Mid-morning July 4th: My brother and I got our exit stamps from the Vietnamese immigration office in Lao Cai, shouldered our packs and walked across the bridge spanning the Red River--crossing the neutral zone between boarders we were temporarily visitors to no nation, in limbo in a no-man's land. We proceeded under the large arch on the far side sporting huge Mandarin characters that market the passage to Chinese soil.
As we entered the immigration office, considerably more modern than the one we just left, we were greeted by nearly incomprehensible English, given forms and directed to a que. Stepping up to the counter I handed over my passport, after glancing at it the border official returned a troubled looked. He repeatedly flipped though the booklet, examining each page closely while scanning them into his computer, but five minutes of this didn’t sooth the concern he expressed without words and he called over his superior. She too silently inspected me and my passport with obvious suspicion in her eyes and then escorted me out of line and into a back office where I was pointed to a seat.
“Do you speak Chinese?” she asked, her English very difficult to decipher.
“No,” I replied, thinking wow I sure hit this language barrier head-on and it might have consequences.
“ID,” she requested.
Handing over my driver's license she disappeared out of the room without explaining what the fuss was about...this was interesting. Adam had been admitted by this point and sat watching this unfold from the other side of the barrier, equally in the dark about what was going on. The other customs agent sitting in the room threw me a nod and smile seemingly unconcerned about the situation, so I sat back and shifted my attention off of worry. A long twenty minutes later the women appeared again and handed back my passport. Through panamime she conveyed that the officials were having a hard time reconciling the shaven baby face in my passport photo with my now bearded mug. Apologizing repeatedly she showed me through the gates without scanning my bags. Laughing about it Adam and I stepped out the doors onto the streets of Hekou and into the fullness of China for the first time.
New to any new context it takes a bit to learn the game--ports of entry almost always support a community of hustlers that approach tourists in this vulnerable period of novice with overpriced offerings wrapped in the comfort of English. We shrugged off some aggressive money changing and ride offers en route to the bus station. The vibe of the scene was distinctly different than Vietnam, humming with an ambiance of prosperity. Despite the heat of the day we navigated bustling tree-lined sidewalks past busy storefront, many with luxury offerings. The walks and public spaces as well as the wide streets they skirted were all immaculately clean. Cars made up a larger portion of road traffic than in other Asian countries I’ve visited, dominated by newish mid-sized sedans. Motorbikes were still present, but unlike those I’d grown accustomed to elsewhere these slid by in near silence—most of the country’s fleet is electric powered.
The delay at the boarder caused us to miss the bus to the small town we were aiming for, which we took an omen to head straight to Kunming instead, Yunnan Province’s largest city. A friendly English speaking native helped procure tickets and after a quick lunch we boarded our northbound bus. A short way out of town we were flagged to a halt by stern faced officials that boarded the bus to check everyone’s IDs. The government keeps close tabs on the movement of its citizens, but after little delay we were underway again. We passed through a toll row, the first of a six on the 5 hour ride, before spinning wheels down the huge empty highway. Gazing beyond the glass China’s metamorphosis toward modernity, which is what I came to experience firsthand, was more pervasive than I ever expected. Two hours into the country I found myself simultaneously amazed and disheartened by the sheer scale of human influence and the transformation it was driving—I was excited to see what the month ahead would bring.
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