Sherry and Lisa had gotten online with me earlier in the week to help me figure out cheap prices for plane tickets to Wuhan. The cheapest was from an airline called Joy Air which has only been in operation since 2009 and, as far as I can tell only operates out of the Xi'an and does not offer service to many destinations other than Wuhan. Also interesting was the fact that when I was looking at buying the ticket from the English version of the website on my computer, it was significantly more expensive than when Sherry tried using the Chinese version of the website. Just a tip, in case anyone is planning on buying any domestic Chinese flights any time soon.
I got up early, when it was still really dark and made my way downstairs to meet the taxi driver David Zou had called to take me to the airport. We made it to the domestic terminal much earlier than expected even after a slight mix-up between the taxi driver and I about which terminal was which. I had to walk the entire domestic check-in section just to find the one check-in desk for Joy Air. When I finally made it to the gate and the plane was ready for boarding, I walked with the rest of the passengers, all Chinese, down some stairs to a shuttle that was waiting for us and which took us far out on the tarmac to a tiny little plane powered by two turboprop engines on the wings. The turbines hung off the wings and had long blades. The plane is pictured below. It was so small that we had to climb up a little set of stairs, which was not that tall to get on because it was too small to attach to the normal gate entrances which lead off of the airport's terminal. Inside, the airplane was very small, the smallest I have ever been on, and I bumped my head several times on the way to my seat. What is more, even though I was flying to Wuhan and it was supposed to be direct flight, included was what the airline termed a "stop-over." The flight was supposed to be about three hours long. After about an hour and fifteen minutes, we landed at this tiny little airport which was not surrounded by a city at all. Everyone got off the plane and most of the people actually left and went to pick up their luggage and to get picked up by relatives and family members. For those of us who were actually continuing to Wuhan, we were escorted to a part of the airport where we sat and waited for fifteen minutes while the plane refueled. We then got back on the plane and after about another hour, we landed in Wuhan where I was able to meet up with Karen.
I am going to stop here for a little bit and talk some about Wuhan itself. It is a very interesting city with an impressive history and also an enormous potential for growth. The population is 13 million and growing. Compared to this, Xi'an is a relatively "small" city with only about 8 million at its highest count. Despite this, there is not as much traditional architecture in Wuhan and not as much modernization or development. It seems much more industrial with high-rise after high-rise, most of which were probably built fairly recently to house the city's rapidly growing workforce needed to staff its many factories for its many industries. Wuhan is known throughout as the "Chicago of China" because it is a transportation hub. Apparently, you can catch a train to pretty much anywhere in China from Wuhan, due to its central location. It is also recognized as the educational and political capital of central China, home to dozens of the region's top universities along with several of national significance. The famed Yangtze River (also known as the Long River) passes through and the mouth of one of its main tributaries, the Han River, is located in the port of Wuhan. The city is divided into three parts known as Hanyang, Hankou and Wuchang. Wuchang is on one side of the Yangtze River, separated from both Hankou and Hanyang. It is known as the educational center and is where most of the universities are located and where, consequently, most of the university students live. It is also where the original Mr. Mai's Coffee shop is located and where the McNabbs live. I stayed in an apartment in Wuchang during my stay in Wuhan. Hanyang is known as being very industrial with many car factories. Many of these factories belong to French companies and this is why Hanyang is known as being where many of the foreigners in the city live. Because of the French car industry alone, Wuhan is one of the cities in China with the highest concentrations of foreigners. Hanyang is the location of the newest location of the coffee shop as well for this reason, so that more interaction between foreigners and locals can be facilitated. Hankou is known as the upscale financial district with a growing upper class and all the accoutrements that come along with this. Hankou also is home to the city's large textile and clothing industries. Hankou and Hanyang are separated from each other by the Han River which feeds into the Yangtze, splitting the city into three parts.
After meeting up with Karen, her friend Carly from school who was also visiting the McNabbs in Wuhan and Mrs. Faith McNabb, we took a taxi to the Hanyang coffee shop where I met Mr. David McNabb and was introduced to many of the coffee shop's staff members. We were supposed to be meeting two Chinese girls that Karen and Carly had befriended during the time they had spent in Wuhan so far in order to go the mall to watch a movie and look around. On the way there, we stopped and had a quick lunch at a store owned by a Chinese Muslim family. It was a pretty traditional Chinese meal- noodles- but these were seasoned with a particular Wuhan twist and were cooked in pork broth. The Chinese name for them was "La Mian" or spicy noodles.
