Tashi delay!

I had a terrible nights sleep last night, it was very lively as I rolled over again and again often suffering from a few aches here and there. I awoke with a puffy face this morning and look like I have been crying. I am not sure if this is an effect of altitude or whether it is allergies. Anyhow, we are still taking it easy and ensuring that we acclimatise properly.

I really want to get on and talk to you about Lhasa but I still have unfinished business with the rest of the trip in China and really need to blurt this out. Besides we really have not been doing much here - although there is never a dull moment because everything is so new...

Random thoughts regarding China...

It is not uncommon to see people excitedly playing Mahjong or Chinese chess in the street. Normally the two players will be surrounded by an onlooking crowd that will shout out instruction or react energetically when an intelligent move has been made or when someone is facing certain defeat. It is great to watch the crouching people often dressed in suits, sliding the circular flat game pieces around a makeshift board. It also seems that a pack of cards in ones pocket is as invaluable as carrying a hanky. We regularly see people of all ages playing cards, sometimes they will be sitting around a table on the street or in the entrance to a business as time is passed whilst awaiting custom. Game playing was apparent in India too and adults would not be ashamed to get together in the fresh air and challenge one another to strategy games. I do not see this in the UK.

Happy grandmothers at dusk - in the cities and towns, as the sun sets, grandmothers and their grandchildren flock onto the streets. Amongst the hustle and bustle of migrant workers, consumers, motorbike taxis, tourists and street vendors there would be a grandmother trying to relax the child for it's nights rest. I found it interesting to watch them searching for peace and relaxation amongst the crowds on a busy street. The grandmother would often hold the child in her arms and would walk around in circles, pacing up and down in the street, in a one way conversation trying to make the little one sleepy with her soft words. Occasionally she would point at something in response to the child who would suddenly, in a moment of resistance try to fight heavy eyelids. Sometimes the child may be in a buggy and grandma would trot back and forth pushing patiently awaiting the movement to entice the toddlers sleep. I like this scene that I have seen many times. It makes me think of how close the ties are amongst the family members. That grandma lives with or near the parents and is able to be so involved with the family. We do not have the time or there is too much distance for many families to be like this in the west. I remember when I was young, my grandparents were always around. Now I think that times are changing but I could be wrong.

There are things that you see when you travel that make you think about your own life and your memories become more vivid than ever. I love this reflection.

I saw a police chase outside of the train station in Xi'an. It made me think of British bobbies. I heard a whistle blowing and some shouting, followed by some more whistle. Around the side of the van in front of me I saw a man being chased by a police officer who was trying to hold his cap on his head. It made me chuckle to myself but also made me become further aware of my own belongings, we had been told many times to keep our eyes sharp at the station due to the threat of thievery. The man was caught judging by the sounds that I could hear but the event was out of my sight and I could not wander away from our luggage. The train station was an interesting place to watch the police. We saw police monitoring the area by driving around in "golf buggies" with the police logo on the side. We saw police women wearing neat navy uniforms complete with jacket, shirt and tie and donning a bright white military style bowl helmet, oddly they wore black high heel shoes and heavy make up too. It was very strange to see and I thought that the whole scene would not be out of place in a movie about a fictional future.

We saw security guards on power trips on a number of occasions. When we were queuing for our Lhasa tickets we were entertained by the following scene...
There is a ticket booth that is reserved for refunds, the queue that accompanies it is the longest in the whole station. Tickets for travel are in high demand and as a result it is very easy to sell them on again should they not be required or you wish to make a little extra cash as a tout. As a result, potential travellers who cannot purchase a ticket due to lack of availability or those who are looking for a cheaper price, will walk up and down the refund queue in order to try and find a ticket for their destination. There is a security guard in place who has the role of preventing this from happening. We watched one guard with sharp, squinting eyes, carefully and meticulously watching the line of people before him. He kept the queue in single file by blasting loudly on his whistle when anyone stepped out of line. Should anyone be brave enough to walk down the side of the queue, either hoping to jump it or to purchase a second hand ticket, they would be blasted with his whistle and then abruptly shouted at. We saw the guard do this over and over again. I watched him chase people away from the queue, he would run behind them literally blasting his whistle in their ear with as much breath as he could muster. I watched him shout at someone, he made them stand to attention as he shouted in their face and blasted more whistle in their ear, the person was then given permission to leave and quickly ran off. I was gobsmacked by this behaviour, I could not believe that somebody had the authority to behave in this manner over such a menial issue. It was such a cultural difference, security guards would never do that in the UK and if they did people would certainly not accept it. It made me think about an ingrained acceptance for authority in the Chinese mentality and how much lack of respect for it that we have in the UK.

