Month: August 2010

My Books > The Great China Quest > Challenge 11: ACCOMPLISHED!

Map updated!

Challenge 11: Visit a nursing home.

“Where to?” the taxi driver asked us.

“Are there any nursing homes in Yíchāng?” we asked him.

“Lots.”

“Great. Take us to any one of them.”

We were turned away from two government-operated nursing homes with our gift box of fruit still in hand before the taxi driver found us a small, private “tuō lǎo yuàn” (support old center) that welcomed us with big smiles.

We were moved when we heard the story of how Mr. Liú and his wife opened “Long Life” nursing home ten years ago and have selflessly taken care of the elderly residents who have come to stay with them ever since. When we asked if they ever have time off, they said, “How could we take time off? Who would take care of our residents?” Just to clarify that they hadn’t had a single day off in the past ten years, we asked when their last vacation was. They looked at each other for a few moments and replied, “Well, we used to have two days off on weekends at our previous job.”

The owners and residents couldn’t have been more welcoming. We chatted with a 40-year-old woman visiting her 53-year-old brother and heard the story of how he came to stay at “Long Life.” We also chatted with a 91-year-old woman, who insisted we just call her “Grandmother,” about some of the changes she’s seen in China since her birth in 1919.

This is yet another chapter of the book we can’t wait to write and another experience we’ve filed in the already teeming folder labeled: “Challenges that far exceeded our expectations.”

Photos (click on them to see the full image)

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Video

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[youku id=”XMTk5MjY0ODc2″]

My Books > The Great China Quest > Challenge 10: FAILED!

Map updated!

Challenge 10: Win three games of Mahjong in a row.

“My father has lost a lot of money because of it. More than 1000 yuan RMB (100 pounds or 150 dollars) a night is common.”

“My brother’s wife was addicted to it and it caused the end of their marriage.”

Question:

The above stories were told to us by people we’ve met on our trip. What was the cause of their problems?

(a) drugs
(b) alcohol
(c) Mahjong

Answer:

Well, as you may have guessed from the title of our challenge, it’s Mahjong. While these are of course extreme cases, there is no denying that the popular Chinese game is a national obsession, especially with older women. We took a 3-day cruise through the Yangtze River’s three gorges with the aim of finding out why.

We spent the evening of the first day learning how to play from our cabin-mates – 3 medical students from China’s top university in Beijing. We then took what we’d learnt out onto the streets at one of the small towns we stopped at along the river and challenged some old ladies. They continued our education with a ruthless lesson in how to lose every game.

By the time the final night came, we were as ready as we’d ever be to enter the ship’s on-board gambling room and take on some serious players. We agreed the stake (very low!) and amid a smokey atmosphere, which was so bad we resorted to wearing face masks, we played the Chinese at their own game.

And actually we made a dream start, somehow winning both of the warm up games! We were on a roll, our luck was in and surely nothing could stop us. But once we started playing for money everything changed. Out of the 22 games we played, we won only once!

We eventually left the room still wondering just why so many people are obsessed with Mahjong and having predictably failed the second challenge of the trip!

Photos (click on them to see the full image)

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Videos

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My Books > The Great China Quest > Challenge 9: ACCOMPLISHED!

Map updated!

Challenge 9: Street perform and raise 100 yuan (RMB) for charity.

The tragedy of the recent landslides in China’s Gansu Province has been in everyone’s thoughts here over the past few days. Over 1000 people lost their lives and many more are still missing. With hundreds of thousands of people now homeless, the area needs all the help and support it can get so we couldn’t think of a better charity for our street performing challenge.

We accumulated equipment from very kind local shop keepers – when we explained what were doing, they all offered to buy back the items after we’d finished – and sought out the best locations. Armed with a guitar and a pink plastic bucket as a drum, we started singing. Soon, two newspaper reporters had been called to interview us and take photos.

We performed for 2 hours in the morning in the centre of town, drawing a small but steady crowd with a mixture of Chinese and English songs. When Albert gave his fingers a break from the guitar, Adrian continued the show with a 5 minute juggling act. A good amount of money was raised from the morning, although none was donated during the duration of the juggling.

Our 4 hour evening show in the busy town square was an even bigger success. One of the newspaper reporters, Miss Deng, turned up to help promote us, and other new friends, such as the staff from the guitar shop, also came by to offer support. The performance ended at 10pm with a local guy asking to perform “Hotel California” to a good sized crowd who had stayed on late in the park to sing along.

The extent of the successful day was not made apparent until the following morning when we went with Miss Deng to donate the money to the Red Cross. In total the people of Gaung’An had donated a staggering 1,349.6 Yuan (that’s about an average month’s salary here). This figure not only far exceeded our target but will make a real difference to the lives of some of the landslide victims.

And just to complete the story, page 5 of Monday’s Guang’An newspaper contained a 1,400 word article titled, “Two Foreigners Perform to Raise Money for Zhouqu, Gansu”. (Click here to see the article.)

Photos (click on them to see the full image)

(To see captions for each picture, please visit the website)

Videos

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