Cultural Revolution II

(Andrew)

The morning started with a highly anticipated breakfast. For days all of us have been craving a western breakfast. Although all of the Eastern breakfasts we have had have all been excellent, nothing beats fruit and/or yogurt. So, as Mr. Hoover, and team GOAT entered the dining room, we all headed towards the yogurt and fruit. And it was delicious. The yogurt tasted just like Dannon yogurt, and it hit the spot nicely.

After our satisfying breakfast, Mr. Hoover led us to Wal-Mart.
In America, Wal-Mart can sometimes be considered a cheap store where poorly made products are sold at discount prices. Although it may be a pragmatic store at times, I don’t think anyone really looks forward to going there. In China this is different. The Wal-Mart that we went to in Kunming is a four story, luxurious beast that contains anything you could have imagined. In some regards, it was an upscale BJ’s or Costco’s. In fact, I decided to purchase some high quality chapstick and sandals there. It is amazing how westernized China’s cities are, compared to rural villages like Shaxi.

After Wal-Mart Mr. Hoover led us to a fairly large, outdoor market called the Flower and Bird Market. The name is deceiving though. Instead of seeing lovely flowers and birds, we witnessed a display of captive animals, or in Chingrish (Chinese English) “coptive animols.” Tropical birds, guinea pigs, and rabbits were squeezed into tiny cages on this seemingly never ending market road. The souvenir shops that were spread throughout the market were very nice, but the sight of the coptive animols was too much to bear, so we left within a couple of minutes. While we were leaving, I caught a glimpse of one tiny flower shop squeezed in between two large coptive animol shops, so I guess it was a Flower and Bird market after all.

With animols fresh on our minds, we walked to the center of Kunming for lunch. The center of Kunming is beautiful. It is clean, modern, and sleek. The buildings are not very tall; however, they contain brand names such as Dior, Starbucks, and KFC. By the way KFC is a very expensive, restaurant for the Chinese. While a typical meal for five at a Chinese restaurant costs around 30 Yuan, or $5, a number four spicy chicken sandwich combo with a coke is 30 Yuan at KFC. Mr. Hoover recommended this seemingly awesome noodle shop, but with a tight schedule, we decided to just settle for Dico’s, a Chinese version of KFC. It was delicious nevertheless.

Back at the hotel after our meal, we said our goodbyes to Mr. Hoover, and couldn’t thank him enough for all of the help he and Pei Wei had provided us on this leg of our journey (If Mr. Hoover or Pei Wei are reading this thanks again for all of your support and hospitality). We then took a shuttle to the airport to catch a 3pm flight to Xi’an . . . except, that flight never came.

Surviving the navigation through Kunming airport, we managed to get on the plane, and wait in it for an hour. At around 4pm every one was ushered off the plane, and we discovered that a mechanical failure was preventing the plane from taking off. In addition, we found out that there were no other flights to Xi’an that day. So, we waited it out.

After a couple of hours we boarded another plane at 7pm. However, there was another thing wrong with that plane. At around 8pm, some passengers got restless. At first, one passenger stood up, seemingly scolded (when I say seemingly I mean I can’t understand Chinese, but the words sounded threatening) her seatmate for having child that wouldn’t stop talking, and stormed off the plane. In a similar fashion, a large man, who reminded me of Chairman Mao, began to yell at the air stewardesses for trying to settle us with cheap in-flight meals, and convinced a large group of others (including my seatmate) to make a Long March off the plane. It was a quite spectacular and inspirational scene. However, after a couple of minutes, Chairman Mao and his comrades shamefully trudged back onto the plane, as they realized what a mistake they had made, wasting a plane ticket and their time. There was so much chaos, I swear I saw one air stewardess just completely lose it and cry.

A couple of minutes after the Long March fiasco an airport security agent came around giving everyone 200 Yuan, quelling this mini revolution. During this time, team GOAT managed to keep its cool by busying itself with movies, reading and Fairy Tale Mad Libs. At 9 pm we finally took off for Xi’an, and when we arrived at around 11pm, Richard, our tour guide, was there waiting for us. Seeing such a welcoming face, was a nice way to end the day and begin our five day excursion in Xi’an.