作为女性在中国独自搭便车让我体会到了好客 [美国媒体]

WHAT HITCHHIKING ALONE AS A FEMALE IN CHINA TAUGHT ME ABOUT HOSPITALITY

作为女性在中国独自搭便车让我体会到好客

【日期】2014年12月10日


 
On the second Wednesday of the month, Kristin Addis from Be My Travel Muse writes a guest column featuring tips and advice on solo female travel. It’s an important topic I can’t cover so I brought in an expert to share her advice. This is her column this month.
 
本月的第二个周三，Kristin Addis在“我的旅行游记”专栏为独自旅行的女性写了一些提示和建议。这是一个和重要的主题，我不能一带而过，所以我找了一个专家来分享她的经历。一下是她本月的专栏。

It was February in China and, with the town of Lijiang’s elevation in Yunnan province, still very much a cold winter wonderland. Standing outside waiting wasn’t how I wanted to spend the morning. But Ya Ting had such enthusiasm for the idea of hitchhiking that opting for the bus just seemed boring at this point. She had been hitchhiking around China for months and considered it such a casual and obvious option that it took the fear right out of me.
 
二月我在中国，去了云南省的丽江，冬季时节她是一个寒冷的仙境。站在外面等不是我想要的早晨。这个时段等公交车太无聊了雅婷很热情的提了个搭便车的建议。她已经搭便车患有中国好几个月了，然而这样一个临时的直白建议却吓到我了。

China had been on my bucket list ever since studying Mandarin in Taiwan seven years prior. I knew from conversations with friends that traveling around China would not be as carefree and easy as in Southeast Asia. What I didn’t plan on was spending about a month without coming across another foreigner, hitchhiking over 1,000 miles, and learning more about Chinese culture and hospitality than I think possible from traveling by bus or train.
 
自从七年前在台湾学了普通话，中国就被列上了我的清单。和朋友聊天中我得知，在中国的旅行不会像东南亚那般无忧无虑和简单。这一个来月，我原本没打算跟其他外国人结伴，预备自个搭便车旅行这一千公里，我觉得坐公共汽车和火车远没有这样能了解到中国的文化和好客。
 

 
Ya Ting had taken me under her wing after hearing me speaking Mandarin in a hostel dorm in Lijiang. She was fascinated by my fluency and wanted to travel together, which was how we ended up on the side of the road with looking for a ride to the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Within in twenty minutes, we had our first ride. I guess it wouldn’t take hours after all. He couldn’t take us all the way, and ended up dropping us at a freeway crossroads. I figured that would be the end of our luck, but almost immediately we got another ride.
 
雅婷在丽江的小旅店听了我的普通话之后开始把我置于她的庇护之下。她惊讶于我汉语的流利程度，决定跟我一起旅行，我们讨论决定去虎跳峡。二十分钟后，我们搭上了第一趟便车。几个小时后，因为路线不同车主把我们放到了一个十字路口。我以为我们的好运气到此为止了，但是没多久我们又坐上了了一辆便车。

Hitchhiking turned out to be more of a study of anthropology than a scary, irresponsible joy ride. It was astonishingly easy and drivers turned out to be incredibly nice and normal. As a new hitchhiker, I expected creeps and serial murderers I’d have to fight off with mace. In reality, they came from all normal walks of life – members of minority village tribes, university students, and businessmen returning home from a work trip.
 
比起可怕不靠谱的兜风，搭便车更有人类学研究意义。这令人惊讶的简单司机也非常亲切正常。作为搭便车的新手，我得克服可能会遇上连环杀手这种毛骨悚然的想法。在实际生活中，他们都是普通人——来自少数民族村落，大学生和商务旅行返程的商人。

Not once did I feel threatened or unsafe.
 
我没有感觉到任何威胁和不安全。

Our most noteworthy encounter was when a 20-something kid picked us up. He couldn’t take us the whole way so his uncle bought us lunch and a bus ticket for the rest of the journey. It’s as though he felt obligated to help us find a way to complete our trip. It brought tears of joy and gratitude to my eyes. This was the first time I understood the importance of generosity and the high esteem that guests hold in China. It was a selfless act that would repeat itself in the weeks to come.
 
印象最深刻的是一个20岁的孩子在路上捡到了我们。他没法送我们到目的地，所以他的叔叔给我们买了午饭和余下路程的汽车票。似乎他觉得有责任帮我们完成我们的旅程。这令我感动又喜悦的流下了眼泪。头一次我了解了中国这个东道国的对客人的慷慨和高度尊重。这种无私的行为在随后的几周我们又经历了好几次。
 

 
Ya Ting’s theory had been we were so getting so lucky because we were a local and a foreigner together, and that had sparked intrigue. She didn’t think we would get so lucky once we split up. After a few weeks traveling together, we said good-bye and I would test her theory.
 
