An American Student in Beijing

Thank you for reading

2008-08-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

I leave Beijing on Thursday, but I still have quite a few stories to tell. Please keep reading even after I go back home- I still need to tell you about Dalian, Xi'an, Terra Cotta Warriors, and anything else I think of. I will have the updates up as quickly as possible. Thank you for the encouragement. I hope I see all of you soon.

Don't miss my Olympic update below!

And now, Chinglish, brought to you by the great translators of China!

OLYMPICS!!

2008-08-18T10:20:00.001-07:00

First, a short apology for the long wait: sorry. I have been incredibly busy the last few weekends with my job, classes, tests, and, of course, the Olympics.

Since the Olympics are in full swing, I just wanted to fill everyone in on what I’ve seen, and which events I’ve been fortunate enough to attend.

The Opening Ceremony certainly was a fun way to kick off this month. My friend AJ and I went down to the Birds Nest to see the fireworks. While we were waiting, we were asked for our passports several times, and we got to see a protester get tackled by the Beijing Police. He didn’t even get his flag unfurled.

He wasn’t very fast though- he certainly wasn't on the 100 m dash team, especially since he’s probably still in jail. In the background on the right, through the smog, you can see the Bird's Nest.

After we got to see some preliminary fireworks, which I didn’t get any good pictures of, we headed to Wangfujing to watch the ceremony on a giant television. Wangfujing is a big square with shopping and at night you can buy yummy treats like scorpion kabobs or fried sea horses. There were a lot of foreigners there, and a lot of Chinese too.

Some Chinese girls were nice enough to paint 中国加油 (Zhong Guo Jia You; Let’s Go China!) on our faces, and we were suddenly some pretty popular guys, and made our way to the front of the crowd- front row seats for the ceremony on a 2 story tall TV screen.

The opening ceremony was pretty amazing, and you could tell the Chinese people were really excited about the games.

The first Olympic game I was able to see was actually an accident. I was on my way to the bank, and the streets were blocked off. I decided to stick around and see what was happening. After 20 minutes of waiting, 25 women rode by on bikes in about 5 seconds. It was too bad I didn’t have my camera on me. I think France was in front when I saw them, but there was no way to be sure.

The first game I actually planned on seeing was Women’s Soccer in the Workers’ Stadium (not the Bird’s Nest). It was a double header of sorts, and I saw Brazil beat Nigeria 3-1 and Sweden beat Canada 2-1.

The Brazilian girl who scored all 3 of their goals headed and bicycle kicked 2 of her goals. She was pretty good.

This game happened around dinner time, so I left to go get me some grub at the concession stand. I was a little disappointed. The menu had no real food, but did have many nondescript foods like “bread”, “cake”, and “biscuits”.

All of these people ate "bread" and "cake" for dinner.

I ordered bread, but I got some sort of weird loaf of chocolate bread. Don't let the "sausage" get your hopes up- It is closer to a SlimJim than a Hebrew National Hot Dog. It seems strange that even though the Olympic games are sponsored by McDonalds, they can’t get some ballpark food to the venues. I hear the Bird’s Nest has Ronald McDonald’s best though.

The only other game I’ve been able to see is Men’s Weightlifting.

This was really cool. It was the “clean and jerk” style of weightlifting, which I think is the technical term for lifting a lot of weight while screaming and then throwing the weights on the ground when you’re done.

Everything was in kilograms, but everyone weighed about 160 pounds (75-78 k), and the gold medal winner lifted about 445 pounds (203 k). It was amazing. Korea won the gold medal, China silver, and Armenia bronze.

I am a little sad that I will miss the rest of the Olympics, They have been great fun.

Inner Mongolia

2008-07-22T06:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry this took so long. I have been busy with my internship.

Last weekend I went to Inner Mongolia with my Abroad China group. It was an absolute blast. We took the overnight train, with beds stacked three high throughout the train car- no rooms, just beds. The beds were not particularly soft, and it was tough trying to get to sleep, but I managed to get a few hours squeezed in.

