Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite: A Saturday in Hebi

By: Jacob Lokshin, Anna Lipscomb, and Zachary Kennedy

Although our esteemed fellow adventurers in team CAR (Cindy, Anbar and Rowan) reported thoroughly, academically and eloquently on our entrance into the minuscule 1.5 million strong village of Hebi, that was only the beginning. Several hours by train from the bustling streets of Beijing, lies the rural curiosity of Hebi. The first things we noticed as we boarded our bus were the looming vacant carcasses of apartment skyscrapers herded together into identical clusters, and the remarkably ostentatious hotel – which included fliers for massages that may be a little too full body for some. That, and the collective stares of every man, woman and child in Hebi, shocked by the spectacle of multiple mysterious tourists who have appeared in their midst without explanation.

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En route to Hebi

After an amazing dinner including the Hebi specialty kettle corn and a woman who grabbed burning metal without hesitation, most of the group crashed back in the hotel except a few daring individuals (winning much sought-after Sheehan “trooper points”). These audacious few ventured with Prof. Sheehan to the mall neighboring the hotel with cautious optimism as to what may lie ahead in this strange land. What we discovered was as surprising, odd and wonderful as its preceding dinner.

Under the awed stares of local Hebians we wandered the floors of the mall, following Prof. Sheehan as he bounded with youthful enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity from ice cream shop to ice cream shop, to ice cream shop (11 in total) to a particularly fascinating cultural artifact: remote controlled bulldozers. Practically indistinguishable from the 3 feet tall children, Prof. Sheehan and we – his loyal pupils – frolicked.

What we discovered as we lay to rest that night however was not quite the glittering and charming Hebi we had come to know. To the collective terror of the group, bed bugs were discovered in one of the rooms (Brandon let out an incredibly manly squeal and sprinted from the room upon seeing the unwelcome insects). Although the hotel staff did not seem to share our sense of urgency or concern, the issue was soon resolved and the GEAC family drifted peacefully to sleep – with the exception of Anbar who managed to sleep soundly through the whole event, including a bug check of her own bed with her still in it.

The following morning our trusty guide Johnson led us to a temple deep in the mountains around Hebi. As the eclectic countryside metropolis of Hebi receded into the smog, wheat farms emerged. Since we visited during the harvest our bus barely squeezed onto the road as lanes were filled with drying wheat. We stopped briefly to tour a small village along the road – much to the general confusion of the population – finding derelict cars, rundown houses, feral animals, warmly welcoming locals fascinated by the foreigners, and basketballs because ball is life.

Rising through the smog we ascended into the arid mountains. What we discovered nestled into the mountains was amazing: winding paths clinging to the mountainside, dotted with Buddhist shrines, temples and their worshipers. We climbed up one set of steps, lined with trees which were filled with prayers that looked like fluttering red leaves, accompanied by the pounding of ritualistic drums and volleys of firecrackers. At the top, a large temple emerged towering over the main temple structures at the bottom. After a brief period of curiosity impaired by shyness, a local child asked for a picture on his glistening smart phone with the foreigners (us). This quickly cascaded into dozens of pictures with locals, including a wonderful selfie by our resident tall person Jasper.

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Resident tall person Jasper takes a wonderful selfie with locals and tourists.

After a meal that included perhaps more hair than typically expected in Chinese dishes, we collapsed, exhausted, on the bus. We finished the day with some fieldwork in the Hebi city center, and a dinner at the hotel. In conclusion: Hebi is cool, people here don’t see many foreigners, temples in mountains are cool, GEAC is cool, check in with us soon for the next chapter in our adventures.

Fight On.