I'm finally back in Beijing after a long trip. I had an amazing time, and of course, I wrote about my time in the cities we visited. Again, I'm terribly sorry about the delay in posting, but here's my first city post from the trip!
Maybe it was the weather. Or maybe it was because I got off the overnight train. But my first few hours in Luoyang made me feel like I was in some urban dystopia. When we finally got into our hotel rooms on the 20th floor, I looked out and gasped. We were surrounded by enormous high rises emerging from the fog. When a friend and I went for a walk, we saw a huge, evil-looking building just down the street from our hotel. There was a big metal flower structure on top of the building. Of course, my imagination kicked into action. I instantly came up a story for Luoyang’s background. The Lotus Corporation had ensnared the people of Luoyang into some sick chain where the citizens were both employees and consumers of the Corporation. The Lotus Corporation had realized that it was simply profitable to invade a city and entrap the people with easy immigration but difficult exit. My friends and I had been recruited into this town to bring down the Lotus Corporation.
But my fantastic imagination aside, we had some real exploring to do. We headed off to the Shaolin Temple, famous for its martial arts monks. However, all the temple buildings were rebuilt after a fire in 2004, and the martial arts performance lacked the kind of authenticity I wanted in the experience. After being shuttled around on bus and seeing more and more empty high rises and flashy shopping malls, this was depressing me. I determined to set out the next day and find the real Luoyang. I knew there had to be some busy alleyway that was full of life and chatter.
The next morning, we got on our bus again and started driving. I took my usual place by the window, and we passed by some city blocks. Suddenly, I saw it. There was an alleyway with lots of signs for restaurants. There were people flooding down the alleyway to go to work. I knew that this was the alley I was looking for.
That night, after exploring some more fantastic sites (were they better because they simply were just better than Shaolin Temple, or better because I was anticipating that alley?), I got a group of friends together and headed off to the alley. Once we got there, people had peeled away from the group for whatever reason, and it left two friends and I. Nik, Alex and I set off down the alley, with the two of them trailing behind me as I trekked forward in search of a good restaurant. We found one advertising Luoyang style food and went in. After ordering the special, eggplant, spicy lamb, tea and beer, we started chatting about our day. Soon, we noticed a group of kids laughing and playing right outside our window, occasionally stopping to study us 外国人 (waiguoren, or foreigners). After a while, we realized they were talking about us and we responded in Chinese. When they realized that we could speak Chinese, they got more excited and asked us more questions. The kids were quite cheeky, though: I asked one of them his name, and he said “Luoyang!” I responded with “If your name is Luoyang, then my name is America!” to the delight of the adults who had started listening in. After we finished and paid, the families of the kids asked us for pictures. We chatted for a while about where we were from, where we were staying in China, and what we were doing. Then we left.
On the walk home, we were reeling from the fantastic night. The food was delicious, the beer cold, and the company great. Tipsy off of a few beers, we spotted the Lotus Corporation building. I explained my fantasies, and the rest of the walk home, we weaved an entire story of how we would bring down the Lotus Corporation, with whatever friend playing whatever role. By the time we got home, we had reached the point of the story where the people of Luoyang were free from their bonds and left the city to find better opportunities.
Within a night, my notions about Luoyang being another city with shitloads of empty high rises and no soul and my fantasies about the Lotus Corporation came to an end. Luoyang had incredible life to it, and I just had to walk a few blocks to find it.
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