A final train station memory whilst queuing for tickets... Regular official sounding announcements over the tannoy sounded more like orders than information for customers. People looked as though they were listening attentively (not that you had a choice due to the high decibels) to words that even in another language made you feel as though you were in year eight at school. I even witnessed K take her hands out of her pockets and hold her head straight and lose any sign of slovenliness :-)

I have seen large groups of school children wearing tracksuits (which is the uniform style), marching in the school grounds at the orders of their mentor. I have seen uniformed employees standing in neat rows outside of their place of employment early in the morning before work as if they were changing watch. They would go through a synchronised range of motions as though stretching each of their limbs and then as if they were greeting a customer with hand gestures. I have even seen groups of employees marching back and forth outside of a shop front. I don't understand it, maybe I suffer from a lack of respect for such orderly behaviour. I just find such militaristic manners to be so out of place in a nonmilitary environment. Another case of cultural differences. They could be team bonding exercises, they could be exercises to awaken employees and to get their blood moving so that they work better, whatever it is, I find it very strange. Maybe people are proud to be part of the group.

Flower displays in public areas or at tourist attractions are orderly like this too, slightly militaristic (if that can be said of plants!). Something that looks like a beautiful flowerbed will upon closer inspection turn out to be carefully positioned rows of potted plants. Hundreds of them, placed on concrete or tiles, the petals still beautiful nonetheless.

Sometimes there is no room for individuality or an allowance for it.

But then...

I see a distinct range of youth subculture amongst the young in the cities. A generation that has been able to reach fashions from other shores. There are kids with big gelled hairstyles cut at wacky angles, donning fashionable jeans that would cost a fair amount of quids in the UK. Skateboarder fashion, American sports fashion, new romantics, boarding babes - it is all there. Guitar wielding young men busking in the streets, rave music blasting out from shops and heartthrobs singing about love over the radio. There as many mobile phones to match your style too.

People in the countryside still use carrying poles balanced over their shoulders which are in turn shadowed by woven bamboo brimmed hats. At each end of the pole hangs a bucket of sloshing water or large baskets of vegetables.

Fast vehicles of authority shoot other road users out of the way with a short siren that sounds like a code for "contender eliminated" like the Wipeout game on the Playstation.

There is a China that I am isolated from. I have read about it in many books - I often think they have made me closer to this far eastern land than actually travelling here. A lack of language means that I am out of touch with an essential part of understanding this other culture. It frustrates me because I know that it is there, it is before my eyes and I see the clues but I am only a partially sighted observer who has cloth for ears. I sometimes feel completely clueless. We know that there is an ancient culture here, China is famous for it, a history that is not only seen in architecture and art etc but is also ingrained in the language and customs. It is also in the everyday classical serialisations that we see on TV, stories and legends that are part of this culture. Formalities are swamped by it too. I am just so distant from it. There are times that something will slip through the net though. Meeting Chinese people that speak English is key to this. Spending a few hours with someone can bring the culture that much closer to you. Maybe if K and I had chosen guides at every opportunity we would have learned so much more but then we would have forfeited the experiences that we have had. Thankfully meeting Julia and the Lama for example has given us both some invaluable insight that we would not have gotten from any guidebook... I wonder though, has the learning of English and interaction with western culture changed the way that they view China... To get the understanding that I want of this culture would require years of study, some of which I have already done but without the language I am always relying on somebody else's interpretation.

I think that it is very easy to misinterpret China especially as a foreigner. It is has an amazingly diverse and rich culture, one that I cannot judge but one that still remains as curious to me now as it was before I had even arrived here.

Thanks for reading :-)