Everybody went to visit the family burial plot. Last time we were here, we went along, but this time we were excused, so we woke up slowly, had breakfast at the hotel, and went back to our room to watch Chinese TV. There’s a lot of propaganda, not just on TV, but also on signage everywhere, and this is even more pronounced this year, as China is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Chinese revolution. We watched a little bit of sports – China is hosting the Military World Games, which is like the Olympic games, but for militaries. We also watched some weird drama show about a student who is obsessed with her art teacher. It had English subtitles.
Then we walked over to Nainai’s house, and everybody came back from the burial plot too.
Finally, we got to open all the packages that Julia’s mom sent. First, we lay them all on the big bed, as if we were some special police force that just raided a big drug operation.
Then we opened everything.
There was a lot of camping gear: two tents, pots and pans, a backpack, a jacket, fishing gear, two portable stoves, and probably some more crap that I don’t remember. Also, there were a lot of snacks and candy.
We had lunch, and then Tize took us to the market. We told Tize that we wanted to buy Sanda a bottle of Baijiu, as a token of gratitude and because I’ve been drinking everything that he had. Tize tried to convince us not to, for various reasons: we can’t tell if a store is selling real or fake stuff, we don’t know what Sanda likes, and we shouldn’t feel grateful because Sanda is family and that’s just what family does – they let you drink their Baijiu. But then we walked by a small supermarket, and I said that their stuff must be real, I’m sure Sanda will drink whatever we bring him, and we can just say that we brought it for dinner. Tize agreed, and we walked in. We walked around in the supermarket, just to see if there’s anything else that is interesting or that we’d like, and three employees followed us everywhere we went. I suggested that we split, to see if we can shake off our tail. It didn’t really work.
- “Why are they following us?” I asked Tize.
- “To see if you need help.”
- “OK, let’s say I do need help, can they actually help me?”
Tize and Julia agreed that I had a good point.
We bought hot pepper that they ground for us on the spot.
Then we walked to the town square. I’m still very confused about Xingxian as an entity. Tize says that Xingxian’s population is 200,000. That’s a quarter of San Francisco. Yet it feels way smaller. If you look at maps, it says that we’re actually in Weifenzheng, which is a part Xingxian. From what it looks like, Xingxian is a bunch of villages that fused into Xingxian. Anyway, when I say we went to the town’s square, I’m not sure that it’s the central square of all Xingxian. Just to be clear.
Anyway, at the square you find old and unemployed people playing cards and Chinese chess, as they don’t have anything else to do. That changes when I showed up. Like an army of zombies, a whole bunch of expressionless Xingxian-ers slowly gathered around us. I tried my new awkward wave a couple of times, and when a couple of women took my picture, I retaliated by taking theirs. This whole event wasn’t really fun. Tize went to Nainai’s and we continued to explore.
We hit the river and found that there’s a really nice boardwalk along it. We walked on the boardwalk for a while, then went back to the main road, moving quickly around the square, and then to the market street that leads to Nainai’s house. This was the opportunity that I was waiting for: on the street that leads from the market to Nainai’s house, there’s a store that sells fried dough. I’ve noticed that they had a thing that has chicken in it, and I’ve be scheming to get it ever since we got here. We got two, and it was everything I hoped for: Imagine a pita (say “pita bread” and I will never speak to you again) that’s made of fried dough. Like a thinner type of Berliner. In it, there’s a red-pink slice of cooked chicken breast, and big leaf of lettuce. Then there’s a little bit of unidentified white sauce. It was fantastic. I consider the most Israeli food to be chicken schnitzel in a pita, and it’s one of my favorite things to eat. This was similar in concept, but with every ingredient being slightly different, so it tasted familiar and new at the same time.
Then we went back to the house, and at this point, most people have already left. I had a long conversation with Tize about Chinese language and history. He’s a very knowledgeable person, and he’s very kind. He’s a lot of fun to talk to, and I like him a lot.
We had dinner, and Sanda and I drank a lot. When I’m around here, every time I think that I’m done eating, somebody shows up and puts a bowl of soup in front of me. Today I learned why: In China, consumption of cold and hot liquids at the same time is thought to be unhealthy, so only when you’re done with your alcohol, you can have your soup. We said our goodbyes, and Nainai cried a little, which was heartbreaking. We went back to the hotel and packed. Tomorrow we leave for Beijing.
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