Xiamen – Ground temperature was at 35 degrees Celsius when the bullet train arrived here after nearly two hours of travel from its neighboring city of Fuzhou.
I was exhausted.
This eight-day trip to China is defined by interviews with government officials from different ministries with very little time to squeeze in for sightseeing and shopping.
After four days of lectures at the Communication University of China (CUC) and endless note-taking during press briefings in Beijing, our group of 10 journalists from the Philippines (eight from Manila and two from Cebu) were packed for our next stop: the city of Fuzhou.
Fuzhou is the capital city of Fujian Province, where Filipino-Chinese tycoons such as Henry Sy and Lucio Tan trace their roots.
We were to meet officials of the Fujian Provincial Government at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday but our flight from Beijing to Fuzhou was delayed for six hours.
Our tired and weary selves had to make do with a 10-minute break time to check in our room and freshen up before heading to the working dinner interview with the officials of Fujian Provincial Government.
It would have been easy to sulk and pout in the corner and complain about the delayed flight. But I was lucky to be seated right next to Michelle, a wonderful woman and one of the main staff from CUC who became our instant guide and companion in this trip.
There was an instant connection between Michelle and I because she understood what I was saying in Chinese despite my poor fayin (pronunciation).
At the Beijing Capital International Airport, while waiting for Air China to announce what happened to our flight and whether or not we are going to arrive in Fuzhou on the same day, there we were.
Michelle and I.
Two women, two mothers.
We compared and exchanged notes about the trials we experienced which are somehow attached to the lifestyle of career women who are raising children; our triumphs as young mothers in the midst of work and home responsibilities; our relationships with our husbands and how we should never stop being happy lovers now that we have cross the threshold of maidenhood to motherhood.
It was a lively and heartfelt discussion and sharing of our “womanity.”
We wrapped up our engagements in Fuzhou yesterday and took the bullet train to Xiamen, which again had me seated (unplanned and unintentional!)next to Michelle.
We did not sleep in the nearly two-hour trip as we discussed divorce and reproductive health issues.
By the time we arrived in Xiamen, Michelle and I were still talking about the some people’s sense of entitlement and how it is destroying our basic human values of respect and obedience.
The train went on a complete stop and the voice on the PA system announced it is safe to disembark.
We stood up and navigated our way out of the narrow lane of the train’s first class coach. Michelle and I walked side by side, wheeling our trolleys as we turned to the direction of the train station’s exit area.
Outside, humidity was the force of nature turning people into red, sweaty lobsters.
Michelle hesitantly asked me: “Do you miss your children?”
“Only very little. But most of the time in this trip, I’m happy to be away from them,” I replied.
A big grin formed on Michelle’s face and then she said: “I am so relieved! Now I don’t have to feel guilty about leaving my son.”
