Journal Entry
By Susan Troupe

September 14, 2005
I am going to include a variety of thoughts. Some of them are from when I was on the trip and some of them are since I returned. I have to admit that preparing for the trip was more challenging than I had expected. For example, trying to find the right items to bring on the trip as well as deciding which suitcase to pack it in. The problem was to pack what was on the list and stay under 40 pounds, e.g., prepare for weather from 50-120 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare for cool mountain weather, monsoon rains, and deserts. Bring sun block, mosquito repellent and first aide supplies. Jeff, our leader, had recommended getting the new clothes that wick perspiration away from your body and adjust to the temperature. I found myself spending hours in Sports Authority, reading labels and learning about a whole new fabric technology that I was totally knew nothing about. I finally got all that done and I really enjoyed the trip.

Returning proved to be much more difficult. I was prepared for the jet lag—I was not prepared for “culture shock.” I believe after being in China for a month and really trying to block out all the obligations that I left behind and just trying to focus on being a student learner, my return to the United States felt like being hit with a ton of bricks. When I was in China, I took off all the layers of responsibilities and obligations such as paying the bills, dealing with all the extra complications of being an American as well as all the roles that I have such as: Division Governor for Toastmasters, member of the Board of Directors for many community based organizations.  When I returned, I had them all given back to me, plus I came back to find my office completely moved and changed with no computer hook-ups, no phone hook-ups and no electrical outlets. It took more time to adjust back to that busy form of life than it took to adjust to living a simpler, less complicated, more peaceful and spiritual form of life.

I think Hurricane Katrina also made me stop and realize that Americans on the Gulf Coast were put in much more difficult situation than we had experienced in China. Yes, we might have been inconvenienced with squat toilets, but we always had access to water and food, while the people who were hit by the hurricane had nothing and our government did not help them for four days. That both shocked me and bothered me very much. How could that happen on our own soil, when we were able to get relief aide to other countries overnight?

Ok, enough said about my entry into China and re-entry back to the United States. Of course everyone asks “How was it?” I reply, “It was great—it was a trip of a life time!”  I then go on to explain mostly what I said in my summary.

I think that people are most often surprised when I tell them about seeing people in 2000-year-old transportation, such as donkey carts using a twenty-first century form of communication (the cell phone). That is a visual that most Americans have not experienced. As I read in one book, over 80% of the American population does not have a passport, which means that they are not traveling outside of the country except to perhaps Mexico and Canada. I would venture to guess more Americans when they do travel internationally, unless they are going for business, travel to Europe or the Caribbean. I have no idea how many Americans really have traveled to China, but I would guess that it is a small percentage. The areas that we visited on this trip, I would say even less Americans have visited. We did meet some Americans in Yunnan, but I do not remember meeting any Americans in Xinjiang, in fact we met only a few Europeans in Yunnan and very few Europeans in Xinjiang. I am told that will change in the next decade or so. China is targeted to be a destination spot. Why not? We saw such beautiful natural beauty—it matched if not exceeded the beauty of the Western part of the United States, with its snow-capped mountains, glaciers, deep valleys and steep mountains, rushing water like in Tiger Leaping Gorge. Right now it seems that only the trekking community seems to know about those places, but in the future, I am sure it will spread to mainstream America, especially after the World Olympics in Beijing in 2008 and the World’s Fair in Shanghai in 2010. I did not feel any anti-American hostility as I have in some of the European countries that I have traveled in. I always felt welcome by the Chinese.

On our trip, we were exposed to a lot of Buddhist monasteries and lamaseries. I have practiced Buddhism for over 20 years, but wasn’t that familiar with Tibetan Buddhism. I saw the reverence that people felt toward His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, who is in exile in India.

I find myself sharing a lot of my personal experiences and feelings with co-workers, students, friends and even strangers. I am sure that I have shared my experiences with over 100 people so far, plus I was interviewed by the local newspaper and the article not only appeared in the paper, but was on their Internet site.

There were many times that I wanted to write in my journal, but the bus rides were generally too bumpy to write legibly and the airplane rides were often too cramped. I did manage to jot down a few things during my trip. I also took lots of notes for each person who lectured.
Here are some excerpts from my journals:

Saturday, July 30—Lugu Lake, Yunnan
I am viewing very beautiful scenery, but we are riding on a very bumpy road. I am enjoying ten (10) foot high sunflowers that are mixed in with rows of corn. (I have never seen that before.) Also, I have never seen pigs and horses eating from the same field with no fences. The chickens were running loose in the courtyard with two cats that did not seem to bother them.

This morning I woke up with the call of a rooster and looked outside and there was a shroud of clouds covering the outside and covering the mountain. I fell back to sleep for a bit and was re-awakened by the rooster calling again. This time I got up and went downstairs across the courtyard and went into the house and saw the mother making a type of flat bread that looked like a pancake. I wish I would have taken a photo.