When we arrived, we took a bus to the grasslands. This was sort of a tourist trap, but since it was out in the middle of nowhere, and there weren’t a lot of tourists, it wasn’t cheesy or artificial. As we got off the bus, the Mongolians sang a traditional song and gave us baijiu- literally “white liquor”, but it is a rice liquor. We dipped our finger in the baijiu and flicked three times: once for the earth, once for the sky, and once just for us. Then we took a big swig. Baijiu tastes a little like rubbing alcohol with a dash of turpentine. Everyone had baijiu face, which entails involuntary twisting of the mouth, shaking of the head, and eyes rolling up into the skull.

After this we ate a lunch and headed out to ride horses. My friend, Sam, and I were last in line to get horses, and they ran out. So we “had” to ride 4-wheelers.

It was awesome.

We rode out to a small village, making sure we waved bye to all of the horse-riders, and drank milk tea and ate some sort of bread/noodle stuff. It wasn’t bad. I wouldn’t eat it every day, but once in my life isn’t bad.

When we drove back (very safely, mom) we had dinner. Halfway through the meal they dressed two of our interns up in traditional Mongolian dress and had some sort of ritual including the dreaded baijiu. Then they brought our whole roasted sheep. And to add to the realistic factor, they put lettuce in the mouths, as if they were still alive and grazing in a lettuce field. But they sure were tasty.

That night, there were fireworks and music. And more baijiu. Then, after the Mongolians got nice and liquored up, they decided to have a horse race, and wrestling matches.

The next morning, we woke up, jumped on the bus, and headed to the Gobi desert. Thankfully the sun was hidden behind the clouds, and it was relatively cool. We struggled our way up the dune to these giant vehicles that looked straight out of Star Wars. We drove out to a dune a little farther in the desert. Unfortunately, these pictures don’t quite capture the jaw-dropping vastness of the desert. It was breathtaking.

Then we got to ride camels. We saw a Middle Eastern guy…

Just kidding, that’s me! Chinese people thought it was one of the funnier things they had seen, I got about 175 pictures taken of and with me.

The camels were fun, I got to sit on a camel at the circus one year when I was little, but it was pretty exciting to ride a camel in the Gobi desert. The cool thing about camels is that they get down on their knees, and you don’t have to climb up on top of them like horses. You just sit down on them and they stand up, and when you’re done riding they get back on their knees and you just stand up and get off.

As we rode around, we got to see some sand castles the Mongolians made. We weren’t able to get close, but they were pretty interesting. The sand castles are those mounds in the last picture.

Things were starting to wrap up, so we got ready to leave. This meant sliding down the dune, on a sled. It was so cool. You can get going pretty fast on the dunes, because they are steep. One guy who wasn’t in our group lost control halfway down and slid about 15 feet without his sled. It was pretty funny, and he wasn’t hurt, so we all had a good laugh- he thought it was funny himself.

After that we grabbed dinner and jumped on the train. I didn’t have any problem going to sleep. At least there wasn’t any baijiu on the train…

By the way, I got my hair cut by a friend of ours named Trent. Australians sure can cut hair good. We did the obligatory Mohawk and mullet halfway through. In my modest opinion, I look pretty good.

Forbidden City

2008-07-08T18:47:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I was able to go to the Forbidden City. Thankfully, it is no longer forbidden, as long as I pay 60 yuan. The Forbidden City was a palace for the emperor of

China

for more than 500 years. Then in the 1920’s the emperor was kicked out and the public were allowed into the inner and outer cities.

One thing that is so impressive about the Forbidden City is its size. From the north to south gate is over 300 yards, and the east to west gate is almost 250 yards. Inside the gates are thousands of buildings, artifacts, and statues.

The Forbidden City is across the street from Tiananmen Square. When you first enter, you are in the Outer City, and there is no charge to go inside. The Outer City is home to vendors selling trinkets, food, and (because it was sprinkling) umbrellas. There was a Starbucks opened in 2000, but it closed last year, which seems appropriate to me. Starbucks is good, but they don't always need to be everywhere. However, the vendors were selling lots of bottled water to fill in the void Starbucks left.

One guy there tried to convince me that he was a professor at “Washingtown D.C.” and that he was teaching Americans how to speak Chinese. All I needed to do was go have some tea with him and we could teach each other Chinese and English. I declined. In

China

, especially Beijing and Shanghai, people offering to teach you Chinese over tea is common. When you are done with the lesson and tea, the big strong waiter will give you the bill and it is 1000 yuan (almost $200). Then you’re strong armed into paying this exorbitant bill, which goes straight into the waiter and Wahingtown D.C. professor’s pockets.

