quod erat demonstrandum

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Mr. Wang showed up in my room again this morning.

I was surprised, because today was a major holiday, and I figured he would have liked to spend the day with his family instead. But he had work to do, so we continued our interview.

I was nervous.

“When is this going to be over??” I asked Mr. Wang, but he only shook his head.

“Will I go to jail??”

“Will I have to pay money??”

No reaction.

Mr. Wang left around noon, and I let myself fall flat on the bed and buried my head in the pillows. What else could I do but sleep?

sunny day in Usu

I was awakened by a knock on my door. It was Mr. Wang, and he had brought a few people. I was greeted in a very official manner, then I prepared some tea for them.

A lady started speaking. She was in her fifties, had a sophisticated look about her, and she had been dispatched by the central government in Tacheng 塔城 to take care of the matter.

I listened.

“You have violated the law.” she said.

Nod.

“It is illegal for you to be operating a GPS unit with an accuracy equal or superior to 500m on Chinese territory.”

Nod.

“The law requires us to investigate your case .”

Nod.

“Our measures could involve prolonged detainment…”

Nod.

“…penalty fees…”

Nod.

“…and eventual deportation.”

Gulp.

“BUT we decided to consider that your breach of the law was unintentional, and that you are only a student, who seems to be quite fond of China and of Chinese culture.”

Nod.

Nod.

Nod.

“SO we will let you go. Here’s your computer, and here’s your GPS.”

Wow.

The Ministry of Land and Resources let me go after a few days

I signed some papers, then we chatted some more and I apologized for keeping them from their families on this beautiful Mid-Autumn Holiday.

I gave each one of them a little moon cake at the door.

Then they were gone.

HALLELUJAH!!

Later that day, my friends Zhu Hui, Lei Sheng, Wang Chan 王婵 and Ding Bo 丁波 came over to pick me up. Lei Sheng gave me a taekwondo suit from his studio as a present, and we decided to take a picture of China kicking my ass the way it should have been:

fun

Then we left Usu and headed back to Kuytun. We got together at Lei Sheng’s house, because we had several reasons to party:

  • I was innocent, and I was free again.
  • Today was the Mid Autumn Festival, one of the most important traditional holidays in Chinese culture.
  • We were a great bunch of friends:

dinner at Lei Sheng's

…even the family dog celebrated with us:

dog

When we went to Lei Sheng’s studio to look around, we were all a bit drunk:

Lei Sheng took in my Caboose for storage

Zhu Hui grabbed the camera and took this picture of me:

gym photo

(You can see his reflection in the mirror.)

This is what innocence looks like.



  • Steven

    Relatively happy ending after all your sufferings ….. !
    🙂

    Reply

  • Anto-San

    Phew, that was a close one, glad everythings ok now!

    Reply

  • Alex S.

    Yeah, that was a great end of the police story. Then we will see your ‘5000km dance’ soon 🙂

    Reply

  • Lars

    Aaaaah, I was checking your blog and waiting for these news every day. So glad and relieved now and wonder what you will do next: continue your quest or stop the whole thing? Can’t imagine what I would do if I were you. Anyways, continue kicking ass whatever it may be. 🙂

    Reply

  • Lorenz

    Good gosh,
    that was a close one. Great that you did get away with everything. I can imagine, that detention for a prolonged time in a prison out there is not a very pleasant experience.
    What will you do next?

    Reply

  • Ingo K.

    Pewww, finally the end of suffering, I´ve longed for this post for so long!

    BTW: I talked to you using an Iphone as an GPS-Logger – forget about it, I´ve started walking more than 20km a day and it pisses me of when it loses a single meter. I´ll stick to a dedicated gps device as well, I can´t live without an accurate number of every step I take.

    Reply

  • Westt

    I was checking photos on Google Earth, then I found a looooong way covered by the photos… Wow. Incredible.

    Reply

  • Christoph

    Steven: Yes! 🙂
    Anto-San: I was so scared, lol
    Alex S.: Ha, I stopped walking for now. So no dancing! 😉
    Lars: Gotta go home!
    Lorenz: Might have been an interesting experience though?
    Ingo K.: Yes, I don’t think the iPhone’s batteries would hold out long enough right?
    Westt: Happy you came here!

    Reply

  • Barb Ballard

    What a relief! Will you go back to finish? I hope so…..you’ve come so far.

    Reply

  • 王玮

    违法测绘。国土资源局。他们该不会以为你是负责重新划定中国版图的间谍吧?还有干这个的间谍吗?真是吃饱了撑的。

    Reply

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