Some time ago I’ve wrote this post about public exercise parks found in Beijing (after travelling for some more time, it seems that they’re all over the country). A week ago I’ve taken a local flight in China and got to see another example of the Chinese attitude towards public health:

About an hour and a half after take-off there was suddenly an announcement in the aircraft’s paging system: “Your health is important to us… bla bla.. smoking is bad for you… bla bla… sitting for a long time in your seat is bad for your health, and it is thus important to do some exercising during the flight….”. At this point there was already a stewardess standing in the aisle, and the voice on the paging system droned on: “extend both your arms in the air… wave them left, right, left, right… “, with the stewardess in the aisle demonstrating the moves. The entire plane was following suit, performing all the exercises for about 10-15 minutes: head, arms, legs and so on, all of them exercises that can be performed while being seated down and buckled up. It was interesting to see how almost 100% of the passengers willfully cooperated (this is not typical Chinese behaviour, which could be seen half an hour later in the 0% cooperation with the “please remain seated until the plane doors are opened” announcements).

X, a twenty-three year old girl from a large city, was facing a dilemma: either be joined in holy matrimony with a man she does not love, or keep facing the discontent of her family. During the past period of time she had been under unrelenting pressure to marry, with the “carrot” waved in front of her being money - funds which she needs in order to open her own business - to be given to her as some sort of wedding dowry. It seems that recently X has made her decision, and will be wed within a few weeks.

Sometimes, as far as Love is concerned, I get the feeling that there are two different Chinas: In one, 90% of the songs played on the radio are kitsch love songs, couples walk the street hand in hand wearing matching cloths, and dual-seat bicycles (intended especially for couples) are available for rent. In the other, the embarassement which a twenty-three year old girl causes her family is enough to pressure her into a marriage which she does not want. It’s a bit hard for me to grasp how both can be the same country.

Sometimes you get to see strange signs in China. Here’s a restaurant sign I saw in Sichuan province a couple of months ago:

 
(click image to enlarge)

The English bit on top says “Mountain Germ King’s Girlie Restaurant”. In particular, I was put off by he “girlie” part of the name - does it means that the staff is girlie? Or that it’s meant for “girlie” customers? I’ve eaten there and I didn’t see any girlies offered as dishes, but maybe you have to especially ask for them.

I haven’t seen any evidence of mountain germs either; perhaps they come with the girlies….

A while ago I’ve been to Hua Shan, a mountain not far from Xi’an. I’ve went there with Hu Yuan, my Xi’an friend, and on the way we’ve picked up another traveller who was going there by himself. We’ve started the climb at night and arrived on top in time to see the sunrise.

On the way I had a chance to see an interesting phenomenon: Locks. There are certain places in the mountain in which it is customary to attach a lock to the railings, and then throw away the key - typically into one of the mountain’s abysses. Each lock symbolizes something, and the belief is that as long as the lock remains locked that “something” will remain. There are four popular “types” of locks (the locks themselves are the same, what matters is the intention of the person who locks them):

• Young couples attach a lock of “same heart”, representing common mutual feelings between the lovers.
• Old people attach a lock of “longevity”, representing a long and healthy life.
• People in bad health (or old people) attach a lock of “health”, representing.. well… health.
• Married couples attach a lock of “peace and harmony”, representing a peaceful family life.

One area of the mountain actually has signs dividing it into several sections, each section meant for a different type of lock. Some of the locks are small while others are really big and makes one wonder why would a person carry such a heavy lock all the way up the mountain:

And here are a few more pictures from up there, just because people were complaining that I’m not posting enough of them:

It had all begun the day I was about to take a train to Hong Kong.

I was at Xi’an at the time, preparing to take a succession of trains - about a day and a half of continuous travel. Since I had a few hours left before my night-train leaves, and since my right foot was still aching, I decided to spend my spare time getting a foot massage. Recalling passing by an inexpensive-looking massage place a few days earlier, I made my way towards it and asked for a foot massage. Those of you who’ve never had a Chinese foot massage may be surprised to hear that it’s actually not only the feet being massaged; in fact, during a one-hour massage session, the feet are typically only massaged during the last 20-30 minutes. During the remainder of the time your feet are being soaked in a bucket of hot water with “stuff” in it. This “stuff” can range anywhere between flower petals and weird japanese medicines, and the price of the massage varies according to the things added to the water. While your feet are being soaked, the massagist massages different areas of your body, such as arms/legs/back. But I digress.

The massagist, a girl of about twenty years of age, was very friendly and we had immediately begun to chat. She had been in this line of work for only a few months, and before that had been studying music and singing. At my request she had sung me one of her favorite songs (she really does sing quite well), and afterwards we had sung together a duet of one of the Chinese songs I know. Technically speaking I’ve had better massages (from a physiological point of view), but that massage was certainly the most fun one.
In the meantime, it had also quickly become apparent that the girl had taken a fancy to me: starting from a probing “do you have a girlfriend”, followed by a “you’re very handsome”, later a “do you think I’m good looking” and finally a second, verifying “do you have a girlfriend”. At some point during the massage she had swapped cellphone numbers with me and later on, after she had found out that I still haven’t had dinner, invited me to go eat with her after the massage is over. And so, after the massage was over, her boss agreed that she’d take a short break from work and we both went to a nearby place to eat.

She knew I was leaving the city the very same night, and that I was planning to come back a couple of weeks later. After dinner we had parted - she went back to work and I went back to the hostel to prepare for the ride - and I was left with promises to take me to a karayoki place when I’ll come back, and to meet her family/friends.

During my train ride, a succession of SMSs had followed. It takes me a long time to get attached to people but, as it seems, this was not the case with her. The very same day, a few hours after we’ve met, I’ve already gotten an SMS reminding me that it’s time I leave to the train station, and another message reminding me to take some warm cloths. Later on, during the train ride, I had gotten SMSs telling me how much she already misses me.

A few weeks passed by, and I finally got back to Xi’an. Contact has grown sparse when I was away but, now that I was back, we had planned to finally meet up. Since I knew she worked long hours, I was waiting for a “green light” telling me she has some free time. After a few days we finally met, and immediately proceeded to have dinner in a small restaurant (I was hungry). As it turned out, the “green light” was more like a four lane freeway, as she had quit her job the day before! She said that she didn’t like her job anymore and wants some time to relax. Her family lives outside the city, but it seems that for the next week or so she will be living in some hotel in the city (appearently for free, the hotel belonging to some friend). Her plans for the upcoming week were described as “having fun”. While we were eating, she told me how much she missed me, and started fishing for information: when am I planning to fly back home? For how long am I planning to stay in Xi’an? And finally, the million dollar question - am I planning to look for a girlfriend in Xi’an?

My answer to the last question, a flat “no”, set her aback. After querying in length as to why, we suddenly didn’t seem to have anything to say to each other. After eating in relative silence for a while, it seemed that her plans have suddenly changed. She was in a hurry to finish the meal, because she still had to catch the last bus going home. She’s not going to be staying in Xi’an, she actually has to go and collect her stuff from the hotel and go home. When I asked when will she be back in Xi’an, her answer was “when she’ll have free time”.

And so it was concluded, leaving me with regrets. She had been entertaining many hopes and illusions (at some point she had asked me whether she was my best friend), illusions which I did not shatter quickly enough. My biggest fear is that I’ve been influential in her decision to leave her job, but who knows, maybe it’s for the best. Before I had the massage the boss had asked me whether or not I would like “lady services” - and while she doesn’t seem the type, one cannot help but wonder…