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October 26, 2000
The trip to Zhangjiajie
I leave today for another trip. I'm traveling to Shanghai to see a friend who is there on business. Meanwhile, my life has been very busy since I returned from my last trip to Zhangjiajie.
The trip to Zhangjiajie was lovely. We hired and English speaking guide and translator who took very good care of us on the trip. She also translated for us so we could talk with some of the Chinese people we met on our trip. The scenery was beautiful and striking in its difference from the scenery Americans expect to see when we visit mountain. If you go to the photo album you will see some pictures that convey a very small idea of the beauty of the area. The area was very foggy and misty during our visit and it portrayed the images of China that Chinese landscape artists like to paint. However, the mist and fog makes photo taking a difficult endeavor, and the depth and mysticism of the views does not come through in the photos.
One of the delights of the trip was meeting a 5-year-old boy traveling with him mother. They sat across the aisle from us. After several hours on the train he got up enough courage to return a "hello" to my smile. I introduced myself, in English, and asked him his name. His mother coached him and he finally said, "My name is Michael." The translator, Linda, talked with the mother, who spoke a little English, and we found that the boy is studying English in prekindergarten, and that he is learning it mostly by learning to sing songs in English.
I sang him the song "I'm a Little Teakettle, Short an Stout," complete with hand and body motions. He loved it and asked me to sing it again so he could act out the motions. Then he began to sing songs for us, standing proudly in the aisle. When he finished he looked at Kathy and I and said, "It's your turn." Kathy and I were doing duets by now and went through our entire collection of shared songs. His other favorite was the "Itsy bitsy spider." It took him some time to learn the hand motions, but with the help of him mother he finally got it. Michael, Kathy, and I furnished entertainment for everyone in our train car for over and hour.
The only bad thing about our trip was the smoking that was so prevalent in our car in both directions. There are no smoking signs up in the cars, but they are ignored. I asked our translator about smoking on the train and she said, "It is forbidden." We asked, though the interpreter, for them to stop. The smokers did stop on the trip to the mountains, but on the way home they did not. Conductors came through the cars regularly, but did not address the problem. When I got home I had to take a shower, wash my hair, and wash the clothes I had on because everything smelled of smoke.
There are many things in China that are "forbidden," but are practiced anyway. Often, people in authority do not bother to enforce the rules. It seems that whether rules or laws are followed or enforced is a matter of whim and chance.
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