Donghai, or The Kingdom of the Crystal Hot Springs

9/7/08

Donghai

A satellite county of greater Lianyungang, Donghai has an abundance of riches. One of the primary things that Donghai is rich in: crystal. Those seeking a precious artifact or souvenir from their visit(s) to Jiangsu Province would be well-advised to stop by Donghai.

Let me be clear, by first saying that it was not entirely my idea to visit Donghai. I was coaxed in to visiting by one of my fellow foreign teachers, Karine. It has been a slow process of meeting the other foreign teachers here in Lianyungang (one might think that they’d stand out just as much I do, right?). So naturally, I jumped at Karine’s invitation to take a day-trip out to Donghai to browse the crystal markets and visit one of their many hot springs. The weather is not altogether demanding for us to take a visit to an 82° C hot spring (that’s hot), but I thought the healing powers of a natural spring might at least clear up this obnoxious hacking cough that has been afflicting me. Besides, I wanted an opportunity to socialize with other teachers.

So Karine arranged all the travel details and convinced myself and another foreign teacher, Colm, to join her. Karine is a Quebecois who is deceptively fascinating. A Tai-Chi enthusiast with over 500 skydiving jumps in her young lifetime, she is very low-key about her adventurous lifestyle. She has also spent the last year or so traveling around southeast Asia. Colm proved to be another great resource, as he has been living and working here in China for the last 6 months. Colm, an Irishman from Limerick, has figured out some brilliant coping mechanisms for any whitey that is fresh to the madhouse of China. Colm says that you shouldn’t get anxious when you perceive any ridicule coming from the natives. Rather, he offers, just proceed to insult them in English. This makes any insecure person more self-assured and prepared to deal with heckling. Most often times the locals won’t understand your return volley of barbs, so just go ahead and lay it on thick, Colm suggested.

I digress, apologies. Back to Donghai. We took a 30-minute train over to the satellite town and then proceeded by bus to the hot springs. We were all feeling a bit Hungary upon arrival so we found a swanky hotel restaurant to satisfy our appetites. The meal was good; and then afterwards we went about trying to locate the actual hot springs themselves. After being led to what appeared to be a very normal pool attached to one of the hotel/resorts, we were all starting to believe we’d been duped. As it turns out, I wasn’t the only member of our party who had this mental image of hot springs as some sort of naturalistic oasis tucked into some mountainside, surrounded by natural beauty, etc. So the pool wasn’t what we were expecting, but the staff assured us that it was in fact a natural hot spring. After entering the steaming pool, our doubts were quickly dispelled.

It was very peaceful at first; just us three foreigners lounging in and around the cauldron-like pool. But as the day moved onward and the sun tracked across the sky, more and more Chinese visitors began to arrive at the pool. This was entertaining. It affirmed Karine’s belief that most Chinese are not good swimmers.

After drying off and catching a bus back into the town of Donghai, we grabbed a bite to eat at a small noodle shop with outdoor seating. This was a plus, because the street had a drive-in movie atmosphere. The street came to a T-intersection, and at the end of it was a jumbotron television that played movies for the benefit of pedestrians and diners. After eating, we browsed some of the crystal shops and then caught our train back to Lianyungang proper. The night concluded with a wild taxi ride. Karine, seated in the front seat, actually feared for her life as our driver swerved in and out of lanes to deliver us back to the University with great expedience. Funny, I don’t recall any one of us telling him we were in a hurry. To scare an individual who has jumped out of a moving plane hundreds of times and who was a member of the Canadian national skydiving team takes a very white-knuckle experience. But Colm and I thought it was great fun—having the rear seat view—and he was quick to state his desire to hire this man on as his personal driver.