A Weekend in China

Sorry, I know it's been a while, and some of these events are a little old, but that doesn't mean they're any less interesting. I promise.

(6/22)  Wudaokou (五道口) is a street/district in Beijing where a lot of young people venture to in the evenings.  Lots of bars, clubs, and KTV (karaoke).  And thousands of bright, flashing lights. It's quite a spectacle.  Therefore, we (two American friends and one Chinese roommate) decided that was the place to be on Saturday night.  There was a giant group planning on going to KTV place in another part of town.  We were part of that group at one point, and then sort of...changed our minds at the last minute.  And when I say last minute, I mean they started walking away, we sort of followed and then turned around and went back to the dorms.  I know...we're terrible, terrible people, but one thing that I have learned in my time in Beijing is that going places with 10+ people is no fun for anybody.

So, we four went to 五道口 and Qiaoyu (the Chinese roommate) led us two a very European looking bar with a mix of Chinese and waiguo ren.  And we relaxed, and it was brilliant.  I have a feeling I'm not going to find anything like the Chinese bars I've been to when I get back to the states.  Especially on a college campus.  Therefore, I've decided I'm going to take advantage of the opportunities presented to me now.

I think one of the most interesting parts about that evening was the pizza we ate.  Yes, pizza. It was the first Western food I had eaten in many weeks.  And it wasn't bad:

(6/23)  Today was a day of very beautiful things.  We first went to 北海 (Beihai), a park around a lake in Beijing with very, very old buildings scattered throughout.  Really interesting. I was a really nice break from all the city that surrounds us all the time.  A few pictures (some of them are even of me...I know....crazy):

The middle picture is a set of steps we got to climb down.  Quite steep.  Little bit scary.  But I believe the theme of my time in China is "You will walk up and down millions of stairs," so I wasn't terribly surprised.  This picture also contains two of my good friends: David and Ricky.  And the picture below has Rachel, Ricky and some random girl who jumped in at the last moment.

Probably one of the highlights of my trip thus far has been going to the Olympic Park at night.  It was absolutely magical.  The Olympic Park is one of those places that most people would recognize if shown a picture, but seeing a picture is not the same as seeing it up close.  Five years ago, I never would have thought I would be there, with all the people and all the lights.  The plaza in fronting is teeming with Chinese culture.  But not the old culture, the new, Beijing culture.  Bunches of street vendors, people doing their nightly dancing work out, lots of kites in the sky, lots of picture takers, lots of non-Beijingers.  It was absolutely wonderful, one of my favorite parts of China so far.

As we walked around and took many, many pictures, we (Rachel and I) were asked to have our picture taken with a few random Chinese.  I had been told this would happen, but this was my first experience, I was just a little bit giddy:

This was not the last time this has happened either.

SIDE NOTE: The other night coming back on the subway, we had a guy on the escalator out ask if he could take a picture with us.  However, I must note, he was first just taking pictures of us without our consent.  And with no subtly whatsoever.  This happens sometimes, and amuses me a great deal.

Back to Olympic Park: The broadcast tower was really colorful, really tall, and really cool:

It went through the rainbow and was quite a site to see.  And then of course we have the water cube.  It was very cuby and very water-like.  Good job, China.

 

A video for your pleasure (the two boys are Ricky and Ricky's roommate Zexi):

I'm planning on going back.  It was just that cool.  So many adventures, so little time.

Something short and rainy...

Getting caught in the rain in China is probably one of the most exciting and one of the most disgusting things I have ever done.

Having a little bit of pijiu (beer) in my system probably helped my endurance as I sprinted through the downpour.  I had to remind myself not to open my mouth, because every time I did, a bitter rain would assault my taste buds.  If I looked up too long, my eyes would start to sting.

We ran past a hair salon and boys with goofy hair cuts sat and watched us, amused and confused.  Why were waiguo ren running through the rain? My shoes are sponges.  My clothes are only soaked through on the front.  My phones are both safe and my purse is a darker brown than it was at the restaurant.  What an experience.  I wouldn't change it for the world.  Beijing gave me a shower of black rain.

对不起, China...and Other Adventures

(6/19) First, I must apologize to China, for I have betrayed my host country:

I know...it's embarrassing.  If it makes it any better, I was firmly against going, but conceded in the end.  Also, when compared with the rest of the food in China, Maidanglao (as it is called here) is more expensive, and honestly, their fries didn't have enough salt and greasiness. MORAL: don't go to American restaurants in China (duh). 

