Casual Friday

You can get anywhere in China on public transportation, as long as you don't mind the company. We live in Hainan province, which is an island and life here seems to abide by 'island time'. The locals are also very casual as can be seen from this picture of fellow bus rider with leopard-print pajama pants on. My wife and I were the only ones who seemed to notice when he joined us on the bus. It is very common to see people walking the streets in pajamas. I am, in fact, really enjoying the laid-back lifestyle here and would happily walk around shirtless, except that, being of Eastern European descent, I have much more chest hair than your average Chinese, most of whom have no chest hair at all. Being one of a very small number of foreigners in this city, I already attract plenty of stares, so I will keep my shirt on in order to avoid even more eyes fixed on me.

 It is a strange experience standing out like a sore thumb. I am not sure if I will ever completely get used to being stared at everywhere I go and having people yell out "Hello" just to see if I react. Nine times out of ten, they just giggle if I react at all. Sometimes, it is a relief to go to a city such as Shanghai or Beijing, where foreigners are nothing special and I can blend in. Where we live now, however, is different. I'm not sure if it is because of the heat or what, but everything here seems to be moving in slow motion, at least compared to the bigger cities in China.

 We spent the other day in Haikou, the capital of Hainan Province and, despite it not ranking anywhere close to China's largest cities by population, it felt as busy and crowded as New York City or Chicago. Certainly it is much more densely populated than either of these American cities. We went to the capital to look for folding bicycles, which are commonly sold alongside the traditional non-folding version. The folding kind are nice because we can take them on the public buses and trains and bike around wherever we happen to get off. We would like to explore the countryside so we are opting for traditional bikes, rather than the much more popular electric bikes, which can generally go about 50 km on one charge and are much too heavy to pedal or push if the battery dies in the middle of nowhere.

The island is still relatively undeveloped and we look forward to exploring it before it becomes too developed. The pace of change is very quick. For example, four years go we were completely charmed by the seclusion and simplicity of a place called Dongjiao Coconut Forest (东郊椰林). The other day, we returned for the first time in years only to find that it had lost most of its charm due to the anticipation of increasing numbers of tourists. The most noticeable change was an enormous bridge leading to a huge concrete platform in the middle of the inlet, which completely blocked the view of the ocean and had clearly negatively affected the water quality. I asked one of the locals about this and she told me that a private individual was building a hotel there. She then added, "we do not welcome them". I told her I didn't blame her.

We left the Coconut Forest the same day, disappointed that the place no longer matched our memory of it, but motivated to find new locations to take its place. The only certainty, many say, is death and change. So, in that spirit, we will roll with the changes (which go at breakneck speed here) and keep exploring. As much as I hope to find another peaceful, secluded getaway here on the island, I keep reminding myself that where I am is not truly a source of my peace. Peace and contentment are a state of mind, they come from within, and are not something which comes from outside us.