(Quite a different experience. I guess if you were pressed for time and needed to multi-task this style of bathroom might come in useful...)
Ni Hao from Chongqing! (Yes, that is the actual name of the city I didn’t just make that up.)
So until last Sunday I was in Beijing and it was an exhausting but breathtaking six days in the Chinese capital. In less than a week I experienced the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, a Chinese acrobatic show, the Paralympics, the rural version of the Great Wall, the tourist packed version of the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, the Pearl Market, the U.S. Embassy, and the sights, sounds, and tastes that come with walking the streets of Beijing.
From the list of places we visited above, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven all kind of blend together because of their similar architecture and history. The Forbidden City was obviously where the emperor’s from the Chinese Dynasties of old lived. The Summer Palace was where the Emperor would reside during the hot summer months because of its cooler climate. The Temple of Heaven, which is regarded as the most beautiful and elegant Chinese complex, was built to offer a sacrifice to “Heaven,” and was used by the Chinese people to offer animal sacrifices to “Heaven.” (That’s about all I gathered… it’s probably a little more complex than that.) All of these monuments (as well as walking through Tiananmen Square where the 1989 massacre took place) were exciting to finally see especially after learning about them in my junior high and high school history classes. I’ve posted some pictures below that show the beautiful Chinese artistic architecture.
The Chinese acrobatic show was also a treat. The performers’ incredible flexibility, balance, strength and aerial stunts were phenomenal and it became evident very quickly why the Chinese are always so good at gymnastics in the Olympic Games. Going to the Paralympics was additionally a big highlight of Beijing. We arrived at the “Olympic Park” about two hours before the track and field finals in the Bird’s Nest and therefore were able to walk around to look at the Water Cube, the Olympic Indoor Stadium, and some of the other artistic structures that were made to celebrate the occasion. And, since we were some of the only white Americans at the games, the group of eight people I rolled with was asked by dozens of Chinese people (primarily teenage and college-aged girls) if we would take pictures with them. This was hilarious and a bit awkward but it made us feel like celebrities so we were okay with it (see pictures below). =P The track and field events themselves were pretty exciting as well considering the Bird’s Nest was so packed that people were sitting in the aisles. An American won gold in one of the wheel chair races and when he received his medal the group of eight of us sang “The Star Spangled Banner” as loud as we could. This of course brought more attention to us but hey, it was the Paralympics!
Both of our trips to the Great Wall were amazing as well. The first time the 46 of us took a two hour bus ride that brought us up into the mountains into a small rural farming town where we hiked the 1,100 steps it took to get up to the wall itself. It was quite a climb in the warm 80 degree weather but the best part about it was that we were the only group there. And unfortunately words can’t really describe the “Great Wall experience.” The pictures below help, but just like any epic landmark you really have to see it for yourself. The second trip to the Great Wall was to a spot that was a large tourist attraction and therefore there were thousands of people (primarily Chinese) who were on the wall. Instead of having to hike up steps to get there, some brilliant engineers put in a gondola that takes up the mountain and drops you off basically on the wall. While this experience wasn’t as peaceful or secluded as the rural version, it offered a different perspective which was neat. However, I must mention that I had the scariest moment yet on the trip when I got separated from our group for about an hour because I was easily distracted taking pictures with the nice SLR camera a generous friend let me borrow for the trip. On most tours I typically can keep a healthy distance behind the group in order to try and take some cool shots, but this time I lingered a little too far back for a little too long and found myself looking at a sea of Chinese people in front of me and behind me without a white person in site. It didn’t help that our group had separated into smaller pods and were planning on reconvening at a distant location which I vaguely heard the directions for how to get to it (the wall splits into a few different sections so there are multiple routes down). In the end, after I scanned the wall for familiar faces for about 15 minutes I chose one of the routes, got down to the village where I thought we were supposed to meet, didn’t see anyone down there for over five minutes, was starting to panic a bit and pray a lot, and then thankfully had our Chinese tour guide come up from behind and tap me on the shoulder and tell me most of the others had headed back to the bus and I was the 5th to last person back. This experience reminded of another valuable lesson/rule about traveling which I am usually pretty good at – always stick with at least one other person especially when you’re on the Great Wall of China where no one speaks English and the hotel is over an hour bus ride away!
