vancestevens

From Yangsuo to Beihai, July 7, 2004

Wednesday, July 7 the power went off in Yangsuo at 6 a.m. which stopped the a/c and fan and let in the heat and the street noise This is nature's way of saying time to move on.
So I called Mary, one of Yaodong's students in Beihai, from Yangsuo before starting out. In the article I wrote for the column I edit, she's the one second from right in the picture here. She answered her mobile phone (it seems everyone has one in China) and instructed me how to make the connections from Guilin to Nanning to Behei. She said it would take 8 or 9 hours to get where she was and to call her from Nanning, which is to say I'll arrive in Beihai this evening in time for dinner and piiju if I am quite fortunate. I plan to spend a day in Beihai and return to Liuzhou to finally visit with Yaodong.
She explained how I should journey back to Guilin and catch a bus to Nanning, and from there continue on to Beihai. So I set out at 10:10 from Yangsuo heading back to Guilin, and in the station there I got a bus before noon bound for Nanning. I was in the modern bus station in Nanning at the edge of town by around 4 p.m. It was in the countryside; Nanning nowhere in sight, felt like I was changing planes.
Right off the bus I found a phone kiosk and called Mary for 2 yuan. She told me to call her back when I got a ticket so she'd know when to pick me up in Beihai, but when I got the ticket I had just time to find and catch the 16:20 bus. This is rarely straightforward for people who don't speak Chinese, but the people are invariably helpful and pointed me in the right direction.
Three hours later I was in Beihai. It was easy travel on comfortable busses and good roads, and except for the gratuitious violence preventing sleep with loud gunshots and women screaming playing constantly from the TV, it could have been an altogether pleasant experience. China used to be a difficult place to travel, and perhaps in the west of the country where Beijing time is something of a joke it still is. But the trip to Beihai went very well.
At the station I found a phone and used the phone card I'd purchased earlier in Yangsuo, and Mary was at the station half an hour later in her father's car, Mr. Lee at the wheel. They asked me what I wanted to spend on a hotel and never mind what I said but they took me to a nice one in the center of town that cost $20 a night for a room that would be $100 at least in most other big cities in the world. It was spacious, had all amenities, and a balcony overlooking the town.
Mr. Lee and Mary then took me to dinner on a street with typical outdoor eateries. We picked our way through buckets containing snakes and live fish and found a counter where I selected some mussels and cuttlefish. These appeared on our table with rice and piiju, deliciously sauted with fresh vegetables. Then we went for a drive in Mr. Lee's luxury Chinese-made SUV out to silver beach which was not very active or visible at night, but Mary promised we'd get bikes and return in the morning. She and her father dropped me at my hotel and promised to return at ten next morning
I went for a walk down to the town center, teeming with people out for the cool breezes as only China can teem. I can hear Bee asking me to describe it. Ok, rickshaw pedicabs, motorbikes, people having beer and soft drinks at outdoor tables, parents pointing out the foreigner to the kids, the kids more interested in the kiddy amusements set up for them by street vendors, everything for sale at the night market streets, lots of bright battery operated lights glowing off tacky merchandise, people friendly, curious, aura of safety about the place.
On my way out the door I'd noticed a cyber cafe near my hotel and I went back there to drink beer and communicate with friends. I didn't get home till around 1 at night.