Somehow today at a staff dinner event, we got to sharing horror stories about all the events leading up to the 2008 Olympics. If any teacher was in China during that time, you will know exactly what I'm talking about: difficult visa renewals, police registration crackdowns, hotels that refused foreigners, an overhaul of internet blocking, and a dramatic surge in nationalism that has remained to this day. I was teaching in Dalian at the time and it was my final year at that school. All of a sudden, things went belly up over there, and it all happened extremely quickly. With a series of one miserable piece of news after another, the atmosphere in the final months of that school year became extremely tense and uncertain. It was clearly time to get out of there.
So the summer of 2008 marked a major transition where I moved out of Dalian and into South China. I found work quickly enough at a school in the outskirts of Shanghai, but apart from that, I knew very little about what was coming up next. The two years that followed were also rather adventurous and extremeley challenging, but with a different spin on things than Dalian. In retrospect, I'm very happy for having made the transition.
One thing I'll clearly remember was a bike trip between Dalian and Shanghai that, incidentally, also went belly up. I aborted the trip midway, stashed my bike on a train to Shanghai, put the bike in storage, and set forth for Thailand on the first flight out. That experience was more or less the nail in the coffin for China bike travel which, unfortunately, has deterred me from making future trips --- even until now.
During the trip as the Olympics loomed nearer and nearer, I experienced things like internet cafes, hotels, taxis, and many other services become suddenly out of bounds. There was also an abrupt negative change in the population towards foreigners. While the first reaction was anger, I soon began saying how I will always be grateful for a roof under my head and a place to sleep, because I know how difficult and uncertain it is now to find this while traveling in China. Money or not, there is just no way to tell if I'll be accepted or not for the serices.
So I certainly became grateful for being accepted in a hotel or having a place to stay with a roof over my head. As soon as I moved into the Zplashes hotel, which was way in the outskirts of town and nearby the new school I was working in fall 2008, I was actually quite grateful for the place. When the secretary signed me up to stay there for an entire year, I can remember feeling how wonderful it was that I could be guaranteed that, knowing just how difficult and uncertain it was to find hotels anywhere else on the road from the 2008 summer experience.
Regretably, that gratitude didn't last very long as I soon started complaining about all the conditions at the Zplashes hotel and many other things about the school. I felt so bad about all that, such that I permanently deleted that particular blog. There was much reason for gratitude during the whole 2008-09 year and for things like learning to ride a scooter and all the little daily adventures.
Anyways, I digress. What follows are a snippet of quotes from my own past blogs and those of friends who went through the whole pre-Olympics madness and lived to tell the tale. Hopefully the experience taught us to learn and grow from the difficulties, and to be more appreciative of daily things that we can't take for granted here in China.
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July 3, 2008: This bike trip has already started, actually it began about a week after the May Holiday when I was stressed out from work took a spin in the countryside, deciding right then and there to make a run for Pikou, the next big town up the highway. Once at Pikou, I then decided to quit my job.
July 8, 2008: These upcoming Olympics are really scaring me now and I'm also having a rather bad start to this trip. I finally succeeded in getting a 30 day travel visa, but the guy at the PSB office said to wait until the end of this week to pick up the passport and new visa, minus the 7 days it took to process it.
July 9, 2008: I thought I'd test the hotel situation along the way, and so I detoured through Shenyang, the major capital city of Liaoning Province. The situation was grim. Very grim. Without even asking to see documents, at least 10 hotel clerks took a look at me and said one of the following statements:
--> We don't have any rooms
--> We can't take foreigners here
--> We're filled up, sorry
--> This is not a hotel, this is a [something something]
July 9, 2008: I screamed out, "This is unfair! I bought a ticket and so did all of us here. If a bunch of pushers can force their way through the door and get on the bus, then you kick us out, why did you sell all those tickets in the first place?"