So after being harassed, I paid the entrance fee to get into the Inner City. Inside there weren’t any vendors. The buildings lining the walls had rooms with old artifacts like swords, guns, military decorative clothes, old bronze pots and jade statues.

There were also several buildings with names like the Hall of Supreme Harmony or the Palace of Heavenly Purity. Most of these buildings looked similar because the walls were all red and the ceiling tiles were painted yellow. They were still quite striking. Here is the Hall of Supreme Harmony:

Another impressive aspect of the city was the wall. These tall red walls are built with bricks made of rice and white lime, and the mortar is made of rice and egg whites. It’s pretty amazing that they are still standing after 600 years.

There were lots of people repainting the walls and decorative tiles on the roofs. It is part of a restoration project, which I assume is to make the Forbidden City look great by the Olympics. This was amazing to see because the walls were all bright red, and the decorations were vibrant.

Go see the Forbidden City if you happen to find yourself in Beijing.

2008-07-02T22:21:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, I went to the Great Wall of China. It was not quite what I expected. I had always seen pictures with wide walkways and tall sides, surrounded by green hills, and covered with tourists. The section of the Great Wall we went to was not covered with tourists at all, in fact, it was closed to tourists. We were able to buy special tickets to enter a village and climb the wall. Pay attention to the word climb. Once we got to the village, which was surrounded by tall mountains, I was busy looking at the valley filled with lavender, and I didn’t even notice the Wall, which was at the top of the mountain.
It wasn’t until lunch that I looked up and saw the Wall through the fog.
Fog is another important word in this story.
After lunch our tour guide showed up to lead us to the Wall. We started walking down a road the town had just finished building, which I assumed led up to the Wall, but instead went by a small muddy path. This was the path we took. This picture is of my group climbing up the mountain through the trees, shrubs, and muddy rocks.

Once we got to the top we were a little surprised, this wasn’t what we were expecting. It was raining, and very foggy, and the parts of the wall were overgrown with shrubs and trees. Some sections had fallen over or disintegrated. The walls didn’t have railings in some parts, and often times we were walking on a two foot wide path with trees to our left and a really long drop on our right (we could see the tops of the trees over the edge, but no farther, the ground was obscured by fog, but the drop would be at least 30 feet to the top of a tree).
The stairs were not exactly wheelchair accessible either. These steps were 2 feet tall and 6 inches deep in some parts. It was almost like climbing a really old stone ladder.
So while we carefully climbed up and down the stairs, making sure not to slip or step on one of the loose rocks, our tour guide was literally running down the steps. He was chain smoking the entire time too. I guess since he runs up and down the Great Wall, he isn’t worried about smoking killing him. This was our tour guide in the middle:

After a couple hours of walking around the Wall, we decided to come down. Once we got to the bottom, we were able to relax and eat dinner. Everyone was exhausted, muddy, and hungry. A few had fallen and scratched or bruised themselves. But even though this wasn’t quite what we were expecting, it was better.
We were able to see what many people never had, and never will. If it isn’t opened to tourists, then we have been fortunate to see it, and if this is opened to tourists, it will be eventually covered in Doritos bags, bathrooms, elevators, and t-shirt stands. The Wall looked just like it has since it was built, and it was breathtaking when the fog cleared. It truly is a Great Wall.

First day at the office

2008-06-27T04:36:00.000-07:00

I started my internship this week at China Beijing VIP Special Security Services Corporation. Yes it is a very long name. They provide bodyguards and armored cars and several other services to celebrities or businesses. They are one of the few security companies allowed by the Chinese government, so they have been very busy with the Olympics approaching.
I enjoy the job a lot. So far I have mostly done Chinese-English translations, but it seems that I will have the chance to write up some proposals or even go tag along on one of our client's security assignments.
One of the fun things I got to do was go out to a potential clients (a resort) for a risk assessment. The town we were at were famous for Xi Gua (watermelon) so we bought two and ate them at the office. We had a really good time.
I would have the chance to go to a security assignment this weekend, but I will be at the Great Wall. I will leave you with a picture I took on the bus yesterday.

Class time!

