A Change in Plans

I got into Fuzhou this morning, and got a hotel close to the Social Sciences Academy. It is HOT - brutally hot. However, it felt so good to get into a normal hotel finally - I hadn't showered in three days, and the entire time I had been sweating it felt like. I probably stank pretty bad. That was a great shower. At this point, I am looking at changing my plans to travelling by bike through this area of China. This is something that I had originally thought of doing while I was here, and it is something that has somewhat captured my imagination since talking with this person in Alaska (I think the last name is Bloomfield, but it doesn't seem quite right for some reason) at my wedding reception who had served a mission in Taiwan, and later in his life took several long biking trips across China. It seemed to me to be such a wonderful way to get to know the "real" China - you take it easy, talk to people all along the way, and get a much better sense for things than you could otherwise. By biking, it is obvious that I am a tourist - I won't use a survey form like I have here - but I'll memorize the relevant questions I want to ask people, and then I'll just go. It will be much more interesting/exhausting, but I think I can get a better sense of things this way. In any case, I'm going to stay in Fuzhou for the weekend to recharge my batteries. I might try to go to the beach tomorrow, but it is kind of rainy today (it is the most oppressive heat right now ever - the air is just saturated with water - it's quite unbearable). If I do the bike thing, I will probably go to Longyan (a bit of a bigger city), where I'll pick up a bike that will survive long distances. I'll leave all my books in the suitcase at a hotel or something like that, and just take some clothes (just shorts), my camera and notebook in my backback. From there, I will take a route up in the mountains to the cities and villages I had planned to visit - talking to people all along the way. I'll then cross over back into Jiangxi Province and make a loop all the way back to Longyan. It will be hardcore. Going through the official route like I have been doing(I honestly think I will just have to deal with more and more bureaucracy - convincing people, etc. Next time, I will just plan this all in advance - I know how to do it now) really doesn't seem very advantageous to me - I'll get to maybe 4 villages by the time it is done and then just have short conversations with people that don't give me much of a sense for things. However, by bike, I can talk to people more directly (when they ask "why are you here" I can say I'm travelling rather than saying that I'm doing research - I think people will open up more to me. I'll have lunch with ordinary people, talk to people about what their lives are like, and then when I settle down for the night, I'll write down what I've learned). As I've been doing it recently, it just hasn't been working - when I say I'm doing research, it freaks people out. They haven't never dealt with researchers, and so they don't trust me. The only way to get that trust would be to meet them in a nonthreatening situation (I'm just travelling on through - thought I'd go check out a village a talk to people there) or to stay there for at least 2 to 3 weeks (teaching English - it would give me a chance to meet lots of families and get to know them well). Since the latter isn't really much of an option at this point, I think I'll go for the bike option.

So....I think that I've made a decision. Part of that is based on the fact that I'm sick of convincing people of the validity of what I'm doing - it is eating up all of my time here - I've been here for nearly 3 weeks now, and I really don't have much of anything yet - all of this time has been spent waiting on government officials and getting approval from different departments and going with the Fujian people here will just start from square one all over again. I just don't have the time - I'm down to a little more than 5 weeks left in China.

By the way, there was a recent article in the NY Times (I think it was the NY Times - I just looked for it though and couldn't find it) about the high death toll on China's roads (the highest in the world - I suppose that makes sense because China has the highest population in the world, but China's traffic is pretty awful). Anyways - to allay anyone's fears, I'll take every precaution possible - I'll only go during the day, I'll wear a helmut, and Melanie will be calling my cell phone every night. I think that it should be fine - honestly, traffic on the roads I am travelling on is usually limited to motorbikes - although there will be some buses and trucks - but not often.