China: Across The Land of Characters

The thing that woke me up was the group of loud, brash men, chatting away in Mandarin and unnervingly close to me.  The Mandarin spoken in China always seemed ridiculously loud.  Upon waking I immediately noticed that my back and neck were horribly stiff and achy.  I unstrapped the backpack from my lower back and shoulders and sat up, still drowsy- eyed. 

The group of twelve, or so, Chinese men surrounded my bench, leaving no more than two feet between us.  Some of them glanced at me briefly when I sat up, some didn’t at all, but I certainly wasn’t interesting enough for them to stop their incessant conversing.

I started to collect myself to head to the public bathroom located right across from my bench, to brush my teeth and wash my face.  I was not used to carrying out my morning routine in a dirty, strange smelling public setting surrounded by strangers speaking a loud, sharp tongue, or signs in Chinese characters that did little to remind me in what city I was currently stationed.

I had fallen asleep across three attached chairs in the back of the Lingzhou train and bus station, my backpack strapped to my body to ensure it would still be there when I awoke.  It had been a restless night of light sleep, as I was frequently roused by the floor cleaners, bathroom cleaners, and various passer-byes.  I unfortunately had had no choice but to sleep there. 

One of the things I had learned during the previous three months, which I spent backpacking through the rural areas and smaller cities of China, was that there is a distinction between “Chinese” hotels and “Non-Chinese” hotels.  Foreigners were not allowed to stay at the former.  If one arrived at a city late at night and couldn’t locate a “Non-Chinese” hotel with an available room — which had been the case the previous evening — one was screwed and had to spend the night in public somewhere. 

I had experienced, for the very first time in my life, the cold reality of being homeless.  I felt embarrassed, self-conscious, exposed, and infinitely humble.