I spoke on ABC Radio late tonight from China. As the transcript below explains, the program often features chats with ABC colleagues on their international travel. For my story, there was an added interesting angle: this was my first time travelling overseas as an amputee.
ABC Radio Nightlife Travel
Suzanne: You know, we like to chat to people around the world and people who go travelling around the world, and when any of our ABC colleagues happen to mention they’re going somewhere interesting, we’re always bugging them to chat to us from whatever location they’re in. And so it is that we come to speak tonight to James O’Brien who’s, well, one a very long-standing colleague of ours here at the ABC. He’s in China at the moment, and he’s joining us from China for a chat about what he’s been up to. And particularly as James has acquired a physical disability since the last time he went overseas, so it’s the first time he’s been overseas in this kind of new world that he’s inhabiting. So it’ll be really interesting to find out what that’s been like and what kind of challenges that’s presented. Hey James, welcome.
James: Hi Suzanne. I’m in a place called Wuxi in China. It’s quite a small town. It’s only eight million.
Suzanne: Right, small by Chinese standards.
James: Correct, yeah.
Suzanne: All right, so well I guess tell me why are you in China? What’s inspired you to go there?
James: Look, two years ago I went on an overseas holiday and I came back with an infection which led to a lower right limb amputation. And I’ve always been a great independent traveller. I love travel. I love overseas travel. And so I thought after a couple of years of rehabilitation it was probably time to think about what I could actually do. And I saw an awesome cheap deal to travel to China, and I’m sure lots of people have seen those ads, but I’m doing one of those tours. I chose this one for a couple of reasons: one of which is it’s super cheap. Secondly, because I’ve been to China twice previously, I thought if I go somewhere that is familiar and that I can prepare for, this overseas holiday on a group tour – but by myself, in a sense, as someone now with a physical disability – will be the way to go.
Suzanne: So what did you have to think about James when you were planning the trip that you’d never had to think about before?
James: Okay, so a bunch of stuff that I had to think about. First of all, to do some preparation. So I have a fortnightly session with a physiotherapist, so we’ve been talking about what I would need to prepare for this, and one of which is how many steps I would take every day. So normally I would take maybe seven or eight thousand steps each day. There was one day this week where we did 18,000 steps.
The other thing I needed to think about too was maybe cobblestones and uneven surfaces. So for example today we went into an old town called Suzhou in China which has lots of cobblestones, and also getting on and off boats, so I had to think about those sorts of things. I had to think about going through airport security, due to the fact that I not only have a prosthetic limb but I also, after a fall a few months ago, now have a full hip replacement – so you know, it doesn’t stop there.
So I had to think about those sorts of things. And for that in particular, I had to consider the size of some of the airports I’d be navigating, as some of the Chinese airports are pretty huge. And so the advice I was given was to ask for wheelchair support at the airport. So I was able to get wheelchair support at check-in at Sydney airport that took me through security, all of those sorts of things, all the way to the plane.
And then I think I also had to have a bit of a deep think for myself in terms of being on a group tour. So one of the things I was worried about was being maybe a bit of a burden. And I know that’s not a very good way to feel about having a disability, but I was worried that I would be slowing down everyone else and that I would be on the trip causing drama for people. So I had to think that really strongly through: whether or not I wanted to do this for myself, but also about the impact I might have on others.
Suzanne: Yeah, and so when you were booking the tour, were there some of those conversations you actually had with the company that you’re going with?
James: Yeah, absolutely. I explained the situation, and then I also explained to the airline I’m flying with. I rang them up and I said, first of all, that I need to get an aisle seat because that’s so much easier for me to get in and out of, and that I would like to have that seat all the way through. And they said, “What sort of disability do you have?” I told them what it was, hilariously, and they said, “Is it permanent?” I said, “Yes, it’s not growing back.” So yeah, I had those conversations all the way through.
Suzanne: Wow, did you find though, once you kind of took the initiative there and did that, James, that you were able to ensure that everything worked smoothly? Or were there some points you arrived at where you thought, “Well, no one’s handled this,” or, “Now I’m in some trouble?”
James: Yeah, but one of the things I also did was a lot of research beforehand about the hotels where we were staying – things like where is the nearest shopping centre, where are the nearest restaurants, all of those sorts of things. So I did more research than I would normally do, just so I knew, for example, where I’m staying tonight there was a shopping centre across the road, so I was able to go over and get a few things earlier tonight, which was good.
There were things that I’ve been very lucky with. So for example, when I have a shower, I generally speaking sit on a plastic chair because taking my prosthetic limb on and off is, you know, it’s hard. And so when I have a shower, I sit down, and then I have to put the limb back on and so on. So, at one of the hotels, for example, I showed them in Chinese characters that I’m an amputee and needed a shower stool, and I was able to get a stool within, you know, half an hour, which was great. But the hotel I’m staying in tonight, they said they just don’t have this at all, so that’s sort of something where I’ll have a shower tomorrow night, fingers crossed.
But then the other thing is too, you know, just keeping an eye out for things. Like, there are lots of things in Australia we see now all the time – there is always a wheelchair ramp, there are always lifts close by, and all those sorts of things. So many of those things don’t actually exist in China to the same extent they do in Australia. So there have been a couple of times when I’ve, you know, had to really go slowly upstairs or downstairs and so on. So there are a few little things, but then there are some things I just didn’t know would happen which are really positive.
