Beaches, beers and buses

This past weekend we had the opportunity to go on an office trip to the coastal community of Beidaihe.  It is a beach community about 3 hours from Beijing (5 with traffic) where a lot of people go to get away from the city. About 40 co-workers climbed onto the bus at 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning and we were off.  The bus ride was pretty eventful between the constant breaking and honking as our bus driver weaved through traffic, and the fact that one of my colleagues, Pan Li, was almost left on the highway. Pang Li, a short man with classes and a huge smile, is quite a character. Since the office paid for everything over the weekend, everyone indulged in as much food and alcohol as they wanted. Pan Li started early on the bus and after three beers, got off on the highway to relieve himself (we were stuck in traffic anyway).  But before Pan Li was back on the bus, traffic started moving, and I looked out of my window to find him running next to the bus screaming for it to stop.  This was probably the funniest experience I have had since I have been here. I couldn’t stop laughing.  He finally was able to get back on the bus, sweating and smiling like nothing had happened.  About four hours later we finally got to the beach where we walked around and hung out for a few hours. Then we went to our hotel and ate a huge meal.  One huge difference between a Chinese meal and an American meal is that everyone shares. You can’t go to a restaurant and buy your own meal. You order a selection of plates and the center of the table rotates and everyone gets there fill.  This is a prime example of how the U.S. is more individualistic and China is more collective.   

The following day we got up and went on a ferry ride, which was pretty dull (it was raining and there wasn’t much to look at except for cargo ships) until Oscar and I got attacked by locals. In Beijing, two women have asked if they could take a picture with me, but the ferry was a different story. Approximately, 20 to 30 people were in a line to take pictures with us. I felt like I was a celebrity. All of our co-workers were laughing at us since we were such a spectacle. I guess that the beach was far enough away from Beijing that the locals rarely see foreigners.  It was a fun experience and my face hurt from smiling when we finally got off of the ferry, but at the same time I felt bad for getting so much attention for nothing. The same was true in Uganda where white skin is rare, but no one owns a camera, so no pictures were taken there. It is a funny experience since no one would ever do that in the United States where there are so many ethnicities/nationalities. No ethnicity is a novelty. All I know is that if you ever want to be famous, traveling to Africa or Asia is a good test run to see if you like it. My family better get ready for some picture taking since the average male height in China is 5’ 6.7’’ and the average female height is 5’ 2.5’’.  My mother is the shortest member of our family at 5’7’’.  If Oscar and I stand out like we do, my very tall, 5-member family is going to stand out everywhere we go.  

We ended the trip at the beginning of the great wall (where the great wall goes into the Pacific Ocean), which is near Shanghai Pass.  Shanghai Pass is a pass through the mountains that enemies had to get through in order to get to mainland China. Thus, there is a military town at the base of the mountain to protect China from invasion. Now, however, it is a tourist site and there are dozens of vendors in the streets of the revitalized town. It was a great weekend, and it was also a great opportunity to go somewhere other than a stereotypical tourist site. I feel like I really experienced China, and now I can call a lot of my co-workers friends.

