Hello everyone! Greetings from China!
Due to my inability to post on my blog while I'm in China due to their strict Internet filters, I've set up this email group so you can all stay updated on what life is like here. That's assuming, of course, that you're even interested to begin with. If you're not, let me know and I'll take you off the list.
I've been in Beijing for a little over a week now, and I have already seen and done a whole lot more than can be covered in a single email in great detail. I've got tons of pictures and nearly 2 hours of video, and there's still much, much, much more to see. Unfortunately, due to problems with my Internet connection and blog access, I've been unable to write about it until now. Since I don't have time to write a novel, this first email is going to be a short summary of all the main things I've done to date. So let's get started!
THE CITY
So far, I have mixed feelings about Beijing. On one hand, it's overcrowded, the traffic is awful (pedestrians here have no rights!), and extremely polluted. On the other hand, there's a lot of cool things to see, the people are fairly friendly, and everything is dirt cheap. On the whole, it could be a lot worse.
THE FOOD
Delicious! It's pretty different from Chinese food in the USA, and not everything is good, but overall I'm loving it so far. Chopsticks take a while to get used to, but once you get the hang of them they're not that hard to use. I can eat a large breakfast consisting of dumplings and buns for 3.5 yuan (around 30 cents), and lunch and dinner usually only cost a few dollars. There's a lot of pork, but chicken, beef, tofu, and vegetable dishes are also very common. I've also tried intestines, eggplant, bamboo shoots, and other interesting dishes. There are Western restaurants around (KFC has a huge presence here), but I don't foresee myself eating at those places very often.
TRANSPORTATION
The public transportation system is pretty easy to use. However, given the size of Beijing's population, buses and subways are usually very crowded and uncomfortable. I don't want to think about what things will be like in a year when there are tons of tourists here for the Olympics, and the government starts taking measures to cut down on pollution (such as prohibiting driving).
THE OLYMPICS
This is huge. There are advertisements everywhere counting down the days until the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, and promoting certain Chinese teams. There are a lot of stadiums under construction, and in the months leading up to the opening ceremony the government is going to be doing a lot to help get the city looking its best. However, Chinese people have mixed feelings about the Olympics. For example, one of my native Chinese professors feels the Olympics is one way in which traditional Chinese culture is being corrupted and forgotten due to the increase in Western influence. It will be interesting to see what economic and cultural effects the Olympics ends up having on China.
POLITICS
China is a Communist country, and the government does censor certain things. Also, there is propaganda everywhere promoting the "glorious" and "harmonious" Chinese society. There is a huge portrait of Mao hanging over the entrance to the Forbidden City, and from what little I've heard about Chinese political sentiments, Mao seems to be regarded fairly positively. One person told me that he's usually viewed as being 2/3 good, and 1/3 bad. On the whole, Chinese people don't seem very dissatisfied, and one native professor of mine indicated that he thinks in many ways China is just as "free" as the USA. It's interesting.
THE SILK MARKET & JIN WU XING
China has a few huge markets, two of which I've visited. The Silk Market is mainly targeted at foreigners, while Jin Wu Xing is more for average Chinese citizens. Both are HUGE establishments, consisting of hundreds and thousands of small shops and stands selling various things. You can get pretty much anything you want, though goods are mainly knockoffs of foreign brands rather than the real thing. Sometimes that works out well, though, and in some instances the fake stuff is actually higher quality than the real thing. Want a fancy leather jacket, Rolex watch, or iPod, or a new pair of jeans? You can get it all at the markets, and if you know how to bargain, it's fairly cheap.
One way in which The Silk Market differs from Jin Wu Xing is that the salespeople are extremely aggressive. As someone who has a little bit of experience in sales, I can say that in all likelihood, the kind of tactics used would probably be frowned upon in the USA. As you walk by everyone's booth, they yell at you in an attempt to get you to come to their stand. Some of my favorite lines:
"Hey, you wear polo, you need new one!"
"You get nice gift for your girlfriend, yes?"
"You have very bad style, you need new clothes!"
