Since Jane had to work most days that the kids were here, it was my responsibility to plan our activities and show Shanghai to the kids. One day I said, " how about seeing a water village today?" Sounds like fun. Water villages are in Shanghai but also outside of the city. The most famous one is probably Zhouzhuang. Some of the villages remind you of a smaller version of Venice. Some are 900 years old and have been preserved to show a way of life that existed back then. The people still live on the water and perform chores such as washing or running errands in small boats. Many of the homes were built in the Ming and Qing dynasties and parts were able to survive the cultural revolution. You can walk by the people's homes ( they usually have some kind of retail situation set up in front of the house) and look at the bridges and walkways.A little current history is the filming of Mission Impossible 3 in the water village of Xitang. So you could watch the movie to see why we were attracted to the villages. ( As a side story, Jane and I had dinner a couple of weeks ago at a restaurant in the French concession area --former-- at a beautiful old building that was a hugh private home at one time but has also served as a consulate for three different countries. When Tom Cruise was in town with MI 3 he just reserved the entire restaurant for himself and crew of 10. It must be nice.) Since we had Clementine with us, we did not want to be in the car for too long so I elected to go to Feng Jian water village, right on the border of Shanghai.
After about a 40 minute drive we approached a toll booth and our driver, Jack, said " Oh, we have to go out of Shanghai". I noticed a worried look on his face, which I had not seen before in our 4 months together, as he looked to his left and said "and the police are here". With Expo here in Shanghai from May until November, there has been an extreme increase in security. Hilary C. was here and many Presidents, Kings and PM's have been stopping. Usually we can just drive in and out of Shanghai without a problem. Jack was to apply for a sticker for his car as a preregistration but had not received it yet. But Jane had gone out of town twice on business and was stopped with Jack and they only looked at his ID and let them go. Oh, but not John Kennedy. The police looked into the car and talked to Jack for a bit and told him to pull over to the right and wait.
Great! Now I was a little worried. Did they find that outstanding arrest warrant on me for that panty raid in 1969? I did yell at a taxi driver in Shanghai the previous week ( in a combo of mandarin and english) for almost hitting me. I'll never yell again. After about 5 minutes a silver car pulled up with two men in the front seat and the police handed all of Jack's documents to them. They then told Jack to follow that car. When I asked Jack what was going on he said those were the police also. He said " It's ok". Yeah, Jack, that's what they told people in Germany in the 30's-- "It's ok''.
We followed them off the highway and back on again to the other side where their "team" and facilities were located. They ordered James and me out of the car and told Jack to stay with the car and keep Anne and Clementine in the car. They had us follow one of the police down a 100 yard stretch of road to a building. Would I ever see my family again? Did James wish he had never met Anne 4 1/2 years ago? We walked into a small room and 4 policemen were there. One said " passport number". There was some tension in the air. Now I have a copy of my passport that I stick in my wallet but I did not have it. James's passport was back at our apartment. He did have his driver's license but that was a no-go. They asked if that was what we use for ID in America and James said , yes. But apparently not in China. I had a number written down on a piece of paper and thought that might be it, but their computer said , no. Then , the policeman let out a hmmmm.
Now is that a hmmm, we got a couple of live ones here we can use for trade negotiations, a hmmmm, we are going to make them go back to Shanghai and get their passports and hold the baby hostage, or was it a hmmm, we've got our own version of Bubba here in the provincial slammer and he would like some new friends. What do I do? So in my best mandarin ( what little I have) I formally introduced myself and... " wode nuxu" ( my son-in-law). For some reason everybody started laughing. Why? My pronunciation -- the words were correct-- or the fact I would have to spend time in jail with my son-in-law-- who knows but it lightened things up and they told to call someone for the numbers ( Jane -who called the manager of our apartment building) and we were suddenly on our way with a smile. I'll have to remember that " wode nuxu " line for future use. Thus, the picture of us getting out of jail. Oh yeah, the water village was nice, too.
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