雅婷认为，我们如此幸运是因为我们的组合是一个本国人和一个外国人。她认为一旦我们分开这种好运也就到此为止了。几周的结伴旅行后，我们互道了再见，我打算测试一下她的说法。

I stood behind the tollbooth on a heavily trafficked highway onramp in Sichuan province, casually lowering my thumb each time a police car drove by. I was well-aware of the challenge before me. Ya Ting was no longer around to do the talking nor did I have someone to lean upon if something went wrong. Now I was just a strange foreigner on her own who suddenly had to manage to converse with a borderline-conversational Mandarin ability.
 
我站在通往四川省的一个繁忙公路收费站后面，对每一辆驶过的警察朝下伸出我的大拇指。我意识到了这是一个挑战。雅婷不在了，如果什么事出错了我没有人可以依靠。现在我是一个只能靠自己的外国人，不得不用不怎么熟练的普通话去交谈。

At first, a few cars slowed down for a closer look, only to speed off. Then others simply weren’t going in my direction. Minutes stretched on and I was feeling defeated. After about thirty minutes (or an eternity depending on who is counting), a kind duo picked me up and took me the entire 8 hours to Chengdu. They hosted lunch on the way, and, as I had come to learn was typical of Chinese culture, refused to allow me to pay for any of it. I was amazed at the kindness still extended to me now that I was just a foreigner on her own and no longer had Ya Ting’s dynamic personality to help me along. This reinforced my belief that people weren’t being friendly because of Ya Ting but that Chinese culture dictates a hospitality we don’t often see in the West.
 
起初，几辆车放慢速度只是看了看，只有一辆停了下来。而其他的跟我方向不同。几分钟后我感到了灰心丧气。三十分钟后（也许是一个世纪取决于谁计时了），一个好心人把我捡了起来，8个小时候把我送到了成都。他们在路上请我吃了午饭，并且，知道我是来了解中国文化时，拒绝我掏钱回报。我很惊讶，没有了雅婷的活波个性之后，我只是个外国人，仍然受到了热情的帮助。这增强了我的信念，人们对待我友好不是因为雅婷，而是因为我们在西方从来不曾看到的中国热情好客的文化。
 

 
A week later, two business partners returning from a trip from Tibet picked me up. They drove about twice as fast as the busses and, in between white knuckling in the back seat and eating the occasional slice of yak jerky (delicious dehydrated beef-like meat and Tibetan spices), we discussed the topography of California as compared to Sichuan province.
 
一周后，两个商业伙伴从西藏旅行回来接我。他们开车速度比乘汽车快了约两倍的时间，坐在后座中间吃着牦牛肉干（一种加了西藏香料制成的干牛肉。），我们讨论了加利福尼亚和四川省的地形差别。

They stopped partway for a lunch of the famous Ya An fish, which the driver, Mr. Li, had selected from the fish tank, along with some six other massive dishes to be split amongst three people. He explained that the fish had a double-edged sword inside its head. Given my perplexed expression he elected to show me, calling over the waitress and asking her to break the fish’s head open.

途中大家停下来吃了一顿着名的雅安鱼当午饭，开车的李先生从鱼缸里选了一条鱼，随后被3个人切开分到了留个盘子里，他解释说鱼脑袋里有一把双刃剑（这是个啥鬼，求解惑？）为了让我更清楚一点，他叫了服务人员来要求把鱼脑袋破开。
 
I was all but convinced I was going to have to eat fish brain until the waitress triumphantly pulled out a sword-shaped bone from the fish’s head. She then cleaned it and fashioned it into a bracelet. It simultaneously became the most sharp and lethal yet genuinely interesting piece of jewelry anyone had ever given me. It felt like my heart grew two sizes it that moment.
 
我几乎以为我得吃鱼脑了，直到服务员从鱼头抽出一块剑一般锋利的骨头。她把骨头清理干净做成了一个手镯。它瞧着锋利又致命，从没人送过我如此一件有趣的首饰。那一刻我开心极了。
 

 
China smashed many of my perceptions. Before this, I never understood why anyone hitchhiked. Getting into vehicles with strangers seemed dangerous and stupid. In reality, it taught me about kindness, improved my language ability immensely, and provided an insider’s view as a foreigner in China. From eating meals with locals, to sitting in their cars, to hearing the music they liked most, or whether they preferred bagged chicken feet to dried fruit, I witnessed Chinese life in a way that almost nobody else gets to see. Without hitchhiking, I may never have understood the generous and communal nature of Chinese people.
 
中国的旅行打破了我很多看法。这之前，我一直不能理解为啥有人要搭便车。和陌生人进入一辆车是愚蠢又危险的。而这次旅行，教给了我善良，提高我语言能力的同时，也让作为一个在中国的外国人从内部视角看到了她真实的样子。和当地人一起吃饭，搭乘他们的车，听他们最喜欢的音乐，或是品尝他们最喜欢的袋装鸡爪和干果，我亲自经历目睹了没人能看到的中国人的生活。没有这次搭便车旅行的经历，我永远不可能了解中国人的慷慨和他们热情好客的民族天性。