dongbei day #2, part 1

I think I just found heaven and it's the northernmost point in China. Or maybe it's just traveling around by myself doing whatever I want. I don't know where to start with today so I'm just going to go from waking up because that's the most logical.

Woke up in the nice little room I shared with my new Chinese friend. Smiled when I remembered paying only $2.50 US for it. We got up, and I was again reminded that when a Chinese guy makes a new friend, he makes a new FRIEND. Not only were we accidental roommates, he had bought me dinner, alcohol, my time in the internet bar, breakfast the next morning (VERY tasty baozi, sort of big dumplings, these with beef), and then he decided to accompany me to the smaller Mohe that's the northernmost point in China. Of course, my radar was up because I was thinking, this guy must just want to get me away from my bag, then he and the bag are out of here. I guarded my stuff carefully, but I'll give away the ending - he didn't steal anything - so I don't tarnish his name by continually talking about my secret skeptical thoughts. There, now I can keep talking about him like the typical, welcoming, friendly, and annoying dongbei guy that he is.

So he decided to come with me to Mohe. First, let me say that I think I sorted out the Mohe name confusion. There is a county of Mohe, and the county seat is called Mohe. That's where the train stopped. Then, there used to be like a tiny town of Mohe which was the northernmost settlement in China. The Chinese, ever entrepreneurs, decided to rename the town Beiji cun. That literally means "Extremely northern town". (I hesitate to say "literally" because I know Lu Laoshi is reading this and think, hey that's not THE literal translation). The renaming obviously was for tourist purposes but it confused the crap out of me, more so because I found one map which clearly showed Mohe cun and Beiji cun as two different places. I was thinking all the way here on the bus, wouldn't it be a great joke if the Chinese thought this other place was more convenient to bring all the tourists so they just named it "Extremely northern town" and pretend Mohe cun doesn't exist...luckily the name change was confirmed by some farmers I talked to here, and I'm pretty sure they have no reason to lie.

Let me start that last paragraph again. So he decided to come to Mohe with me. We ate together, went and bought me a map of Heilongjiang province at the bookstore, climbed the little hill in the Mohe county park that had a nice view of the city and pretty flowers. The city is obviously in the process of beautification, like much of the rest of China, but this place was farther along than most. There was a lot of newness, bright colors, and cleanliness, which are all great except they unfailingly mean lots of Chinese tourists. After that it was time to hit the bus station. There was an advertised hour's ride (a little different than the 4 hours the van guy had told me the day before trying to convince me to use his convenient service) to Beiji cun, which morphed into an hour in a half as we made one stop to wait for people, two stops that I'm unclear about but I think were bathroom breaks, and one stop to pick up some mushroom gatherers with baskets overflowing. Typical. Also typical, but extra annoying, was the TV at the front of our bus. It was playing a common style of Chinese comedy routine, I think it's traditional, which involves very shrill tones of voice at loud volumes. Let me first acknowledge that those performers are amazing and have skill I'll never match. Then, let me say they're REALLY annoying, especially when the volume is WAY too loud and the bus is passing through some of the most beautiful countryside I've seen yet. Nearly all eyes, and ALL ears, were trained on the television, when obviously the thing to do was soak up the nature as well as can be done from the wrong side of a moving bus. My opinion of my new friend - by the way his name is Ma Jianbo - improved when I noticed that he was one of the few watching the scenery go by instead of the scrunched up face of the shrieking comedian.

The situation improved as soon as we got to Beiji cun. I found out I'd be able to lose my new friend - he ended up being a good guy but still annoying - after only a few hours. He still had business to attend to in Mohe county, so he wanted to take the usual route of Chinese travel -as fast and efficient as possible.

Time out for an example from yesterday. When I got off the train at Mohe, there was another guy with me in the van to Mohe. He was traveling and was excited by the prospect that I might want to split the cost of the van to Mohe (which I ended up deciding against, thankfully). At first I was undecided, so I accompanied him to the park. He was fat and sweating a little as he quickly disembarked and we strolled quickly together through the nice but not atypical wooded area. I was taking it easy, enjoying our chat about where I was studying, his teaching job, when he stopped and asked a group of walkers, "is the rest of this park the same as this?". When they said yes, he told me, ah, we've seen it, let's go. No point walking in a park when you already know what it's probably going to look like. That prompted a discussion of why he was in a hurry. Turns out he only had a few days off from his job and he was doing a little "power travel" - my words, obviously - and getting in as many sights as possible. When I made the decision not to go to Beiji cun in the van and the persuasive energies of the driver were turned to the more difficult task of convincing the other guy alone to pay the full price, I saw him agonizing over the decision. He ran a hand over his balding head and scrunched up his face with the pain of deciding between being thrifty and cramming one more sight into his short trip (he didn't have time to take the bus the next day). Thriftyness and fast travel, 2 of the most important qualities of the Chinese. How could he possibly make that decision? I never found out because I was already walking away to find a room for the night, the comfortable weight of my backpack a nice change from the weight of stress and urgency heavy in their bickering and the man's sweating face.

Time in, back to today. Thankfully, my new friend also wanted to take this route by taking the bus back to Mohe the same day he got here. That meant a couple hours of urgent efficient travel with him, then I would be left to my own devices for the rest of the day.

And the internet bar is closing, so to be continued, or not if tomorrow's adventures are better than today's...dang, I didn't even get to the good parts.