Zhenjiang and Pearl Buck House

Thursday, October 2. We are up early this morning to get a taxi to the train station for our junket to Zhenjiang, site of Pearl Buck House. (On the way, we see a great poster/ad with 1.2 billion Chinese people holding up Yao Ming as he shoots a basketball!). It is a hazy day today, with very low visibility.

We have tickets on an express train to Zhenjiang, and the train is VERY nice. It even has Western toilets! Comfortable, reclining seats. The haze doesn't get any better as we approach Zhenjiang. In fact, as we get closer, there are many factories, including one with huge piles of coal around it and smokestacks spewing smoke.

In Zhenjiang, Tara decides that we need to travel to the PB House in style so we get on a bicycle taxi. I point to the picture I have of the house (printed off the internet) and keep saying "Sai Zhen Zhu" (PB's Chinese name). Several of the taxi drivers confer with each other, and then we're off. The bicycle taxi driver has quite a load with Tara and me, both somewhat larger than the average Chinese person! But he is valiant, although we do get off to walk up a steep hill while he pushes the bicycle.

We finally arrive at something but it isn't the house we're looking for. However, it does turn out to be ErZhong, the school that PB attended when she was growing up. She also taught there for a few years after finishing college in the U.S. With our practically non-existent Chinese, we manage to have a sort of conversation with the guard. He lets us into the school so we can take pictures. He also tells us that the school is much larger now than it was when PB was here, and he points out the original buildings. We show him the picture of the house, and he explains to the taxi driver where it is.

So we're back on our little bicycle taxi and eventually arrive at the bottom of another hill. The taxi driver indicates that this is as far as he can go, that the house is at the top of the hill. So, on faith, we set off. It's a narrow pathway, not a road for cars, although paved with stairs in the middle. At the top of the hill, I see the house coming into view and shout down to Tara, "It's here!" I can hardly believe I've actually arrived. It is amazing how much this house, although brick, resembles the Stulting House in Hillsboro, West Virginia. This is clearly a Western house.

As we approach the house, a woman comes out onto the porch. I am gazing at everything with my mouth open but she manages to get my attention long enough to make us understand that the entry fee is 5 yuan apiece. We happily fork it over.

The interior of the house is open and spacious. It is furnished with some beautiful things, although I don't think many (if any) of them actually belonged to the family. We wander through, taking many photographs. Downstairs are two parlors, one on either side of the entry. Behind one is the dining room, and behind that is the space where the kitchen used to be. Behind the other parlor is a bedroom and servants quarters (?). Of course the guide can't actually explain anything to us because she speaks no English. Upstairs are two more bedrooms, a small "breakfast" room, and a beautiful study.

As we are winding up our visit, I take out my little notebook and draw a small family tree to try to explain to the guide that I am from the same family as PB. She gets all excited and calls someone on the telephone with whom she has a heated conversation. She then hands the phone to me. The gentleman on the other end of the line speaks a little English so I manage to explain that "PB's family is my family." He asks me to leave my name and contact information so I give one of my little cards to the guide. I also leave her with the little family tree drawing. Tara has the bright idea of taking the family tree into the bedroom that has a photograph of PB with her parents. Then using the family tree, our limited Chinese and pointing to the picture (fortunately, Tara knows the Chinese word for "brother"), we are able to explain that PB's mother was the sister of my great-grandfather. So the guide is very happy! And so are we.

We wander next door to the Pearl Buck Museum. However, it appears that it isn't yet open to the public, or maybe just not open today. At any rate, we can't get in.

So we head back down the hill and search out a place for lunch. We have read that Zhenjiang makes some of the best vinegar in China and that it is generally served with dumplings. So we are on a quest. By asking around, we find a wonderful little family-run dumpling "restaurant" and have a divine lunch! Some of the dumplings have meat and some have vegetables but all are great, especially when dipped in the vinegar.

We walk back to the train station and are there much earlier than we expected to be so we actually manage to exchange our train tickets for an earlier train. While we're waiting for it, we go into the McDonald's next door for some ice cream!

When we arrive back in Nanjing, we take a taxi to the Yangzi River Bridge, a great achievement of the Communist government. It was opened in 1968 and is one of the longest bridges in China: a 4500-meter. double-decker affair with a road on top and a train line below. Before this bridge was built, there was no direct rail line between Nanjing and Shanghai.

The taxi drops us at the park below the bridge where we have to pay 7 yuan to get into the park and another 8 to visit the bridge. The entrance to the bridge is at the base of one of the giant pillars, and an elevator whisks you to the top where you are greeted by cars and trucks whizzing past at a furious rate! It's breath-taking. Fortunately, every once few minutes, the cars have to stop at a red light so the pedestrian/tourists can cross.

However, it isn't necessary to cross for us to see the sunset on the Yangzi River. It is right below us. All I can think of are the lyrics "The water is wide, I cannot get o'er. Neither have I wings to fly." The Yangzi River is truly majestic, especially with sunlight rippling on it. We are lucky to be here late in the day because there would have been no sun shining on it earlier, it has been so hazy. It still is but the sun is breaking through a little, low in the sky.

The bridge is pretty impressive too, especially if you like Socialist realist sculptures! Tara and I buy a pack of 10 postcards and decide to see if we would be happy dividing them up or whether we should buy another set. Amazingly, we each want a different ones so that works out!

It's starting to get darker so we get down from the bridge, sit in the park deciding what to do next (as in where we would like to eat dinner!) and decide to get a taxi to the Nanjing University area. Unfortunately, we wait for quite awhile without seeing any taxis as the bridge is north of the city and not centrally located. A very nice young man tries to help us by figuring out which bus we could take, but as we are waiting for the bus, a taxi finally comes along so we hop in.

Nanjing University is one of the top schools in China, and the campus is enormous. Also quite lovely. However, it is almost dark so we realize we aren't going to be able to see much of the campus so decide to concentrate on dinner. We find a little place called "Sculpting in Time Cafe" (no idea what that means) which is a funky little place serving basically Western food. So we have club sandwiches (good) and diet Cokes. I haven't eaten this much Western food in two months!

Taxi back to hotel to read some of our new books!