Funny stories from China with the kids

When there are people around, there are always funny stories. How many funny stories did we have with the kids.?

On Christmas Day afternoon, our electricity went out in the middle of us playing a game. Kyle & Gregory were here with us playing Ticket to Ride. It surprised the kids.  All we had to do was swipe our electricity card in the hall closet, but we didn’t know to flip the breaker switch in the hall so it took a few minutes and a bit of consternation on Mark’s part.  Our neighbor Didi helped us with that. We tried to explain to the kids that we prepay for electricity, and we have to be prepared for when it unexpectedly goes out. Now the prudent person would occasionally check the electric meter in the hall, but we never thought about that. It’s in the outside hall closet after all. At least our card was loaded. Our gas meter is convenient to check, in the laundry area. Naturally our kids asked if we had not paid the electric bill. It’s China.

One cold night we were out and on our way home. To save time Mark decided to take red quilt-covered bike rickshaws to the nearest subway station. In his broken Chinese negotiations, he wanted two rickshaws for the six of us.  Rickshaws comfortably fit two people, but at 20 kuai each, we were going to squeeze into two. So he rounds up two drivers, fending off a third driver.  As he speaks with one driver, I see the rickshaw in front of us take off with James & Kristen, neither of whom speak ANY Chinese. They don’t know where they are going & all they can say is NiHao (Hello). The next thing I know, Mark runs toward the driver, waving & yelling STOP, STOP. I guess body language speaks volumes. My heart sunk for them and I couldn’t do a thing. I was too far away to do anything. Eventually, Mark negotiates the terms and gets us all in two rickshaws, me with Alicia & Philip and Mark with Kristen & James.  I peek out from the heavy quilted coverings to see if the driver really is taking us to the subway. You never quite know. But it was so cold, I had to close the cover and not see anything. Talk about trust. Poor kids, they were scared to death and crunched into an enclosed space. I think fear of not knowing where we were going but also fear for their lives in a rickshaw among the heavy traffic. Chinese drivers are actually very good drivers; they maneuver around all kinds of vehicles and people, sometimes very closely.

Funny, too, the people you meet around the world.  As we were climbing the Wall, we heard someone say “Go Tigers!” What? Though they didn’t stop to chat, they must have seen Mark’s purple & orange Clemson hat.  Then another day, after the acrobat show, we heard the same thing.  In the lobby after the show, we chatted with a couple that noticed James’ orange Clemson sweatshirt. The husband graduated from Clemson and AFROTC in 2005. So of course, the men enjoyed Clemson talk.

Speaking of the Wall, we purposefully chose to toboggan down the mountainside at the Wall. One of the ‘officials’ was a crackup. He was flamboyant, funny, silly, engaging – perfect for a public relations job with tourists. He made everyone laugh and giggle as they got onto the runners. I stayed back a ways to photograph the event. He noticed and acted up for the camera. I got some great photos of him and the family hamming it up. People like that make life fun.

On another note, I know that our family drew lots of attention as we walked down the streets. How often do the Chinese see a family of six white folks walking in a line down the sidewalk? So we garnered lots of looks. I would smile big and say NiHao. It often made people smile. In a country that has a One Child Policy, four grown children catch attention. We often had to walk single file to avoid sidewalk hazards – trees, poles, people, broken tiles.

Kristen just reminded me of our first taxi ride as a family. Because we had six of us, we required two taxis. On our first outing after a lunch of Beijing duck, we decided to go to the 798 Art District. Our friends with whom we ate lunch helped us hail taxis.  But what I didn’t know was that two of the kids got into one taxi and it started to take off before everyone else was ready or we were clear on where we were going. One thing to recognize about the Chinese – they don’t always tell you if they don’t know something. So taxi drivers might not admit they don’t know how to get somewhere. Well, the taxi takes off with Kristen and James. Finally we get the taxi to stop and I get in to direct. With my limited Chinese, I tell him qi-jiu-ba (798). He drives us to the area and drops us off near a pedestrian bridge, without me knowing where to go next to get to the District. 798 is an area that people walk around and visit art galleries, studios, cafes, etc.  

So twice Kristen had the feeling of being kidnapped, being taken who knows where with a language she can’t speak.

Oh, and the subway. Try getting six people on a Beijing subway at rush hour.  Somehow we always managed to head home from our outings at rush hour. So they got a real dose of subway riding. A couple of times, we got separated. Once when Mark took the kids out and I went home to fix dinner for us and a family coming over, Alicia got separated from the group. Then another time Alicia and Philip got on the train but the rest of us didn’t. Through the window, we held up five fingers to indicate which line number to get off at. Their thumbs up sign indicated understanding. Lo and behold, they were there waiting for us when we got off. Lesson learned – always tell your group members the next stop before getting on the subway.

Life is full of adventure – especially when traveling in another country.