Tenth Section: Greetings from George Orwell

From Emei Shan we traveled to Dali. Another overnight train, another few hours trapped on a train. But this time was different. We met Georgina and Marc, a couple from Catalonia, as soon as we got on. They also had strong opinions about the events in Spain, politically, funny, lovable. We talked with them until the lights went out on the train, and we decided to take a day trip to Lijiang from Dali. (Lijiang was recommended to us as a wonderful travel destination, but unfortunately we couldn't find a hostel due to the Golden Week)

Our train journey ended in Kunming, where we spent six hours and then had to take another train to Dali without seats, this time without company, as Georgina and Mark had booked a night in Kunming.

In Dali, we had to take a bus for a while to reach our Couchsurfing host, Xinyu.

Contrary to our assumption that we would be staying privately with her, we were taken to a beautiful hostel, like something out of a furniture catalog. There was a glass pavilion in the middle of the green courtyard. It was filled with instruments, as Xinyu not only makes her own clothes but is also a musician.

Xinyu told us that she had friends visiting who wanted to invite us to dinner. Later we found out that these friends were a family with uncles and aunts who had already been guests at the hostel and now regularly visit from Beijing. So we had dinner with these nice people, with lots of delicious food and beer and rice schnapps. Clumsy as I sometimes am, I spilled half of my beer on the daughter's pants, who reacted very kindly, but probably smelled like a brewery afterward. Except for a thirteen-year-old and our host, no one could speak English. So the two of them had to translate diligently. We mainly communicated with the slightly drunk men in the group by clinking glasses and loudly shouting 'OK'. We then went to the old town of Dali with the women. Due to a holiday, there was a music festival in the city, and singing is always going on in the bars in Dali. Dali is known for its many musicians. The family bought us all kinds of street food in the city. So we ate and ate, even though half of our previous dinner in the hostel was still there. Delicacies like black stinky tofu, chicken feet, pig feet, fermented milk on a stick, and fluffy buns filled with rose petals accompanied us through the evening.

That night, René slept on an unpadded bed next to the reception while I stayed in one of the comfortable rooms that I shared with a Chinese girl named Alexa. We got along really well right away.

In China, almost everyone has an English name (sometimes they are so beautiful, like 'Rainbow'), because Chinese names are so difficult for foreigners to pronounce. Funny thing is, out of 1.4 billion Chinese, there are only about 700 surnames. So almost everyone has the same last name. For this reason, parents often try to give their children very unusual first names. Unfortunately, most computers can only handle about 37,000 characters, so many names cannot be used digitally. The government has now limited the allowed characters, so many Chinese have to change their names.

The next day, René and I went back to the old town, this time with less food but more time to stroll through the shops. In Dali, there are small shops with beautiful hand-embroidered clothes, all very elegant and not at all shabby as expected. We had lunch at a temple in the city, again very cheap, delicious, and vegetarian, and then spent a good 1.5 hours waiting for Alexa, who was running late. When we finally met her, Alexa dressed me in various, really beautiful, clothes without considering my not-so-Chinese figure. So I squeezed myself into one traditional outfit after another and looked very costumed. To the disappointment of the saleswoman, I didn't buy anything, of course. Only at one of the last shops did I find a pair of pants that I really liked and, against all reason (my backpack is already too full), I bought them in the end. With Alexa, we went to a bar that, as it turned out later, is very famous in China.

In the bar, various Chinese folk artists performed, all about our age. The room was filled with fans. Everything was very familiar, people sat close together, many jokes were told, and the songs were sung loudly. The artist welcomed us in Chinese. Alexa translated everything for us.

After the concert, the artist went into a secret room, followed by some people, and on Alexa's advice, we also entered the dark room. Everyone sat down and waited for the artist's instructions. Now everyone had to say their name, age, and the region they came from. Alexa made herself three years younger because she was ashamed of being 'already' 25 years old. The artist reminded us that everything said in this room had to stay in this room. So he started telling his story of unrequited love, how she wanted to marry him, but he wasn't ready yet and they broke up. When she met someone new and married him, the artist realized (a little too late) that he truly and deeply loved her above all else. Since then, he couldn't look at anyone else, still mourning his (self-inflicted, mind you) loss. This was followed by other very, very theatrical love stories. One guy cried for four days, another would do anything for his girlfriend. And the audience waited and waited for more cheesiness, more drama, more tears. What we first found quite interesting, turned out to be a substitute for any soap opera. There were few honest feelings, but a lot of heartache and flowery descriptions. The highlight was a young Chinese man who talked about his father in prison and his drug use. Alexa was moved to tears and the audience's voyeurism was satisfied.

