Changchun(China) Saga

Summer 2006 (by Chrissy, our daughter, a middle school teacher in California)

Changchun – Wikipedia

There were 8 of us traveling together for this trip. We checked our luggage at Seoul’s Incheon Airport and soon hopped on a plane to Changchun, our first stop on the way to Yanji. Our flight left at 8:30 AM and was an hour and a half long. China is all one time zone, so even though we are going east, the time actually goes back.

We noticed that the flight path of the plane was not actually a direct route, but rather a C like route. Soon my father figured out that we could not fly a direct route because that would put us over North Korea.

Onboard the plane we were treated to a beef and rice meal with a little toothpaste-like tube of red pepper paste. Dad and YK gave me theirs so I could bring it back to the states.

We had three forms to fill out on the plane and had to go through three check points to enter China. After one of the checkpoints, a Chinese security guard came up to me to asked where I was from. I told her and my dad joined in the conversation and asked her where there was a good place to eat. We soon figured out that that woman could be the best English speaker in all of Changchun.

After getting our bags and going through customs we had a dilemma. Our next flight was at 8:30 PM and it was currently 9:30 AM. So, we had a lot of time to kill. The dilemma was our luggage. We had two options. Option #1 was to put the bags in a locker facility, but the problem with this choice was it closed at 6PM. Our other option was check in for the next flight and officially check in our luggage. The problem with this option was that we could not do so until 11:30. We decided to do the latter. We found an area to sit and I said I would stay with the luggage. As soon as I said so, all 7 people went different directions and I was there watching over 10 bags. Time flew as I read my book. Soon it was 11:30 and we checked our bags and we were off to spend a day in Changchun, China.

The airport was far from the city so we had two options to get the 8 of us into the city: cab or bus. We were told that a cab would cost about 100 Yuan each and we would need two. The bus was 20 Yuan a person, so for a little more, the cab was a better deal. We went over to the cab line, and we were told they wanted 150 Yuan. Not wanting to get ripped off on our first purchase in China, we walked back to the bus and hopped on.

The bus drove and finally we reached our first stop. We didn’t know if this was the stop or not, but the cab drivers there insisted that it was. They tricked us. After being coaxed off the bus by the cab drivers, we set off on a long walk to a restaurant that YK had found in a Frommer’s guide. This was my first experience as a pedestrian in China and let me tell you it was not an easy one.

Sidewalk walking was fine but anytime we had to cross the street, we were faced with a difficult task. To put it mildly, the pedestrian does not have the right of way. Even if the little green man is on or when his limbs start moving very quickly back and forth (indicating it is time to speed up) cars, motorcycles, and bicycles will still continue to plow through the intersection. In fact, most traffic laws do not seem to be important. Cars drive on either side of the street and frequently in two lanes. One thing that is cool is that most major intersections have a counter to let you know how much more green or red time is left for you. However, there are people everywhere and every car on the road is constantly honking its horn. We are in Yanji now, and my dad calls the horn honking the Yanji Symphony. The drivers do not seem to honk when I normally honk, namely to avoid accidents. They honk to indicate passing and other things that this native English speaker cannot understand. One thing that I do understand that as a pedestrian, it is best to be on the defensive and run like your ass is on fire for fear of becoming road kill.
After determining which way was north by consulting my dad’s watch, we followed the paper print out map to the restaurant. Inside, our party of 8 put two tables together and the menu in front of Euikyoo. It was a dumpling place and knowing this, Euikyoo ordered a feast. First, a tofu dish came out, and then another of the same dish came out, then two mushroom dishes and a sprout dish. Then, the main dishes came out.

Euikyoo ordered three types of dumplings prepared three different ways: fried, steamed, and boiled. We had lamb, beef, and veggie dumplings and they were all delicious, and I should know, because of course, I had to try them all.
Not only did we have all this food, 7 of us wanted cold beer and Euikyoo ordered 7 bottles. The 7 bottles ended up not being normal sized bottles, but the big
kind and the idea of the bottles being cold was difficult to translate because only 4 came cold. The other three were sent back and were replaced with 3 bottles of another brand.
The napkins for this meal were given to us in little folder type bags which I have since saved (as well as snagged an extra) and refilled because my travel book commented on how the Chinese do not seem to find toilet paper as important as Americans do. I made a
wise choice because even the bathroom in the restaurant did not have toilet paper. In fact, most places that we went all day did not have it as well.

Just because this tends to be a toilet diary as well, both the restaurant toilet and the one at the airport were porcelain, flushing holes in the ground with built in places for foot placement to aid in the squatting. It was at this time that I feared that I would have to squat for two weeks worth of bathroom usage, but I finally found a standard American toilet when we went back to the airport.

Our meal, which consisted of 9 dumpling dishes, 5 extra dishes, 7 huge bottles of beer and a Pepsi, came to about 176 Yuan. At 8 Yuan to 1 US dollar, our delicious feast cost $22.

When lunch ended, we took 2 cabs to a shopping area. Cab fare starts at 5 Yuan and increases very slowly. I don’t think I have ever been in a cab where the fare started under a dollar before. We went to a shopping street and began window shopping until we reached a gelato store. We had to stop of course, because we can’t go a day without some sort of iced treat.

This was where we met our first major communication gap of the trip. Everyone in the store knew Chinese and although we were masters of English and Korean, it did
us little good ordering gelato. Our goal, which we eventually achieved, was to order 8 different types of gelato and pass them around and around the table to get a sample of each flavor. Using the menu did not work to accomplish this task, so eventually dad stood up and read the gelatos that had English tags on them, but ended up pointing at 8 flavors saying the word for one that he learned in Chinese 101 at SMC. We ended up
with mango, pistachio, chocolate, tiramisu, coffee, orange, coconut and something called mint. When this one did not taste at all minty, we did some further investigations and looked at the gelato and its accompanying tag. The ice cream called itself mint but had a picture of a kiwi underneath it.  Turns out it was kiwi flavored after all.

Shopping continued after this quick break, but as Jasmine, Kathy, and Hyun bought new pairs of shoes each, the other 5 of us took another break for tea and coffee before joined by the shoe shoppers. We continued walking and ran into a very cool flea market style food market before reaching a park where we sat and rested. I was told that the park restroom was too traditional and the most unpleasant of the trip. I took their word for it. That was one toilet that I did not feel the urge to investigate.

Quick fashion note. The summer weather in China is hot, sometimes as hot as Seoul, but without the humidity.Men tend to pull their shirts up halfway or walk around shirtless. Some even eat in restaurants shirtless. Women still continue to wear high heels around, although they don’t seem to be as high here in China. Lastly, babies have interesting attire. I noticed a lot of babies in very long shirts and then after seeing one baby I figured out why. This particular baby was wearing a regular shirt and a pair of pants, but the pants were completely crotchless.  They were almost like chaps. It was then that I
realized that these babies do not have diapers, but wear the shirts or the crotchless pants so their clothes aren’t ruined when they have to go. After that, I saw a few more bare butts, and it brought up a couple of questions in my mind. Why have these kids wear pants at all if they are completely exposed regardless? Also, I wondered what happened if these babies are being held when nature calls.

The taxi to the airport actually cost about 75 Yuan.