Xing had been desperate to leave China. In 2020 both his parents died; Xing had sold nearly all his possessions to pay for their medical treatment. “There is no social safety net in China, and I learned that the hard way”
he walls of the hotel lobby in downtown Quito, the capital of Ecuador, were plastered with notices in Mandarin. “Leaving for Colombia tomorrow and looking for buddies, WeChatbelow”, read one handwritten flyer. A poster advertised an “all-inclusive package for crossing the jungle in Panama, 1,700USD”. Dozens of Chinese people were milling around: young people, old people, families with small children. Some were wearing large backpacks or dragging suitcases.
In 2021 the authorities in Panama counted 200 Chinese migrants crossing the Darién Gap; last year it was ten times that number This time he didn’t bother applying for a tourist visa. He joined groups on the messaging apps WeChat and Telegram, where people shared information about the journey from China to America. The groups had tens of thousands of members. “There are so many Chinese trying to leave, you have no idea,” he told me. : Xing Weisen, a Chinese migrant, in his hotel in Quito, the capital of Ecuador.Xing and a fellow migrant prepare to embark on the next leg of their journey.
He invited me to join him on his journey to America. In two days he would get a bus to Tulcán, an Ecuadorian town on the border with Colombia. But first he had some errands to run in Quito. Xing went to a health clinic to get vaccinated for yellow fever, a mosquito-borne disease which is prevalent in the rainforest. Then he went to a convenience store to stock up on condoms.
Xing left his suitcase in Ana’s storeroom early one morning before heading to a bus terminal, where competing tour operators jostled for business. “China! China!” they shouted, as they banged on the windows of the ticket offices. “Tu-er-can?” said one Ecuadorian man affecting the pronunciation of the border town’s name in a Mandarin accent. But Xing didn’t need any help – he had already contacted a snakehead, a people smuggler who caters to a Chinese clientele.
One of the buses was stopped and searched by police three times. “Fuck, I hope they don’t look inside my shampoo bottle,” said Xing when he saw the cops examining the shoulder straps of someone’s backpack for any unusual lumps. To Xing’s relief, the police ignored his toiletries, confiscating only the $20 bill he had hidden in a cigarette box. “All hail the condoms,” said Xing.
I rushed to meet him in Mexico City, more than 2,000 miles from where we had parted ways. Xing had only a few hours in the city, so he suggested we meet at a bus terminal. His beard had grown more unruly and skin tone darker. Yet despite bruises on his leg, a lost tooth, and a lingering fever, he seemed more relaxed than he had been in Colombia.
“The biggest danger after the Darién Gap is reckless driving. Snakeheads try to make as much money as possible, so they’d stuff 14 people in a car with a capacity of seven” Xing gave the snakehead his phone, and then the man dropped a pin on Google Maps. “Go to this place if you want to and there will be immigration officers,” he said. Although his visa application had been rejected and he had entered America illegally, Xing was hopeful that the immigration authorities would look kindly on his claim for asylum. Living in the country legally was “the only way”, he said. “I wouldn’t want to be deported back to China for not having documents.
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