China.org.cn

It is hard to believe that I have been in Beijing for a week already.  It has flown by! Yesterday was my first day at work and it has been great so far.  I am in the English Department for China.org.cn, which is a branch of the Chinese Internet Information Center.  Basically there are three branches that provide online news, and we are one of them.  CIIC is owned and operated by the Chinese government since no news or broadcast organizations in China are private. There are 50 people in my department from all over the world including China, Mexico, the United States, the Netherlands, and Germany. The news is split into four groups, hard news (politics, war etc.), soft news (education, sports etc.), useful information (travel, leisure etc.) and mobile news. I asked to be a part of the hard news group and Oscar joined the mobile news group.  Oscar is getting his Ph.D. at UNC and his thesis is going to be about education and technology.  Basically, he wants to see how handheld devices such as smart phones and tablets affect different cultures and how they use them to learn, so this is a great place for him to start his research.  I chose hard news because it involves politics, which I am interested in pursuing.  We also have to do a project at the end of our internship.  Last year, the interns made a sort of virtual map that summed up everything they saw in Beijing (tourist sites).  Oscar is an expert in audio visual communication since he worked in online news/video production before coming to North Carolina to do his PhD.  In fact, he teaches audio visual communication at UNC, so I think we are going to do a video for our final project. We have not chosen a topic yet, but I am really excited to learn from Oscar because I know nothing about video production.  I will basically have the opportunity to take his class for free, so I am looking forward to it. Although the office is a pretty stereotypical news organization in some ways like the layout (rows of cubicles), I have to say that the atmosphere threw me off a little bit.  When I reported for the Daily Tar Heel the news room was absolutely crazy.  People were running around yelling, music was playing, phones were ringing, people were talking, typing, editing etc. The office here is the polar opposite; quiet.  Everyone talks to each other through instant messenger which is very efficient, but the office is incredibly silent.  If I talk to someone I feel like everyone can hear me and the office is an entire floor.  It further enforces the stereotype that Americans are loud and obnoxious and Chinese are quiet and respectful.  This atmosphere is initially very intimidating, but everyone has been so nice to me (specifically through instant messengerJ).  It is just very different from the U.S. I have learned that the stereotype that Chinese people are very cold is 100% false.  They come off that way because they often have a blank expression on their face, which Americans misconstrue as being cold. But if you talk to anyone here they immediately engage in the conversation and offer their help.  It just isn’t customary here to be blunt or forward. Anyway, overall my experience at the office thus far has been pretty good except for the cafeteria.  The food yesterday was pretty bad, so I sincerely hope it is better today.  I have Skype if anyone wants to chat, so shoot me an email and we will have a Skype date. 

Kristen J

Beijing Day 3

The culture here is so different compared to the U.S. and Uganda (where I lived last summer).  A colleague asked me how many siblings I had and I responded that I had two brothers.  The person’s eyes got big and she said that I had such a large family since the stereotypical Chinese family consists of one child.  When I was asked the same question in Uganda last summer, everyone told me that I had a very small family and asked why my parents only had three children.  This is just one stark example that I have noticed thus far.  By law, Chinese couples can only have one child and if they have more than one, the consequences are pretty intense.  You get fined A LOT of money for every extra child you have and if you work in government you are lowered in rank (pay) if you dare have more than one child.  In Uganda, the more children the better.  Anyway, speaking of culture and tradition, Oscar and I decided to jump right in and go see the Forbidden City today.  It is absolutely breathtaking, and I had no idea how expansive it was.  From the front to the back, I would bet that it spans for at least a mile.  In other words, I was tired when we finished our tour 3 hours later.  You feel as if you have been thrown into the 1400s when the palace was built. Twenty-four emperors have lived/ruled there, and I am so fortunate that I was able to see it.  However, if you ever go see the Forbidden City, I would suggest you go on a weekday. We went on a Saturday and the crowds were ridiculous.  Be prepared to be pushed around if you go on the weekend.  After we left the palace, we made our way to Wangfujing Street which is east of the Forbidden City.  This is a huge tourist destination with a lot of pricy stores and hotels.  We decided that we really wanted to jump into the culture, so we ate at a restaurant called the Quanjude Roast Duck.  There we got duck heart dumplings, duck wings, rice, Chinese pancakes, and fried shrimp.   The meal was amazing.  We were not so sure about the duck heart dumplings, but they were excellent.  I have found that if you can get past the thought of what of you are eating and just try it, you will be pleasantly surprised.  The same thing happened hours later when we ventured onto the snack street of downtown Beijing which basically consists of hundreds of vendors selling everything from seafood to candy.  Some of the more interesting vendors sold a multitude of critters like fried scorpions, lizards, beetles, mice, chicks, and dragonflies. Oscar and I were brave once more, and both ate a fried scorpion, which to my surprise was not half bad.  We have only been here for three days, and I think we are well on way to becoming natives J.  I also bought a kebab of grapes that had been dunked in sugar that basically resembled a hard candy.  I really enjoyed that as well. I am so glad that I am here and Oscar and I get along great so I cannot wait for more adventures to come.  We start work on Monday, so we have one more day to play and explore.  Talk to you tomorrow.

