travel story no 2

So Beijing,
train ride up… my first time on an overnight sleeper train.
I share a room with 6 others, sleeping on single hard bunk type beds that are three beds high on either side.
At first I walk in and I’m surrounded by guys all about my age. In most other countries that has the potential to be slightly awkward, but in china, as a foreign female you don’t feel that at all, so that was refreshing. I can’t deny that at first I was like ‘uh-oh, this is going to be weird’ but after a little bit of chit chat we were laughing and talking away through broken English and the odd Chinese word from Chantelle!!
It never ceases to amaze me how you can go from being perfect strangers with people to having the most in-depth, profound and engaging conversation, from the need to balance material progress with spiritual progress (which is a concept widely written in chinese school texts books they told me! ‘but we don’t know how to do it!’ my friend said very honestly). They asked me about my background and so of course the Baha’i Faith came up, and all five of them were most intrigued. I pulled out the ol lap-top with the bi-lingual introduction of Anna’s on it, and went through it with them. One kept mentioning how he forces himself to read one book a week because he is searching for something, he wants a purpose but always feels so unsatisfied after finishing the books, wanting something more…so we spoke more, showed them pictures from Haifa and the shrines, and by that time it was getting onto 1am in the morning and we were all tired through all the excitement.
I woke up at 7.30am, to see my friend across the aisle from me, deep in thought, as if he had been mediating on everything we had been talking about the entire night
‘did u sleep well?’
‘no, it was so noisy and I couldn’t stop thinking about what you were saying’
Just then the breakfast cart came passed, and we got a serving each of rice pudding, some pickled vegetables and the pearliest white bread roll I have ever seen. As we were eating this rather tasteless breakfast he continued to tell me about his own relationship with Chinese philosophies such as Lao Tze, his upbringing in Inner Mongolia with no electricity and just candle light...fascinating stuff. Time was running short as the train arrived into Beijing Station, but as Chinese do, he made sure I got to where I needed to get to, and exchanged numbers
‘If you have the time, I would like to know more about the Faith, please come to my home to meet my wife and family and we can cook you dinner.’
So on Saturday night my friend and I went to his home, at the very northern outskirts of Beijing, and from 5.30pm to 10pm had an incredibly rich fire-side with the family, ate swan his mother made for us (poor thing, but tasted good!!)
This time the conversation was mostly in Chinese, my friend being practically fluent after living in China for three years, but it was great for me to just sit back and witness the energy exchange. I gave him Paris Talks, and his wife a prayer book and they were so happy. I have never met such a loving, gentle, pure couple in all my life. The way they spoke to each other…I knew this family was special. They hope to study ruhi book one with my friend who lives in Beijing!! Sooo inspiring to meet such open hearts from a simple conversation with a stranger on a train!!
So yes, that was my train adventure on the way up, coming back...a less positive experience as I missed the train and ended up being late for work the next day…eek. Oh well victory and crisis!!

Beijing in general has a whole different feel to Shanghai I found. Much more calm, relaxed, less about ‘high fashion’ and money, and more about the good things in life – community.
Now, reading back on this after being back in Shanghai for a week, my view is changing. Today my neighbour knocked on my front door and introduced me to his family for the first time, and invited me over for dinner. So really, it depends on your attitude at the time…but back on to Beijing,I cant deny it though, I felt really good there, it has a different energy about it... and I got to participate in a workshop with Hua Dan, this fantastic social action theatre company working with migrants from other provinces in China, using drama as a way for them to express themselves during the biggest urbanisation process the world has ever seen. The workshop was with young women, late teen’s early 20’s who were chosen from the poorest families in the poorest villages to come to a technical training school to learn skills such as typing or hair-dressing to help them find work in the cities, rather than come to the cities (as everyone is doing ON MASS in china) with no skills and no potential for work. It was a gorgeous workshop, the first one in a series of eight 3hr weekly workshops, so full of trust games and team-building activities. It’s a pretty new thing for China to have a group such as Hua Dan doing social-action based theatre like this, and you can tell the participants are thirsty for it.
All in all, a fantastic weekend in Beijing (even though I missed the train on the way back…loooong story)