To China

By Wayland

            Two years ago, during the summer, I was on a plane. We started to feel like we’re moving. I opened the window and saw ants. Then realized we were actually leaving America.

            Fourteen hours is a very long time. China is at the other side of the planet, so I expected it to be a very long trip. I thought I had enough patience for that amount of time on a plane. The problem was I needed to stretch. I didn’t have enough space to move my legs without disturbing the person sitting in front of me (who didn’t look too kind). The next problem was I couldn’t sleep well. I mean, it was quiet and all, but I just couldn’t sleep after my first eight hour nap. Instead, I was thinking about America and my memories. After that I was simply bored. The need for entertainment made me lose some brain cells. I continued to suffer until we reached China. I was so happy until I realized I had to do it again after a month.

            We met one of our aunts and her family right in Hong Kong after we left the torturous plane. Hong Kong is a city full of tall buildings, kind of like New York. It was night time, but that didn’t make me want to sleep. The different time zones prevented me from being tired during the night, and made me sleepy during day. We stayed at my aunt’s apartment. I managed to sleep, but it was an uncomfortable sleep. I woke up sleepy again, and my legs refused to move.

That day, we went on a tour to visit some monuments. The heat of the sun during summer was burning my skin. I was pounded with waves of heat. Hong Kong is close to the equator, so the heat was more intense. The combination of being tired and sweating made me want to go home after 50 minutes. Even in the blazing heat, the tours were enjoyable. It made me forget about the heat and the sweat. Most of the tours contain sculptures of emperors, holy animals (especially dragons and lions), and Buddhas. Sometimes, a tour contained a fort or a Chinese building full of artifacts. There were some tours that were really distant, so we had to use the  underground train.

For food, we went to restaurants, or we cooked. It usually had rice with dumplings, chicken, and more. After the main meal, the after-dish contained citrus and watermelons.

            After one week of tiring, fun tours, we went to Guan Zhou which is south of Hong Kong. Unfortunately, Guan Zhou is much less sanitary than Hong Kong. We met the rest of my aunts. In Guan Zhou, there were a lot of people trying to sell their goods on the streets that were mostly fruits and vegetables. We did the same thing we did in Hong Kong, but went on different tiring tours. It had the same things: forts, shrines, and Buddahs. Then, I got sick. I had to drink medicine through a straw three times a day. I was like “Three times a day! Uhg.” I had to drink it once during the morning, once at noon, and once at night. I mostly complained about taste. Drinking the medicine is like drinking a used toilet in the public. Luckily, I grew better after two days, but I never gave credit to the disgusting medicine.

            After another whole week of the same thing, we went back to Hong Kong and stayed there for a week. On that week, we played ping-pong, surfed the internet, and slept during the day. That week was probably the emptiest week I’ve ever had. On the final day, we went to the airport waving goodbye to our aunt’s family. We took off into the air; I started to think about China.