OK. That was a very drastic description from my point of view. I would really like to talk to you about this concept of the Secret Room when we come back because I also see many positive aspects to it. However, for me (and I think for René too), the feeling of a sensation-seeking crowd prevailed. And on the other hand, there are people who cannot share their problems either in a professional setting or with friends, so when they leave this room, they don't have a comforting shoulder with them but rather are surrounded by strangers. Somehow very strange. I look forward to hearing your opinions.

The next day we walked to a lake in Dali, Erhai. Unfortunately, it was way too crowded. Other than that, it's really beautiful there and definitely worth a visit. (Many people rent scooters and take a ride around the lake. However, we didn't dare due to the scary traffic in China)

Alexa showed us many wonderful photos from her tour in advance. In the end, it turned out that most of these pictures were taken in photo parks. These are parks where you pay an entrance fee to find various miniature photo backdrops. For example, flower meadows, canoes that are not suitable for water, or mini lakes. So everything is pretty fake, expensive, and somewhat sad.

One evening we talked about not having a VPN, which means we can hardly use apps in China. Our host then started talking about an American who had completely wrong ideas about China. He claimed that many things in China are restricted by the government. That's not true at all, according to our host, because with a VPN, she can use everything without any problems. Apparently, Western media spread many lies. When we mentioned that she, for this supposed freedom, has to use a VPN more or less illegally, our host wasn't very pleased.

This same American actually wanted to discuss the conflict between China and Trump with her, really. She doesn't want anything to do with politics, it just makes her sad. So from now on, we had to quickly change the topic whenever it came to anything political that required taking a position.

Alexa's family lives near the North Korean border. When we asked her if she noticed anything about it in her everyday life, she responded with a very surprised 'why?'. She knew absolutely nothing about the situation in her neighboring country. Even the 13-year-old we were with on the first evening didn't want to change anything about the school system, even though she hardly has any free time, as so much homework is assigned even during her short vacations. (Hello?! Shouldn't you want to change everything at the age of 13?)

In Shanghai, there is an app that evaluates various information from constant surveillance and classifies residents of Shanghai as 'good', 'average', or 'bad'. If you are rated as good, you get various benefits, but as a bad rating, you may not be allowed to take certain buses, for example. The system is being expanded to include factors such as the friends you have and how often you call your parents. This app is completely voluntary, meaning people sign up for it completely of their own accord. They have nothing to lose (except their freedom and privacy, but hey), because they always behave well.

However, some Chinese also rebel. One sign of dissatisfaction with the system is Peppa Pig. A British pink piglet that has adventures with its family. So, a pretty gangster pig.

I was really shocked by this conformity to the system. Especially Alexa (whose picture we deliberately don't upload here because I might not be portraying her in the best light) looked very alternative, as if she wanted to make a statement with her clothing style. Apparently, it's similar to the photo parks, more appearance than reality.

The next day, we wanted to go to Lijiang with Georgina and Marc. In the morning, we waited for them, and waited, and waited... when a little girl asked us if we wanted to take a picture with her. No problem! We put on our best smile, smiled into the camera, when suddenly Marc sneaked into our photo from behind. He told us that Georgina was sick but he would still go with us. And so our really funny trip to Lijiang started. There, we visited the old town and a temple (built in the late 90s) where we paid money to ring a bell for 'family peace' and hit a drum for 'luck' (we could have hit it twice for 'a lot of money', but that would have cost more money)

So it was a really fun day.

And in the evening, we booked our seven-hour bus to Kunming and then took the high-speed train from there.

Dali and Lijiang are both really worth seeing cities, but they are quite similar. In Lijiang, you should definitely go to the mountains, it's supposed to be very beautiful. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time for that. If you're in Dali, you should definitely stay at Xinyu's hostel because she is a super lovely person and does everything to make all guests get to know each other and have a great time together.