Beijing is getting cold...

It’s the end of October now and it’s quite cold here. I don’t have a thermometer so I don’t really know the temperature though. People say it’s going to get very cold here too. My home is always freezing cold in the mornings and nights since the heat isn’t turned on until November 15th. I don’t know how it works, but everyone in this district will get their heating beginning on that day. Along with the cold weather come new inconveniences too. Our shower does not have hot water. Maybe one out of every ten times it has some warm water. So that just adds to the cold feeling.

I joined the gym at my school. It’s a decent gym with everything a normal gym in the United States would have, but it’s smaller and compacted into two narrow rooms. I think working out at the gym or just working out at all is a new concept in China. It’s like playing golf is in America. It seems to mostly be the well off Chinese people with spare time and extra money that join the gym. The gym I joined is a bit different though since it’s located on my school’s campus. It’s mostly foreigners who go there.

I’m beginning to lose taste for most of the food the family cooks. We usually eat the same few dishes every week and they aren’t very good. Every once in a while they make something nice, but then it might be something not so nice in my opinion. The family served pig feet and pig tail this week, which wasn’t appetizing to me at all. The father of the family said he loved to eat it. I couldn’t tell if it even had any meat on it or if it was just fat. It was kind of like gelatin. Most of the meat they serve is just a bone with a small bit of meat and fat on it. There’s so little of anything on the bone it looks like it’s already been eaten by somebody. We did have chicken and chicken broth soup this week though, which I thought tasted good.

I’ve tried to eat out in restaurants more these days since I need more to eat now that I’m exercising again. We have quite a few restaurants around here. Most restaurants serve the same foods, but some might cook one thing better than another. The standard restaurant around here is just an open room with tables and chairs. No crazy decorations like T.G.I. Fridays or Chili’s restaurants. Most of the time the restaurant walls are just bare. They seem very practical. Service is usually much better than American restaurants. The restaurant workers always seem to take their jobs seriously and are always polite. There’s no such thing as tipping in China either. I’ve recently come to realize that Chinese food isn’t really that healthy. There are a lot more vegetables, but they are always cooked or fried in grease. I think almost every dish I’ve had is greasy and oily. It’s surprising that people don’t get fat though. I’ve definitely not gained any weight since I’ve been here. The restaurants are always very fast in serving your food. It usually never takes more than ten minutes to have all your food. Usually, most restaurants will give you a pot of tea free of charge to go with your meal too.

This Friday, I decided to check out the Halloween party put on by BLCU’s English Association. The party wasn’t fun though. Maybe three people dressed up in costumes. It’s understandable though. Chinese people just don’t understand the concept of Halloween. They did have a jack-o-lantern and some pizza though. Most forms of Chinese entertainment are just something I don’t understand yet. It usually just involves a host talking a lot. I mean a lot. It seems like Chinese people can just keep talking forever if they want to. Eventually they put on music and nobody even danced to it, except the foreign guy who dressed up as a vampire. He won the costume contest too since he was the only one that really dressed up.

That night, I was walking down the street to a restaurant on campus and I noticed a person singing in front of me. He bumped shoulders with some guy that walked past him like it was nothing. I wasn’t sure what was up with this guy. We both ended up walking onto the campus and he said in perfect English “Hey man. Where are you from?” I told him I was from the United States. He said he was a nomad from Tibet. That explained why he looked so different from normal Beijingers. He was shorter, had darker skin, long hair, and wore a bandana around his head. He was a real Tibetan who lived a nomadic life before coming to Beijing to study English. I haven’t met anyone in China who spoke English as well as he did. I told him I really wanted to see Tibet sometime. He told me to skip the main city of Lhasa since it’s turned into more of a tourist destination these days. He said to travel outside to find the authentic culture. We talked for about ten minutes before he had to go. It was the most interesting conversation I’ve had with anyone in China so far, but I won’t write about it here. It was mostly about how Tibetan culture is being ruined by the influx of people to the region, how it’s becoming a money making thing now, and so on. Hopefully I’ll run into him again sometime because I have a lot of questions to ask him. After speaking with him, I want to go to Tibet even more now. It’s a three day train ride though, and most people don’t speak Chinese there.