So for example, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City – we went there on Wednesday and managed 18,000 steps. It was also quite a warm day, and I found that it was quite hard going, to be honest, but I managed to get through it. But there were three older people on the tour who were able to get wheelchair support. So as part of our group – there were 40 of us in the group – there were three people in wheelchairs, and they paid for that, you know, out of their own money, but that was something which I didn’t know that you could get. Halfway through the day, I thought, “Well, maybe I should have got the wheelchair support,” but you know, in the end, it was fine.
Suzanne: You did your 18,000 steps! So James, let’s now talk about some of the things you’ve seen, because I know there’s a great big Dragon Boat Festival on at the moment. Tell us about that and what you’ve seen of it.
James: Okay, so it’s a national holiday here in China at the moment. It’s the Dragon Boat Festival. And look, I’ve seen Dragon Boat races and all that sort of stuff in Sydney, but I didn’t even actually know what the Dragon Boat story is. So the Dragon Boat story is this, and it’s really interesting: a couple of thousand years ago, there was a Chinese poet who was feeling quite disillusioned about the government at the time, and who threw himself in the river and committed suicide. And so what the Dragon Boat Festival reenacts is a search for his body. And what they also do for this holiday is that they eat sticky rice. So they throw the sticky rice into the water so that the fish will eat it and not his body. So it’s a really – look, I didn’t know that story before.
So that’s happening today. There were huge crowds; we were in a city called Suzhou earlier today, and the crowds were pretty intense. It was pretty much like any Australian sort of public holiday. You know, lots of people out, eating all sorts of things. It lacked the level of alcohol consumption that I think we often have with our holidays here. But you know, there’s some great food. I had some Shanghai dumplings for lunch, and you know, so it’s a really great festival. It’s a three-day festival, and basically, all it means is that, you know, government departments are closed, some of the bigger shops, some of the small shops are closed. But at the supermarket, at the shopping centre near where I’m staying tonight, everything was open, and it was huge.
Suzanne: Now James, you mentioned you’d been to China a couple of times before. We’re talking to James O’Brien, who’s one of my colleagues here at the ABC. Has it changed a lot from the couple of times that you’ve been there before?
James: Yeah, a couple of things are quite different, just for me as someone living now with a physical disability. So I walked the Great Wall of China twice before, and you know, when I was a youngster I could get up the hill and, you know, do all sorts of crazy things and go through various forts and so on. I just couldn’t do that this time because it’s just physically so much harder for me – for instance, at the Great Wall, there were lots of steps I couldn’t manage this time, but it was still a terrific experience.
So, you know, being a little bit older, I just took a more sanguine attitude towards things, to say, “Well, I can’t do that anymore. What can I do?” And I can do the smaller things, and there’s great pleasure in the small things, I think. So for example, I had one young guy, an Australian guy actually, say, “Hey mate, you’re fantastic, that’s so good that you’re doing this.” And I said to him, “The best thing is you take it more slowly and you see a lot more.” So I think that’s a really interesting thing about the times before when I’ve been here. Taking it more slowly, you see a little bit more, which is good. And also you chat to more people along the way than if I was trying to run to the top of the hill, you know, in some sort of race with everyone else.
The other really interesting thing is money. So for example, it was very much a cash society when I was last here in 2014, and it’s now very much a cashless society. So for example, I think I might have paid cash maybe once in the last few days because I couldn’t use my Alipay. So Alipay is an app, and there’s also a WeChat app, and you link your credit card to them and you just pay through scanning. Look, it’s not dissimilar from tap-and-go, but that’s a significant change here.
The other really significant change I think I’ve seen is electric vehicles everywhere. So you know, 10 years ago there were lots of cars, diesel, pollution, noise, and so on. So some of the cities we’ve been to over the last few days have been rather quiet because it’s all electric vehicles.
Suzanne: Wow, because we know China’s making a lot of them, James.
James: Yeah, we know China’s making a lot of them, but they’re driving them too. Yeah, I also noticed, I mean, so far we’ve been to Wuxi, Suzhou, and Beijing, and there are fewer bicycles and more motorbikes, is an observation I would make. And also lots of flash cars too.
Suzanne: James, thanks so much for joining us from China to tell us a bit about your trip and just, I guess, the experience of getting out there in a kind of very different phase of life. Does this give you more confidence that you’ll go travelling more overseas in the future again?
James: Absolutely. And there have been two other people on the trip, two women who are in their late 70s, and, to be honest, they have physical health problems themselves. They’re both quite overweight with limited mobility and so on, and they’ve been really quite inspiring. For instance, I was chatting to them today, and they’ve plotted out travel for the next two or three years. So yes, it gives me confidence that I can do it, that I won’t be a burden on other people. But it’s really important just to research and to talk to people and to get some sense of what you’re getting yourself involved in.
Suzanne: Well James, we will hear more when we see you in the office again, but thanks so much for sharing a bit of your story with our listeners tonight.
James: My pleasure.
Be First to Comment