(6/20) I don't know if my next dinner was a step up or down the ladder, but it sure was interesting.  We noticed this after we sat down:

It was probably a poor choice to stay and eat, but we did, because we're reckless college students. 

(6/21) Shopping for clothes in China is a little bit (ok a lot a bit) overwhelming, especially at the cheaper places.  You walk in the a multi-story building and encounter this:

Over and over and over again.  You can't really tell from the picture, but this aisle is probably a quarter of a mile long. This building only had three stories.  The one next door has five or six.  Too many clothes, couldn't function.  As a result, nothing was purchased. 


That night we went to see an acrobatics show with the CET gang.  Me being extremely cynical, I believe that all the performers are rejects from the Chinese Olympic Gymnastics Team.  Despite that, they were wonderful and extremely talented.  It did help that we were sitting in the front row. Lots of attractive, strong Chinese men (there were woman too, but they weren't nearly as interesting) do amazing feats with their bodies.  It was quite an enjoyable show.  And a tourist trap if I've ever seen one.  I think the theatre contained the highest concentration of waiguo ren (Non-chinese) I had yet to see in Beijing.  Here are a few samplings from the evening:

Yes, that is something like 15 girls on one bike.  Because that's what bikes were made for. 

(6/22) This afternoon, we went to the largest bookstore I have ever seen.  I was in heaven.  And also in hell, because there were four floors of Chinese books.  Which would be awesome if my Chinese weren't at the level of an elementary schooler. 

It's called Beijing Book Building.  Yes, the entire building is a bookstore.  It was truly magical, even for an American like myself.  A few of my finds (some of these were purchased):

There were also many classics (in Chinese) like Shakespeare, the Odyssey, and lot of Hemingway.  One of my friends purchased a few Stephen King novels (in Chinese) as well.  It was a task finding anything in the bookstore.  I was lucky to stumble upon what I wanted, because searching for books takes what seems like years.  They have different sections of the bookstore, but the books within these sections didn't seem to my organized in any logical fashion.  And there was the issue of reading the actual titles.  Most of the international books had titles in English on the front of the books, but not of the spines, and all of the authors names were in Chinese.  Without my Chinese-English dictionary I would have been completely lost. 

I believe we are going to a sushi restaurant this evening and then perhaps to a Karaoke bar...I promise to update later.  The adventure continues.

More Beijing Sites

Yesterday, we cruised around Beijing a little, visiting the Lama Temple and Bell and Drum towers.  The Lama Temple, for those of you who don't know, is a Tibetan Buddhist temple in Bejing that houses a 26 meter tall white Sandalwood temple of the Maitreya Buddha.  Yes, 26 meters, or, for you Americans, 85 feet.  The most unbelievable part, he is carved from a single Sandalwood.  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the building, however I do have the power of internet.  So, a picture not of my taking:

 Freaking awesome, I know.

Me being a little bit of language nerd, I was really excited to see so many languages that I could not read on one sign:

 The furthest left is Mongolian, then Tibetan, Chinese, and the Arabic script.  The people of Xinjiang use the Arabic alphabet:

 Xinjiang will be important a little later in the day as well.

The drum and bell towers were, cool, but at that point all of us were dead, so we didn't go in, just took pictures outside and bartered for hats.

 

The first picture is the drum tower, the second the bell.  Interesting fact that roommate told me: in ancient China they of course didn't have clocks, so the bell was rung twice a day (in the morning and in the evening) and could be heard all through out Beijing.  

The food yesterday was especially interesting.  We had a Xinjiang dish that was super tasty, and also super giant:

I think the meat was chicken (I often don't know what meat I'm eating, but I really don't care, so know need to worry) and their were big pieces of ginger root and potato, green peppers, onions, hot peppers, etc.  Really, really super tasty.  We dipped giant noodles into the sauce and slurped those up as well.  But this was not the most interesting dish of the night.  This was:

Yum, chicken hearts.  Little bit chewy, but quite tasty.  Yay China.

Just a small update from today (6/17), we can see blue sky.  Praise Buddha, Allah, and the Food Gods of China:

Today is also the day where I signed the language pledge.  I will not be allowed to speak English for the next two months....what have I gotten myself into?

Look, I'm a tourist!

So, being in an American in Beijing, I obviously had to fulfill my tourist duties and go see the Forbidden City and Tian'anmen.  This was a very good idea, except for the large amounts of pollution in the air. 