Saturday, Ben and I went to a big electronics store so he could buy a palm pilot. We walked for about an hour before we got there. It was a new multiple story building filled with electronics of every kind. I decided to take a look around the store as Ben talked with the salespeople. I didn’t step more than five meters before salespeople accosted me with words I didn’t understand. Me and Ben were the only foreigners in the store, and I couldn’t escape people trying to show me things and sell something to me. One saleslady, who spoke English, kept asking me if I wanted to buy a computer. I kept saying I didn’t need a computer. Then she asked if I had any friends who needed a computer. I told her my friends didn’t need a computer either. Then she kept asking if I was positive they didn’t need a computer. I kept telling her I was positive they didn’t need one. Then she got the idea I wasn’t interested in buying a computer and walked away. I couldn’t take a close look at anything because of all the distracting people. I did notice that some good up-to-date electronics could be bought for a cheaper price here than the United States though. I couldn’t stand all the haggling so I just left the store and waited outside for Ben. He ended up getting a nice palm pilot for about $150.

After the electronics store, we went to an Indian food restaurant. It was a very nice, little restaurant. It was authentic Indian food, and the head cook even took our order. We started speaking in Chinese to him but he spoke English. It was pricey compared to a normal meal but it was worth it. I think I spent six dollars for my meal. The food was better than most Indian food I’ve had in the United States.

After lunch, we went to play pool at a pool hall near the train station. This area is called Wudaokou and is like a Korean town. I’ve been to Wudaokou lots of times, but I never really realized how many Koreans are here until now. We took an elevator to the fourth floor of a new building overlooking the subway station. I think the pool hall was Korean run, and the signs were even in Korean. We paid a lot of money for one hour of pool. Maybe we each paid five dollars. It was a nice room though, with flat screen TV’s, couches, internet connection, and soft drink machines.

The pool hall is next to the school Ben attends in the evenings. Ben saw his usual cab driver outside, so we got a ride in his illegal taxi. I don’t know what the deal is with illegal taxis here. They’re illegal, but they like to attract more attention that normal cabs. Outside my apartment complex, about ten of them sit there all day long, and the drivers just play board games. Anyway, we started off driving back home on the wrong side of the road against the traffic. I guess it was easier than making a U-turn at the next intersection twenty meters in front of us. Nobody cared at all though. I guess I’ve never seen it done but its normal. I wasn’t surprised at all when we started driving off the road along the side of a construction site. The driver just chuckled and said “No cars here” as we weaved around open manholes in the road. It was kind of fun, except when you remember that nobody in China wears a seatbelt. If you get in a cab and put on your seatbelt, you might just insult the driver or get a weird look. Nobody drives any faster than twenty miles an hour in Beijing though.

Trip to Dalian

Here’s my story from my trip to Dalian. It took me a lot longer to get this written and posted than I thought it would. It was another six day school week, and I was sick for one day. I actually spent a lot of free time watching “Prison Break” on my computer, which I finally finished today. After reading, you can see some of my photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexsumerall/sets/72157594317651634/

This week for the National Day holiday, my Chinese friend named Ben and I traveled to Dalian. We took a twelve hour train ride to get there. I could describe the train ride in about a sentence, but I think the experience is worth saying something more about. We bought tickets late that week before we left, so the tickets we had were only valid for about a fifth of the distance to Dalian. We planned to pay the rest of the fare when we were on the train. This is a common thing to do in China. The train was a two story carrier with comfortable seats and air conditioning. In most cases, four to six people sit facing each other with a small table in between and about two feet of leg room to share. Its sounds like a cramped situation, but that’s only the beginning of it. The train quickly filled up and we started off. For the first two hours, we played cards with some other Chinese students who sat across from us. After that, it was about 8:30 PM and we were just getting started. Our tickets ran out at this time, and we paid the rest of the ticket fare. There were no empty seats left on the train though. So we stood in the aisle with the other stragglers. The aisles were about two feet wide so we were constantly moving back and forth letting people walk through. We stood for about one hour until we came to the next train stop. Some people got off the train and we grabbed their seats. We had a snack and a little rest for about an hour. The next stop, we had to get up and give the seats to the new passengers who bought those seats. By now, the train was packed with people and there was hardly anything to even lean against. We stood for about four hours in the aisle. People kept walking back and forth through the train so we never got more than two minutes of rest. It was the middle of the night, and people were sleeping all over the stairs and on the floors and aisles. You couldn’t really move around. We just sat on the floor when we got a chance. We got lucky though. At about 2:30 AM, Ben talked to a conductor and there were some beds available at the front of the train. We paid some extra money, and then made our way to the bed car. We lugged our bags over our heads through the people scattered all through the train cars. We finally made it to the bed cars and got a seat outside a room. In the bed cars, it was quiet and the lights were turned off. One of the train staff said we could wait about thirty minutes to get a bed. So we waited and got beds at about 3:30 AM. We slept until about 6:00 AM and arrived in Dalian shortly after.

