Back to Changzhou

Well, my trip is almost complete. I am only an hour or so outside of Nanjing, where I will grab a quick train back to Changzhou. Danthemanstan flew back to Shanghai from Hanoi. Dave and I left before him and took an overnight train across the border to Nanning, a city in south-central China, in Guangxi Province. One note about the border crossing: we had to alight the train and get our passports checked slowly but surely on the Vietnamese side. On the other hand, the Chinese, who at least consider efficiency in transport, instead had the border officials board the train, and check and stamp all documents while the train moved along. I assume if there were problems, they would just detain you at the station. From Nanning, Dave flew back to Shanghai, to meet our college friend Jocelyn, who Dave had convinced to visit. I opted for the economical transport: a train ride across more than half of China. Unfortunately, I was again a victim of the Chinese rail system of not selling tickets by Internet or outside the city of departure. So I had to wait a day to get a train to either Nanjing or Shanghai (remember, these are the two major cities on either side of Changzhou). It wasn’t a big problem; I met a nice American girl with Chinese parents (I don’t like to say Chinese American, because that’s really what her parents are) waiting for a train. So we grabbed breakfast and compared notes on living in China-she works in Beijing. I spent a good amount of time at an Internet café, found a nice hotel, and relaxed. I was still a little exhausted and weak from my sickness, so I laid around and caught up on world news (with Chinese characteristics) on the CCTV English station. (The picture to the left is something you only can find in these great Asian communist countries. Even the napkin holders are praising the proletariat there).

My train ride has been delightful. I am in the hard sleepers, which aren’t as luxurious as the soft sleepers, but are cheaper and have much more of a community feel. I met some very nice people, and it gave me a good chance to practice my (abysmal) Chinese. I spent most of the time chatting (or trying to chat) with two middle-aged women from Nanjing who took a husband free trip to Hainan (a tropical Chinese island) for a little Spring Festival getaway. Guo Haiyan and Gong Zhiying were there names, and we chatted about our families, jobs, and travels. They were really helpful and patient as I tried to piece together their questions with my phrase book. I could tell they were fairly wealthy for Chinese, as they both knew how to drive and shared a car with their husbands and the fact they were traveling just to travel, not seeking a job or visiting relatives. A nice, quiet, young man joined our conversation. He was going back to the police academy, which is a four year process in China. I also met a very kind factory manager/quality inspector who spoke excellent English. He and his wife were headed to Shanghai to seek employment. I figured he was doing better than most migrant workers, as he was university educated and apparently had enough money to take a six month vacation to visit relatives back home he had lost touch with when previously working in Shanghai. He confirmed my fears about much of what I buy when he told me that the products that fail inspection for export to the U.S. or Europe are simply sold in China. So I guess that means all the toys here have some lead in them…. A very astute young man also talked with me in English. He only looked about 16 or 17, but was in fact the same age as I. He works as electrical engineer, designing new electrical lines. He saw my book (on cosmology and time) and commented that he had read Hawking’s “Brief History of Time” and recommended it to me. When I asked him, he said he didn’t get paid enough and worked too much. It’s a funny thing, all my engineering friends in the States (unlike almost everyone else) are making lots of money and have plenty of job offers. But here in China, where math and science skills are a dime a dozen, people like this guy have to live in somewhat undesirable places and can’t make much money. To top it all off, I was caught off guard when a young woman started talking to me, and then asked if I was headed to Nanchang (one of the large cities on the route). When I told her I was not, she said, too bad, she would’ve offered me a job. She spoke great English, the reason of which she worked at a foreign language institute. It’s a little crazy having jobs offered to me on the train, as close to 25 million migrant workers went home for Spring Festival without a job. But it’s the age-old supply and demand model, and there sure are a lot more uneducated rural Chinese than there are native English speakers here. Everyone is packing their bags and putting on the winter clothes, so it looks like our 33-hour journey is about to end. Don’t worry, 33 hours in the hard sleeper car is quiet comfortable and I was able to meet some great people.