Week Four

I’ve been in China for one month now. It feels more like two though. We had six days of school this week, but we get a week of vacation now. This is for the National Day holiday, to remember the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 by the Communist party. Normally, this holiday is only for three days. Now it is extended to seven days to let people travel and visit family, but the work weeks are lengthened one day the week before and after the vacation. So next Sunday I go back to school. For the vacation, I’ll travel outside Beijing with one of my Chinese friends to a city called Dalian. It’s about twelve hours northeast by train. It’s very close to North Korea, and is on the coast. When I return I’ll put up a map and write about that experience.

There weren’t a lot of interesting things happening this past week. I was mostly just busy with school and watching more bootleg movies. I tried some of the more infamous Chinese delicacies with the family this week too; hotpot and chicken feet. Hotpot was a big bowl of boiling water and oil, and you cook pieces of lamb and vegetables in it and then dip it in a nasty peanut-like sauce. Chicken feet were just bad. They didn’t have anything on them worth eating, and just looked unappetizing. The next morning, there they were all dried up on the kitchen table ready for breakfast. I’ve just stopped eating the breakfast that the family has. I don’t want anymore leftovers or muffins, so I just go to the grocery store and buy some peanut butter and bread. I think, most Chinese people don’t eat breakfast.

Wednesday morning, I was walking out of my apartment complex toward the gate, and I noticed a lot more guards there than usual. I knew they would probably say something to me as I walked up, and they did. They asked to see my passport and residence permit. Ok, no big deal. I just went to my room and got it and came back and showed it to them, and I was on my merry way. They were actually very nice too. The thing was that this wasn’t a random check. They were all waiting there for me at gate number one at 7:40 AM because that’s when I always leave the complex to go to school. That was also about the day my visa would expire and I would need a residence permit. They even had their English speaking guard because they knew an American person would be coming. So, he starts asking to see my passport and residence permit. I tell him I need to go back to my room and get it, and he keeps repeating everything over like a broken record. I don’t know if he knew English or just memorized a recording of what to say. He asks what building and room number I live in before I retrieve my documents. I come back with my passport in about five minutes. I knew one guard was watching me from a distance when I went to my room to make sure I wasn’t lying to them about where I lived. Again, there were no problems or anything. Just a lot of paranoia and guards with nothing better to do. That’s how Beijing is though. Everyone’s got their own squad of rent-a-cops to keep the order and peace in Beijing, by telling cars where to park and intimidating bike thieves.

Sanlitar

Tuesday, Ben and I decided to take the subway to downtown Beijing. We met at 5:30 PM on the street corner in Haidian District, where we usually split ways when coming back from the restaurants. We walked about thirty minutes to the Wudaokou subway station, which is near our school. This was my first time at the subway in Beijing so it was a little confusing. We got two one way tickets for six kuai (75 cents) and headed upstairs to the train. The first train we got on was packed full of people like everything in Beijing. The first thing I noticed was how bad the B.O. smell was. It wasn’t like the busses where they have windows to keep air flowing. After about five minutes, we realized we were on the train going the opposite direction we intended to go. So, we got off at the next stop and changed trains. We took this train towards Xizhimen, where the line ends, and hopped on the next subway line towards Jishutan. After about four stops, we got off at Dongsishitiao. It was already dark now, and the downtown was all lit up for the night. We started walking down the road for about twenty minutes. I then realized that this was the really nice part of Beijing. When you hear things about Beijing being really great, they’re probably talking about this area. I was really surprised and a little disappointed because it takes about an hour and a half to get here from my place. We were in the heart of Beijing and it made Haidian District look like the ghetto.

Ben was sort of familiar with this area and showed me some interesting places. We were both starving. I had only eaten a muffin and a pear the whole day, and skipped dinner with the family to come downtown. This area is very close to all the embassies and a lot of foreigners. So we decided to get something different for dinner. We went down the road a little more and turned down a dark alleyway to find the restaurant, which is called “Fish and Chips”. The alleyways reminded me of the old Hutongs that used to fill Beijing, until they were all torn down for new, modern developments. The alley we walked down was actually a very popular place, filled with bars, clubs, and restaurants for the high class. It was certainly different. We told the Chinese man at the “Fish and Chips” that we wanted two plates of fish and chips. It was one hundred kuai all together ($12.50). That’s a steep price to pay in China for a meal that’s not even very big. But that’s how you get the western delicacies here. Not like it’s a lot of money for foreigners. For me it just means I have to go to the ATM machine again to refill my wallet. Anyway, the food tasted really good. The restaurant played two songs the whole time we sat there, and the cook kept singing along saying “We will, we will rock you!” while inserting random English swear words.

