blank canvas: The China Diaries Part 2- At the Mercy of Elements

On July 24th, which is a Friday, we set off from Chengdu’s Xinnanmen (新南门)Bus station to Jiuzhaigou. We took a later bus, which set off at 8.30am, because the earlier one was full when we purchased tickets the day before. It cost us about 130RMB. The ticket booth person told us that the journey would take 10 hours, but our research on the Internet showed that it would take at least 12 hours. Plus, we learnt about the landslide that happened the day before, so that might add on a couple of hours.

At the start of the bus ride, all was fine and dandy. After about two hours into the journey, we reached the area of Wen Chuan, which was very badly affected by the Sichuan earthquake from last year. There were practically no houses along the highways, just bright blue tents with the words “Aid” on it. In these tents were the belongings of people who lived there. High-spirited propaganda messages in Chinese were put up as encouragement, and a lot of bricks were being laid for new houses. The ground was nothing but flattened debris and dirt. We passed a huge stone boulder stuck in the ground, and went through dark tunnels that have cracks up to 2 metres long.

Three hours into our journey, traffic came to a standstill. We could see the jam stretch into the distance, into a tunnel then out of it, and finally into a bend. From there to our bus, no cars moved. So, our driver opened the door, spilling everyone out. People from other buses and vehicles were also out, stretching themselves. Only motorbikes continued on their way. At first, I was happy to get some fresh air, but after some time, we got pretty worried. We were stuck in the middle of nowhere. In front of us were mountains. Behind us were more mountains. A river was flowing down along the road, but the water was yellow and muddy. No cars came from the opposite side, and when there were, people said they were cars that turned back. It wasn’t two hours after that the cars started moving again, and of course, everyone scrambled into their vehicles and drove onwards. Finally, we reached a part of highway where only one lane was passable. Rocks have been piled up on what was originally one lane of the road. That’s where we came to a halt again, and the policeman started ushering the cars going opposite of our direction through. A long wait later, it still wasn’t our turn. Our driver was so angry he got down and started talking to the policeman. Soon, talking turned into shouting and elaborate gestures, with a handful of other drivers gathering to look at the shouting match. Someone who went down to investigate said the policeman is letting the other side through because our lane is still jammed, therefore even if we pass, we’ll still be stuck. The policeman’s rationale was let the other lane pass first and wait for our lane to clear. In the end, though, after a very long time at the same spot, we finally moved on. At that time, it was about five hours into the journey but we covered only about ¼ of the distance.

Proper roads on land soon gave way to roads that hugged rocky mountains. Some parts of these mountains had nets attached on their sides, so that the nets will catch rocks that came tumbling down. These mountains were brownish, jagged and dangerous but the bus was traveling very close to them. I recall one moment where the bus swerved a little to avoid a mega huge rock that bulged out of the net. Everyone on the bus gasped. Whenever I look up, I could only see rocks and boulders. I couldn’t help but to imagine what would become of me if a loose rock should tumble down and hit the bus. I kept thinking about it until I dozed off. When I wake, the process continues until I fall asleep again.

At 5pm, after about 8 hours on the road, the bus finally stopped for a toilet break. That was Cathy, Chee Harn and Keon’s first encounter with the classic China Toilet. In the female toilet, each cubicle was separated by tiled partitions, but a drain runs through all cubicles. This drain was the “toilet bowl”. If you look down at it, you can see all the excrement of the humans who used the toilet before you. You can smell the ammonia in the air even before you approach the toilet (In the rural parts of China, you can rely on your sense of smell, among all other senses, to find where the nearest toilet is.) and you can see everyone’s asses’ side profile when you walk along. The sink was a hose on the ground with running water. But because we all were in the middle of nowhere, there is no capacity to be picky. So we all did what we had to, cringed about it, then laughed about it, and moved on.

Day gave way to night. At 8pm, the roads were dark. The only light you could see came from the headlights of the bus, or from cars at the opposite lane. We could only see about 2metres ahead. The youth hostel in Jiuzhaigou where we had booked our stay called me, and I said I was still on the way. I had not a clue how long more the journey was, and where we were. All I knew was that the bus was going quite fast and everything was pitch dark. During the times where the bus wasn’t going fast, the bus wasn’t going at all. There were frequent jams along the way because some parts of the road were just too narrow, due to sliding rocks or otherwise. Other than that, the bus driver was super gung-ho, horning loudly and turning swiftly at each bend. I stared out the window seat most of the time, looking at mountains which gave way to the edge of nothing, then mountains again. It was a really dangerous journey, since we were at the mercy of elements. A wrong turn and we would just fly from the mountain edge, a landslide and we would be buried rubble, a flat tyre and it’s game over. Anything can go wrong. At 11 plus pm, after a quick rest stop, I finally spotted a signboard that said “Jiuzhaigou 1st Turn”. At that time, it was raining, and quite heavily too. I saw a drenched police officer beside the signboard with one of his hands on his cap as a salute. He was white and motionless, and being in the middle of nowhere, I was spooked. Had I just seen a ghost? I didn’t dare tell anyone about that until late at night, before I went to bed. It just seemed strange that someone would be out in the pouring rain to salute every bus that pass by.

We finally reached the bus station at 12 midnight. An estimated 12 hour journey turned into a 15 hour ride and our whole day was spent with our backsides in a bus. We were now about 2000m higher than we were in the morning, because Jiuzhaigou was a mountainous area. We took two cabs to Migu International Youth Hostel, and because they were out of dorm beds, they gave us 3 two-bed ensuites instead. I slept in the same room as Cathy Chia, but before I slept, told her about the ghostly policeman.

While we slept that night with anticipation of our next day at Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve, where there were clear lakes, huge waterfalls and valleys to behold, we had no idea that a bridge along the route where we had traveled up had been washed away due to the torrential rain.