July 10, 2008: Upon entering Yingkou around 8 pm, however, I could tell something bad was up. Police state central. Everywhere was a cop cruising the streets and I'm sure they were looking at me too. I tried about 5 hotels and got the now familiar rejection spiels .............. 30 minutes later, he came into the room and told me I couldn't stay there. He said it had to do with the new police controls ahead of the Olympics. He escorted me to the local police station, and I assume he had been in contact with them. The police were friendly enough and were satisfied with my story, Chinese, and documents, but they sent a rather clear message that they wanted me out of this town. They said, "We'll get you back to the last town along the main train line so you can go back to Dalian."
July 11, 2008: I give up loooking for hotels and catch a train. 10:30pm --> The train is ready to go, and it is a sardine can. No room to breathe, let alone move around. Sitting is an impossible dream. On the train, I meet Ryan, an American-born Chinese who is also going to Beijing. He tells me, "Oh yeah, none of the places will take foreigners." I ask him, "What about Beijing?" He says, "They will, but the prices start upwards of 1000 yuan." I knew it.
July 15, 2008: Apparently the new principal was there, so I changed into some better clothes, if I were to possibly meet him. The secretaries were very kind and helpful, and the security guards were obnoxious ... to be expected really.
July 16, 2008: OK, so I think I've reached my tolerance limit now. I'm now in Hangzhou, which has, in the past, been one of my favorite cities in the country. Now facing problems with meeting other basic travel needs: restaurants that ignore me, internet bars that won't look at my passport and callously say 'bu xing' (not OK), and taxis that go right by and the drivers shake their heads. Time to book a flight to Guangzhou, then do so pronto.
July 17, 2008: Once in Zhuhai, I attempted to cross the border. It was a traumatic experience. It started because they didn't like the look of my old beaten up passport that was full of old Chinese visas. So I got stopped and questioned. They told me to sit down and "wait a minute".
July 8, 2008: (Damien Waugh) As we were eating, a VW pulled up and 4 men got out. I could tell right away they weren't stopping bye for a bite to eat. All were clean-shaven police men in dress shirts except for one in uniform. They came in and sat down next to our table asking for our passports. After about 10 minutes of closely examining each page they told us we couldn't stay there. It was an illegal hotel and foreigners were not permitted to live there.
July 10, 2008: (Damien). When we arrived in Gaizho we had some difficulty finding a hotel that would accept us.
July 14, 2008: (Damien) When we arrive in a big city now, we try to rest and re-fuel for the hotel search. We figured we would treat ourselves to a nice hotel seeing as how none of the 2 star hotels would accept us. Unfortunately, even some of the 3 stars were turning us away.
July 22, 2008: (Damien) As I struggled with the tire I was in no mood to talk with the police. A policewoman asked if she could help and I said no. Then she asked to see our passports, so I handed them over.
July 28, 2008: (Damien)
-I'm sorry, I can't help you
-What?
-We can't give you a renewal
-Why not?
-Special regulation
-Which is?
-You have to apply for the renewal in the city of origin, which is Dalian
-I have to go to Dalian for a renewal?
August 13, 2008 (Rob Thompson) “I’m sorry sir, you cannot stay at this inn…” blah blah blah.
I tried to reason with the officer. How much is the hotel that I am supposed to be in? At least 100RMB a night, he replied.
August 14, 2008: (Rob) “I am sorry, but during this Olympic season, we are not able to process a visa extension for you. You must go to a big city like Lanzhou or Xi’an,” the desk assistant said.
I insisted. I pushed. I reasoned.
“For me to go to Xi’an, it will cost me not only transport costs, but hotel costs in Xi’an, and most of all it will cost me travel time. This is very inconvenient for me,” I insisted. “Surely you can call your superiors in Lanzhou and ask for permission for an exception.”
“No, it is impossible for us to do this at this time,” was the answer.
“Welcome to China! Welcome to our foreign friends! This is your motto at the moment, is it not? Well, I do not believe it. I do not feel welcomed. Because of the Olympic games, everything is not more convenient. It is very difficult. I have nothing to do with the Olympics. I don’t care about the Olympics!” I said.
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Two and a half years later, the Olympics are all but a dream now, in a one world away from reality.
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