Foreigners don’t get any weird looks in this place either. When we sat outside the “Fish and Chips”, I saw as many foreigners as I saw Chinese people. There aren’t any beggars around here either. Instead you get salespeople asking you in English to buy their things. We must have had at least five people ask if we wanted to buy the same pair of gloves from them. It’s not even cold here yet. Then there’re the Nigerian drug dealers. Apparently, they do a lot of business around here. As you walk past them, they appear interested in conversing with you in English. Last year Ben talked with one of the guys, but the dealer lost interest in the conversation and got straight to the point. It’s great. All kinds of shady characters.

Speaking of shady things, which I’m learning is never far away in China, is the pirated media business. This was a really interesting experience, it being my first and definitely not last. We walked into a music store filled with all kinds of CDs. The only one I recognized was a Yanni CD though. We walked up to one of the workers. Ben had been here before. She saw him and asked if we wanted a DVD. That’s what we were here for. She happily led us out the back door, through the emergency exit of the shopping mall, through the stairwell, down a corridor, and took a right turn. It looked like there was a storage closet here. She opened the door to a room about the size of a walk-in-closet filled wall to wall with Chinese pirated DVDs. They had a great selection. I bought the 9 DVD box set, season one, of “Lost” for 72 kuai. That’s nine dollars. Best deal I made in my life. The quality is perfect too. I’ve been watching them for the past few days, and I have to say “Lost” is really, really good. When I finish the first season, Ben already has the second one lined up.

Our last stop was a library. It was a library full of English books, rich foreigners sipping coffee, and a café and restaurant. It was a really nice place. I was just wearing a sweaty t-shirt and jeans, and felt a little out of place among the high rollers, but it was okay just because I was American. It’s weird and sometimes uncomfortable being privileged because of where you come from. This is the type of place in China, where people can come and live like kings even if they aren’t rich in their home country. I don’t know how bad it is, but I could really see this going to some people’s heads thinking too highly of themselves. I bet some people just become very spoiled and egocentric here.

We took a taxi back to the train station and waited for the next train. We were tired and wanted to sit down. Getting a seat on a Chinese subway is like a game of musical chairs though. So when the train arrived, we stood in front of the door on our toes, before it opened up. It opened and we dashed inside and got seats. The train got completely full about a minute later. Instead of walking with the queue at the next station, we jumped the fence and ran up the stairs past the packed escalators. I get the feeling most Chinese folks don’t like to do things physical unless they have to. Nobody else wanted to walk up. So we got on the next train early and got back to Wudaokou station. We got a cab back to the street corner and arrived at about 10:00 PM.




This is what my homework looks like everyday. Mostly just writing Chinese characters (Hanzi) for three hours or more each day. The picture above it is one I took at the Lhama Temple this weekend.

I started this week by going to the Beijing Quarantine Bureau to get my health documents, which are needed to attain a residence permit in China. I decided to go with my American friend, Benjamin, who has already spent a year in China. He taught English at a school in Inner Mongolia last year, and is now in Beijing to improve his Chinese language ability, and he also attends Beijing Language and Culture University. We decided to wake up early and go to the hospital before it became too crowded. So we found a cab and went on our way. Benjamin did all the talking with the cab driver since he knows how to speak Chinese pretty well. The drive took about an hour, due to the chronic traffic, and because the driver took the long way to get more of our money. That happens a lot here, especially with foreigners. In the cab, I remembered all the stories I’ve heard of the nightmare, which is a Chinese hospital. Eventually, the cab comes to a stop on the side of the road. At this point I’m wondering where the hospital is. Then I look past the road construction and down a little alleyway, and there it is. It couldn’t have been much more inconspicuous. I’m getting used to things like this now though. None of the urban layout makes sense to me, and the architecture is just dismal most of the time. From the outside, everything around here from restaurants, to grocery stores, to hotels, and some homes just look like old auto repair shops. You would never know what it is until you step inside, unless you can read Chinese characters you might have some clue by the sign outside.

It turns out this hospital is not so bad. I was even a bit impressed by how organized they were when dealing with us. We joined the small throng of foreigners awaiting their check ups. We had to get a physical check up, a blood sample, an ECG, and an X-ray. There were stations set up so we just got in line and went from one to the next. The doctors were actually quite nice and patient and spoke a little English, and it went uneventful, except maybe for the X-ray. They just had us stand there in front of the X-ray machine and slung a small cover over our lower abdomen for protection. So, in the end, we all probably got some radiation or something from the X-ray, but that’s just part of living in China, I guess. At least there wasn’t a dirt floor and nurses throwing needles across the rooms at this hospital. We finished and paid our four hundred kuai to get our document, and they told us to come back in three days to pick it up. So we paid for another round of taxi trips on Wednesday, got our piece of paper, and that was the end of that.