We met up with Karen’s Chinese friends who were very kind and accommodating and showed us around the glossy mall. It was quite different from what I have been used to seeing in China where I have been working and all. We walked around looking at all the stores. And of course, a mall in China is not a mall without its Dairy Queen and KFC, which by now I have learned are what the Chinese have adopted as their fast food staples. One of the girls had brought her cousin along who was a student at a local art school and we talked a little bit, half in Chinese and half in English about his interests and my interests and our different schools. We all went to see Men in Black III (which was kind of expensive, given what I have been used to paying for the things I have done in Xi’an, but was about the same compared to how it is in the United States). The movie was in English with Chinese subtitles and was just a really strange experience to be watching an American movie in a really nice theater in China with Chinese friends who were reacting to the subtitles, some of which I was able to pick out and recognize. Afterwards we went to a local KTV which you can find all over China and is kind of the rage right now. A KTV is place that has many different rooms with karaoke machines and televisions that people can rent out for several hours. Snacks are provided and both English and Chinese songs are provided on an endless stream. Our Chinese friends sang and sang and eventually got us to join in, singing some Green Day, Oasis and Train. I did not really know any of the other songs they had and it was a pretty interesting line-up. They introduced us to a Chinese band called “Mayday” who was supposed to be modeled after Green Day. Coming out of the mall, Karen and Carly and I hailed a cab and rode across the large suspension bridge across the Yangtze River from Hanyang where we visited the mall to Wuchang where the McNabbs’ apartment is located.
The next day, we got up and ate breakfast with Mr. and Mrs. McNabb. It was a nice Western breakfast of omelettes which was amazing compared to the normal breakfast I eat in the hotel every day without fail, consisting of fried rice, thick white buns, hot soy milk porridge (which has to be sweetened with sugar because it has kind of a strange taste) and cold Chinese dishes, sometimes left over from the night before. I really have enjoyed the Chinese food I have been able to try and I really enjoy eating it. The only thing I really miss is Western breakfast to kind of mix things up.
I was able to talk to Mr. David and Mrs. Faith about their time in China and where they have lived. They came to China thirteen years ago with their children who are now living back in the United States. They wanted to work with an orphanage but never found an opening or an opportunity to do so. They started working and living at a school in Hong Kong and moved to Wuhan after a few years where they eventually had the idea of starting the coffee shop in order to serve and build relationships with the local university students by helping them practice their English in a relaxed coffee shop setting. It is interesting to see how this has worked out. The coffee shop is always busy and both returning and new customers are always going in and out. Everyone knows Mr. and Mrs. Mai, as they are called and there are students who come in to practice their English who are close friends and who have known the Mai’s since they were in high school or even primary school. It is interesting to see all the close relationships that have been formed just from the Mai’s determining to take root in the communities of Wuhan, all starting with a conversation over a few cups of coffee.
For two of my days in Wuhan, I spent most of the time at the coffee shop just being available to talk to students from the universities about my story and asking questions about theirs. I had some of the most interesting conversations I have had while I was in China and felt that, at least for a little while, I was able to kind of feel the pulse of where kind of a cross-section of at least young people in China are heading with their interests and ideas and questions and opinions. I talked to students both from local engineering, technical and teaching universities as well as students from the more prestigious Wuhan University here. I had many conversations on many interesting topics, so I won’t go into all of them. I can’t even begin to say how many times I explained that it was my second time to China, that the first time was when I came with my family to adopt Anna, that I was in Xi’an working as an international volunteer at a special needs center, that I was only in Wuhan for the weekend and how I knew Karen and why I came to see her. Just when I thought I was done and had covered pretty much every topic I could, I would see out of the corner of my eye another student coming up to ask if they could join and the conversation would begin again, taking new turns and going in new directions depending on what their story was. The coffee shop stayed open pretty late, until about 9:30 pm and we were there until past closing time talking to students. All three of us, Karen, Carly and I, would each have a little group of about five to six students around us just sitting and talking. And we talked about everything under the sun. One of my favorite conversations was on the last day talking to a young man a little older than me who was already graduated and working, but who still enjoyed frequenting Mr. Mai’s. He worked as a wine salesman for a really upscale Chinese wine company and he was working on creating a market for expensive, high quality Chinese wines to compete for international customers with French companies. He told me about where the vineyards were and what provinces had the best climates for making wines. He showed me his pamphlet he uses when selling wine which illustrated how the Chinese vineyards were at the same latitude and longitude as Bordeaux in France and how the vineyards were being developed to produce excellent wine-making grapes. It was just a really interesting experience talking to him about what he did and what he was interested in.
