Ni hao! Zui jin zhe
me yeng?
I stepped off the
38-hour train ride and was greeted by a blast of frigid air. Eleven months of
summer can certainly render a body helpless against cold! For once, I was
thankful for both of my backpacks, which did an excellent job of keeping in
body heat.
It had been a long,
rather arduous journey but it was nearly finished. The trek had begun in
Penang, Malaysia when we had taken a four hour bus ride south to Kuala Lumpur
where we spent the night. The following morning, we rendezvoused with the rest
of the squad at the airport and spent the second night in a place where all
World Racers can be content – an airport with clean toilets furnished with
toilet paper, plenty of food, comfy benches, and free wifi. The following
morning, we packed up, formed up, and marched off to our five hour flight to
Hong Kong. From there, it was another few hours on a bus until we reached
Guangzhou. Ahh, the beginnings of colder temperatures… I did plenty of
shivering in my non-winter approved clothing.
That night in
Guangzhou was the first of many enjoyable experiences in the incredible country
of China. I went exploring with two other girls on the squad and had a glorious
time of it! Our finest discovery consisted of a square that was lit by walls of
thousands of brightly lit paper lanterns that morphed through the colors of the
rainbow. Hidden loudspeakers blasted popular Chinese music. In the center of
the open square, dozens of fountains kept time, beautifully interweaving water
and notes in the frosty air. I stood awestruck for a few moments, just letting
my senses absorb the magnificence before scampering about excitedly about
snapping pictures.
In the morning, I
bought new clothes to help keep me warm in the anticipated cold of the city of
ice – Harbin. Donating over half of my clothes to a Christian thriftstore in
Malaysia had provided the needed space in my backpack. Then, it was off to the
train station! Nearly a mile walk later, I was trying and failing miserably to
maintain a positive outlook and muttered darkly under my breath about how much
better it would have been to just take a bus from the hotel where we stayed to
the rail station as opposed to hiking with our packs. “Remember! You are
healthy. You can walk. You are strong enough to carry this pack. At least
you’re getting exercise before you get onto the train for hours.� I sighed
inwardly and bolstered my spirits for the trek through the subway system. By
the time we reached our stop, we were nearly jogging to reach our train. The
line to board was long. Then came the task of finding room for all our numerous
possessions. Really, when traveling with all these backpacks, one should just
buy a second seat for each person because all the backpacks double the amount
of body space needed. This was complicated by the fact that there was not one
team but TWO headed to the same ministry contact in Harbin. Which meant instead
of six people we had thirteen but really, we had twenty-six because of all the
backpacks. Oh, joy. But, we eventually managed to get all situated.
The train ride…
Well, the first half was better than I expected. PMS and sleep deprivation hit
for the second half. The 38 hours dragged by and passed faster than I thought
they would. Yes, you read that right. Just think about it for a bit and put
yourself in the situation and it’ll make sense. Good? Good. So there I found
myself, moving through the mass of bodies towards the exit. We quickly reached
our contact and boarded a bus that was only (thank the Lord!) a block away, and
headed off to our site. There, we were greeted with warmth (both physical and
emotional), western toilets, and an enormous spread of delicious food – scrambled eggs,
Chinese fried dough, bao tze (pork buns), strawberries, bananas, oranges, plus
juice and coffee. I was in heaven!
As long as I got to see the famous ice
sculptures before I left the city, the cold would be endurable. Thank You, God,
that I did 🙂 Which all of you will read about later.
