Lijiang, China - September 18, 2002
The movie hasn't happened. I was patiently waiting in Kunming.. but everyday its been raining.. and after looking at the 5-day forecast for Kunming.. it seems the rain is not going to leave anytime soon.. at least within the 5-day forecast!! So I went to Dali and now Lijiang for the time being.. and plan to return to Kunming in a day or so to see if the movie is starting at that time.
So anyhow, I went to Dali.. its a very nice town!! Extremely impressive architecture and very laid-back. There are many great walkways all around the town that are closed to traffic. Very quaint I guess is the word I'm looking for. They also have all kinds of western foods and many many tourists!! It was a good little town.
After Dali, I went to Lijiang!! An even more impressive little ttown with about 5 times more the tourists!! Lijiang is filled with canals and shops and restaurants everywhere! The canals interview throughout the Old Town.. even under my hotel.. as a canal divided it into two.. very impressive town!!
Let's see.. other odd China things.. I had a poscicle today.. not unusual in itself.. but it was made out of egg.. it tasted really funny.. i didn't even realize i bought an egg popscile until i see a little fried egg on the wrapper.. and then when i tried.. i knew thats what it was for certain! How did it taste? Ahmm.. not too good..
The other thing about China.. spit! spit! spit! There is spit everywhere. The Chinese are constantly constantly spitting!! Even on public buses you will see pools of spit throughout the walkway. Even lovely women with lots of lipstick and high heels know how to spits gobs of it!! You always know its coming because before the spit there is a deep throat "grrrkkk!' sound.. then a definete smack of a huge ball of saliva passing through the lips with a *smack* sound and a following puddle on the ground or bus or wherever the spitter happens to be standing. Sometimes its unnerving to hear the spit.. and quite shocking.. but this is China.. and China is a country of spitters.
The other thing China has alot of is starers. If they are spitting, they are busy staring. Sometimes they just stare at me, but often times they stare at each other. I saw a mess of a human being begging (he was deformed).. and then you always have a few Chinese guys just standing there staring at him. They stare at everything. I was thinking the big difference in cultures is that if most Westerners want to look at somebody they will do it by beginning a conversation with the person. Chinese do not do that. They just turn around or stop wherever they are at, and just stare at you and look at you. A definetely different culture.
The last thing to mention is Chinese toilets. They are of course quite open to the public the moment you step into any bathroom. There are no private stalls. When you are doing your business in a public bathroom, other people can freely watch you (and stare at you) or most likely sit down next to the toilet next to you and do their business while staring at you if they like. Fortunately, there are other bathrooms with a little privacy, so if I run into one of these, I save my business for elsewhere for the most part. But most public toilets are exactly as I just described - but of course there are private toilets here and there as well.
Anyhow, I'm going to head back down to Kunming soon.. try to see if I can still be a British soldier for the Chinese film.. and hopefully they are still shooting. If not, i have to get my visa for Vietnam down there anyhow. So thats the new news from China! Oh, and I have a really bad cold!! Sneezing and coughing everywhere!!
Continued journal entries in China:
September 21, 2001
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