The Juggernaut

Love affairs are strange phenomena.  When they strike, they strike with the passion of an uncontrollable force.  I liken this force to the X-Men’s  powerful villain, codenamed Juggernaut.  Like a love affair, the Juggernaut can ram through anything.  No barrier or wall can stop him.  He cruises through and knocks down whatever stands in his way with no effort at all.

Born as Cain Marko, the Juggernaut is actually the stepbrother of Professor Charles Xavier, the leader of the X-men and the world’s most powerful telepath.  According to legend, Cain Marko received his superpowers when he happened upon a mystical cave while he and Charles were stationed outside of Korea during the Korean War of the 1950s.   Inside of the cave he discovers a magical gem belonging to the entity Cyttorak.  When he touches the gem, a voice speaks out, “Whosoever touches this gem shall be granted the power of the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak! Henceforth, you who read these words, shall become … forevermore … a human juggernaut.”  After the dramatic moment, unfortunately, due to mettling with the balance of the cave’s mystical aura, there is a small earth tremor causing the cave to collaps around Cain Marko.  Believing his stepbrother to be buried alive,  Charles Xavier fights the good fight until the end of the Korean War in 1953.  Later, however, the Juggernaut comes back for revenge, having been cast aside and left for dead in the caves of North Korea…

Resolution

I have my own personal juggernaut of love for the West of China.  Last year I took a week long trip to the Hui Ethnic Autonomous region of Ningxia in search of a song.  This year, the plan is to go to Gansu^W, even further west of Ningxia and home to the Western most point of the Great Wall.   I’ve always wanted to go Gansu ever since first eating in a Gansu noodle restaurant during the 2 years I lived in Jiangxi^W.  I found the people there so different, their looks and their features, just the way they spoke to me.  On January 1st of this year, one of my many New Year’s resolutions I made was to go and visit Gansu and Fujian^W sometime during 2010.  I could have chosen any place.  I just chose those two spots at random because I’ve been to neither one.  Sometimes one has to choose. 

The Withering West

After telling the boss, Zhao Jing, that I’ll be taking a week off to go on holiday, I leave the office to go to the ticket agent.  I have a rough itinerary in mind, but it’s still kind of murky.  I don’t care about going to the capital of Gansu.   I know I want to visit the Western most point of the Great Wall, however.  I find the name of the town closest to that point, Jiayuguan^W.  That’s where I’ll go.

When I get to the counter at the ticket office, the woman tells me that the train I want for Jiayuaguan doesn’t leave until Sunday.  That’s too late for my likes.  I ask if there is one to Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu.  No sleepers.  The train ride is around 30 hours.  That’s too long to sit for me.  I start to think of other options.  There’s another huge province called Qinghai near Gansu.  Ok.  Why not?  No cigar.  No tickets there.

“Do you have any tickets to Fuzhou?”  the woman at the counter looks up at me.  Fuzhou is in the South of China.  Gansu is in the West.  It would be like buying a ticket for Florida when one’s destination is Denver.

“Fuzhou?  You know where that is?”  she asks me.  The people behind me in line are getting fidgety. 

I know where it is.  She looks up the ticket.  No go.  Lunch time is approaching.  The love affair with the West has withered away.  Now I just want to go somwhere….but where?

Lunch and Answers

I go down the street to get some lunch and think about where it is I will go this week.  Gansu is out.  It’s just not meant to be.  I don’t want to go back to the office without any tickets, though.  Maybe the love affair isn’t with Gansu at all, maybe it’s just with getting out, with travel.

The restaurant is crowded.  I find one table with an empty bowl still left there from the previous diner.  Sitting down, I order a bowl of rice with eggplant and some hot water.  A couple of minutes later the food arrives, steaming.  My mind is a blank, and the steam from the egglplant makes it foggier.  Where to go?

“Excuse me, can I sit here?”  I look up to see a girl of about 25 years old standing in front of me. 

“No problem.”  She sits down, I continue to eat my food and think.  I look over at the table to the left of me.  A single customer is slurping down some noodles with a gigantic suuuuuuuuuuck.  It occurs to me to ask the girl her advice.  She’s Chinese.  Maybe she’ll pull something out of her hat.

“So, I’ve got one question…” I start.  She looks up.  “If you had a week to travel anywhere in China, where would you go?”

“Dalian,” she says.  “That’s where I’m from.  Near the sea.  I’d go to Dalian.”

Liaoning^W.  Exactly.  Why didn’t I think of it before?  In the previous year I had the notion to take a month to walk from Beijing to Dandong^W, a city in Liaoning Province where Dalian is located.  Dandong lies on the border of China and North Korea.  I never went through with this walking plan, but Dandong remained etched in my brain as a place of cold mystery, like steel.  I talk with the girl for a while about Dalian, the coastal city, but Dandong is on my mind.  Northeast China.  I don’t know anything about it, and that’s enough for me to know that I know I want to go there.

After lunch I walk back to the ticket saleswoman.

“One ticket for Dandong.”  I have a sleeper.  The train ride is 21 hours long.  21 hours away from the North Korean border.  The Juggernaut’s cave awaits.

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