When going to China, I felt that I was going there to have awesome experiences and learn from them. The awesome experiences did happen (and how!) but recently the question of what I learnt in China came to mind. It is nice to do all this overseas travel, but you would hope to learn something while you are doing it!
With some thinking, I realised that there were nine major lessons that I have learnt from China. I have divided them into three parts, and will tell you the lessons I learnt, and the experiences that led me to learning the lesson. In this second part, I look at three more lessons.
Lesson 4: Putting yourself out
there and making mistakes makes life fun.
Learning Chinese is the classic example of how putting
yourself out there can make life more interesting and fun. Practising your Chinese with cab drivers
provides you with a personal view of the lives of ordinary people in Beijing. Molly’s favourite cab-driver had a wonderful
30 minute discussion with her, with him telling her that his wife was pregnant,
and that he didn’t care whether it was a boy or girl.
One day Molly, Adrienne and I decided to go to
Huanghuacheng, a section of the Great Wall none of us had been to before. After taking an indirect route by buses, we
arrived and were faced with a climb up a scary rickety 20 foot ladder.
Climbing the rickety ladder, not attached at the top or bottom!
Having braved the ladder, we went on a lovely
walk on a section with barely a tourist in sight.
At the end of the walk, we decided we did not want to go back down the rickety ladder, and instead took a different path. However, the further we went down the path, the louder we heard dogs howling. While we were scared, the prospect of the ladder forced us onwards. We found an old Chinese guy at a fence with a group of dogs, saying it was private property and we needed to go back. RMB60 later, we continued down the path and found the bus stop, and that’s where the story gets interesting.
At the end of the walk, we decided we did not want to go back down the rickety ladder, and instead took a different path. However, the further we went down the path, the louder we heard dogs howling. While we were scared, the prospect of the ladder forced us onwards. We found an old Chinese guy at a fence with a group of dogs, saying it was private property and we needed to go back. RMB60 later, we continued down the path and found the bus stop, and that’s where the story gets interesting.
You see there was only one bus left that day, and we had to
stand on one side of the road to get it.
However, there was only cover on one side of the road, and that wasn’t
on the same side. Five minutes after we
arrived at the bus stop, it started raining heavily. The clouds darkened the sky and we could only
see headlights coming down the road towards us.
We retreated to the sheltered side, but any time we saw a vehicle, we
madly dashed across the road to be ready to catch it. Five or six times we
dashed across the road when a vehicle came, only to be disappointed. By the time the bus arrived, Molly and I were
totally drenched, but after a good wringing out of our clothes on the bus, we
were in good spirits.
The bus stop in the five minutes before the impending doom..
Unfortunately for us though, the last connecting bus to Beijing had already left. In the end, we accepted an offer from an illegal taxi and set off on the way home. We cruised along for a while and were well into playing a travelling game when suddenly the taxi started breaking down. The driver pulled to the side of the road, checked under the bonnet and off we went again. We then arrived at a toll booth, the taxi driver slowed down and could not get the taxi going again. The driver told Andrew to get in the driver’s seat and steer, while the driver and the tollbooth operator pushed the taxi out of the toll booth to the side of the road. Thankfully the taxi then started working and we made it home, having been lost, drenched and broken down in the middle of nowhere, but still having had an amazing experience. How many foreigners get to drive a taxi in Beijing?
Lesson 5: You will always have problems. The challenge is to enjoy life despite them.
In our final months in China, we experienced some major
issues in relation to job changes and immigration. Despite these issues causing considerable
stress, we still took some time to go out and enjoy ourselves. Our journey to the Fangshan Line (link: http://molldrew.blogspot.com/2011/07/fangshan-line-world-park-and-cool.html) and the Amazing Beijing adventure race (link: http://molldrew.blogspot.com/2011/05/amazing-beijing-adventure-race-round-1.html) occurred during this stressful period, and gave us a great
boost during a difficult time.
Oh, I loved these new stories! Timeless lessons, indeed! Yep.
ReplyDeleteLove the story of your alternative trip at the Great Wall and your adventures getting back home. Too bad you didn't have a picture of when Molly was laughing after falling in the mud, in the pouring rain, while rushing to see if the bus had arrived. What are you going to do? Might as will laugh, better than crying! ;-)
Until I read your story on litter, I hadn't realized that it was the norm. I particularly liked when you were shown where to put your trash -- on the ground. Hadn't really thought about it. It's so true that the Chinese will need to think about the long-term implications of not teaching their population to clean up after their selves.
Your solution for encouraging female children is great -- they take the wife's surname! Brilliant!
Waiting for more blogs!