When we went to China to teach for a year Mari came home early because her visa was a vacation one. So, I talked one of my students to travel with me by train to the place where China, Mongolia, and Russia met. He had taken “Sky” as his English name. which a quickly turned to “Skylar.” He was a fine young man with whom I had shot some hoops from time to time during the year. The trip took 36 hours, so we had a lot of time on our hands along the way. During the daylight hours Skylar read and slept while I stared out the window at the passing cities, villages, and farmland.
It was fascinating to see how the Chinese peasants had adapted to their natural terrain and the Communist reorganization of the farming communities. Our car was located right next to the dining car, so we had convenient access to meals along the way. The landscape flew bye hour after hour without much change. We went through a few large cities, a few towns, and many small villages. Upon arrival in the city that sat right at the meeting place of these two huge and vastly different countries far away from nearly everything.
We found a room and began to explore what we expected to be something of the exotic city named Manzhuli. Well, we soon realized that all the ancient and/or traditional structures had been replaced with more modern, uninteresting ones. There quite literally nothing of cultural/historical interest left in this small city. WE did find a curiosity store that sold various tourist-type items, maps, and things like pocketknives and binoculars. I bought Skylar a pocketknife and myself a small pair of binoculars made in Russia, which at the time seemed relatively useless.
As it turned out, however, the binoculars are the best ones I have ever had, and I use them all the time. I also bought an exotic Mongolia dress and jacket for Mari. We have as yet to find an appropriate occasion for her to wear it. Skylar and I ate at an ornate Mongolian restaurant, which was interesting and adequate food-wise, but we had to pass on the yak milk. We spent the better part of our two days in Manzhuli playing pool in a small pool hall. I am embarrassed to admit that Skylar won all the games, even though I had grown up playing pool, even billiards, as a kid. We also watched some Chinese basketball on TV, which featured Yao Ming the seven-footer.
All in all, it was a fun and interesting journey, but nothing like I had thought it might have been. On the way home I again spent most of the two days watching farmers spread and retrieve large blankets from over their plastic greenhouses so as to keep their crops warm at night. I am sorry to say that after leaving China I have never heard from Skylar even though I have heard from a few of my former students. I am sorry about this because he was a good friend and showed much promise for his future. In recent years China has undergone even more radical and upsetting changes and I worry about Skylar and my other former students there.