The night was okay. And daylight revealed a green hilly and mountainous landscape. You can see rivers that look pretty pristine and very small cornfields, sometimes perhaps less than 10 x 10 meters. (Sadly, corn is grown primarily to feed pigs, which means 80–90 square meters are wasted compared to eating the corn directly.)
Yesterday, I wanted to give the family something as a small gift, but no one dared to touch it or even eat it. And today, I saw it in the trash along with other opened food.
Along with the fruit, they had eaten a lot of triple-wrapped, food-like chemicals.
A four-year-old girl visited Lin. Lin, a brilliant dancer, performed one piece after another, and the other girl copied the moves. It was funny and they had a great time.
But then Lin’s mother was on the phone, and after that call, the situation changed. They argued about Lin’s stuffed monster, both of them crying violently, and even after the girl was gone, Lin didn’t calm down. When she saw her later in the hallway, her bitter face showed that she was far from finished with her.
But just before arrival, the mother came with the girl and said something, and the girl repeated it. Lin then gave her a small plastic dinosaur, and they hugged each other twice before saying goodbye. And we all did that and left the train in different directions.
My direction was Metro 4, but only on the surface. Along the way, I had time to consider whether I was brave when walking or whether it would be braver to take on the challenges of public transportation. I also wanted to use my “washing machine”, and the humidity suggested I should arrive early. According to the app, walking would have taken me 4 hours and 30 minutes, so I opted for Metro 7, which cut two-thirds of the route and the time between Chengdu West and South Station.
Using only one metro at least saves me from having to change lines and buy a ticket for both lines. A good compromise between different levels of bravery and good time management.
The ticket purchase was available in English and admittedly made sense. I used the taxi change as an excuse to pay in cash, but who knows—maybe I could have even managed Alipay?!
Along the way, I improved my Chinese reading skills from 2015, when I had used the metro much more excessively, including transfers (!). Back then, I learned the character for “gate.” = 门 This time it was “avenue,” which actually requires two characters—”big” and “street.” = 大街 The most important criterion for me to judge a hotel as high-end is a bedside lamp. I often had to walk to the door, turn off the light, and cross the dark room to get to bed. Okay, these days you always have that flashlight with a phone function, it’s easy to find your bed. But you can’t read a book there. Anyway, it was a high-end hotel.
I chose a place for eating, or rather, the owner chose me by saying a few English words in my direction – enough advertisment.
He had about 25 different dishes, and I smelled that most of them would be too spicy, but he showed me mild versions that were also herbal. And then he showed me an interesting, translated message on his phone: “Don’t waste it.” I don’t know if this was just a corrupted translation or he indeed was worried.
So I only put as much on my plate as I could eat.
Then I saw customers take at least double the portion, and others get a second portion, but everyone ended up leaving a ton of food on their plates. I’m sure the translation should have been, “Take as much as you want, we’re glad this crap is gone.”
Exactly one – this one – non-Chinese book in the hotel’s book collection. I hope “someone” likes that!