We began classes this Wednesday. I have four classes, and I really can’t differentiate one from the other so far. They are called Chinese compulsory, listening, writing, and speaking. Actually, we just sit in the same room for four hours doing these things at random. I’m actually really liking school though. I feel like I’m back in elementary school because we have one class of students and we stay together for the whole year. I’m the only American in my class. There aren’t many Americans here, and my teacher seems glad to have an American student. It’s kind of weird. My school reminds me a lot of when I went to international school in Frankfurt, Germany. As far as I know so far, my class has people from Kazakhstan, Mexico, France, Israel, Japan, Indonesia, Uruguay, and Thailand. Our class is only about fifteen students. I like my teacher and I like the way we are being taught so I think classes will go well.

So far, my normal day has started by waking up at six in the morning with the sun greeting me through my window, which looks to the east. I try to get cleaned up relatively well before the family wakes up to go to work. I eat something lying around for breakfast. Usually a bag of milk (yes, a bag) and some stale muffins, which taste like vanilla wafer cookies. They actually taste pretty good if you soak them in the milk first. I leave at 7:40 a.m. and walk thirty minutes to school. I just like walking, but I think the family just thinks I’m a little crazy. I begin classes at 8:30 a.m. and finish at about 12:30 p.m. At this point, the rest of the day is mine to just do whatever. So usually, I just hang around looking for something other than studying to do. At 7:30 p.m., the family and I have dinner. This is always a rather interesting experience. Over the slurping, burping, and sometimes farting of the father, we manage to communicate in broken English and Chinese. I think I’m already losing weight too. Usually, there’s a dish of some meat, a few vegetable dishes, and some rice or bread. Usually, the meat just consists of fat so I just eat vegetables most of the time. Until I met the father here, I had never seen somebody get so much to eat off one little bone. I tried to get what little bit of meat looked good, but it wasn’t worth the trouble. You won’t find a pure piece of meat in most places here, unless you go to a restaurant. Restaurants are a whole other story though. After dinner, I usually do some more studying until about 10:00 p.m. At this point I’m usually just exhausted and sleep very well. I have a nice hard bed and a blanket so far. I’ll have to find a quilt for when it gets cold.

After school, Benjamin and I sometimes go to get lunch at a restaurant. The first restaurant we discovered actually happened to be right across the street from my apartment complex. It’s a little restaurant, probably family run, which only serves dumplings. So, we usually order about forty dumplings between us and some drinks for about a bit less than three dollars. The other restaurant we found was a bit classier, but again you wouldn’t know it until you get right up to it. So we decided to take a dusty side road with fewer people, and saw a place that looked like it might be a restaurant. So as we get up to it, we’re greeted by a guard who warmly shows us to the door, and then we’re greeted by the girl that holds the door for you and welcomes customers. As soon as we get in, we are shown to our seats and a waitress comes to take our order. There’s a saying in China, which goes something like “customer is God”, which seemed to apply to this restaurant. We got an order of gong bao ji ding (Kung pao chicken, in the U.S., I think), some kind of fried eggplant (really delicious actually), and some type of noodles, which were in a tomato flavored soup. The service was really great. They even served us the noodles out of the dish when our bowls were empty. That was the best food I’ve had in China so far. For everything, we paid about thirty five kuai, which is about four or five dollars.

When I arrived in Beijing last week, it was really hot and sticky all day long. We’ve had a sudden drop in temperatures here since then. This morning I woke up and looked out my window, and everyone I saw was wearing a coat. It was probably about fifty five degrees Fahrenheit. We’ve even had clear skies, which is rare in Beijing, due to the pollution.

Since the weather has been nice, sometimes I spend time sitting in the parks on my school’s campus. Many times, people will just come up to me and start talking. It’s weird sometimes, because it’s hard to tell if the people want something from you or just sincerely want to talk. Even in the first week, I’ve even had two people come to me asking if I wanted a job teaching English since I’m an American. I thought that was kind of funny. Another day, a guy came up and asked if he could sit on the same bench. I told him sure, and then he took out his lighter and offered me a cigarette out of courtesy. Lots of people in China smoke, especially in the countryside. I told him I didn’t smoke. Then he said that he had come to my school for a business meeting and had just finished. He began telling me how everything I owned was probably made in China. About how lots of it was made in his home city of Hanghzhou, which is in southern China. I told him I was studying business and economics in the United States, so he told me enthusiastically how his business works. His company is hired out by foreign companies to find things in China for the lowest price. Then they buy the product as cheap as they can and sell it to the foreign companies for just a fraction more than what they paid for it. He said they will find you anything, but I think they work with bulk items. For example, his lighter could be made in Hanghzhou for a penny and then sold for maybe 1.01 pennies. In bulk, they could make good profit. It was actually really interesting, but just kind of weird. He was a professional but thought it worth his time speaking to me since I’m American, even though I’m just a student. He gave me his cell phone number so I gave him mine. He said the next time he’s in Beijing he would buy me some lunch and continue the conversation.

