July 12 and 13 fell on a weekend, so we made plans with my child’s godfather to take the kids to Shuiyinhe in Tongzi County for a rafting trip.
A slow afternoon in Songkan
Saturday started lazily. We slept in, then drove to Guiyang North Railway Station, took the high-speed train, met up in Zunyi, and continued by car toward Tongzi. On the way we stopped at the Daloushan service area on the Chongqing–Guizhou Expressway. After seeing just how unexpectedly polished that rest stop was, it was already well into the afternoon.
We considered going straight to the rafting site, but worried the children might get cold if we started too late in the day, so we changed plans and went for a walk in Songkan Ancient Town instead.
It is called an ancient town, though in reality it feels more like an ordinary small township. A river runs through the middle, and along the banks stand dense old trees full of shade. A railway also cuts through the town. Freight trains pass from time to time, and every so often one lets out a long whistle. The sound crosses the river, strikes the buildings on the opposite side, then bounces again off the mountains beyond them. In that long, narrow town, the echo seems to travel back and forth for quite a while before fading.
Back in the days when transport was less developed, this river must have been busy. Even now, traces of the old salt merchants’ wharf can still be seen: unloading docks, warehouse structures, and shopfronts with broad open views. It is easy to imagine traders coming and going, resting there, while laborers sat around drinking and talking.
The walkways on both sides of the river were also impressively clean. After chatting with some local residents, I learned that because the town sits near the Chongqing–Guizhou border, many people from Chongqing come here in summer to escape the heat. Some stay for long periods in hotels or guesthouses, some rent local homes, and some even buy houses outright so they can return whenever they want. In short, plenty of Chongqing visitors come here specifically for summer relief.
Rafting at Shuiyinhe
Tongzi County has a rafting spot called Shuiyinhe. The current is gentle, which makes it especially suitable for children and older visitors. The water is crystal clear—really the kind of glassy, transparent water that looks clean at a glance. The local slogan stuck in my mind: “The Milky Way in the sky, Shuiyinhe below the earth.”
Along the way, the parked cars told their own story. Besides plates from Zunyi and Guiyang, the ones I saw most often were from Chongqing. That fit perfectly with what we had heard the day before.
The kids were wildly excited. To be honest, the adults were having just as much fun—maybe even more.
Getting there was convenient, and there were plenty of places to eat nearby. If there was one small downside, it was that things inside the scenic area were a bit overpriced. We bought a few water-fight tools—basically plastic water scoops that would normally cost one or two yuan—and there they were selling for seven yuan each. Then again, it was a tourist spot, so there was no point dwelling on it. As long as everyone had fun, that was enough.
The note on the windshield
After taking the high-speed train back to Guiyang North, I went to the parking lot to drive home. That was when I noticed a slip of paper tucked under the windshield wiper. My heart sank immediately. I thought maybe I had parked in the wrong kind of overnight space and gotten some sort of ticket.
When I pulled it out and looked closer, it was worse—but also not as bad as I had feared. Someone had scraped the left front side of my car and left a note with their contact information.
Getting it dealt with
At first I thought I would leave that story for another day, but “another day” has a way of never arriving.
In short, I did not call the other driver until the second or third day afterward. The person had a Northeastern accent and did not dodge responsibility at all. Straightforward, decent, easy to talk to. We exchanged phone numbers and agreed that I would take the car in when I had time, and we would sort it out then.
Half a month went by before I finally managed to deal with it. At first I considered taking it to the official 4S dealership, but then decided against it. One reason was time: they would need at least a week, and I simply could not be without the car for that long. The other was cost: it would almost certainly run to one or two thousand yuan, which I suspected would be hard on the other party.
So I drove it to a repair shop near my home instead. The shop quoted 800 yuan, and I negotiated it down to 500. I told the other driver to pay the shop directly, but he insisted on sending the money to me instead. In the end, I paid the repair shop myself and sent him a screenshot afterward.
If you really think it through, I still came out on the losing end. The repair fee went entirely to the shop, and later on, if I ever trade in or sell the car, a repainted panel will almost certainly lower its value.
Still, the economy is not exactly great right now, and nobody earns money easily. In a situation like that, being a little generous with people is also a way of being generous with yourself.
Sometimes it is enough just to do the decent thing and leave the rest alone.