Beijing Day 2

So I was able to escape from apartment (Jozy came to my rescue) so that I could finally explore Beijing. Oscar got here yesterday, and Jozy took us to get phones and register with the police this morning.  Apparently, in China everyone, even foreigners have to register where they live with the police station.  It was a pretty easy process and we met our land lady who was very nice.  For lunch we went to KFC which was very reminiscent of the U.S. menu except for the Chinese vegetables and fruits on some of the sandwiches and the flan that came with a few of the meals.  I personally felt that the flan was very random for a Chinese KFC (and not good), but what do I know.  Jozy went to work after lunch and Oscar and I attempted to learn the subway and bus lines that we will use to get to work in addition to braving the grocery store.   It is so funny how a very normal everyday activity in the U.S. can be so difficult and intimidating in a foreign country.  The subway is pretty straight forward and easy because all of the stops are translated into English so that you can read where you are.  The bus line, however, is not so simple; everything is in Mandarin so it is impossible to navigate where you are going unless you are fluent.  So we may be taking some unintended trips on the bus until we figure it out.  One cool thing about the layout of Beijing is that Tiananmen Square is the center of Beijing and then there are six big rings (roads) around that center.  The buses stay on their ring and go in circles all day, so I at least know what ring I am if I get really lost. Like the bus stop, most of the items that you buy in the grocery store are written in Mandarin and you would think that it would be fairly easy to decipher what item you are looking at, but take my word for it, it isn’t.  All of the brands are different here so you cannot really tell using American brands, and then there are so many items that we do not have in the U.S., specifically meats, vegetables, and fruits that some sections of the grocery store are very intimidating.  Even an item as simple as lotion is difficult to find.  I bought a small bottle of what I thought was lotion and it ended up being shampoo. Oops! Regardless, it was a fun adventure and most of what we bought was actually what we thought we bought.   We did accidently purchase a pack of tofu thinking that it was cheese until we got home and opened it. That won’t be happening again. To finish the day off we decided to go to bar street which is on the eastern side of the city.  It is a high end street with a lot of foreigners, bars, restaurants, stores etc.  A huge Apple Store, for example, is on this street.  We both enjoyed a beer and people watched for about 2 hours at one of the bars.  It was a good end to the day and we got there without hitch.  The way back, however, was a little bit more interesting.  After taking the subway, we went to our bus stop, but the bus had stopped running for the night, so we grabbed a taxi.  We had asked Jozy to write our address down for instances like this, and the taxi driver took us right to our apartment.  However, when we paid it was apparently 14 Yuan and we thought it was 11 Yuan.  We only had a 100 Yuan bill so the cab driver had to give us change.  Well after 5 minutes of him yelling at us in Mandarin, I called Jozy and asked her to talk to him. After being on the phone for 2 minutes we were all set.  It was a simple misunderstanding, but it just demonstrates how something so simple can become so complicated when you speak a different language.  Overall, we had a busy but wonderful day, and I am already starting to get comfortable with my surroundings.

P.S. My phone number is 13716366647 if anyone wants to call me, but it is expensive.

Beijing Day 1

Arrived safe and sound in the capital of China, Beijing.  Jozy (my director) picked me up from the airport without a glitch and took me to my apartment. The apartment is quite nice; it is a 3 bedroom, two bathroom with a washer and air conditioning.  I am 17 E and this building is great, but older. It was definitely built in the 80s and unfortunately for me I just locked myself inside.  There are two doors for every apartment; the inside door is like a normal solid wood door that you would stereotypically find in the U.S. The outside door, however, is a large metal door that resembles a service door or something that does not look like an apartment door.  I just unlocked the inside door without a problem, and then I manually turned the lock of the knob so that the knob would turn on the second door. I turned the knob and pushed on the door, but it still appeared to be locked. So I got my key out and when I tried to turn it, it broke in the lock. So I am officially locked inside my new apartment, very hungry and a little worried about how I am going to get out.  Other than that I do not have much to say about Beijing seeing that I haven’t really experienced it yet.  It has a lot of apartment buildings, new and old, that sort of remind me of Toronto apartment buildings for some reason.  The architecture is new and innovative, and speaking of Toronto, there is a building outside of my bedroom window that resembles the CN tower.  According to Jozy it is also a radio tower, and if you have the money you can go up and eat in the rotating restaurant.  Thus far, I am impressed with Beijing.  You stereotypically hear that it is dirty and not very aesthetically pleasing, but I have to say that it looks pretty nice.  There are a lot of plants that line the highways and so far it just reminds me of a big city like Toronto or New York.  Now I just have to figure out how to get out of my apartment so I can truly experience the city! Until next time.  J