If you do decide you're interested in something, the bargaining game begins. In all likelihood, the original price quoted by the salesperson is about 10 times higher than what it's actually worth, or what you can get it for if you work hard enough. This is especially true at The Silk Market, probably because a lot of rich foreigners have no problem dishing out lots of cash. For the skilled bargainer, however, you can get things for much cheaper. For example, I bought a silk shirt (supposedly it's real silk, but who knows) that was originally cited as being around $150. I got it for around $30, and that was still probably too high. Still, it's a really nice shirt. If anyone wants anything, let me know and I'll do my best to get it for you here for a decent price.
THE BEIJING ZOO
The zoo here is a very interesting experience to say the least. It's kinda depressing. A lot of the animals are kept in small quarters, and most just sit around and look like they have no souls. Also: a lot of the animals aren't exactly very exotic. For example, there's a fairly large habitat that's given to... raccoons. Meanwhile, the tigers are kept in a smaller area. That's not cool. However, there were a few interesting animals, and I got to pet a zebra, so that's not bad.
CHINESE ACROBATIC TEAM
We went to see the national acrobatic team perform. Basically, it's a bunch of little kids and teenagers doing all sorts of crazy stunts and flips and bodily contortions. It was pretty amazing. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take any pictures or video. When the show ended, I felt like a clumsy fat American in desperate need of more exercise.
TIANEMEN SQUARE
Yup, I already went there. It's not like there's a whole lot to see. With the exception of a central monument and the national flag, it's just a big plaza. Still, it was cool to see, especially considering the Chinese government still refuses to acknowledge what happened there. In fact, from what I've heard, the majority of Chinese citizens actually have no idea anything major ever happened. It wasn't a massacre, it was an "incident." And you can forget about finding information about it online through Google or Wikipedia - it's all filtered.
THE MUSEUM OF BEIJING
Basically, this is a museum dedicated entirely to Beijing and various topics of interest (the transportation system, environmental protection, etc.). There's a HUGE and very detailed model of the city that must have cost a fortune to make. My favorite part of the museum, however, was a short animated music video about how great the public transportation system is and how "harmonized transport will be a name card of Beijing." People in the cartoon were wearing Community party armbands, and a lot of emphasis was placed on how great the transportation system is going to be by the time the Olympics get here. I love propaganda.
ZHAOSHANG PARK
It's a small park located right next to the Forbidden City. There's some great scenery and some interesting temples and architecture.
FRAGRANT HILLS
This is an area on the edge of Beijing where you can hike up the mountains that surround the city. I wasn't expecting a major hike - the path is paved, since this is evidently where the old emperors used to come in the summertime. However, we ended up walking more than 1600 meters, a lot of which was nearly a vertical hike. It was pretty intense. We made it to the peak though and got a good view of the city. Or at least, the little bits of the city that you could see beneath the enormous cloud of smog. Beijing has probably the worst air pollution I've ever seen. I can't believe I have to breathe this stuff for a semester.
SCHOOL
This whole week has been Orientation. On Monday we start a week of intense Chinese boot camp - about 3.5 hours a day. Although I've taken two semesters of Chinese, I forgot most of it over the summer, so hopefully this will be a good refresher. The week after that, classes start. Also, there are a variety of clubs we have the option of participating in. I'm going to be doing Calligraphy and Tai Qi two days a week. There's a kickboxing class I won't be taking, but the teacher is a 20-year old guy who trained as a Shaolin monk. In other words: he's a kung fu master. He gave a short demonstration that involved some pretty amazing stunts - think flips and roundhouse kicks and handless cartwheels. This guy could easily kill you with his bare hands if he wanted to. Too bad he's not teaching a class on that stuff. I'd definitely take it. I could become Kung Fu Master Jiang Shangan (that's my Chinese name, in case you're wondering - it means "peaceful and noble").
That's basically everything I've been doing in a nutshell. I have a ton of pictures, way too many to attach to this email, so I'm trying to figure out a way to make them all quickly accessible. If anyone has any ideas, let me know. There's still a lot more stuff to see here in Beijing, and I'm going to be traveling to some other areas of China throughout the semester, so there should be plenty more to report. Tomorrow I'm planning on going with a few friends to check out some Buddhist temples. I still need to go into the Forbidden City, and it will probably take a few days to see everything in there. That's just the tip of the iceberg. If you have any questions or would like more details on anything, just let me know, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
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