The Forbidden City is gigantic.  One cannot truly comprehend the size until you have walked and walked and walked and walked, still not reaching the other side of the palace.  It was unlike anything I had ever experienced.  And the Chinese like their symmetry, so at times it seemed I was just walking through the same courtyard, towards the same massive building, over and over again.  But, that being said, it was absolutely magnificent.

Something interesting that we very rarely come across in America: the tourists were not all foreigners.  Most of them were actually from China.  When we think tourist, we usually think non-American, with a few Texans thrown in there.  This is almost never the case in China.  I will always be a minority here, no matter where I go. 

After our adventures with the emperors, we crossed the street to Tian'anmen Square. 

Unfortunately, we don't have our student IDs, so we didn't go into the Maosoleum (see what I did there...), so we will have to leave that for another day.  Tian'anmen is such a large expanse of nothing, which is so strange in city like Beijing, where almost all of the space is used, and overused.  Also, their landscaping their is something to behold.  I was quite impressed.  Good job, China. 

I think the highlight of the day was eating dinner after Tian'anmen.  We found an alley and wandered down it.  There, we stumbled upon a restaurant that was open, so of course we went in.  I think if I had seen the kitchen I would have been terrified and run away screaming, however, I did not, so there was no screaming that day.  The food was better than expected, but the greatest thing about the restaurant was their menu outside, and the brilliant Chinglish we found on it:

Please, feel free to give a guess of what it is supposed to say (I know, cause I can read Chinese :) ).  Whoever has the best guess, I will bring back a Raxious Cityfiaror shack for you.

I'm still alive, promise...

Hello friends and family (and non-friends too), I have made it to China.  I was worried I was going to be able to access my blog, because as we know, the Chinese hate any kind of individual expression, but I have leaped over that wall by purchasing a vpn.  Now all is well and I'm connected to the World Wide Web once more.

I promised someone very close that I would have a glass of champagne as soon as I got on the plane, but, seeing as I'm under age, and the flight attendant knew it, this was all I could pull off:

I know, it's a little bit sad.  But I promise to go for the champagne on the way back.

Classes haven't started yet, we've just had lots of orientation.  CET wants to make sure we don't get swallowed up by Beijing/The Government, which is very kind of them.

Some interesting things to get used to in Beijing:
No drinking the tap water.  Ever.  Unless you want to die.  Or be very very sick.
Can't flush TP down the toilet.  Sewage system here is not brilliant.
Walking in the middle of the road is fun.  And a little dangerous, but also widely done.
The pollution is not as noticeable as I thought it would be.  Everything's a little hazy, and the sunsets are very red:

And even during the middle of the day, it looks like sunset:

 But it doesn't hurt to breath, which is really nice.

Tonight (6/14), we went on an adventure with one of my American friend's Chinese roommate.  We wandered the district that all the Chinese college seem to populate.  We had Sichuan food, which is none for it's spice. And we had duck heads. Yes, duck heads.  I know you don't believe me. Here's the evidence:

It was interesting...pretty sure I ate a duck brain (shades of Indiana Jones), but we had it, and I regret nothing.

I have much to say about roommates, but I think I'll leave it for my next post.  They just arrived, so we haven't had a lot interaction yet.  I'll probably have more to say after another few days.

Signing off for now. 

Some specifics....

Hi there again.  I'm here today to help you understand a little bit more about the program that's taking me away from the US for two months. It starts June 12 and ends August 12.  It's called CET Summer Language Intensive Beijing.  I will be taking Chinese classes five days a week and living in a dorm at the Beijing Institute of Education:

Address: 2 Wenxing Street
               Xizhimenwai, Xicheng District
               Beijing 100044, PRC

The school is right by the Beijing Zoo and in the second ring of the city.  I will have a Chinese roommate, though I don't know who yet (I promise to let you know just as soon as I find out).  From what I can tell there will be about 40 of us in the intensive language program, including a few from UNC that I have already met.  And cool (and terrifying) thing about the intensive language program is that I will sign a language pledge when I get there, saying I will only speak Chinese for my two months in Beijing...which will make things quite interesting.

Some of you may know that I received the Phillips Ambassador Scholarship.  This scholarship is not affiliated with CET, but is instead through UNC.  It was awarded two 21 students from UNC traveling to Asia during the summer or fall of this year.  The Phillips' are extremely generous, giving me $5000.  However, I don't get to just take the money and run.  I will also be completing class while I'm over there by reflecting and analyzing my experiences while in Beijing.

Ok, that's all for now.  Let me know if you have any questions in the comments section.  Ta ta for now.