It’s hard to know what is and isn’t contraband in China.
I was crossing the border from Zahmud Uud (pronounced Za meed ood), a dusty little Gobi town on the Mongol-Chinese border, across to Erlean on the Chinese side. I had to make a border run because my first 30 days on my Chinese visa was up. That meant I had to leave China for 24 hours before I could return. The Mongolian customs of course was a breeze. Chinese customs were bit more perplexing.
Since I was the only foreigner walking across the border, (most go by train) I got special attention. I was the most interesting thing going that day so the whole customs staff decided to come “meet” me. Everyone wore big smiles, including me, as we opened up every pocket, camera pouch and Ziploc bag that contained my personal belongings. Much to my surprise, the inordinate amount of camera and computer equipment I was hauling around didn’t concern them. Instead, what drew their attention was my harmonica.
“What is this? Is for drugs?”
I was tempted to make a smart ass comment knowing they wouldn’t understand , but the overly friendly smiles had disappeared so I didn’t risk it.
I began to explain it was for music then realized a quick demonstration would be easier. I blew into the harmonica, made some noise and figured that would clear up the matter. Not quite…
Across the room, one of the immigrations officials heard the noise and was curious. The immigrations woman knew some English and said oh… “You are musician?”
I began to try and qualify my limited musical talents when she asked for a song.
“You know Born in USA?”
“Yes! Good song…” I replied thinking she wanted to know if I was familiar with the song.
“Play song Born in the USA.”
It was hard to tell if this was a request or a demand, so I decided to give it a shot. Not being a harmonica song, and never having played it before, I began to just puff my way through the chorus. Great shame was brought to the USA and Bruce’s song that day.
Had anyone but the Chinese heard it I would have not been able to return to New Jersey. Even the Chinese now recognized I was not a musician. Surprisingly, not one person made another request. The focus now returned to the rest of my belongings.
An agent thumbed through my guide book. I was ready to pack up and go just as he was handing it back to me, when another agent picked up my copy of National Geographic: China Edition. He pointed out something to the others. I really hadn’t given any thought to the fact that the issue had some critical stuff about China, which might be considered unacceptable. The agents told me I could not bring this in with me. I had not finished the issue and quality English language reading material is not easy to come by. I made a plea to save it. I asked what was wrong.
The agent pointed to some artist’s renderings of Chairman Mao in the issue. One image was an out of focus picture of Mao’s portrait in Tiananmen square. Another had a mustache on Mao. Another had alternation which I was told “this no good for China.”
Having been in China long enough to know you don’t mess with The Mao, I agreed and ripped out the offending pages and reluctantly gave them to the agent. He still would not let the magazine pass. I began flipping through the pages quickly, pointing at pictures saying “this shows China is very good.” Realizing in the process I had just passed a page titled “Cutting off Dissent” in big bold letters, and praying there was nothing about Tibet in the next few pages. The guard took the magazine and began looking at every page. After a thorough exam he decided to let me keep it.
That little stroke of luck made me hardly mind packing everything back into place just to walk 10 feet and repeat the drill all over again with a new set of agents. I’m not sure what the second set of agents were there for, but they simply wanted me to unzip bags, take a quick look and I was on my way.
“Welcome to China. Enjoy your stay.” were the parting words from the whole lot of agents. I smiled and thanked them. No two border crossings are ever the same, but all-in-all it was only a minor delay and fairly amusing.
I would enjoy my stay. China is certainly worth it.
Tags: China, Mongolia, Border
