Xu Liang was one of my Chinese teachers in 2009 when I studied in Beijing. We bonded and I ended up visiting his family's farm in Dandong, near North Korea. It was a wonderful experience for me. It fostered my interests in both Manchuria and rural China, and was one of the reasons I would choose rural issues in modern Heilongjiang as the topic for my one-on-one research project at CET Harbin.
So I returned to Dandong after more than a year, ready to celebrate the New Year with old friends. The city is one of China's main border towns, and a lot of trade happens with North Korea. The city is home to hundreds of thousands of people and the nearby countryside's rich soil feeds millions. I rolled into town on a bus and found an inn where I could stay the night and be able to greet my friend in the morning. I set out to see the most eastern portion of the Great Wall of China: Tiger Mountain Great Wall. Had I checked the guidebook more closely I would have realized the wall straddled the North Korean border, a narrow portion of the Yalu River which is frozen in February. Also, as it was New Year's Eve, the area was devoid of tourists, which meant I was alone on the Great Wall, overlooking North Korea. My mother had warned me not to go near the border while in Dandong, but I did not know the wall was that close and it did not occur to me that the scenery on one side was Korea until I noticed how desolate the landscape was. One side looked like the Chinese countryside that I knew and the other side looked unbelievably poor and desolate. One side had tractors, the other didn't. Then I noticed a North Korean flag in the distance. I took out my guidebook and to my surprise I was on the North Korean border! Just then I heard voices and looked down to see two Korean soldiers walking across the ice. I got ready to run along the top of the wall and back towards the trail-head when I noticed they were unarmed. I also noticed how hungry they looked. Neither one could have been heavier than 80 pounds. I'd never seen such starved-looking people before. "Chinese money... cigarettes" they said in broken Chinese. The two half-starved figures frightened me and jerked my heart, so I threw them 20 RMB (the equivalent of 3 US dollars) and headed back up the trail and back to Dandong.
I had a great time at Mr. Xu's family's house. It was such a wonderful experience to spend Chinese New Year with a Chinese family. After meeting Xu Liang in downtown Dandong, we caught a cab to his parents’ farm. When we got there, his dad, his mom, his brother, his sister-in-law, and the dog came out to greet us (the dog had been a bad puppy, having eaten one of the hen's chicks the other day). The landscape looked so different from when I'd last visited. Brimming corn fields were now lying fallow, and here and there snow lay on the fields and on the house. We went inside and settled down to breakfast on the kang - a large stone oven used as a heater, a bed, and a table by families throughout rural parts of Northern China. I know from the years I spent learning Yiddish as a young boy that the same stove-bed structure existed in Eastern Europe at some point and in the Yiddish language it is called a “pripitchick”. His mother is a jolly, stout Mongolian woman with a wonderful smile and a heavy laugh. His dad, who also has a great smile, is a thin, friendly, Chinese man who smokes like a chimney. The brother and his wife were also very friendly. He met her out in Xinjiang and they have been married over a year now. After breakfast, Xu Liang's brother let me use his phone to call home. The brother, his wife, and the parents settled down to a long game of Majiang, while Xu Liang and I watched TV. Xu Liang taught me a traditional card game the Chinese play on New Year's Eve to predict the coming year's fortunes. After they finished playing Majiang (Xu Liang's brother ended up winning over a 100 RMB), we all hiked down the road to a nearby store to buy fireworks. You would not believe how many fireworks and firecrackers we bought. On the walk back, Xu Liang pointed out a field where he used to play. "There's a hot spring at the back over there, but now it’s probably too polluted to swim in." From sundown until midnight, we periodically lit fireworks and firecrackers. "It's to scare off bad spirits for the new year", Xu Liang explained. The father, Xu Liang, his sister in law, and his brother also burned paper money for the ancestors. You would not believe the sight of the Dandong countryside at night on New Year's Eve. Try imagining a million fireworks exploding over the cottages and hillsides, the sounds of exploding rockets and firecrackers making the land feel almost like a battlefield - so many fireworks it puts the Fourth of July to shame. Then came New Year's Eve dinner - eight delicious dishes (eight is a lucky number in Chinese culture). The rice was served with red beans mixed in, like my Jamaican grandmother used to cook for me as a child. I'd gotten used to red beans being used in Chinese cuisine as desert, so it was shocking to see beans used in a more familiar manner. They also had corn tortillas, which reminded me of the ones I've eaten in Mexican restaurants. Other dishes included vegetables, fish, meat, and tofu. We drank the liquor true Northeastern style in big soup bowls. I had picked up a bottle of liquor from a bodega downtown. Little did I know that the bottle was from Xu Liang's family's old hometown, in the hills on the other side of Dandong. They were pleasantly surprised. After eating our share of delicious food, including dumplings, we settled down to more Majiang and card playing. After midnight, all 6 of us curled up on the kang and went to sleep. You'd think a hard surface like that would be uncomfortable, but it actually felt great, especially with the warmth coming up from it.
After a good night's sleep, we woke up to more feasting and Majiang (I found the game still too hard to follow), then set out to visit an auntie of Xu Liang's. February 2nd was both my mom's birthday and New Year's Eve, February 3rd was both New Year's Day and this auntie's birthday. We stopped at their apartment and chatted for a while, then headed to a nearby restaurant. You wouldn’t believe the amazing dishes they had, including a "soup" made from hot coca cola and traditional Chinese medicinal herbs. I played a little with the three year old granddaughter of the auntie. Going for a walk after lunch, I saw Xu Liang and his brother walking arm in arm and it made me miss my brother so much. The auntie asked me if Chinese New Year is as festive as Christmas back home and I nodded. Back at Xu Liang's house, we watched TV, ate, and chatted. There were movies on TV, as well as dramas, comedies, and a show where migrant workers compete in singing original songs. One duo was really really good and became famous nation-wide after that night. We were more tired that night and went to bed on the kang around 8.
On the afternoon of the next day, I caught a cab to town, said farewell and caught a hard seat train to Beijing.
Haunting image from the Wall. Thanks for this.
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