Another unforgettable trip to a remote area in the far west. How I wish to tell you the
big stories, but for now, I am content to share with you the small moments. :-)
Bidding for Flight TicketOn the way to the far west, I was on board a Hainan Airlines flight. Half way through, the flight attendants announced that they were going to have a fun event: Bidding for a one-way flight ticket that can be used within a year. It was also a kind of fundraising, since the winner might not fly right away, and the money could be first used for a charity cause.
I had not experienced anything quite like it, and since I go to that part of the country frequently, it wouldn't be a challenge to use the ticket within a year. The regular full price for this one-way ticket is close to RMB 2000 yuan, and I set an "upper limit" of 1000 yuan in my mind before I joined the bidding.
The starting price was very low. When someone called 500, I made my first call: 550. Someone called 600, and I raised it to 800. Someone else called 900, and I called what I set to be my limit, 1000 yuan. I responded rather quickly as if I was determined.
"Going once," the flight attendant in the front announced. Needless to say, it did get a little intense for me, and I wondered if I would raise my limit should anyone outbid me at this moment. Ah, the temptation of winning. :-)
"Going twice," it seemed to take her extra long time before the flight attendant opened her mouth again. The next interval was even longer, it appeared, but finally, "Sold!" she announced.
I was visibly relieved, and since I happened to carry that much cash with me, I got the flight ticket at about half-price.
The Ginseng FruitBefore the official English training program started, we had the opportunity to visit a middle school in a truly rural area. The middle school consisted of grades 7 to 9, and most of the students lived in the mountains, often walking 30 minutes to an hour to school. Only the grade 9 students got to live in school, so that they could spend more time studying.
Our visit made a very positive impression on the school, and the school officials treated us a local specialty called "ginseng fruit" (人参果,
ren shen guo). We liked it right away. It tasted juicy and cool. It was not sour, not tart, and not very sweet, almost a perfect combination to quench one's thirst, not to mention all the nutrition it claimed to contain. I was rather surprised to have never seen it elsewhere. At the end of our visit, the school official also gave us 3 boxes of the fruit as their present.
Do you know what's also fun about the ginseng fruit? In the classic novel of
Journey to the West (西游记), there was a story about the ginseng fruit. It was said, in the novel, that it took 3,000 years to blossom, 3,000 years to produce the fruit, and another 3,000 years for the fruit to mature. The effect of the 9,000-year-old fruit? One smell increased one's life by 360 years, and eating one gave you 47,000 years. :-)
[
Note: Later I learned that there are
other types of "ginseng fruits" on the market - all taking the name thanks to the classic novel - but perhaps none tastes as good as the one that we enjoyed.]
The Big Plate ChickenMy teaching partner and I were invited by the whole class one afternoon for an early dinner. It came somewhat as a surprise because this year's class was not as proficient in English as last year's class (we happened to be teaching partners a year ago too), and for the first couple of days, we struggled to connect with the students, who were
real teachers themselves (unlike us :-).
Very soon we found out that perhaps not all of them were eager to connect with us anyway, but it was a good opportunity for
them to connect with each other. They came from different schools and had not known each other prior to the training program. A dinner together certainly was a typical Chinese way of socializing.
Quickly people gathered at two tables. Those who apparently wanted to talk to us shared a table with us on a
kang (炕), a heatable bed that was common in northern China, while the other group were on the other side of the room. They began to play cards when we hoped that somehow they would ask us more questions. Apparently we needed to adjust our expectations. Later when the food came, things turned warmer among us, not just because of the hot food, but talking while eating seemed much more natural to them. This was again very Chinese.
The food was actually quite good. Among many local dishes, we saw one of the biggest plates that we had ever seen on a meal table. The dish, appropriately, was called "big plate chicken," and it was a well-known Xinjiang dish.
As we continued to eat and chat, the other table began a drinking game, something quite common in this part of the country. I shouted, "English!" They laughed and did switch to English to call out the numbers. But apparently it didn't help much, so they switched back to Chinese.
We decided to leave early when my teaching partner suddenly developed a headache, and two local teachers were to return to school for their evening classes. The meal was thus cut short for us, but we were pretty much stuffed, and we urged the teachers to stay and finish the rest of the food.
The whole event seemed not very satisfactory as we still weren't able to connect with them deeply. But at least they appeared comfortable enough not to pretend. Perhaps that was not entirely a bad start for relationship building. And I will not forget the size of that plate!
Stories of the Teachers(I prepared the following two short stories to share about my experiences.)
I met an English teacher named B, who works 6.5 days a week and drinks a lot. But he really enjoyed the class, and he even hugged me at the closing ceremony. To my surprise, he also prepared personal gifts for me, although he wasn't making much as a teacher.
I met an English teacher name J, who is a strong believer in Buddhism. She shared much of her belief with me, yet she didn't seem interested in mine. At the end, however, she received a set of "pretty good book," and she really appreciated it. I will keep in touch with her.
[
Note: In case you wonder what the "pretty good books" are, they are not quite the Good Book, but actual excerpts - instead of retelling - of the Good Book in different forms.]
Mosque and PagodaAfter the English training program, I parted way with my teammates. I went to Xi'an to, interestingly, visit a student from last year's class, who is attending a graduate school as her advanced education as an English teacher.
She is a Muslim, and she was my tour guide to the Muslim Quarters in Xi'an. We enjoyed several different delicacies and toured the market. Then she took me to the Grand Mosque in the city center, one of the oldest mosques of the city, if not the entire nation.
The mosque, not surprisingly, had turned into a tourist site, and they would charge a entry fee of RMB 25 yuan. My friend, however, could go in without paying since she spoke a universal Muslim greeting. She taught me how to say it and assured me that the meaning was no more than a typical "Hello." I was, in fact, quite ready to call Muslims friends brothers and sisters and wish them peace and joy, so I learned the greeting and walked in the mosque also without paying. :-)
Xi'an is known as the starting point of the Silk Road, while many foreign things were introduced to China - in the reverse direction - along the Silk Road, including Buddhism and Islam. A famous Buddhist monk in the Tang Dynasty named Xuan Zang (玄奘), for example, went to India to fetch the significant Buddhist scriptures and returned to Xi'an (called Chang'an back then), where he continued to study the scriptures and preached. The particular site of his studying and teaching is now called the Big Goose Pagoda.
My Muslim friend took me there as well, mainly to watch the music fountain show in the evening. It was raining lightly, and, lucky for us, not many people went. We got a clear view of the show. After the show, we strolled to the front of the pagoda, where a statue of Xuan Zang stood tall in the rain.
