Chengdu

From Dandong, I caught an overnight hard seat to Beijing. It was an awkward time on a train route which mostly served travelers going shorter distances, so for most of the night the train car was half empty, meaning I could put my feet up and sleep well. Once in Beijing, I changed money and found a youth hostel where I rested, booked my flight to Chengdu, and arranged my things. While out getting lunch, I stumbled across an old Catholic Church from the 1600's, apparently Beijing's oldest. That evening, I caught a taxi to the Beijing airport and then a plane to Chengdu. This was my first domestic flight in China. Although the chaotic airport was a headache (possibly the worst organized airport I've ever seen), the flight was pleasant. I chatted with the family sitting next to me and let their children play with the stuffed animals I'd brought from home. Once in Chengdu, I headed straight to the home of Li Cheng.

Over two years ago as a freshman at Yale, I started volunteering teaching English as a second language in New Haven through the Bridges program. One of my students was Li Cheng, a law student from Shanghai who was studying for a semester at Yale through an exchange program. Originally from Chengdu, he has been working on his PhD for several years now. Last time I was in China, I visited him and his parents in Chengdu and had a wonderful time. I was excited to see them again. I was also excited to see their pet dog "Tiantian". Last time I was in China, she was just a three month old puppy. This time she was all grown up and barking happily to greet me as I came up the stairs.

It was great to see Li Cheng. When I visited, he was home for the Chinese New Year season. He is currently finishing up his Phd dissertation in law at a university in Shanghai. He studies discrimination law and constitutional law. He told me that "in my department we joke that such fields are breeding grounds for future Nobel Prize winners," referring to Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize winner currently sitting in a Chinese prison. I had some great chats with him over the two and a half days I spent in Chengdu. We discussed everything from law to differences between life in America and in China to how good the pizza is back in New Haven at Peppe's. We also chatted about law school applications in China. Apparently, in China, universities can reject applicants for being too short. I talked about how this reflects the differences between American and Chinese cultures. In China, physical appearance is valued much more highly. Airlines openly and legally discriminate against flight attendants who are too old or deemed unattractive. The disabled are unable to attend universities and are often doomed to a life of begging. Finally, he was both impressed and amused by my story about New York's former governor, who not only was blind but also tarnished by corruption charges.

I spent a lot of time in Chengdu playing with Tiantian, eating, and chatting. My second day there, I went with Li Cheng's father to visit an archeological site/ museum. The site was interesting and it was fun to chat with his dad, though difficult to decipher his Sichuanese, which differs greatly from standard Mandarin both in tonality and pronunciation. We talked about history, his life as a lawyer in China, retirement (both he and my father recently retired), and food. He claimed that I would not be able to find such delicious food up in Harbin. "Northerners don't care about taste that much, they're much more about eating large portions."

When I visited Sichuan in 2009, I did a three-day hiking trip to Emei Mountain, famed for its natural beauty and connections to Buddhism's history in China. While on the mountain, I met several students, including one English major who I really bonded with. At the time, he told me to call him Hanz, because the name sounded like the Han people. This time, on my last night in Chengdu, I met up again with Hanz and one of the other students. We visited a shrine to a former Sichuanese king, got street snacks, and chatted. Hanz, who had seemed so extroverted, happy, and full of knowledge those days on the mountain was now reticent, depressed, and tired looking. As he explained, he'd already graduated and had been searching for work for over a year. In China, he explained, the unemployment rate is relatively high and a large number of college students compete for relatively few jobs. The stress piled up over the months and his health began to deteriorate. After he left to go home, I had a nice chat with the other young man who I had met on the mountain. Explaining Hanz's situation, he talked about the employment challenges facing college graduates in China, growing resentment of China's leaders and elites, and the implications of not finding a job in China. In modern China, if someone does not have a good job, a car, and a nice apartment, then they are sure to have bad marriage prospects. The booming housing bubble means that affordable housing is disappearing from China's cities. After our chat, I boarded a bus a back to Li Cheng's house.

On my last morning in Chengdu, Li Cheng's grandparents came over to visit. Over 90 years old, they were friendly and talkative. I took pictures with them and said farewell to Li Cheng and his wonderful family. With a week left before orientation, I decided to work my way slowly back to Beijing by crossing central China on the iron horse.

My former Chinese professor Kang Zhengguo is from Xi'an, as was an advisor of mine in high school. My parents also enjoyed their stay in the city, so I decided it would be a worthwhile place to stop.

The train ride to Xi'an passed scenic countryside, lovely small cities and towns, and major industrial cities I’d never heard of. The next morning, I arrived in Xi'an.