Dalian is quite different from Beijing. Most of the buildings are lower and places aren’t so cramped. Some of the architecture has a Russian influence to it also. There are far fewer people and nobody in Dalian rides a bike for some reason. Unlike Beijing, there are very few foreigners so sometimes I got a lot of attention.

We found a hotel off the main road with a good rate. It was right on the seaside and our room had a great view over the water. The hotel was located in a rather poor area of town but it felt very safe, and it was really peaceful at night. The hotel we were staying in was one special for Chinese military personnel who are in the area. Anybody could stay there though. I found it really odd when the hotel staff never asked to see my passport too. Anyway, it was a good deal. We got a decent room and it had a bathroom and a shower. The shower was good the first day, but continued to act up after that. One day, there would be no cold water, the next day no hot water, or just freezing water and blazing hot water. We got three nights for about one hundred American dollars. A high price for my budget, but it was the best we could find. I think the only other option would have been to live in a hole in the ground for about twenty kuai a night. Ben encouraged me to spend as little as possible, but I refused this time.

We arrived in Dalian at about six in the morning so we had that whole day to spend. After we got the hotel room and took a rest, we went to a university to meet one of Ben’s friends from his old high school. We had some lunch and then spent the day at the aquarium. I was surprised how nice the aquarium was. I would rank it up with many large aquariums in America. We got to see some dolphin and seal shows as well, which were really good. One thing I know, is that you can find really good performances in China for almost nothing compared to the price you’d pay in the U.S. for the same thing, and usually the performances here are much better. After the aquarium we got some dinner and went downtown to the square. There’s a huge square, larger than Tiananmen Square, and it’s really nice. The weather was nice and cool that night too. We walked around and looked at the convention center, and fancy apartment buildings. Then we walked up to the top of the castle to get a view over the square. I don’t know why they built a castle there, but it looked good, I thought. Since it was the holiday, lots of people were celebrating in the square and it was a fun atmosphere. Beside the square, there’s a giant bowl shaped thing made of cement, almost like a giant skateboard half pipe. It was kind of fun because the surfaces were smooth enough to slide all the way down on your bottom.

