Raise the Red Lantern movie location!

15.05.2015

On Friday night I caught the overnight train to Taiyuan. The city bus stops running at 9 p.m., so I went downtown at 9:30 and bought a bean salad and some beer at the night market nearby. I tried to just enjoy the scene and immerse myself in the sights, sounds and smells, but it wasn't happening.

I got my audiobook out and spaced out until it was time to go. Birdsong was on there, depressing stuff.

The waiting room was oddly warm and I found myself nodding off while simultaneously keeping one eye open, in case the train arrived. When it finally did, the walk over to the track woke me right back up and I had a terrible time getting back to sleep. Eventually, I managed to drift off here and there throughout the night.

In the morning, I went straight to the Qiao Family Courtyard. I had a tough time finding bus 611 that went to the bus station I needed (Jiannan). Eventually, I got there, and I had a few minutes for noodles before the bus to the courtyard left. Cold noodles smothered in peanut sauce with cucumbers. Fantastic.

By the time I got to the bus, it was full. The bus driver kicked some people off who had knowingly boarded the bus earlier than they were entitled to. I hate how people always try to fudge the rules. Ugh. How is it so hard to just get on the right bus?

Anywho, an hour and a half later, I was transported into the pre-communist world, where a super rich merchant lived and conducted his business with his family and hundreds of servants.

The film Raise the Red Lantern was shot there, so the whole thing felt oddly familiar and depressing, like the movie. I hadn't seen the movie in a long time, so it was all a very vague sort of familiarity. Strange.

After wandering around in the 150 rooms open to the public, I headed back to town. I bought a creamy melon popsicle. By the time I was done, there was a bus waiting in front of me, ready to take me back. Nice timing, bus. I snoozed all the way back to Taiyuan.

My hosts told me to take bus 805 to get to their house, but none of the drivers would let me. One finally took me to another stop, where I had to take 831 all the way to the end.

Amy's husband, Howard met me at the stop.

I said hi, when I noticed him looking for me, and told him I was looking for a lady, not a man. He replied thusly: "You mean my wife? She's no lady!"

Ummm.... Ok then....

He was a friendly New Zealander who had quite a mean streak when talking to and about Amy's cute teddy bear dog. I was more than a little horrified at the language he would throw around, actually.

I was also taken aback by the way he was constantly referring to his wife in a sexual way, and telling me how her beautiful friends are "better than strippers". I was getting nauseated.

Amy had made chicken with mashed potatoes and salad. I was starving, and this was much appreciated. I had picked up half of a giant watermelon for dessert, so we also had that for dinner together.

She seemed like a really nice, reasonable person, so I was unsure how she ended up with a nasty old man like Howard. I made sure to tell her about my relationship with a much older man, (who was 5,000 times more polite and thoughtful) just in case she needed to know there could be a better life than this.

This guy was so arrogant and he also had a brain tumor, seriously, which may or may not have affected his judgment.

After some extremely awkward conversation, Amy suggested we go for a walk along the river to see the lights. There was a giant illuminated dragon floating on the water for no apparent reason, but it was cool anyway.

Waking up on the train