Yuxi
I have arrived at my final day in Yuxi, the ’small town’ that Brian Herman has been living in for the past six months. The ’small town’ deserves quotation marks because Yuxi is a city of 500,000 people, with a few high rises and a few more on the way. By Chinese standards, this is a ’small town’. My time here in Yuxi has been relaxing and has provided me with a chance to acclimate myself to China’s culture and its weather, which is pretty chilly by my Thai standards. I have also had to make a difficult adjustment from receiving Thai massages to receiving Chinese massages, but I’m getting by. Yesterday, I went to the traditional medicine hospital to receive accupuncture on my back. I was accompanied by Herman and his friend Andrew. We wandered through the hospital until finding the Accupuncture and Massage ward. Andrew explained to the doctor what I wanted and within a minute he had me on the table and was sending 10 needles into various spots in my back, some as far as an inch deep. The doctor then moved to attach electric wires to the needles for further stimulus. I asked Andrew to tell him that I was scared of the electricity, and despite some sadistic hesitation, Andrew passed on the message. Yuxi is a tobacco town. One of the country’s largest cigarette manufacturers is based here, and Yuxi has this company to thank for making it a wealthy town, both clean and well-endowed with beautiful parks. The company headquarters are located on the hill beside Herman’s school, and a monument of 8 golden cigarettes stands in front of the building. Across from the headquarters, the company has built a park, which educates visitors on the history of tobacco, dating back to the Native Americans and following the industry’s growth through colonial Virginia up to the present. There are also statues of famous smokers placed throughout the park–Mark Twain is among them. Herman’s school is set on a hillside overlooking the city. From his fifth floor apartment, one can see the growing skyline, hills in the distance, and a beautiful sunset. At the top of the hill stands the Red Pagoda, Yuxi’s most famous landmark.
As I am told, the Pagoda was originally white, but when the Communists took power, students at the college painted it red. And red it stays.
