Leaping Tiger, Hidden Troll

I'll continue with the regularly scheduled travel in a moment, but first there is a singular anecdote that ought to be told on its own.

So there we are, on a two day hiking trip through Tiger Leaping Gorge with six of us Westerners, one English speaking guide, and one "English speaking" guide. As we set out on our rather long trek, there are a few people skulking along behind us: two mule drivers hoping for our business and one ragtag guy in a beat up old army jacket. We had no idea what this guy was about, but he looked pretty disreputable and he kept following just behind us until we got to the really hard section of the trail a few hours later. At that point he ran on ahead of us.

When we get to the very top of the hill, right where the Gorge takes a turn, there he is again, slouched against a rock with a hand painted sign reading 9 yuan. There was a lookout point there, and he wanted us to pay him 9 yuan (about $1.10) to go there. The four of us there (two others were trailing behind with the English speaking guide) were pretty annoyed by this, and assumed that as scruffy as he was, he was basically a tourist bandit. The "English speaking" guide was pretty much no help and only managed to convey to us that he always was there and charged money.

Well, the German guy we were with had no truck with this, and went blithely on to the lookout point, took some pictures, came back and started to walk on. The scruffy guy went nuts and started following him and screaming. The guide did pretty much nothing and tried to avoid the whole situation.

We hadn't believed that this guy was legit to begin with, but his behavior really convinced us that it was all a scam. Actually, our English speaking guide later told us that he was a government representative and it was all official. But I'm still having trouble believing that in this modern suck-up-to-tourists China. But that's irrelevant, because that guide was nowhere to be seen.

Being that the crazy toll-taker was off down the trail anyway, Tara and I walked down to the lookout point. And, you know, it really was a fantastic view. I might have even been willing to pay for it.

When we walked back up to the main trail, there he was again. And this time he had put a barrier across the trail--basically a small log supported at waist height. He was mad, and was going to get it over on us. So it boiled down to this: we were being compelled to pay in order to pass. There was a barrier in place and a bully was leering and trying to intimidate us into give him our money. It was the old troll scenario.

This really pissed me off and in an instant of ill considered anger, I picked up the barrier and threw it off of the side of the trail.

He certainly hadn't seen that coming. And he went totally apeshit. The guy ran back to the main trail, climbed up some steps, and picked up two good sized rocks. He stood there, blocking the path, screaming, and threatening to pummel me with rocks. I just stood there staring at him waiting; my intuition told me that this was still all theater and he wasn't actually going to try to break my head.

At this time, the competent guide had just shown up with the last trailing hiker. He ran up and tried to intervene and calm the guy down. But the troll (or maybe gnome) just kept getting angrier and angrier. The guides were holding him now, but he moved forward and got right in my face (he was up on a foot high step), and grabbed on to my camera strap trying to pull me in tight.

This was a knife edge point for me. So often in the martial arts, we practice a technique off of a grab to the chest; I'm always told that nobody will ever attack you like that in the real world but it's just a good way to train. But there I was, grabbed by a screaming maniac who had a rock in his other hand, the perfect scenario. And I came so, so close to making a fight out of it. But thankfully, wisdom prevailed and I calmly waited for my paid proxies (guides) to sort it out for me.

This bizzare deadlock continued with more screaming in Chinese for a few more minutes until he finally let us go. Who knows what the guides told him. I don't think he was paid for either me or the German. We just walked on. I felt like a total schmuck, and had that bitter metalic post-adreneline taste in my mouth for a while.

In the end, I really don't know why I tossed the barrier. I'm not a violent or angry person usually. The only time I ever lash out, it is completely instinctual. I was in a literal sense cornered (it was him or a cliff) and on a primal level there was no question of accepting that. Tara made the comment that after ten years with me, she was totally shocked--I replied that she had never seen somebody try to intimidate me like that.

I'd love to know whether there was any upshot to this afterwards. As I said, in the new almost-Olympics China, tourism is a big deal and this is a major tourist attraction. Having an obviously down-and-out man as a toll taker seems really weird; I'd expect it in the past perhaps, but it seems out of place now. I would think that a scummy toll taker who has assaulted Western tourists would really be a position the government would reconsider.

I realize that this is his job, and it's how he eats. I feel a little guilty for wishing him ill, but he was really wild. A woman on the trip told me that I was wrong to make him lose face, but she seemed less concerned about the assault angle. So this is my "ugly American" moment.