Standing Ears
May 20, 2025
I joined a small group of people from India and Canada for a 12-day trip to China in April. The group included my wife and my brother Raymond. The Chinese tour agent who booked our trip, Jenny, also accompanied us throughout the journey.
Raymond has already written his thoughts about the trip. I have an outline and a list of little notes, but I’m still procrastinating on putting them all together.
Jenny was a very helpful and friendly tour agent, so we got along very well. My sister Michelle had hired her for her own China trip before ours, which is how we got in contact with Jenny.
As you might expect with a group of nine tourists and a lively, personable tour agent, there were plenty of interesting stories—especially about Jenny’s observations of us (Chinese from India). I’ll share two memorable moments involving Raymond.
On the high-speed train from Beijing to Xi’an, we all had assigned seats. While the rest of us sat down, Raymond decided to stand behind our last row of seats and chat with us, even though his seat was in the next car.
As the train got underway, Jenny couldn’t understand why Raymond was still standing instead of sitting in his assigned seat. She asked him to take his seat and get comfortable, but he kept standing. Finally, she told him, “I paid for a sitting ticket, not a standing ticket!”
Another thing that became clear to Jenny was that my brother Raymond is quite frugal. During another train ride (this time Raymond was seated), Jenny remarked that when you look at Raymond face-to-face, you can’t see his ears. She explained that in China, there’s a saying: if you can’t see someone’s ears, you can’t get money out of them.