There is a well-known law of nature, called Murphy’s Law, which dictates that if anything can go wrong on a venture, it usually does. Occasionally, however, something goes impressively right, just when you need it.
This happened on the recent NZCFS ‘Diverse China’ tour organised by Dave Bromwich, our congenial president.
The tour bus was winding along a remote corner of China, and as we had been going for several hours and the general age of the tour members was about 70, we asked for a toilet stop. Two members took the opportunity to pop round the corner and buy a hand of bananas from the shopping centre, a short walk down the road. Imagine our horror when a policeman approached waving a piece of paper stating that we were in a Forbidden Zone for Foreigners and would we kindly step into the police car and go to the police station. After getting our breath back, we insisted on returning to the bus, and were followed by the police car. We declared to an astonished bus group that we were about to be escorted to the station! Did we look like typical spies? Some of us had problems climbing onto the bus even! Were we a danger to China when we couldn’t travel for longer than 3 hours without a toilet stop? It appeared so!
We spoke to Dave, declaring that “We have a problem”! Dave, our intrepid leader, spoke to the two policemen in Chinese who insisted that the whole company be driven to the police station, where Dave, Wang Feng (our Chinese tour guide) and the bus driver, trooped into the station whilst the rest of us sat on the bus in various degrees of curiosity, trepidation and shock. As if to underline our predicament, a poor wretch was driven up to the station and assisted out by another policeman – mainly because he was fastened by hand cuffs and leg irons. “Was this to be our fate?”, we wondered!
Meanwhile, all was quiet in the station, until suddenly, after about an hour, we heard laughter. This was promising! Dave and the others came out of the station and were surrounded by the rest of us. This is where Murphy’s Law of averages failed miserably for once!
Last year [2012], Dave Bromwich had been presented with a ‘Dunhuang Award’ by the Government of Gansu Province. The award states that this was ‘the principal honour granted only to the outstanding foreign experts working in Gansu’. Dave, being a modest kind of guy, hadn’t told many people about this award, but, by an amazing coincidence, he happened to have it in his pocket just in our time of need!
On one side of the Award is a picture of Dave with the citation: ”This is to certify that David Bromwich from New Zealand has been granted the 2012 “Dunhuang Award” by the Government of Gansu Province!” Of further great fortune was the fact that the Award went on to declare: ‘The Government of Gansu Province hopes that related organs in China would kindly afford the bearer assistance in case of need” – absolutely tailor-made at this point in time! What more could we have wished for?
As a result of the award, Dave has been able to contact provincial leaders more easily and assistance in promoting NZCFS training programmes has been greatly improved.
However, to drive the subject home, Dave waxed lyrical about Rewi Alley’s accomplishments and how Rewi was one of the 10 most beloved foreign friends of China. And he promised that we, as members of Rewi’s Society, duly followed his tenets. And as even further proof of our honesty and uprightness, Dave rang a Government Department, who elaborated on Dave’s virtues to the police’s satisfaction. An interesting exercise then developed whereby Dave’s age and that of several policemen and women was guessed at with our hero coming out the winner by a head. Having regained face and settled the matter to their satisfaction, the police allowed us to leave.
County boundary – we were free to go!
We were escorted in style to the boundary of Huanglong County, Shaanxi, by the police car, but not before all our cameras were examined and we were asked to delete all pictures of that county, which left us all extremely curious as to what we had accidentally been photographing there? In the opinion of the travellers, it was Dave’s finest hour and we all appreciated his skill in getting us all out of a tricky situation. A fascinating place is China and so exciting to visit – as all the publicity declares!
On a more serious note, we were afraid that our local Chinese guide’s licence might have been revoked. But fortunately this didn’t happen!
The ‘forbidden status” of the county had not been known by the driver or guide, and there was no road sign to that effect. But, the local travel service cannot be blamed as Dave had made a route change on the run. Wang Fang, our guide, and Dave both wrote a self-criticism for their follies, and this also helped overcame the situation.
For future tours, it is recommended to always check with the local travel service to confirm that any tour-route change does not pass through an unmarked forbidden zone.
– Teri France
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