Once a while , I am so amazed by the wisdom of Chinese culture that I just have to say
this as SS does. The following is my report to the local (Seattle) North West Chinese
School (NWCS) which has donated US $1,500 to an elementary school in the remote area way
back in Gansu Province through the introduction of the Foreign Affair Office of the
province. I was in Asia last two weeks and took the opportunity to venture to that part of
the world on a mission - to see how the money was channeled to the school before we
dispatch the second part of $3,500 which was donated by the Hong Kong Club of Washington
during our annual Chinese New Year Ball.
Anyway, my point on Chinese wisdom was the perfect match of the tittle on this column,
"Car sky car earth" to the actual travel mode I took on this 36 hour round trip
safari from Hong Kong to the bad land of China. How quaint.
Here is part of the report:
The trip to LanZhou was finalized after my arrival in Hong Kong since there is not much
info regarding fight schedule and hotel and other travel details available here. So the
trip was realized after I figured out a way to visit the school with only on night stay in
Lanzhou within the window of two days that I can spare. Other conditions were confirmed
after I called the school via the phone in the village store across the street from the
school. One is the distance from Shui Po to LZ is 90 km and needs 2 hours travel time each
way. Second was the principal Mr. Yang was away for conference but will return the day of
my planned arrival. Thanks to a teacher who speaks normal Pu-tung-hwa came to the phone,
because I don't understand what the store owner was taking about/
Note: Shui-po is the village where the school of 300 students is located. No phone there.
A visit on China Travel in Hong Kong learnt that there is no direct flight from Hong Kong
to LanZhou, only from Quangzhou, and on the following day, there is no PM fight from
Lanzhou back to Quangzhou. The Am fight does not allow time at all for a brief visit to
Shui Po. After checking fights from Lanzhou to other cities, the return trip must go
through Shanghai and then to Quangzhou in the evening but not too late in the evening to
allow additional time to travel from Quangzhou back to Hong Kong by highway before the
Hong Kong SAR border close at 11:30 PM.
Thanks to the improved transportation system: China Northwest Airlines, China Eastern
Airlines, China South Airlines, highways in Gansu and Quangdong, and taxi and buses, it
went exactly according to schedule.
The regular direct train rides from Hong Kong to Quangzhou start at 8 AM and takes 2-1/2
hours, then another hour to fight through city traffic from train station to the airport ,
I'll never make it to the noon flight. The solution is to catch a long distance taxi from
the border at Shenzhen that goes directly to Quangzhou's airport via the super highway
(With toll of cause). Same method for the return trip, but getting those taxi is another
story.
Arrived Lanzhou on Thursday , June 10, and checked in the Ning Wu Zhang Guest House by
about 4:30 PM. Call the phone at Shuipo and chatted with Principal Yang. He suggested not
to rent taxi from Lanzhou to the school since it is for and hard to find, instead he will
pick me up at 6 AM. The reason for the early hours is that we must allow two hours travel
each way and another 1-1/2 hour to the airport for my 2 PM flight out but still has time
to tour the school and the obligatory meal. That means he left the village at 4 in the
morning.
Note: The Shui Po village and the airport are at different direction from Lanzhou
downtown.
Along the way. One can really see and feel the hardship of these farmers trying to carve a
living out of the endless yellow dry dirt. After all this is the "yellow earth
highland" (Huang do gao yuen) and hardly any rain fall.
The famous Yellow River that flow through downtown Lanzhou is so thick with dirt that
looks more like coffee than water. The major industries are cement plants and chemical
plants both are very polluting. Weather is continental style. Cool after sun down but hot
and dry during the day.
The little van bounced along part of the National Highway (Qua Dao) No. 312 for about half
of the way and then hard dirt road for the remaining part. The van is made in China and
designed to survived such road conditions. Everywhere one looks, the landscape is bare
dirt hills with erosion gullies left by years of flash floods. Only at valleys where water
is found, some planting and farm houses can be found. By the time our open window van
reached the school. I noticed a coat of dirt on my traveling bag, not to mention our faces
and clothes.
The reception was overwhelming and I never expected anything like it. The whole school and
the whole village stopped everything just to greet me with the school drum team, banners
and fire crackers. All the students were in their festive clothing lining both sides of
the walk from the gate all the way to the office building. Before arrival, I assumed that
the teachers and I just meet quietly in the office and tour the classrooms much like my
experience as a student when VIP dropped by. I only found out later that I was the very
first visitor from the "outside".
At the official briefing with the school staff in the dirt floor with tables topped with
cigarettes, soft drinks, fruit and candies, I thanked them for the hospitality and brought
greeting from the NWCS and the parents. With the first part of the improvement items in
place, we are looking forward to future cooperation and so on. That was done after they me
haft a glass of local grape wine with my empty morning stomach. Then we visited the
improvement paid for by the NWCS: new well pump which Principal Yang proudly
demonstrated at the expense of water sprayed on him, witnessed the electrical bell at work
for recess, and check out the accordion and boom box, the only musical instrument in the
school. I was introduced to the students as "Xu Da Ye" which made me feel so
old.
Next came the photo session. Two more visitors arrived late due to car trouble and they
are Party Secretaries from the neighborhood and the village who joined us for brunch in
the VIP room in the village restaurant. I never know who paid for the meal but the food
was good local cuisine.
The remaining hours of the day were spent in taxi, planes, airports, buses, and finally
arrived at my hotel in Hong Kong around midnight. Here is the sequence: I was returned to
the guest house at noon to take the reserved taxi to Lanzhou's airport for the 2:25 flight
to Shanghai. Within one hour, transferred to the 6:20 flight from Shanghai to Quangzhou.
Arrived Quangzhou by 8:20 and by luck, found a shuttle bus outside the airport that goes
directly to Shenzhen border. The highway traffic was normal but city traffic through this
fully developed city of Shenzhen took almost just as long and barely made it to the border
crossing at 10:50. With thousands of commuters and shoppers returning to Hong Kong at the
last minutes, it was quite a scene walking through this multi-level shopping
mall/immigration/train station on the Chinese side. Once into Hong Kong, the immigration
building and train station is more orderly and the excitement ended
A Long day indeed
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