In less than 8 weeks I will be setting off on my biggest
adventure. I am going to be spending nearly two months on the road, traversing the
third largest country in the world, a country with one of the most diverse
range of ethnicities. There are 56 ethnic groups recognised by the Chinese
government with another 15 known but not officially recognised. I am going to
be attempting to get off the beaten track a little with my trip in an effort to
get to meet some people from these different backgrounds and hopefully get a
glimpse of their varying cultures.
I’ll be honest; I am absolutely terrified.
I’ll be visiting six provinces, at least five major cities,
two national parks, one glacier, one panda breeding research base (bring on the
pandas) and over twenty small towns. And I mean small by Chinese standards, so
some are not really all that small, but almost all of them are remote and
pretty well isolated.
The biggest barrier I come up against here by far is the
language. My Mandarin skills are fairly basic and I know no Cantonese, the two
main languages spoken throughout the country. Part of the planned route for my
trip will take me to some pretty far out places in terms of distance, and that
remoteness in turn means that these locals may not even speak Mandarin. There
are well over 250 languages alive throughout this enormous country and many of
them are completely different from each other.
Heading out on a two month trip
with a basic grasp of just one language, which may ultimately be incomprehensible
to many Chinese (be it through my terrible pronunciation or just not knowing
the dialect) has me scared. What if I ask for a bus ticket to Deqin and end up
buying one for Deqen only to find out once I have already arrived… It might not
sound like a huge deal, but by all reports transport out in the middle of
nowhere runs intermittently, at best. Or what if I order something to eat using
my stock standard, go-to expression “ni neng tuijian shenme cai me?” (what do you
recommend) only to later discover I’ve ordered dog again, or worse still, my
beloved panda! That’s HIGHLY unlikely but still a fear I have as a result of
not understanding what I hear.
I honestly believe some people
have a knack for picking up languages (my new Finnish friend who speaks
something ridiculous like nine is testament to that) but I am pretty sure I don’t
have it. I am trying my best, but have to say that in the last week all I’ve
picked up is the Mandarin for watermelon, cucumber, blueberries, nose and hat.
Not exactly practical when it comes to trying to convey that you want a room
somewhere cheap preferably with hot water.
Regardless, I am going to give it
a red hot crack. Knowing that I could potentially get to see such gorgeous
places as Luoyang, Deqin, Juizhaigou (google images of this one, I implore you)
and Dragon’s Backbone thrills me in a way literally nothing ever has before. It
is this thrill, this overwhelming desire to experience such amazing landscapes,
that pushes my beyond my comfort zone enough to get out there and do it.
And don’t worry; I’ll be sure to
take the odd photo here and there for you. Here is a picture of me holding a panda to tide you over....
