Travel to the Middle Kingdom

When we sailed up the Huangpu River and
approached the wharf in Shanghai, I felt the tension rise.

As long as I can remember, I've always been very interested in how people around the world live. Therefore I have traveled a lot since the mid seventies and tried to understand other people's way of life. But above all, I have also wanted to put my own borders on the test. After my first long trip, which went to the USA and Canada in 1983, I burned for new experiences and challenges.

I became increasingly interested in the rich ancient culture, China. An empire, that in many fields, and for thousands of years, had been far ahead of our own culture, but which now seems to be overtaken. Then in 1988 I went all the way. I began to study Chinese at the University in Aarhus, Denmark, with Chinese language as the main subject.

It is common for the Danish students, studying Chinese to stay in China after the second year of study. Therefore, I also felt that the time had come to see it, hear the language and use what I had learned the last few years.

Dare - dare not

Before I decided to stay at a Chinese university and live in China for a year, I obviously had a lot of reflection. Because I belong to the small breed of 'muscle swindlers' (Danish slang for people with Muscular Dystrophy), there was naturally a lot of issues that arose. First, I had to go out without my electric wheelchair and then decide whether it could be used there. How should I handle a full year in my manual wheelchair, if the motorized could not be used? What should I do, if I got pneumonia? How would my only 35 kg heavy body react if I got a prolonged diarrhea? What should I do if my helpers got sick, or we suddenly could not stand each other out? There were a number of issues which neither I nor anyone else could answer. Every time I came up to the same conclusion: 'Who dares nothing, nothing wins'. So I had to try.

Then there was a lot of preparation to be done. It took much more of my time than I had imagined. It meant that I had to give up an exam, and I did not read as much language as I should. There were many problems along the way to be resolved. In particular, there were much bureaucratic stuff that had to fall into place. Fortunately, there was great kindness from many people to solve it in the best way. At the same time I got great support from my friends and my family who all showed great interest in this matter. So a week before the departure date, the last issues were resolved.

First stop – Hong Kong

From I was quite little, I've always been told that if I continued to dig, then I would come down to China. I try to delude myself, that I have become wiser during the years. So when I, on the 2nd. of September, along with my two helpers, Jens and Karsten, started on the journey to the other side of the world, it was not with shovel, hoe and spade. But by going into the Singapore Airlines Jumbo Jet, Boeing 747.

After various pillows, blankets and bags were placed under legs, feet and behind my back, I was under the circumstances seated quite well. The first 8 hours were OK, but the last 8 hours I could really feel that I had a body. My back ached, my feet were swollen and my legs were numb. So after 16 hours of flying, Singapore airport was received with open arms. Or let me rather say that I received the airport half lying, half sitting.

After several hours of waiting at the airport and one last little flight, we reached our first destination - Hong Kong. Hong Kong is one of the few colonies which Britain still posses but it disappear from the British Empire in 1997, when it is handed over to China.

30 floors of glass

We landed in the middle of Hong Kong city. The first thing that jumped out at me was the countless skyscrapers with huge glass facades. 30 floors constructions are considered small buildings here. Driving through the suburbs after dark was like driving in a future city. Unreal large concrete blocks with cold neon lights in almost all windows, and yet at the same time knowing that behind every window there were fine living individuals with each of their own history. It is clearly, that the city with approx. 6 million residents is the colony's centre of excellence.

The next day when the sun again shed its light and its hot rays down over this hotbed, we got the opportunity to see the incredible contradictions that Hong Kong could offer. Since the colony showing clear signs of being a free trade area, it is absolutely the city of businessmen.

Perhaps it was not surprising to see the well-dressed businessman in front of the elevator, use the waiting time to make a call on his cell phone. By contrast it seemed to me very odd to see a businessman standing and phoning in the middle of the sidewalk, while beside him sat a beggar who tried to raise money for supper.

a Rolls Royce for every half-kilometer

It was also grotesque to see some 3-5 wooden storey's, one more ramshackle and flammable than the other, be squeezed between the massive architectural works of art which some of the towers are. While Hong Kong has approx one Rolls Royce per half-kilometer length of road, then there are, thousands of Vietnamese refugees sitting in the overcrowded refugee camps, where space is often a square meter per person.

We were lucky to stay in an old Norwegian mission station which was just outside the city, up in the hills, in a forest and jungle area. It was therefore nice and liberating to be able to get away from the hectic metropolis life.

The actual hostel was slightly down hill, through some small trails. So it was tough work when I and the chair had to be carried down crooked stairs, over gravel paths and tree roots that came across, but it was wonderful to come from noise and smog to birds singing, banana trees, trees with big beautiful red and yellow flowers, various snakes and lots of mosquitoes.

