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TRAVELS IN CHINA 2002

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Nanning-Reprise

We landed just in time for the rain and gray skies which, thankfully, brought a cooler evening. Of course, we were met at the airport by Yuening and her brother in one of those micro-vans that have sliding doors on both sides and a reasonably large hauling capacity. The airport highway is a quite- new 6-lane ribbon of well-built concrete with a toll booth at each end of its 20-mile length.

Along the way, Paul identified bananas, sugar cane, all sorts of citrus and about ½ dozen other tropical crops growing near the road in well-tended fields. We wound our way to Yuening’s mother’s house, where we are greeted by 8-10 bowls of food still hot from the stove. There must be some grapevine or some information superhighway that eludes me, that allows our Chinese hosts to prepare everything just in time. On the way to and during lunch, I got the rundown on all of the upcoming events planned for us: the waterfall, the cave, the trip to Guilin, the speech to Wei's class of students, and a lot more.

Nanning, like all Chinese cities is "under construction," and they really mean it. There are cranes and construction sites everywhere. It will not be long before, in their rush to modernization, the Chinese will have removed all of the old-s and will have all new-s. There are many people to do work by-hand that would be done by machines in the West. I saw places where huge pits were being dug in hard red clay with pick and shovel. It was hauled away by wheelbarrows to large trucks waiting at the top of the hole.

After lunch, I made a logistics and supply trip to get a fan and a desk lamp. It is hot and muggy here, even in November and I needed some moving air to keep from suffocating. I needed the lamp because my eyes are aging normally and I need more light to read and write. The ubiquitous 25 watt bulbs used here are way too dim to be comfortable for me and if the progression continues in a linear way, I will need arc lamps to find my way to the bathroom in the not-to-distant future.

We stayed at Yuening’s because it’s close to town and free. Of course, refusal is unthinkable as are the results of any such thing. She has several rooms, and each is set up with a rock-hard Chinese bed with a quilt on it. There is a stall/market about one block away where we can get breakfast each day. Her apartment is part of the Hospital where she works. She receives the apartment as part of her compensation as a doctor, along with about 1200 RMB (about $150) per month.

I have written about Chinese hosts before, their impossible-to-defeat drive to be the best hosts in the world and their agony of defeat should you manage to do anything for yourself. Of course, they always get even; the first time I head for the bathroom, dreading the porcelain hole in the floor, I find that Yuening has installed a Western toilet for her American guests. As I have said, you cannot win the battle, so don’t even try. Maybe we can get even in the next life when the Monkey King tallies up the score.

After the obligatory 3 days of fancy dinners with every available friend and family member, shopping for almost everything in the world and walking many miles through the streets of Nanning, we are ready for one of the big attractions--a jaunt to Yiling Cave.

I have been to Yiling Cave before, and it was a great trip, and a tiring one. Although I have been there before, it s a nice social activity which gives us a chance to talk a little with our English-speaking companion, Laughing Girl. We did the cave tour and took a cab back to Nanning for supper at a buffet restaurant. I am so out of shape that these jaunts leave me tired and ragged out by about 2100, so I went to bed early and rose each morning at 0600 to the clatter of jackhammers wielded by the sadistic sewer repair crew directly under my window. Maybe it just seemed like they stopped work as soon as they knew that I was awake and trying to stumble to the shower and that first glorious cup of coffee.

The next day we headed for a nearby alley that serves as a market street for the area. Along the dingy way, surrounded by multi-story housing, we found all manner of foods, from asparagus to snakes and everything in-between. Various animals were displayed in all their various states of being, from alive and squawking to dead with all their various parts and organs splayed out on the counter in artistic patterns like a Rorscach in gray and pink with a little bile thrown in for extra color. Fortunately, Yuening did not appear to have a yen for the more esoteric animal anatomy, rather going for beef tenderloin and veggies. The groceries are cheap here, and we got enough for 10 people for about $5. Yuening said this is lunch for the 5 of us.

About lunch-time some more of Yuening's colleagues and friends show up to get a look at her guests and have lunch with us at a hotel nearby. As usual, I kept my mouth shut and let Yuening order for all of us. This usually keeps my bad Chinese from causing a plate of rare jellyfish to appear, and keeps me from having to eat them to avoid embarrassment. About 5 minutes later, 7 little cast-iron skillets shaped like cows arrived, each with their own wooden trivet and each was covered with a little towel; they were sizzling and sputtering like a lab experiment gone amuck and we waited a few minutes for the commotion to die down before lifting the towel-covered lids to reveal small beef steaks covered in brown peppery sauce. They were great! Along with the steaks, of course, came an assortment of veggies, fried rice, noodles, hot pickled cucumbers and another sizzling skillet with ducks' tongues cooked with bean sprouts, garlic and noodles - YUM!

CHINA TRIP 2001 TAIWAN TRIP 1999

(1) U.S. TO CANTON (2) CANTON (3) NANNING, REPRISE (4) WEDDING TALK (5) REALLY DIFFERENT (6) ONLY ONE!

(7) CUSTOM CLOTHES (8) HIGH GROUND (9) MUGGED (10) TO GUILIN (11) LI RIVER (12) WEI'S CLASS

(13) THE BIG DAY (14) WEDDING ALBUM (15) HEADING HOME

THERE ARE MANY GRAPHICS ON THESE PAGES - PLEASE BE PATIENT AS THEY LOAD!