We were the laughing stock of all our Chinese friends for wanting to visit a place like Anshun at this time of year. But we have decided to stop paying for tourist sights and try to find some peace in the real China. On a random Chinese website I’d found a few things to do around Ashun, including great waterfalls (huangguoshu 黄果树) caves ( Longgong dong), etc. Among these places, a tiny spot on the map indicated a “scenic view” in a place called Suoshai, in the nearby mountain.
Getting off the path in China is more difficult than in any other country I’ve been. First, people don’t understand why you don’t want to do as everyone else, why you won’t fit in the mould. After a long and hard talk, if you convince them, they will give you the information you need. Those moments are like talking to a wise man. They listen, politely, carefully to your questions although they do not answer them. If you prove you are stubborn, but more importantly if you prove you are strong enough to engage yourself in that quest, your questions are answered.
I’ve noticed a strange way of thinking that foreigners are somehow weaker persons who cannot live or do as Chinese do. In some ways they are right, because you cannot survive China without a Chinese by your side. And when it concerns travelling, you won’t go anywhere off the track without their help. And let’s say it, it’s universally “funny” (and pleasing!) to watch a foreigner trying to speak your language or to eat like you do.
Having learnt a few things in Xi’an, we knew we had to get into a local bus (those that look like cans) to get to Suoshai even if it wasn’t its destination. Problem was, none of them would go there. Convinced that people simply didn’t want to take us there (it happens more than you would think) we tried taking a taxi, walking… Without success. Suoshai was definitely too far to reach... Until the two little ladies working at the barbecue stall took pity on us and decided to help us.
After defending our point of view ( why do you want to go there? What are you going to do? There’s no place to eat, to sleep, you should go to the waterfalls, etc.) They started asking their friends how to go there. All of a sudden, there was a small crowd around us, people we hadn’t seen before, but who had been watching us from the beginning. On their motorbikes, at the street corner, at the stall, all these people started to help us get to Suoshai (which had better be a nice place after all these efforts). At that moment, time froze. I watched them, stopping taxis and buses, asking passing people, discusing between themselves, still wondering why the hell we wanted to go there. That’s what I love about China: Chinese. Little ants building their empire, little ants who together are more powerful than anyone.
Our ride
In other countries people would just say “sorry I don’t know”without bothering to stop. But here, one they’ve decided to help you, they will not stop until they get you there. So much, that eventually one of the ladies went to her car and drove us to this place (Still asking why we wanted to go there). An hour later, she dropped us in the remote place that we called Suoshai. Ten houses at most, and nothing to do. It wasn’t even the place we wanted to see, but the view was spectacular, a bit like Shangluo, but better.
We wandered if the paesants living there were going to kill us for invading their village, but no one said anything to us. Well, none of the two persons that were out. We walked a few meters to get further from the houses and sat down on what we thought were just rocks (but was in fact an old village in ruins), where we could still distinguish some walls. Watching the sunset, we knew we wouldn’t get out of the village before nightfall, we knew we would have to set the tent and spend the night in the ruins.
Sunset
Ruins
So we did. Hoping no one would chase us, hoping the horses and cows would not come closer, we set for camp under the last warm rays of light. At 8 pm we were plunged into thick darkness, and decided to have a good night’s rest. Fighting the biting cold, the damp air, the wet sleeping bags, we woke up at 8 to discover the tent… completely frozen. Turns out we had slept by -3, which explained the ice on the tent.
Nevertheless, our quest was a success. No one tried to kill us, no animals tried to eat our food, and we didn’t die from the cold. Turning back to where we had come from, a fisherman offered to take us on a tour with his boat. This is probably one of my biggest regrets in my travels: we refused.
Sometimes having to talk Chinese, making the efforts to understand and to be understood, or sitting in silence in front of someone who wants to communicate is exhausting. It happenned everyday to us, and sometimes we didn’t want to do it. (don’t worry, most of the time we did!). But we definitely should have gotten on that boat.
Fisherman
After an hour walking in the hills we arrived at a set of houses and we knew a bus would pass by at some point. That’s how China works.
We also knew that our fight to take a bus the day before was not ridiculous or vain, and it really was that people would not take us. Sometimes it’s like this. China decides for you. Chinese decide for you.
Half an hour later we stopped a bus, and off we were to the town.
Finding a spot like this one in China was a real challenge. It took us the whole day to get there, to sit down and appreciate the landscape. Waking up to see this, to be alone in an over-populated country was a real quest, our treasure. Finding a natural gem in a country were mountains are unaccessible unless constructed gave us a peace of mind difficult to put down to words.
We will remember Suoshai because of all the people that helped us get there, because we laughed with some and argued with others. Because watching the scene with external eyes was like watching a circus. Because the lady who drove us gave us food and her phone number.
Because they cared, because the fisherman wanted to share his secrets with two foreigners.
Our traveler self lives for these human interactions. We crave for those moments that proove the world is a much more beautiful and welcoming place than what we are lead to believe.
Can-bus
January 2014