Besides going to all of these historical venues, we also went to the “Pearl Market” which is one of the largest knock-off markets in China. It’s basically a seven-story mall that has almost any knock-off brand of clothes, electronics, toys, luggage, shoes, etc. that a person would want. Plus it’s a place where you can bargain as hard as you want! For instance, I bought a classy looking stainless steel digital watch there where the lady originally asked 600 yuan (around $90) and bargained it down to 90 yuan or (about $13). (The exchange rate here is 6.8yuan/$1.) The vendors of course start with ridiculous prices especially with white Americans, but typically you can get the item you want for ¼ of the price or less. Besides watches, a lot of people from our group bought luggage, sunglasses, shoes, clothes, backpacks, and purses. I also picked up a pair of knock-off Nike turf shoes which a number of the guys purchased so we can play some pickup soccer games at the University. Three of us were able to buy our shoes together for 60 yuan each when she initially asked for 300 yuan per pair. It took about 25 minutes for the vendor to go that low but we saved a good deal of money and enjoyed ourselves in the process. One overwhelming thing about the market, however, is that since we are white tourists the vendors were constantly trying to get our business and even went to the extremes of grabbing our arms or trying to put items such as wallets or other merchandise into our hands to get us to buy it. This got a little uncomfortable at times but over all the bargaining game has been a lot of fun and most people got some great deals.
Finally, this past Sunday the 32 of us who are studying at Southwest University for the next 10 weeks flew to Chongqing and moved into the dorms. There were two options for living quarters. Either my roommate and I could live in a dorm with most of our group from SPU (26 students) or we could live in the International (Foreign Exchange Student) Dorm where there are people studying from all over the world including the 23 students from St. John’s University in Minnesota, and students from Bangladesh, Bosnia, Uzbekistan, Chad, Somalia, etc. to name a few. My roommate Kyle Foster and I chose to live in the International Dorm in order to get more of a cultural experience. And, while a part of me wishes that we were closer to our fellow classmates from SPU (the other dorm is about a 5 minute walk), I have already made some friends from Minnesota and many of the countries listed above. I should also say that the weather is hot and humid here. It was around 90-95 degrees the last few days but thankfully my time in New Orleans prepped me well for the heat! Also, it is supposed to cool down in the next 2 weeks and become similar to a Seattle Fall with a little less rain which sounds marvelous.
Finally I’ll just mention my schedule and briefly describe our classes. I have a Chinese business and economics class for about 3 hours on Mondays from 8:50a.m.-12pm. Our first day of it was quite long and the teacher is a small Chinese lady who is a bit hard to understand, but thankfully she uses powerpoint and we have 10 minute breaks every 40 minutes or so to stretch and move around. On Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:50am-10:20am we have a Chinese history and culture class with this short, plump Chinese man who is probably in his early 40’s. His English is pretty solid and he is good at asking “Do you understand?” after he asks questions. He is also hilarious and quite animated so we are looking forward to the class. Lastly, on Tuesdays from 10:30am-12pm and Wednesdays and Fridays from 8:50am-10:20am we have an Intro to Chinese Mandarin class that is taught by a younger Chinese woman probably in her late 20’s who speaks the best English of the three professors and has taught Mandarin to English speaking students before. This should be difficult because the Chinese language is so foreign, but I am looking forward to it especially after two and half weeks of feeling helpless in public knowing little more than “Ni Hao” (Greetings/Hello), “Xie Xie” (Thank You), and “Bu Yao Xie Xie” (I don’t want it thanks).
Alright that’s it for now. Sorry for such a long post, I would have liked post earlier but we’ve just had a horrible time with the internet here and we’ve been so busy I haven’t had the time to write. I will update soon with more details about the living arrangement, classes, etc., and a summary of some of my early observations of the vast cultural differences here.
Kyle
PS – I recently added to my exotic food list by eating Peking Duck, Squid, and Quail eggs in the last few days. The duck skin was probably my favorite dish because it tastes like bacon and you dip it in sugar. The Squid was rather chewy but pretty tasty and the Quail eggs weren’t too different than chicken eggs. Who knows what will be next!
(One thing I should mention is that all of the houses next to our hotel was where hundreds of families lived and they didn't even have plumbing in their house so they had to go to the public restrooms for the bathroom and showers which smelled terrible and were obviously inconvenient. Learning this was a bit humbling and made me grateful for our goofy setup.)
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