china 2006: part 2

Our second day in Jinan was the main purpose of the trip. We set out to find the place where Lucy’s dad grew up. He left that little village when he was 14. He is now about 74. You think a lot would have changed in 60 years. Just wait until you look at the pictures. It’s way out from Jinan in a strictly agricultural area. What’s amazing is that there are no maps for this area, and we only had the name “Lee Village.” Think the name is interesting? It turns out that over 90% of the town of 500 have that surname.

So we set out in our bus in the general direction of the village. We stopped several times to ask people how to get to Lee Village. Some knew, some didn’t. We took a very long semi-dirt road (it’s semi because it is actually paved in asphalt, but it has been reduced to dirt in most places). We passed through several villages and finally found people who said, “Go that way.”

When we got there we didn’t really know it because there was no “Welcome to Lee Village” sign at the village line. We asked some bystanders and they said that we were in the right place. Well, ten people from America got out of the only motorized four-wheeled vehicle in the village with our jeans, light-weight windbreakers, Canon digita-SLR camreas, Sony DVR and HDVR cameras, and other western gear and stepped on to a dirt street lined with structures that seemed to be out of, well, 1940. We drew a huge crowd…about 20 people. Lucy’s dad set out to ask the older folks whether they remembered his father. He was initially met with some skepticism, and we were all scrutinized like aliens. Finally, he asked enough questions for a fellow to say, I can take you to your family’s grave marker. A grave marker is a tall stone tablet made for people with distinction that is inscribed with the deeds of that distinguished person and the names of that person’s immediate family. Lucy’s dad’s grandfather was one such person. The grave stone initially marks the spot where that family buries its dead. However, over the years, these stones get moved and the grave sites get removed. Lucy’s dad’s family stone had apparently been moved. He remembered from memory the first 10 characters on that stone. He has not seen it for 60 years, and it may be the only remaining trace of his parents and grandfather.

So this older fellow led us through wheat fields and irrigation channels. Then we came up over a levee and saw three black vertical stones in a wheat field. We came up the the nearest one and Lucy’s dad fell to his knees and wept. It was his family’s stone. Incredibly moving and dramatic. We stood around the stone for some time while he paid his respects.

After a while, we went back to the main street and the crowd. It had actually grown from about 20 to about 40. We were the biggest show in town. We spoke with a younger man who turned out to be living on the site where Lucy’s dad used to live. Our second miraculous happening. He invited us to have tea in his house.. Lucy’s dad said, “If I go into your house, I will be going back into my house.” Quite amazing. We had tea with him for a while.

There are other anecdotes about this part of the visit that I will share in other stories as they do not quite fit into this particular story.

After a while, we all got back onto the bus and this anachronistic irregularity left town and this became 1940 all over again.

We went to have a lunch down on the Yellow River, the Hwang Ho. We ate at a place that served scorpions. That’s all I really have to say about that place.

To see the river better, we took a ride on a hovercraft. This would seem to most reading this that China was using the latest technology to show off one of its greatest national treasures. Well, they were so proud of their technology that they had all of the engine covers off to show us the engine. No matter it looked, it worked, and we did not end up swimming in the Yellow River. We made our scenic stop on a sand bar down the river. The sand is actually fine silt that is yellow. With silt of this consistency, it would be impossible for this river to ever have any other color, or be clear.

After the river experience, we went back to the hotel where I slept from 4PM until the next morning, and Lucy and the kids went to the Wal-Mart Supercenter down the street. We had Pizza Hut that night. I forgot to mention that I got a bit of a fever the pervious night, and the 10 hours of sleep got me over whatever it was that I had.