The second day turned out to be rather boring. We went to a place called Ocean World, which was a big attraction in Dalian. I didn’t find it to be entertaining, but the people there sure must have. I couldn’t understand how people were entertained at all at some of the attractions there, but this is China. There’s nothing comparative to Six Flags here. To an American like me, it seems like Chinese people are very easily entertained, but theme parks are a new concept in China. There was one roller coaster, which we decided was more trouble to get on than it was worth. It was one of those coasters that splashes into the water at the end, and they made everyone wear ponchos and plastic pants so they wouldn’t get wet. Kind of ironic considering the fun is getting wet, and it was hot that day. There were lots of games you might find at a fair. Like shoot the balloons five feet in front of you and win a prize. They had bumper cars too, and a crappy old destroyer warship, which they made into a hotel. The park was clean though, but I won’t even begin to describe the restrooms. We decided to take the cable car across the bay to the other side of the park. There was a very thick fog that day though so we couldn’t see anything from the cable car. On the other side, there wasn’t anything else worth doing. We took the cable car back to the other side again. No views again, but we got a racist joke instead. A man with his family joined us in the cable car and talked with us a little. At first, they thought Ben was a tour guide with me. The man asked where I was from and we told him I was American. He said, “Good. Because if he was Japanese we’d have to throw him out.” I thought it was a very random thing to say, especially in front of his family. He meant it as a joke because I obviously wasn’t Japanese. Apparently in China, Japanese people are the equivalent of the Boogey Man. At least, they are in some places still. Even in children’s cartoons, the villains are always some Japanese soldiers from World War Two. After the park, we went to a restaurant to get some seafood. We picked out a good looking fish, which the butcher recommended, and they cooked it for us. It was one of the best fish I’ve tasted. After lunch, we took a bus to the Russian street. It was a street with some old Russian architecture, and it was jammed full of sales people trying to sell a bunch of fake stuff. Every shop was full of the same things: cheap gloves, furry hats, electric razors, pocket knives, fake silver crafts, leather crafts, binoculars, Russian dolls, and nothing worth buying. At this point in the evening, we were really tired, so we went back to the hotel. I then watched Chinese television for the first time since I’ve been here. It’s worse than I remembered it being from my first trip. Commercials can last to almost ten minutes, sometimes with some repeating three times in a row. Almost every commercial is for shampoo, soap, or some kind of medicine. The programs are usually just really poor too. We ended up watching an old show called “Journey to The West”, which was just funny because it was so bad. The special effects were just horrendous, and I don’t know how to describe them. It was like a ten year old did it for his school project. Nonetheless, that made it more entertaining to watch.

On the third day, which was our final day, we went to the Dalian Zoo. It was a very well laid out park, clean, lots of interesting animals, nice scenery, and more shows to see. It was about ten times better than the Beijing Zoo in all aspects. I saw another panda too, but it was sleeping. They always sleep when I see them so I never get very good photos. Something that caught my attention at the zoo was actually on the kid’s playground. There was this big cliff wall with some dangling ropes for kids to climb up to the top. It wasn’t quite vertical and looked pretty easy to climb, but it was just an accident waiting to happen. I would have loved a thing like that when I was younger though. Among other dangers at the zoo were things like tigers chained up to a bench or a tree along the sidewalk. They seemed tame enough though. You could get your pictures taken with them. In China, people don’t sue like Americans so people take these risks. In America, such things would just bring you at least a couple of lawsuits. We spent the whole afternoon at the zoo and then went back into the city. We met Ben’s friend again for dinner. Then we bought three big bags of corn chips from a farmer for three kuai, and we went to the seaside. We climbed up on a big rock on the shore and ate our chips there for about three hours. It was cool weather and the sky was clear that night too. It was nice in Dalian because you could find really peaceful places like this.

The next morning we went to the train station to head back to Beijing. We had tickets for the “hard seat” all the way back. We had an older, slower train this time and the trip was fourteen hours long. The train was full again, but at least we had a seat. I just listened to my MP3 player until it ran out of energy and then tried to sit patiently or sleep. Again, it was really uncomfortable but the time kept passing by. There wasn’t much to see out the windows either. I think it’s like this in most rural areas of China, but all you really see is old, poverty stricken farms and factories. Like remnants from the Cultural Revolution or something. I think I’ve never sat in one place for so long in my life. The flight from Chicago to Beijing wasn’t even this long. We finally arrived back in Beijing at about 11:30 PM. This night was the Moon Festival night, so most of the taxi drivers had gone home early. We finally got a taxi though and got back to our homes around 1:00 AM.

Overall, the trip was a really good experience. It had as many fun times as it had bad times though, but I learned a lot from it all. I also learned that travel is not easy if you can’t speak a lot of Chinese, and it can be expensive to travel even if lunch only costs you a dollar or two at a nice restaurant in China. For the whole trip, we spent about $250, which isn’t bad at all considering what we got. For two college students without jobs, it took a good chunk out of our accounts though. Dalian was a nice city worth taking another trip to somewhere down the line. I’d recommend it to someone wanting to travel in that region of China, but its not so tourist friendly as more major cities. If you want to see the sights in Dalian, it probably wouldn’t take any more than a week to do so. I think the city lacks historical tourism, but it has a lot of nice and fun places to visit.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexsumerall/sets/72157594317651634/