August 2, 2005—leaving Zhongdian, Yunnan
I interviewed one of our guides and learned that he used to be a teacher. He earned about 600 yuan per month, which is equivalent to 75 American dollars. Now, that he is a guide, he earns 600 yuan as a base plus tips. Some guides with tips make about 1800-2000 yuan per month or $250. That is more than three times what most could make elsewhere. This supports the concept that tourism, especially foreign tourism, is a very powerful economic tool, especially for those in Western China, where there is less industry and manufacturing.

We are not the same after we travel. Every trip that we take, we change. I know that I am not the same person as I was before I left. Instead of buying a lot, I have been giving money to people: guides, Buddhist Lamas, etc. I am acquiring less material objects for me with the exception of a few pieces of jewelry, mostly that I purchased at the Buddhist Lamaseries. I also have bought some books about places from this trip. Otherwise I am only getting a few things as gifts for others when I return.

I have been spinning the Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheels clockwise. They say that you cannot spin them counterclockwise because you cannot go back in time, just like a very vivid dream I had prior to coming on this trip. I dreamt that an alarm clock was going off. I was pushing some buttons and suddenly, the time went forward very quickly and advanced two and half days. I was trying to make it go back and a voice told me that I could not go back in time. Then, I get to China and learn the rule about the prayer wheels and read it in a book that I buy, Searching for Shangri-la: An Alternative Philosophy Travelogue.

What is my destiny? What am I supposed to do next? What am I supposed to do with all of this information and all of the people that I have and will meet on this trip? Am I really searching for Shangri-la?

Other areas to write about:
The search for the Giant Panda Bear and missing the red panda bear.
A heart connection
Looking for the laundromat
Visit to the Chinese pharmacy with herbal medicines

August 3, 2005
Here we are in the plane. I am wide awake so I am going to write. We are on a China South Boeing 737. Last night we were on a China South Airbus. The trip is three hours and thirty minutes. We are 9600 meters above sea level and going over some very large mountains.

China Daily said that the US should be teaching more Chinese to their students. I agree, if their students are learning English, why aren’t we teaching Chinese to our students? Why do only about nine high schools in Connecticut offer Chinese? Our school is interested and is looking into offering it perhaps after school so that both students and adults can learn together.

We are flying over what looks like the Badlands in South Dakota. It is made up of interesting rock formations and desert. There are vast expanses and no green, just brown and red earth and rocks.

Jeff let me borrow his Lonely Planet book and I just read that Urumqi has a population of about 3 million people. Also, that Urumqi is the furthest place from any ocean in the world. It is 2250 kilometers from the ocean. I can relate to this since I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is in the center of North America and very much landlocked. Both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are thousands of miles away. I used to make Lake Superior my “ocean” and travel three hours to Duluth, the furthest inland seaport and watch the large ocean going ships go through the narrow canal.

Here are some web sites to look at when I return:
www.silk-road.com , www.silkroadproject.org , www.uygurworld.com , http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad  Bank hours in Xinjiang are from 10:00am to 1:30 pm and from 4:00 pm to 8:00pm (Beijing time, which is 2 hours different from the unofficial local time.)

Turpan is 154 meters below sea level (about 500 feet). It is the second lowest part of the world after the Dead Sea which is 496 meters below sea level. The population of Turpan is about 56,000 people.

After thought:
One of the things that I was most impressed with was The Nature Conversancy (TNC) and their idea of partnering with Kodak and giving cameras to the villagers and teaching them how to take photos, but letting them decide what to photograph.  TNC asked the villagers to think about photographing what was important to them and what they thought was important to preserve. The result were some of the most interesting and beautiful photos that I have ever seen, many rivaled professional photographs. The other thing is one of the photos that the newspaper decided to use was one with me on a camel on the Silk Road with Karakul Lake and snow-capped mountains in the background. Everyone has said what a beautiful photo that is and I always tell them that it was taken by the boy who was leading my camel. I am not sure if anyone had ever given him any pointers, but he knew what to put in the background and how to frame the photo.

Superlatives: (I have many photos that would go along with the descriptions below.)

The scariest part of the trip—when we were rowing across Lugu Lake in a dug out canoe during an electrical thunderstorm. (It was very dramatic with the curtain of rain coming across the lake.)
The funniest part of the trip—probably when the yak threw me off when I tried to get on top of him.
The neatest part of the trip—riding on the camel on the Silk Road and imagining that I was crossing the entire Silk Road on top of him. (Caravans had about 50-60 camels, 20-30 donkeys and 50-60 horses.)
The most beautiful part of the trip—it is hard to pinpoint, so much of China was beautiful. I loved the deep valleys and steep mountains. I loved the desert with the snow-capped mountains in the background.
The nicest people—again I would say that is hard to say. We were always made to feel very welcome. I guess when we had a chance to really talk with the local people, e.g., at Lugu Lake, the English Corner in Kashgar and the people in the Yurts.

I feel that I will always have a bond with the people that traveled with us, since we all experienced a unique trip.