Tuesday March 22, 2016

Marco?…Polo!

Welcome back all. Hope you have all recovered from yesterday’s highly emotional post. I know I have. Chinese beer and spicy noodles are pretty much a panacea for anything that ails you. Give it a try and tell me I’m lying.

Today was relatively straightforward. We left Hefei (Matthew’s hometown) for Hangzhou (Olivia’s hometown) via bullet train this afternoon and that’s the broad strokes of it to be honest. But what type of host would I be if I left it there? A pretty crappy one to be sure, so let’s see what else happened today? *Cue flashback music and accompanying visual effects*

Well, for one thing, no one in China ever has to wait on a line for anything. Not that there aren't times and places where large groups of people gather to access a good or service where the concept of a “line” (or “queue” for the non-American among us) it’s simply that no one, under any circumstances will ever engage in an orderly and collaborative process for sharing the burden of waiting. For example, today involved our need to access the bullet train platform from the bullet train waiting room in Hefei with about fifty thousand other people (an exaggeration for sure — albeit a slight one). Now, based on the cultural norms with which my family and I are familiar, we felt confident that our position at the front of the train turnstiles was sacrosanct by social contract. Meaning: for a society to operate to the mutual benefit of all in a fair and orderly manner, there are times where one must accept their place at the back of the line, just as they are entitled to revel in the occasions where one is fortunate enough to achieve front of the line status. These are the rules we all play by. Except in China. Where order and chaos exist in harmony, the yin and yang of life…it’s just that order appears to be on a bit of a losing streak from my experience.

So here’s what happened: we arrived relatively early for our train to Hangzhou and placed ourselves, with our three children and large collection of luggage, relatively close to the entrance to the train platform to wait for the time when we would be allowed to gain access and board the train. The crowd at this point was relatively thin and all seemed to be going well; smiles all around on our end. Yet as the minutes passed, our concern grew. The crowd became thick around us. People started shoving their way to the very front seeking prime access real estate without engaging in the sociative norms of waiting, patience, and consideration. We fought to maintain both our proximity to each other and our visual connection to the platform entrance. Then they opened the gates. And all hell broke loose.

I’m not even really sure I can describe what happened next as it was all a blur of rushing bodies and barely-controlled pandemonium. Here’s the thing though, it was’t personal, hell, I don’t even think it was intentionally rude. It’s just the way it was. You see, our mindset was operating under the mutual agreement that we’ve signed up for in our western, Euro-centric culture, yet here we were, playing under different rules altogether. This is how it is here. It’s an away game for us. So we could either have raised bloody hell, and stood out like a bunch of spoiled dilettantes, or we could dive right in and play by house rules. We chose the latter and gave as good as we got in the ensuing maelstrom. You better believe we got on the train, in one piece, fortunately without creating any international incidents to boot, so win/win. I take this to mean we’ve gone local. Can’t wait for my next trip on the NYC subway. I’ve got brand new skills to bring to bear.

So eventually we arrived in Hangzhou and were met by our guide Yolanda. She’s aces and got us where we needed to go, which was, essentially, our hotel. We are staying at the Merchant Marco Hotel, eponymously named for Marco Polo himself, who visited Hangzhou on his famous travels through the Orient and — at least according to local legend — claimed the city to be the most beautiful in all of the known world. True or not, the statement isn’t totally off base as Hangzhou is indeed stunningly beautiful with its West Lake at the center. The lake is ringed by gorgeous gardens and fantastic views. We could certainly be doing worse right now. We took a brisk and lengthy walk around town both to orient ourselves, and to grab a bite to eat before retiring back to the hotel for the evening. Tomorrow is a full day of sightseeing around the city before a visit to Olivia’s orphanage on Thursday.

Oh, and before I forget, let me just raise a potential red flag on the frequency of updates during our stay here in Hangzhou. I am in the midst of some not insignificant technical issues regarding WiFi coverage in our hotel and every time I find someone who can understand the words coming out of my mouth and seemingly helps me solve the access problems, my internet headaches resurface and I wind up back at square one. I’ve already decided to to devote a fair portion of tomorrow’s free time to banging on desks until I get this all sorted out, but it’s China, so you never really know what’s around the bend.

Fighting for my right to Internet…