2008-06-23T06:01:00.000-07:00

Today I started my Chinese language class. I have class every Monday, 1:30-4:30, and every Friday, 9:00-12:00. The lessons seem to deal mostly with Lao Li (Old Li) and his misadventures. For instance, today Lao Li started growing a flower to give to his girlfriend. He really wanted to impress her so he watered it and cared for it until it became a beautiful flower. When the flower was ready, he dressed nice, combed his hair, and went in search of his girlfriend. He thought he found her, said I love you, and gave her the flower. However, the person who Lao Ling thought was his girlfriend was actually a very mad Frenchman. Lao Li was really scared and ran away. The second story was similar in that Lao Li had a bad day, this time from driving his bike to fast and falling into a manhole.

The lessons are fun, and the three hours went by relatively fast. I hope the class stays interesting all year. We get two breaks during the lesson, and all of the students go into the lobby and chat. Today the air conditioning wasn’t working, so we all were very hot. There are seven other students in my class- which is the intermediate level. Of the 35 people in our group, about 15 know Chinese, and the rest don’t know any. My teacher is nice. Her name is Yang Laoshi (Teacher Yang). She doesn’t talk in English much, only to explain difficult concepts.

Last night I went to go see "The Cube", which is the Olympic swimming stadium. At night they light it up real cool, so I thought I would show you a picture.

Tomorrow I start my internship so expect an update soon!

Puttin' On The Ritz

2008-06-21T18:20:00.000-07:00

During my internship in Beijing, I am staying at the Hua Kai Hotel. It is in the middle of the city, just north of the Forbidden City, and to the east of the Hou Hai district. This area of town has a lot of narrow streets called Hutongs. You know when you see a old Chinese movie, and all of the Chinese people live in stone houses all right next to each other? Thats what these Hutongs are. My hotel is on Yu'er Hutong. Here is a picture from off of the fire escape down onto the people's houses.And here is my hotel down from the street. You can kind of tell that the streets are paved with stone bricks, not asphalt. I have outlined my room window in red.
Another interesting thing about my Hua Kai Hotel is that they have at least 5 toilets just sitting around the hotel. They aren't hooked up to anything, they're just sitting there. Here is one on the fire escape. There is one more on my floor next to the elevator.

Inside my room is pretty nice. The beds are really hard, so I sleep on top of the comforter. The room isn't dirty, and they clean the room every day. We have a television, an internet cable, a water dispenser (their tap water isn't good), and a couple of electric outlets. I brought my converter so China's 220 V outlets don't blow up my computer.
The bathroom isn't quite as nice. There is always water on the floor, and I haven't figured out what is leaking. The hotel gave us flip flops, so I wear that in the bathroom.
There is the grand tour of the hotel. I'm going to find a Starbucks.

2008-06-21T01:06:00.000-07:00

Although the internet is filled with more blogs than anyone wants to read, I have decided to create this humble speck of a web page. The main reason is to let all of you know what is going on here in Beijing, but also so I don’t forget all of my stories before I come home. So enjoy my stories and enjoy the pictures. I miss all of you almost as much as I miss Chuy’s.

Today was a blast; we went to Tiananmen Square and the new Olympic stadium (The Nest). Tiananmen Square was pretty interesting, and I got to see some iconic buildings. The Nest is huge. I was expecting something the size of Yankee Stadium, but it was so much larger. Pictures don’t give it justice.

Afterwards we went and had lunch. Meals with a lot of people are a big ordeal in China. 10-50 different dishes of more food than everyone could possibly eat is ordered. Having grown up being told to finish everything on my plate, I feel a little guilty when literally pounds of food are being thrown away.The meal starts with a cold dish, next are the meats, tofu, and hot vegetable dishes, and finally soup. Some of the dishes will take some getting used to (like the white mushroom which looked and tasted like a sea sponge would), but for the most part everything is really good. Today we ordered spicy tofu, fried pork, grilled beef, some great green beans and eggplant, some sort of rice gelatin (think tasteless jello), rice, and an egg soup. All of the dishes are on a lazy susan in the middle of the table and everyone can swing the food they want around the table and pile some on their plate. Last night we had a bigger banquet welcoming us to Beijing, and 5 times more food was ordered. It was quite the crash course in Chinese food.

I am going to go walk around the city a little bit more, so that’s it for today. On Monday I start my Chinese classes, and on Tuesday I start my internship, so expect some updates soon.