One day at breakfast, one of my fellow students from university and his wife came up. They had been given jobs by the Danish Seamen's Church. Through one from the hostel, they had heard that I was in the area. In the evening we all went out with some other Danes to see the old Danish movie 'Day of wrath' by Carl Th. Dreyer. It was a strange feeling to sit a small flock of Danes on the other side of the world and see an old Danish movie. The world has certainly become smaller.

A week after leaving Denmark, we went aboard the ship 'Shanghai' to sail to our final destination - Shanghai.

Middle Kingdom

When we sailed up the Huangpu River and approached the wharf in Shanghai, I felt the tension rise. What I had been waiting for for several years, was about to happen. I had come to the 'Middle Kingdom'. It would shortly be seen whether all my efforts had been fruitless, or if I would get my residence permit.

It was with the adrenaline pumping around the body that I was carried down the ship's stairs and got solid ground under the wheels. And it was with wobbling wheels that I approached the immigration and passport control. Maybe it was mostly because of the heavy equipment that we brought with us. At immigration, I handed over my passport and visa with a beating heart. There was not the slightest sign of a single worry line. We got our stamp and went on to the customs, where everything was repeated.

Right in front of the port office, there was a minibus taxi, which in 45 minutes took us through China's largest city with approx. 12 million inhabitants and brought us to the outskirts of Shanghai, where Fudan University is located. My home for the next 10 months. It's unbelievable that everything went so easy after all the troubles I had at home. I waited for the problems that may occur. But even when we had to enroll at the university, most of the people took it very relaxing, that this strange version of a foreigner had come to study Chinese.

creepy-crawlies and cockroaches

The view from the roof of the building where I lived.

My first impression of the place was pretty desolate. It was almost as bad as I feared. Everything was bleak, gray and dirty. In the rooms there were plenty of mosquitoes, creepy-crawlies and large cockroaches. The canteen most resembled a slaughter hall, but after we cleaned the rooms and I had put my few belongings in place, it began to resemble a home.

When I got used to the gray neighborhood, I even thought that I would thrive here for the next 10 months. And when I came to see me around outside the ghetto for foreign students, I was convinced that I would like to be here.

Every time I move outside our own little area, an accident is about to happen because all cyclists must turn around to see what kind of strange creature I am. And traffic in Shanghai is something special.

Theoretically, they drive in the same side of the road as in Denmark, but it is certainly only in theory. The times we have driven a taxi, the driver has crossed through the crowd of thousands of cyclist and pedestrians. Thereby, he has just as often driven at the left side of the road as the right side. In this way there arose quite exciting situations when he was driving in the wrong side of the road while an oncoming car has remained on his side of the road.

Fudan University

The actual Fudan University, where the Chinese students are living and studying, and where I have 18 hours of lessons per week, is situated about 15 minutes walk from where we, the foreigners, live. It is a beautiful area with many small avenues and some green areas and parks. At the main entrance stands a giant statue of the great helmsman, Chairman Mao Zedong. This statue is still solid, in contrast to a similar statue at one of Beijing's universities, which have been blown up.

If we go in the opposite direction, we encounter the real 'China'. There are streets full of interesting stalls and shops, bookstores, bread shops, fruit stalls, clothes shops and a myriad of small restaurants.

Fortunately we can buy a good meal for 1.5 to 7 DDK on a street restaurants because the meals at the canteen is completely unacceptable. The food in the canteen is always cold, but then there are good chances of finding various insects such as cockroaches and flyblow in the diet.

In the same neighborhood, there are different markets with vegetables, meat hanging for display along with fish and turtles. Chickens crammed into small cages. Stuffed pancakes with various vegetables. Jiaozi - pasta stuffed with meat or vegetables, lots of Chinese noodles, small speared and grilled frogs and birds with head and guts, half rotten eggs, and much more that I do not yet know.

When the electric wheelchair arrived

When I had been here almost a month, I was lucky enough to get my electric wheelchair out here. It was a huge relief, because now I was able to adjust seat height to the table and thus could write and read without problems. At the same time, I was able to move around the neighborhood on my own.

The sensation that I create in my manual wheelchair, is nothing compared to the bustle I create when I go in the electric wonder. Many turns around on their bike and follow me a while to see how this strange monster works.

The other evening when I and Karsten went around the market, we stopped to chat a little. It lasted only a few half minutes before there was a ring of young people with black hair and small eyes around us, but when I raised the seat up, and was higher than some of the Chinese, the ring grew immediate and far out into the street. A total surprise, when I lowered the seat again.

There is still much to marvel at here in the 'Middle Kingdom' for us Westerners, but certainly also for the Chinese, who are experiencing things that are completely new to them.