On Sunday, we went to Hankou to visit a friend of Mr. Mai’s and to have dinner with his family. His mother-in-law cooked local food and it was amazing. There was lotus root, egg plant, a dish with eggs and tomatoes, potatoes cooked in a type of hashbrown style, and, most importantly, crawfish. They were just the tails separated from the rest of the body, stir-fried in a red pepper sauce and pretty spicy. There were also fried chicken legs which were really good as well. On the way there I passed by many of Wuhan’s famous landmarks. Even though I was not able to get out much during my stay to go and see them, it was nice to be able to see some of the sights from the bus on the way to Hankou. This is why there aren’t many pictures, although, I have tried to include some from the internet just to show you.
Leaving from the McNabb’s apartment we got on the bus and were soon passing by a memorial built at the location of the first outbreak of the October 10, 1911 Wuchang Uprising. What started here in Wuhan eventually led to the 1911-1912 Xinhai Revolution led by Sun Yat Sen’s followers against the Qing Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China. It ended with the abdication of the last emperor, Puyi, in 1912, and the beginning of the Republic of China. For those whose Chinese history is a little loose like mine, between the end of the Chinese imperial government in 1911 and the establishment of communism in China in 1949, China was governed by a type of republic, styled as the Republic of China. In 1950, the government of this republic was defeated by future Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong’s forces and expelled to Taiwan where it still exists. Both the the governments of the Republic of China in Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China, however, still look back to what happened in Wuhan in 1911 and each claims to be the ideological descendants of this first rebellion to overthrow the last Chinese emperor. It was in Wuchang, close to where I was staying that the first shots of this rebellion against the Qing Dynasty and it was also here where the earliest republican government first set up its national capital.
The bus continued on and we passed by Wuhan’s famous Yellow Crane Tower which is built near the site of an historic tower, but which is only a replica built in the 1980’s. We began to cross over the first Yangtze River bridge, so called because not only is it the first bridge across the Yangtze River in Wuhan, but also in all of China. It was completed in 1957, not long after the communist party began to govern mainland China with Soviet help. It has several lanes for cars on the top and room for trains underneath. Since it was the only bridge across China’s largest river for many years, it was considered vital to protect and thus there was always a military guard stationed on the bridge. There is still an ongoing military guard on the bridge to this day. As we crossed the bridge, I could see how large the Yangtze truly was, vast and moving off in the distance. All around the banks on both sides were huge sky scrapers, gradually fading into the mist in the distance. Large barges moved up and down the river intermittently. Once on the other side, we arrived in Hanyang, where the second coffee shop is and then continued on across the Han River to Hankou where we met Mr. Mai’s friend for dinner. On the way back to the apartment at night, we took a short train ride to the bus station. Outside the bus station, there were huge groups of people doing traditional dances all in sequence. Mr. Mai said that this was a way for a lot of people to get exercise and let off stress at the end of the day. Crossing back over the Yangtze on the bus, I saw the view of the river bank from the night. Many of the skyscrapers were illuminated with flashing neon lights and on some of the larger ones, different designs flashed across the fronts of the buildings, reflecting in the river. Once back in Wuchang, we saw the Yellow Crane Tower and passed by a large mansion which Mr. Mai said was a memorial to Sun Yat Sen, one of the founders of the Republic of China.
On Monday, I went back to the coffee shop with Karen and Carly trying more local foods for lunch and dinner and stopping to talk to many university students. We got out and handed out business cards for Mr. Mai’s at one of the nearby universities, advertising the location for those who did not know and having more opportunities to speak to students. It was so interesting to get to see life move and bustle in a city which is very similar and yet very different in its own way from Xi’an.
On Tuesday, I got up early and packed and took a cab to the airport to fly back to Xi’an. Once there, I got to the hotel and was introduced to about 15 or 16 new volunteers who had all arrived over the weekend from a host of different countries and also from all over China. After dinner, we all took the bus to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, all lit up at night, to see the famous fountain and lights show that occurs on the pavilion in front of the pagoda every night. Afterwards, some of us went to a local “noodle bar” famous for its noodles and talked and got further acquainted, preparing for the next week of work ahead.
Wuchang, close to Mr. Mai's Coffee Shop.
High-rise apartments in Hankou
Hankou, Wuhan.
Older apartments in Wuhan. Apartments this style are everywhere in China, with clothes hanging out to dry, hung from windows and air conditioning units.
Huazhong Normal University, where we passed out business cards to advertise for Mr. Mai's.
Inside of the coffee shop.
Karen, Carly and I at Mr. Mai's.
The tiny plane I flew in to Wuhan with Joy Air. The people and the truck next to it help show the size. I bumped my head walking in the first time.
Back in Xi'an, the fountain and lights show at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.
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