Vignettes From China - Part One - Urumqi
After PST training, I spent ten days in the Uyghurstan Autonymous Republic (UAR), aka Xinjiang (Chinese for "New Land"), aka Western China. Because the train and bus only run on the weekends, and I was cutting the whole things close because of PST for the 17s and the start of the school year, I flew there and back through Almaty and Urumqi. I should mention that if you're flying with Chinese airlines, don't schedule any tight connections - no Chinese plane of ours took off on time the entire trip. As a travelling partner, I had Regan Tsui, an American born Taiwanese who speaks fluent Chinese, and the other core member of the Great Boise Road Trips. To recount the whole adventure in detail would be unnecessary, so here are some highlights.
Regan flew into Beijing and spent the night there before joinging me in Urumqi. On the plane he met a American-born Korean man who was coming to China to see family, and they decided to go out and have some drinks in Beijing. There they met a pair of beautiful Chinese girls, who invited them to a Karaoke bar. They sang the night away, and the girls ordered drink after mixed drink, many of which stood untouched. As the morning approached and Regan and his friend got tired, they asked for the bill. The bill came to no less than two thousand dollars - $25 per ounce, for many many drinks that were more than one ounce. They simply hadn't asked the prices at the door. Regan payed almost of his cash - a few hundred dollars - and his friend payed what he could, around a thousand dollars, and the bar let them go.
Regan did this banking on being able to cash travellers checks, or at least use his ATM card, in Urumqi. No luck. He arrived in the city with less than a taxi fare and no way to get money. Fortunately, he was able to negotiate the bus system (something I would never have been able to do), and we met at the appointed place at the appointed time.
The reason I say I wouldn't have been able to negotiate the busses is that nobody speaks English, and in Urumqi anyway, very few speak Uyghur, which isn't that similar to Kazakh anyway. If you're going to western China and aren't lucky enough to have a travelling friend who's fluent in Chinese, I recommend studying some before you go. Speaking simple Chinese isn't so hard; it has a reputation for difficulty because of the writing. As a confidence builder for you Central Asian PCVs out there, let me mention that we met some travellers who had been living in who said that they had tried learning Russian, but gave it up because it was far too difficult, and are now making their living on Chinese instead.
Though there's no single story that goes with it, a word must be said about the magnificent food of the UAR. Chinese and Turkic cooking has mixed there, and the resulting particulate is tiny restaurants everywhere off the main roads, where for less than a dollar you can get more than you can eat of plov, shashlik, spicy soup, long thin noodles, mutton, dumplings, or any number of spicy dishes. Though Regan spoke Chinese fluently, he couldn't read, so we ordered by asking, pointing, or, more than once, just got a surprise.
Regan flew into Beijing and spent the night there before joinging me in Urumqi. On the plane he met a American-born Korean man who was coming to China to see family, and they decided to go out and have some drinks in Beijing. There they met a pair of beautiful Chinese girls, who invited them to a Karaoke bar. They sang the night away, and the girls ordered drink after mixed drink, many of which stood untouched. As the morning approached and Regan and his friend got tired, they asked for the bill. The bill came to no less than two thousand dollars - $25 per ounce, for many many drinks that were more than one ounce. They simply hadn't asked the prices at the door. Regan payed almost of his cash - a few hundred dollars - and his friend payed what he could, around a thousand dollars, and the bar let them go.
Regan did this banking on being able to cash travellers checks, or at least use his ATM card, in Urumqi. No luck. He arrived in the city with less than a taxi fare and no way to get money. Fortunately, he was able to negotiate the bus system (something I would never have been able to do), and we met at the appointed place at the appointed time.
The reason I say I wouldn't have been able to negotiate the busses is that nobody speaks English, and in Urumqi anyway, very few speak Uyghur, which isn't that similar to Kazakh anyway. If you're going to western China and aren't lucky enough to have a travelling friend who's fluent in Chinese, I recommend studying some before you go. Speaking simple Chinese isn't so hard; it has a reputation for difficulty because of the writing. As a confidence builder for you Central Asian PCVs out there, let me mention that we met some travellers who had been living in who said that they had tried learning Russian, but gave it up because it was far too difficult, and are now making their living on Chinese instead.
Though there's no single story that goes with it, a word must be said about the magnificent food of the UAR. Chinese and Turkic cooking has mixed there, and the resulting particulate is tiny restaurants everywhere off the main roads, where for less than a dollar you can get more than you can eat of plov, shashlik, spicy soup, long thin noodles, mutton, dumplings, or any number of spicy dishes. Though Regan spoke Chinese fluently, he couldn't read, so we ordered by asking, pointing, or, more than once, just got a surprise.
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