Tazia Statucki, Westerner, Baby Holder
Today was our last USAC-organized field trip during the first summer session and I think the staff at USAC saved the best field trip for last. About an hour outside of Chengdu is Huang Long Xi, a small town characterized by narrow cobble stone streets lined with small shops, tourist activities, and tons of ancient architecture similar to the Ming/Qing dynasty style.
When we first arrived, the girls all purchased garlands of real flowers to wear on our heads; we all felt pretty and took a ton of pictures together wearing our flower headbands. We started to walk around the main street, stopping occasionally to take tourist pictures and shop at the stores. At one store, we encountered a giant spider on top of a stack of fans; the store assistant proceeded to toss the spider on the floor and stomp on it like it was something that happened all the time.
We soon noticed that bees liked the flowers on our hairpieces. After watching several girls having to throw off their flower headbands and dodging angry bees, I had to get rid of mine after I noticed at least three bees buzzing around my head.
One of the items on my "China Bucket List" is to get a fish pedicure thing; basically, you put your feet in a bucket of water and the fish eat all the dead skin off your feet. There were a few places that offered this service but I wanted to spend more of my time exploring the town. I also wanted to eat a scorpion and had mentally prepared myself to eat one in Huang Long Xi... that was until I walked up to the counter to buy one and noticed the massive size of the scorpions. I was expecting a small baby scorpion I could eat in one or two bites; I was horribly mistaken. The scorpions they were selling were massive and each front claw/pointer/sting thing would be a bite. A few of my fellow USAC-ers tried the scorpions and said the area below the torso and the stinger tasted like they were ingesting poison; they were very brave souls and I applaud them for being braver than I was. The only cool thing I ate today was a crab-shaped sugar sculpture made by a very creative man.
The group lunch was pretty good (significantly better than the Xichang lunch), though I have started to limit myself to just rice and vegetables/meats that I know are safe to eat. The highlight of the meal was when the waitress brought out a large bottle of cold Sprite soda for the table. After eating and taking a quick bathroom break in a semi-decent stall, we headed out to shop!
I visited many different small stores, but the one that stuck out to me was a shop that was clearly pro-revolution, pro-Mao, and pro-smoking. It was at this store that I purchased a money wallet that reads "Study Hard, Earn Money" and features an image of two Chinese children studying. Another shop that I really wanted to buy something from was run by a man who would engrave/carve a personal seal into a chop (part you hold in the stamp). I quickly tried to come up with a Chinese name on the spot but ultimately decided that choosing a name takes time and that I'd get a chop in Xi'an when I actually have a good Chinese name to use.
We eventually met up with a few of the other girls and stood around talking. After we laughed about the group of gentlemen who wanted a picture with one of the girls in our group, a nice young lady grabbed my arm and spoke to me in English: "My friend really likes you. Can she get a picture with you?" I really appreciate it when people ask, because most Chinese people just snap a picture of us as we walk by, as we are eating, as we are chatting with the group, etc. Of course, I said yes and our USAC group proceeded to take pictures with both of the girls. Other Chinese people saw what was happening and thought they would join in on taking pictures of us. One woman had her young son (less than 5 years old), who was distracted by his ice cream cone, stand in front of all of us to take a picture. The paparazzi was too much to handle so we started walking around town.
The highlight of my day was when we saw this REALLY CUTE baby, said "hen ke'ai" (very cute), and the mother proceeded to show us the baby boy. After a few seconds, she looked at me and started to move her child as though she wanted me to take him. "ME?" I asked the mother; I had always dreamed of being offered a baby to hold in China. She nodded and handed me her child. She snapped a few pictures of just the two of us and then invited the rest of the USAC group to join in for a group picture of the Westerners and her baby. The hardest moment, though, was when I had to give the baby back; seriously, he was the cutest baby I have seen in China so far.
A little later, two of the girls in our group decided to play dress up and I decided to play photographer. In Huang Long Xi, many vendors offer a 10 kuai for 3 pictures deal and let you put on pretty dresses and traditional clothes. The girls put on traditional Chinese garments, had their hair done all fancy, and went out with the vendor's photographer for their photo shoot; I followed along with someone's camera and took a ton of photos. The professional photographer and I weren't the only ones taking pictures; masses of Chinese people surrounded us for pictures as the photo shoot continued. Between locations, people would approach us and ask for pictures with the Westerners.
The photo shoots ended, they got their pictures printed, and we headed back to the bus. Of course, we got lost and had to use some of my international minutes to figure out where we were supposed to go. We eventually made it back to the group, boarded the air-conditioned bus, and headed back to Chengdu. Huang Long Xi was my favorite USAC field trip so far and I can't wait to see what the rest of the small towns around China have to offer!
