nick’s (n)-line life

[pre-dated entry]

And so it was that I found myself sitting on the middle bunk of a hard sleeper train heading towards Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan, China’s wild west, about to embark on my journey-proper. The province, for years treated as a savage and isolated backwater by Beijing, offers access to some of China’s wilderness. Furthurmore land borders with Laos, Burma (Myanmar), and Vietnam make it the first step on a tough and intense journey into some of the remotest parts of mainland South East Asia.

I was given plenty of time to contemplate my [foolhardy?] route as the train tentatively wound its way around, above, and even through the mountainous terrain of Guanxi province (literally “West expanse� in mandarin) during its thirty-hour grande tour.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it soon became apparent that I was the only westerner (lao wai) on the train, thus attracting all of the usual stares and intrigued questions, for once however, I was actually in a position to not only answer a majority of them but also to respond in kind. After so long in Hong Kong where the guan dong hua (Cantonese) dialect is prevalent, it was exhilarating to be able to put my mandarin to some use and see the improvements I had made in the six months since I last visited the mainland.

I often feel that native English speakers, myself included, are very spoilt when it comes to language. So often we expect others to learn English, relieving us of the need to become proficient in local languages. The conclusion that I have drawn from this is that it is immensely healthy to put ourselves in situations where finding a meal, a beer, and a bed for the night depend entirely on our abilities to communicate, of course, pointing and miming are bound to feature prominently in such situations! Seriously though, this is an outstanding way to improve ones’ language skills.

Moreso, it still stuns me the way in which a few words of Chinese seem to warm icy stares and attitudes that foreigners sometimes receive in China (and indeed in East and South East Asia in general, substituting the appropriate local language for “Chinese� - indeed there are some countries in the region, where speaking Chinese will not do you any favors at all!).

My compatriots were friendly and when the communication barrier eventually defeated us somewhere beyond names, jobs, families, and marriage prospects (!) we lapsed into comfortable silence, occasionally offering around our respective food provisions; it seems that even on trains the Chinese palate demands gastronomic indulgences and, judging by the food-filled sacks each group carried with them and the frequent forays of the food trolleys, it seems that these demands tend to be met!

As the hours passed by and, motivated by my own improvements, I worked on my mandarin by book and by mouth with fellow passengers. It gave me real pause for thought that 3 days in the mainland had already done more for my skills than a month in Hong Kong!

Nightfall comes early on the train and the Chinese pop-music is replaced by the gentle snoring of the passangers. I myself took longer than usual to drift away as new and unfamiliar words filled my head after the day’s almost feversh studies. Instead, I sat in the entryway, cha (tea) in one hand, sickly sweet Suanxi cigarette in the other, just contemplating, life, Asia, and the coming struggle of the journey to the Laotian border.

I was woken the next morning by a child’s screaming. Rubbing my eyes I looked down at my wrist in the half-light: Five-thirty-two; “peachy� I though to myself, glancing over at the offending child who had, I reasoned, perhaps fallen out of bed or otherwise injured itself. No, no, silly me of course not, “TIC� as my expat friends often remind me, “this is China�. What I had mistaken for screaming was just a morning conversational tone. Out came the ear plugs, and I caught another twenty minutes of sleep before finally giving up as more voices joined in the morning crescendo. After a few minutes, another Shanxi, and lots and lots of cha I was no longer contemplating throttling the disagreeable child (who was still blabbering loudly enough for the other end of the carriage to hear).

The day went on in much the way it had begun, our own little microcosm of Chinese life ticked along slowly and unhurriedly as we whiled away the hours of our comradeship. Travelling by train in China is truly an experience not to be missed, even harderned travelers will find the experience rewarding (once the carnival of ticket purchasing is over, of course).

As morning was turning into afternoon and I was having the hundred and first cigarette of the day I glanced over at an intently staring neighbour. Unsurprised I offered a polite “ni hao� and almost dropped my tea in surprise at the “hello there� i received in response. It turned out that that my new friend was Singaporean making a visit to a lady-friend he had met on her holidays to Singapore [no comment on the choice of holiday destination]. In no time at all we were deep in conversation, passing time together in an agreeable way.

Such is life on the train. While in reality I finished the journey desperate to get off, walk around, and get some air, memory plays little tricks with us all and leaves me with the impression that I was dissapoitnted the journey, my third time on the train in China, had come to an end.