CHINA 2005: Surviving Yongding — December 27 and 28, 2005

Well this little travelogue is probably more for my own recollection of our days here in China than for you… but I hope you’re enjoying our travails, somewhat.  Today’s events along with yesterday and tomorrow will be sent when we return to Xiamen tomorrow night… I think I already described the hotel… Let’s just say, it’s a far cry from a Hilton!

We didn’t sleep much because the building is located on a busy street and the street activities go on all night. Additionally, as I think I mentioned earlier, there’s no heat.. It’s about 40 degrees and it’s been raining… so it’s cold and damp… and dreary.. The Chinese are very addicted to television so we actually have a TV in our room, but it doesn’t get CNN which is really the only English channel anywhere.. So we’re using the TV outlet for the computer and to charge the phone and camera batteries.

Got started early (or maybe just continued from last night, because sleep was hard to come by)… to find that the elevator was broken… so we huffed it down a few flights to breakfast (which looked and tasted much like dinner last night) and then huffed back up to the room to get more layers of clothing for the long drive and touring of the tulous… then huffed it back down the 7 flights to the “lobby”….

The drive to the first tolou was about 2 hours… on the most incredible winding, bumpy, narrow, death-defying roads you can imagine… Mr. Su is a really good driver, so thank goodness for small things.. In the car we asked “Roger” about bird flu, since it’s obvious that we would be walking among hundreds of chickens, geese, and other fowl all day… Roger says “Bird flu is not a problem in China!”  I said that in the U.S. there’s a lot of concern about bird flu in Asia… And he responded… “Yes, I have heard that there is bird flu in America, but not in China!”  The drive was made more difficult by the rain, causing rock and mud slides on the route.. which are becoming fairly routine…  And it seemed as if the potholes got larger overnight… and the roads more steep.

We visited about 7 tolous today.. They are fascinating dwellings, both architecturally and socially, but time has clearly passed them by. Today, only the very very impoverished live  in tolous — mostly elderly, although we visited one large complex of tolous that housed about 1,000 people and it had numerous amenities, including an elementary school (a very rudimentary school.. with only the barest of necessities, if that… I didn’t see any books.. kids sat on long wooden benches, and the teacher used a blackboard…)   If we understand correctly, schooling is mandatory from age 8 until 16, but it is not free. Families must pay about $100 USD per year, which is hard to come by for these rural families..  Prior to age 8 there is a kindergarten that is for children 5-8 (but I don’t think it is mandatory.)  Younger children are cared for by grandparents in the cities and by the entire village in rural areas.  We asked about health care and were told that everyone pays for doctors and hospitals, but the cost is very low (and care in the rural areas appears to be subsidized). The one child per family still seems prevalent in the cities, or at least that is what we’re being told. In the countryside it’s more difficult to enforce.  We do, however, see interesting public health campaigns on posters throughout the cities… Since the drawing
are cartoon-like, it’s pretty obvious what they are pitching… like going to the hospital to have a baby.

In any case, if bird flu will strike us, today and tomorrow are clearly the days!.. Actually, the rain, dampness, mold in the tolous, and really unsanitary conditions in the villages (not to mention the lack of heat in the hotel) have given us both colds… which we are hoping to rid ourselves of in the next 24 hours before we get to Hong Kong.

The tolous are constructed of wood and rammed earth, which combine with the outdoor cooking and the rain to create very misty, moody photos. Interesting as the dwellings are, it’s obvious that most inhabitants are there out of necessity. Oh, we’re told that one tolou got damaged in an earthquake and then when another earthquake came the damage (crack in the middle) was mysteriously gone.  (whooooooo!)

We ate lunch in a “restaurant” within the village complex… a small room sort of outside and inside at the same time.. i.e. no real roof, but some covering along the perimeter.  There were two tables and about 10 chairs.. We started at one table and then they moved us to the other, which I think was considered a “better” table (or perhaps the “best” table, since there were only two tables…

At the new table we could both look outside and also watch the cooking… Like all of the meals we’ve had, there’s an array of dishes… and in this case.. the woman (there were actually about 6 people in the kitchen — not sure what everyone was doing, but it was a family affair, as the family also lives in this room where we ate.. and in another room behind… )..  The woman proceeded to grab a chicken that was walking inside the room… and voila she killed it instantly and cooked it for us…  (more potential bird flu!) along with several vegetables (we said we eat mostly vegetables…)  and some soup… Health standards are not too noticeable.. one of the guys who was cooking was also smoking in the kitchen. Mr. Su suggested  we take tea water and swoosh it around our bowls and then dump the tea water, before using the bowls.. That really made me feel safe and sanitary.  But everyone was very friendly, although noone is overly curious about where we come from or what we are doing here.  Kids are all fascinated with the photography and our ability to show them what the photos look like..  Old people turn their
heads away from the camera.

Drove back to the hotel for another dinner in the freezing cold room on the 4th floor. (Since this is Yongding’s “finest” hotel, I can hardly imagine what the next best is like…

I’m going to try to sleep and rid myself of this cold… and hope for sun (or at least no rain) tomorrow so we can see the remaining two tolous on our list and then head back to Xiamen.. mostly to repack and go to Hong Kong in the morning…

By the way, we are now waitlisted to return on January 1… instead of January 2… I think we’ll know for sure tomorrow when we reach Xiamen.. or at least I hope we have the changed reservation by then.

Take care — See you very soon –
Fern