Seven hours on the road for a three-hour drive, and more people than stones at the other end. Xiaoyu tells of her May holiday.
Xiaoyu
五一我去了一趟古镇，三个小时的路，开了七个小时。
Wǔ yī wǒ qù le yī tāng gǔzhèn, sān gè xiǎoshí de lù, kāi le qī gè xiǎoshí.
For May Day I went to an old town: a three-hour drive that took seven.
Chen Hao
到了以后呢？
Dào le yǐhòu ne ?
And once you got there?
Xiaoyu
到了以后，人比石头多。拍一张照片，后面十个人的后脑勺。
Dào le yǐhòu, rén bǐ shítou duō. Pāi yī Zhāng zhàopiàn, hòumian shí gè rén de hòunǎosháo.
Once I got there, there were more people than stones. One photograph, and ten backs of heads behind it.
Auntie Wang
那还去干什么？
Nà hái qù gān shénme ?
Then why go at all?
Xiaoyu
我也问自己。可假就那么几天，不出去又觉得亏。
Wǒ yě wèn zìjǐ. Kě jiǎ jiù nàme jǐ tiān, bù chūqù yòu juéde kuī.
I ask myself that too. But the holiday is only a few days, and staying at home feels like being cheated.
Zhang laoshi
这就是大家都亏的原因。同一个时间，挤同一个地方。
Zhè jiùshì dàjiā dōu kuī de yuányīn. Tóng yī gè shíjiān, jǐ tóng yī gè dìfang.
That is exactly why everyone loses. The same time, the same place, and everybody crowding into it.
Chen Hao
我去年错开了，十月底去的，店照样开着，人少一半。同一家铺子，老板还愿意跟你聊两句。
Wǒ qùnián cuòkāi le, shí yuè dǐ qù de, diàn zhàoyàng kāi zhe, rén shǎo yībàn. Tóng yī jiā pùzi, lǎobǎn hái yuànyì gēn nǐ liáo liǎng jù.
Last year I went out of step, at the end of October: the shops were open as usual and there were half as many people. In the same little shop, the owner was even willing to chat.
Auntie Wang
那些古镇，我看电视上都长得一样。一条街，卖的东西全一样。
Nàxiē gǔzhèn, wǒ kàn diànshì shàng dōu cháng de yīyàng. Yī tiáo jiē, mài de dōngxi quán yīyàng.
Those old towns, on television they all look the same to me. One street, and the same goods everywhere.
Xiaoyu
阿姨说得太对了。臭豆腐、奶茶、手串，从南到北一个样。
Āyí shuō de tài duì le. Chòudòufu, nǎichá, shǒuchuàn, cóng nán dào běi yī gè yàng.
Auntie Wang is quite right. Stinky tofu, milk tea, bead bracelets: from south to north it is all the same.
Zhang laoshi
本地人早搬走了。剩下的是租铺子的外地人，卖给外地游客。
Běndìrén zǎo bān zǒu le. Shèngxià de shì zū pùzi de wàidìrén, mài gěi wàidì yóukè.
The locals moved out long ago. What is left are shopkeepers from elsewhere, selling to tourists from elsewhere.
Chen Hao
那还叫古镇吗？
Nà hái jiào gǔzhèn ma ?
Does that still deserve the name of an old town?
Zhang laoshi
叫。只是里面的人换了。房子是老的，故事是新编的。
Jiào. Zhǐshì lǐmiàn de rén huàn le. Fángzi shì lǎo de, gùshi shì xīn biān de.
It does. Only the people in it have changed. The houses are old, the stories were written yesterday.
Xiaoyu
我下次想去个没名的地方。哪怕没有古街，安静就行。
Wǒ xià cì xiǎng qù gè méi míng de dìfang. Nǎpà méi yǒu gǔ jiē, ānjìng jiù xíng.
Next time I want to go somewhere nobody talks about. Even with no old street, quiet would do.
Auntie Wang
你真去了，发张照片，三年以后那儿也排队。
Nǐ zhēn qù le, fā Zhāng zhàopiàn, sān nián yǐhòu nàr yě páiduì.
If you go and post a photograph, in three years there will be a queue there too.
Xiaoyu
那我还是别发了。
Nà wǒ háishi bié fā le.
Then I had better not post it.
To stagger so that things do not coincide. The complement 开 separates what was about to overlap, and 错 says the coincidence is deliberately avoided: you 错开 timetables, holiday dates, two meetings. The word has nothing to do with mistakes, despite the first character, and it is a formidable false friend.
不出去又觉得亏: not going away feels like losing out. 亏 names a shortfall, in money as in feeling, and 觉得亏 is the calculation that fills Chinese tourist sites during the official holidays. Zhang turns it round in the next line: it is precisely that individual calculation that makes everyone lose.
店照样开着: the shops were open as usual. 照样 means "just the same, as expected", and serves above all to contradict a fear: you dreaded finding everything shut out of season, and it was not. It goes before the verb and is never used alone.
