We are sorry
to say that Mac is not very well, but he is still e-mailing
strong and recently sent the Beetle a collection of travel
reminiscences about China.
Beijing, China. The Imperial Palace in the Forbidden City in Beijing has 9000 rooms. We agreed that if we got lost and separated from each other we would meet in the Hall of Heavenly Purity (if they would let us in.) At the time I was there, the military did not wear rank on their uniforms (don't know if this still applies or not.) You could kind of get an idea of who outranked who by the number of pockets they had on their blouse of uniform. Someone with four pockets would have their baggage carried by someone with one pocket or no pockets.
In the hotels the orchestras (In the Peace Hotel in Shanghai I think they had some of the members or orchestra from the 30s) would play songs they thought we would like. Oh Susannah from a couple of decades ago seemed to be making a comeback, as well as Turkey in the Straw and and Auld Lang Syne. At the end of each number the players would put down their instruments and applaud us in the audience. We could hardly wait for the Tuba player to unwind from his Tuba to applaud us.
Our Chinese guide in Wushi kind of had a high opinion of himself (unusual for Chinese) and thought he was hip in Western ways. He liked to show off and showed us how he was proficient in Tai Chai. Blonde vivacious Liza asked him to dance with her. He said that no he could not dance with a client but that he would arm wrestle her! He told long involved stories about the Kingdom of Wu and Dragons and such. George whispered: “I wonder what he would say if we told him we didn't want to hear any more dragon stories?”
In 1977 I got in on a deal on a trip to China. A western cruise ship had not gone into China in twenty seven years but suddenly a Swiss outfit got permission and an ad was in the LA paper one day only and participants had a very short time to get on trip. I had to fly to Singapore and get on Norwegian Rasa Sayang ship. Why it did not leave from Hong Kong I don't know. Everything about that trip was strange. On board we were arranged into 24 groups of 24 people and in each group they arbitrarily chose a responsible person. This was the person the Chinese dealt with to give us bad news to pass on to us others. Your tour has been cancelled. Unpaid thankless job. Our Chinese guides had names that phonetically sounded like Mr Shi, Mr Ee and Miss Ou. They met us at gangplank with Miss Ou carrying a banner with number 13 the number of our group. 24 buses were there to meet us. It was like a military operation although we were all supposed to be civilians. One Australian before we left ship asked if it was alright if he wore walking shorts. He was told “You are going to look so strange to the Chinese that is makes no difference what you wear”.
Our guide Miss Ou had pigtails, glasses no makeup and wore a bag like Mao suit. Most of our tour group dressed down, slacks etc but one lady in our group wore high heels and a different fancy outfit for each appearance as she said she wanted the Chinese to see her clothes and how they could dress.
There was no tipping but on the second day I gave Miss Ou some picture post cards of Washington, D. C. She then gave me a ten minute speech that she would accept hers as a signal of international friendship. I then became her pet and she would come to me on pronunciation of English. I, who have a speech defect, ha!
At the Pan His Restaurant No 15l Hsiang Yang Rd (Kissinger ate there,) Canton, where we ate one meal, Miss Ou would tell us what was in each dish. Duck, shrimp, vegetable and other materials. When she saw some smile at “other materials” she looked to me and I said other ingredients.
Wherever we went there would be Chinese on each side of sidewalk waiting for us to come out of antique stores, whatever and they would applaud us. I thought it was voluntary but was told that they had probably been ordered to do this and perhaps had been there since five o clock that morning waiting for us to arrive although they probably had no idea who we were or where we were from. I felt like Prince Philip viewing China and found myself walking with my arms behind my back. I bowed graciously to my fans. They have gotten so many tourists now that they no longer applaud us.
On my first trip to China they said that five of each 24 group of 24 could witness acupuncture which was new to me so I raised my hand. Most of us did not realize that this demonstration of acupuncture included watching five bloody operations in a hospital where they used acupuncture as an anaesthetic. One lady passed out immediately and they put one of the needles between her mouth and nose and she came right to. We were in a viewing area that looked down on the operating tables. One operation was to remove a goitre from an elderly lady. After they removed the goitre the size of a golf ball they passed it up to us on a tray much as if they were passing around something to eat at a cocktail party. After the fourth operation I felt woozy myself and so left room and climbed stairs to roof of hospital. Attendants came running after me. There was a church with a steeple nearby and I tried to act like I had just gone up there for the view and to see China as I wasn't seeing much of China in that operating room. I pointed to the church spire and said what is that building? I was told “It is where they store useless objects (religious statues, religious things). Just wait until I tell Father Murphy!
We were told that acupuncture did not work as anaesthetic unless you had faith in it. The advantage is that there were supposedly no after effects and one could eat after the operation. In fact before the operation which I don't think is usual practice. When the tumour was removed from the neck of the elderly lady, they wanted to show us that she could navigate on her own. She kind of slid off table looked up at us and waved and we waved back. She then kind of stumbled out of the room.
Would I submit to acupuncture in an operation? Only if I could have an anaesthetic as well.
I did later on another trip submit to this form a barefoot doctor. They call them barefoot doctor (not barefoot) but those that work helping those in communes and field. I paid something like fifteen cents. It was to cure a cold. They then gave me a certificate entitling me to free acupuncture care for a year.