A driver met me at the front desk at 6:30 where I checked my
bags for the day. The drive was about an hour, and once again, the further we
got from Xi’an the smoggier it got. I didn’t even realize we were driving along
the foothills until the car started to climb. Once again, we had to stop for
gas, and again, all passengers had to get out of the car while it fueled up.
When we got to the sanctuary, the driver walked me to the
entrance and then said in broken English that he’d meet me at the car when I
was done.
For being an animal sanctuary, it looked a lot like a zoo. I
walked around “Panda Garden” for a while but didn’t see anything. I passed a
Chinese tour guide who said that he’d seen two pandas. I did eventually find
one. For being a bit white bear, it really blended into the shadows pretty
well. It woke up briefly, ate a branch, and then went back to sleep. I took a
few more laps, but for the longest time, it was the only one I saw.
I did run into an American family. The elderly lady was very
thrilled to introduce me to her grandsons TJ, Alden, and Marshall. TJ taught
English in Beijing while Alden and Marshall were in their fourth year of
studying engineering in the states. They were all well traveled, and Grandma
had taken them each on a big trip at some point.
They turned out to be my ticket to more Panda action. Their
guide (who at first I thought was a volunteer at the sanctuary) used bamboo
rods to lure a Panda out of the back. He came right up to the fence and took
the bamboo from TJ. Making little squeaking noises as he ate, he ripped the
leaves from the bamboo, wrapped them up, and chewed them in a little roll.
“His name is Ono,” the guide explained. Ono clearly knew his
name and would look at you when called. For about 30 minutes, we stood around
talking to him and feeding him—which I’m sure the sanctuary would be thrilled
about if they’d found out. When he stood to reach up and take a branch, he was
easily six or seven feet tall. His face was so sweet, and the squeaking noises
he made while eating were just hilarious.
At one point, a large beetle walked by Ono. He picked it up
and ate in one bite.
Eventually, we heard one of the sanctuary volunteers calling
him and he got up and went back inside the building. I followed the American
family and their guide as he showed us some of the other animals in the
sanctuary including tuxin (which looked like yellow yaks), Asian black bears
with their golden brown manes, leopards, a little creature that looked like a
deer the size of a dachshund, golden emperor monkeys (including a baby), red
pandas, and a phoenix (which we learned is what the Chinese call peacocks.)
Again, if it was an animal sanctuary it had to be one of the
most unethical animal sanctuaries. There were stories throughout the park about
how many of the animals had been found on the verge of death and nursed back to
health here. The pandas appears to be pretty well cared for, but the other
animals all looked pretty malnourished and were kept in concrete pins around
the “sanctuary.” There are definitely zoos that have better animal treatment
practices than this place.
As we walked we talked about the adventures of travel. We
came to the conclusion that part of the fun of traveling is that you stop
caring about so many things like privacy or physical appearance. Alden and
Marshall haven’t shaved in the time they’ve been backpacking around, and they
shared embarrassing stories about using squat toilets in public places that
turned out to be more adventure than they bargained for. I told them about my
adventures on public transport to and from Huangshan, as well as getting thrown
out of the restaurant in Hong Kong. We actually swapped the stories the entire
time we were walking and it only reconfirmed for me how much fun travelling is.
When we reached the exit, we exchanged WeChat information
and said we’d add each other once we get to reliable internet. As we shook
hands Marshall said, “Way to survive with style these past weeks.”
As I rode back to Xi’an, I thought a lot about that phrase.
“Survive with style.” I thought about what I’ve done this summer. I boarded a
plane and flew to a communist country that American tourists have really only
gained access to in the past 20 years. I lived in the most populated city for 7
weeks. I worked in a position unlike any I’ve had before and learned and
incredibly useful marketing skillset I plan to pursue when I get back to the
states. I learned nearly flawless mandarin pronunciation. I gave a tour of
Shanghai to my ex-pat friends. I navigated a train to Suzhou where I bought a
suit in the silk capital of the world. I climbed Huangshan by myself to see the
legendary sunrise on the mountain of mists. I went clubbing in a remote town
with Chinese people that treated me like a celebrity. I went to Japan and
studied Buddhism for a week. I walked across the world’s highest observation
deck. I got stranded in Hong Kong. I got lost in Macau. I biked around Beijing.
I took a motorcycle sidecar to the Great Wall of China. I’ve dove into the
culture of three incredible dynasties in Xi’an. I’ve made some incredible
friends. I’ve eaten both amazing food and terrifying food (I’ve been going back
in my head and I think I broke down and ate western food for just six meals the
past ten weeks.) I’ve navigated public transportation without a word of
Chinese. I’ve survived 110* heat and battled a rattling cough from the
pollution. I’ve prayed in temples, shrines, pagodas, and mosques. I’ve come to
understand an amazing culture unlike anything I’ve experienced before. I’ve
discovered China…and I survived with style.
Not to brag, but it is all pretty awesome when I think about
it. As I think about graduating college next year (in just 286 days!) I also
think back to my High School graduation party. I remember talking with my
cousins about what I was going to do in college. If you told me I was going to
do any of this—Europe or China—I would have thought you were on drugs. This is
not at all the life I thought I’d be living, but it is exhilarating.
Before Arafat left the other day he made the comment to me,
“When you get back to America you will miss this place.”
I laughed when he said it and replied, “Oh I hope not! I
already miss Europe, I can’t miss Asia too.”
But I know he’s right. I think the thing about extended
travel like this is that you develop a new life. The homesickness we feel when
we travel is a longing for the familiarity of our life back home. When we get
home, we have a longing for the familiarity of the life we created abroad. Just
as I miss things about living in America, I also miss things about living in
Prague. I’m sure when I get home, I’ll miss things about living in China too.
The trick is how to be both “American lifestyle Zach” and “European lifestyle
Zach” and now “Chinese lifestyle Zach.”
When I think about my time in Europe, I feel like I
conquered a lot of fear while I was abroad. Here, I don’t feel like I conquered
fear so much as I had to really confront some of my personal beliefs and
thoughts about life and the world. History and religion are so “unimportant” in
China (I put that in quotes because it is not non-existent, but compared to the
US or Europe, both are much more downplayed here) but at the same time
relationships and reputations are so much more important here.
There are also so many similarities between the American
psyche and the Chinese psyche that it is funny to see how similar thought
processed play out differently. For example, the average American (not every
American of course, but a percentage of the population) seems to be under the
impression that America is the greatest place to live and they assume other
people want to live in America. In China, so many Chinese people are under the
impression that when you visit China, it is your intent to move to China,
because that is what most of the world wants to do. The nationalism and
poltical ideology between US and China are not that different really. The
execution definitely is, but the motivations are very similar.
Over the next 4 days I have left in China, I hope to do some
sorting and figure out what it all means. I do feel like I’ve been away from
the US for a long time. Even though it is about 6 weeks shorter than the time I
spent in Europe, I feel like it has been even more life changing than Europe.
Ireally have some concrete ideas about what I want to do next (and as a teaser,
one idea involves 12 days at Machu Pichu…maybe there will be more on this
later) which really is a very satisfying feeling going into my senior year.
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