I found out this week that the family I live with only gets forty hours worth of internet connection per month. This makes things very difficult for me, apart from the fact that I have to pull a wire across the apartment to my computer to use the internet. I don’t really have a desk or a chair, so I just sit on the end of my bed and set my laptop on the drawer. Things aren’t really that bad. It just sounds bad when you have all the comforts and that’s what you’re used to. Now, I’m used to the little inconveniences, and it makes things interesting sometimes. I think people here aren’t wasteful with their resources. So, I don’t take more than one shower every day or two, don’t use the air conditioning unless it’s really needed, and try not to leave things plugged in or turned on unless I’m using it then. The only inconveniencing thing that really bothers me is that I am cut off from my normal dose of information from the internet. I hardly know what’s happening in the world and hardly ever get to communicate with people back home. I didn’t hear that the Crocodile Man was killed until about three days later. That kind of stuff annoys me. I use my cell phone a lot more here than I ever did in the United States. So, anyway, my channels of communication are really bad right now.

9/8/06

Now writing from Beijing.

I arrived in Beijing Wednesday afternoon. I’m staying with a thirty year old couple and their four year old daughter. I’ll spend the year living at their apartment, which is about fifteen minutes by bike to Beijing Language and Culture University.

The campus of BLCU is really nice, I think. I’ve heard this part of the city is a pretty fun place to live too. Right now, I’m working through the school registration process, which is really tedious. I will hopefully finish with registration this Monday, and begin school sometime this next week.

When you hear stories about life in China being difficult for foreigners, its definitely true. The first thing that happened when I got off the plane was get to baggage claim and find one of my bags missing. I used what little Chinese I knew to get some help. I agreed to pay a luggage carrier five dollars if he found my bag then he started running around baggage claim looking for it. After a few minutes, he came running back with my bag. I was probably paying him a lot, but I didn’t care. It was worth it. So without letting all the taxi drivers see, I handed him a five dollar bill and that was that.

Among other things difficult, it’s just really hot here and the air conditioning is weak. So, it’s always sticky. I can’t wait until winter comes. If I want to shower, the water just goes on the floor or whatever the shower head is pointing at, so it takes a little more focus, without getting the whole room wet. Then, you have to squeegee all the remaining water down the drain when you’re done.

The people seem very friendly around here too. Of course though, some people try to exploit the foreigners since we tend to be unfamiliar with everything. Some guy came up and asked me to buy his big grocery bag full of tea. He said he didn't want to carry it home. It was kind of funny. I didn't want to carry it home either. I don't really get stares from people since there are a lot of foreigners around here. Only the little kids look at me funny sometimes. I went to the Beijing zoo today. Even in the monkey section, I felt like an exhibit since some children looked at me with more curiosity than the monkeys.

On Friday, I met some Chinese students who wanted to practice their English, and they helped me buy a cell phone and a bike. Traffic laws are practically non-existent here though, so the roads are just a big free-for-all. I'll have to practice with the bike. Everything is definitely very different here. For example, the shopping malls are just a pain. They have such tight security to prevent theft. We had to have the guards check or stamp our receipts about four times before we could get out the door. Then, as soon as we got out, we realized the bike chain was broken. My friends took me to a bike repair shop down in some little alley to get it fixed up. Imagine, buying a brand new bike, which requires repairs before you can use it. An old man fixed the chain, and installed two good bike locks and a carrying basket for about $6. Great deal, I’d say. I think I should have plenty of money. Altogether, I bought a good cell phone, a bike, bike repairs, and lunch for three people for $120. I can buy a really good lunch for about a dollar.

The family I'm with gives me breakfast and dinner. They seem to be pretty good at cooking. For breakfast so far, I've mostly been served milk, porridge (rice and beans in water, or something), sweet muffins, and some hard boiled eggs. The dinner is also good. All the food is very healthy. We usually have a main course of some meat, and then maybe various vegetables, nuts, fruits, bread, and rice.

It’ll probably take another week or so before I’m really settled in here. Right now, I’m just kind of hanging out with nothing to do until Monday. Right now, I don’t have a stable internet connection either so I the things I post might be a little old. And feel free to send me emails or comment on this site.