cows and pigs most Americans (vegetarians like Jane excluded) eat everyday. I will report that it tastes almost identical to turkey, but there wasn't much meat on the bone. I think I'll stick with steaks and pork chops, so don't be worried. After dinner we headed to a hotel and got some acceptable rooms for a pretty cheap price. Oddly enough, there were plenty of rooms, as temperatures in the negative teens (F) aren't that inviting to tourists. Even more odd was that our main complaint about the room at this hotel is that it is too hot, as the hotel is blasting the general heat.