The Lighter Side of China: Summer Travel

For the past 18 years, since I began living in China, I follow the same ritual every time I go traveling for the summer. The night before we leave, I pack my bags, keeping 50% of the space free for “incidentals” that we’ll purchase along the way. These incidentals can be anything from creatively designed kitchen tchotchkes and difficult-to-find clothing (XL, in my case), to fresh cherries and special jams from my home state of Michigan, to soaps and shampoos that are not available in China. When we travel to the US, we make use of every inch of the luggage, cramming the bags full with last-day shopping sprees to the Kroger supermarket near my father’s home.

My dad loves our visits. I like to think it is his deep affection for all of us as we dominate his condominium for a few weeks every summer – much like the Pilgrims did to the Indians when they landed in America. I have come to realize, though, it is not only our presence he likes, but also the bonus points he gets on his Kroger card. His wife confessed that these points help fill their gas tanks – enough to take them around the US a few times.

My kids love Michigan, the smell particularly. I have fond memories of my boy getting off the plane and taking a big whiff of Michigan air. “Dad, it smells so fresh,” he says with a smile that stretches across his face. My daughter loves the shopping, as does my wife. I remember the first time that I brought Lisa to Michigan after we were married; we pretty much bought half of the Espirit store for a fraction of what it would cost in Taiwan. Over the years, I have learned to rent big cars for our summer shopping. Forget the compact car – we now go for the super-sizable SUVs with huge luggage compartments.

On the topic of luggage, there are a few cultural markers that are associated with seasoned Chinese travelers. These include the following:

1. Seasoned Chinese travelers always – and I mean always – pack an extra bag when they travel overseas. These bags are usually large duffel bags that fold up into other suitcases, waiting to be filled with miscellaneous goods. Once I nearly forgot the extra bag, much to the discontent of my wife. “How dumb can you be?” she said. “What idiot forgets the extra travel bag when going overseas? You’re like some peasant who has never traveled before. Shame on you.” I dropped my head in disappointment. This could have been a major blow to our marriage. My wife was most forgiving, though, and while she always double-checks my bags now before departure, she has stayed by my side.

2. Seasoned Chinese travelers never leave a bag half-packed. There is always something else to fill the space. During those late-night, pre-departure Kroger runs, we stock up on deodorant, dishwashing balls, granola bars and organic seeds. I also lobby for the occasional candy that is difficult to find in China: 5th Avenue bars, Swedish Fish, new variants of M&Ms and gummy bears. Somebody once told me that gummy bears help lower cholesterol, which I was glad to believe. I, in fact, became an evangelist in defense of the chewy candy’s health benefits, which led to a minor argument with my wife about the eating habits of Americans. “How dare anyone argue with such commonly known facts? Gummy bears are good for the body!” I insisted.

3. All of this is a lead-up to the main event: the end-of-vacation interaction with the airline check-in clerk who is responsible for charging extra money for luggage that exceeds the weight allowance. To the seasoned Chinese traveler, this is essentially a sport.

The rules of the game go like this:

• First, you must use your entire luggage quota (usually two bags per person). Next, you need to fill each of these to the maximum, not leaving a sliver of space available. Finally, you need to come in as close as possible under the weight allowance (usually 32 kilograms per bag).
• If you pack too lightly, you lose. You should have bought a few more bars of soap.
• If you pack too much, you lose. You’ll have to deconstruct your bags in public and repack them to hit the target weight. With each item that you take out, you must ask yourself: “Am I willing to sacrifice this?”
• If, however, you roll up to the check-in counter and hit the target weight with each bag, sidestepping any argument or negotiation with the baggage clerk, you win.

When our family travels to Taiwan, the same rules apply, but what we shop for is different. We fill the suitcases with various Taiwanese snack brands – dried meat, dried fish and special Taiwanese sausages that equal a hefty pig – that are not easily found in Beijing. We follow the same day-before-departure shopping ritual in Taiwan, but there are no supermarket loyalty cards used by my wife’s family. At least not yet.

For out-of-the-ordinary trips whereby we travel to other countries and stay with friends, the luggage tradition can be a bit embarrassing. For example, we just returned from London, where the close friends we stayed with wondered whether we were planning to move in with them. “How long are you staying?” joked one of the family members when he saw the number of our bags. We chuckled and explained that we were on the last leg of our summer vacation and we wouldn’t be using all the baggage.

What our hosts didn’t realize is that we only had seven bags for four people – in other words, we were one bag shy of our maximum capacity. Not to worry. After an afternoon of shopping, we had our eighth bag in tow and all we had to do was to fill it. “I love collecting luggage,” my wife joked. A few days later, it was filled to the brim. We made sure to get tax receipts for VAT refunds at the airport.

So there we are on the last day of our summer vacation. We take a very large vehicle to the airport – even so, our luggage barely fits. “Are you moving house?” the driver asks. We arrive at the airport, check in our bags, and proceed to the VAT tax refund counter. We line up behind dozens of other seasoned Chinese vacationers. They are chatting about the goods they purchased, displaying stacks of receipts which are much larger than ours. They are also holding many carry-on bags. “I won the gold medal for packing,” says one woman to another. Smiling, she explains: “I did not have to pay any money for my check-in luggage and I have still have a tiny bit of space available to buy more things in duty-free. Let’s go.”

Photo: WanderingTrader.com