Back from Beijing!

We’re back! After a week in Beijing, all of us Central students have returned “home” to Zhejiang University in Hangzhou. The trip was very full: full of new sights, lots of walking, good food, and pictures. As the capital city of China and historical hotspot, Beijing had a lot to offer us. We got in on some very cool history, some wall climbing, and people pushing. I’ll try to fill you in on the highlights and new things that we learned.

The first highlight of the trip was the opportunity to see a new part of China. Just as the different sections of the U.S. have distinctions, there are a lot of variances between the regions of China. I wish I could say I knew some of these differences, but I’ve spent most of my time in Hangzhou, which is in the southeast corner of the country. Beijing is in the northeast corner of China; the character for “bei” in Beijing means “north.” A few things changed significantly after we went north. While it’s been really warm in Hangzhou this whole semester, Beijing was really nice and cool. We were happy to shiver a little bit since we sometimes felt like we were melting in Hangzhou. It always seemed a little foggy in Beijing but this was the “haze” that comes from the pollution in the area. Many of us had a hard time getting used to the difference in air quality and many got colds, coughs, and runny noses. Everyone survived though, and we enjoyed a couple of really nice clear days towards the end of our trip. Another change in the new environment was a little difference in accent. While Standard Mandarin Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect, the Beijinger’s tend to put an “r” sound at the end of lots more words. It was fun to pick up on a few of these differences between the regions.

Many, many people

Seeing 1 billion Chinese in 7 days

Beijing also introduced the new concept of an infinite number of people. Since our trip to Beijing was right around a national holiday, we shared Beijing with many, many Chinese tourists from all around the country. Beijing is already a very populated city. We spent a lot of time on the subway and had some fun experiences with being pushed and packed to make space for the greatest number of bodies. Our most crowded experience came in the Forbidden City, which made us realize the irony that it should be called the Least Forbidden City. Because we had so many crowds around us, we got a taste of some good Chinese nonverbal communication. Namely pushing and getting jostled around. When we visited the Beijing Museum, many of us were frustrated by people who would literally push us out of the way to see something better. I was also getting frustrated but I felt a lot better after a woman accidentally bumped into me, apologized, and then her cute little son apologized to me in English. While things like this bothered us, we took it with a grain of salt. I even became more aggressive when I walked through crowds, otherwise I would have gotten far behind the rest of my group. I could sense my idea of the “pushing practice” changing. With hundreds of people at a subway station, the flow of people would be so much slower if everyone stopped to let others in front of them and worried about bumping into each other. With the Chinese mindset, an empty subway can be filled in less than 10 seconds. Of course, aggressiveness is sometimes counterproductive like when people push onto a subway car before they let the other people off.

We conquered the Great Wall!

The Sights

Of course a big part of our trip to Beijing was seeing the sights. My favorite day by far was the Great Wall. Mao Zedong is quoted as saying that you are not a real man until you climb the Great Wall. We were all happy to become real men. We left early in the morning to get to the Great Wall and were driven by one of David’s friends Mr. Li. Right away, we knew Mr. Li was awesome when he stood up to a lazy guard at our hotel in heroic style. We all cheered. He also possessed the great Chinese ability to be a really aggressive and yet a miraculously safe driver. He and another driver drove us a few hours out to a less crowded stretch of the Great Wall. The weather was nice and cool and relatively clear. We climbed around for a good three or four hours, taking pictures and taking it in. Of course, it was beautiful. I had to keep reminding myself how much history was in each step we were climbing. It was fun to look out and try to imagine how far the wall stretches, compared to the little part that we walked along. We were all glad that we weren’t messengers who had to run along the stations of the wall.

Sadly, our program director David lost his famous cowboy hat to the wind. We all grieved over the fact that our leader would no longer have his signature hat, especially since it helped us find him in big crowds. After we climbed the Wall, some of us decided to take a zip line down across a body of water in the valley right by the Wall. It was a quick ride, but a great view. Also, a little less walking on our poor feet!

Chicken dinner!

After the Wall we had a “late lunch” in a nearby village. Since the village was so close to the Chinese border, it also had an ancient wall for protection. This kept the village closed in and those who lived there had to park their cars in an outside parking lot and then walk through the narrow streets. We were able to walk on top of the wall and peek in on the courtyards and gardens of the homes. It really opened our eyes to a new, more rural side of China. We had dinner in the courtyard of one of the homes. It was a delicious late lunch (at 6:00pm) and we filled up on meat, fresh veggies, rice, and mantou (steamed buns). We even got to see killing and preparation of the two chickens in our dinner. We drove home and slept very well that night.

Imbibing knowledge from David

Treasures of China

Other highlights of the trip include the historical parts of Beijing. Our first night in China we went to Tiananmen Square and saw the front of the Forbidden City all lit up. We were also able to see the Temple of Heaven, a very beautiful and huge complex built during the Ming Dynasty. We were also able to visit the Capital Museum, which housed hundreds of artifacts of Chinese culture and history. My favorite part of the museum was an exhibit called the Treasure Room that had examples of Chinese treasures such as calligraphy, painting, jade, carved ivory, and religious statues.


Tourist pose in front of the Temple of Heaven

One of the biggest attractions in Beijing is the Forbidden City. This is the huge complex in the middle of the city where the emperors of China lived. We walked through some of the city and got an idea for just how huge the palace was. There are huge courtyards and ornately decorated buildings throughout. As we could see, the emperor was well protected and well taken care of. Before the trip, we watched a movie that showed the life of the last emperor of China (called The Last Emperor) and I reverted back to scenes in the movie to try to imagine the Forbidden City without the crowds: just one emperor and hundreds of people devoted to him.

Forbidden City

Mmmm…yummy

The last highlight of our Beijing trip was the food. We had some great meals, including some new foods. My favorite meal was mushroom hot pot at a restaurant specializing in lots of varieties of mushrooms. The basis of hot pot is that it is a big soup that is cooked in front of you, and things are added right at your table. Our hot pot had a chicken, five different kinds of mushroom, green vegetables, and lastly, lamb slices. The broth was delicious, and I loved the mushrooms even though I’ve never liked them very much before. We also tried some Peking duck on one of our last nights. Beijing is famous for this dish. You can eat these slices of duck with a special sauce, some cucumber and onion, and then package it up in a paper-thin bread wrap. I’m glad to still be trying lots of new Chinese foods. Still, since we’re a group of American students we often talk about and share our food cravings. We all miss cheese terribly as well as sandwiches and pasta. One night in Beijing, we went to a restaurant called Cat’s Eye Pizza where we enjoyed some very authentic Western food. We were almost glad the restaurant wasn’t in Hangzhou because it would be too tempting to go there everyday!

Going Home

We wrapped up our Beijing trip with a trip to a few Buddhist and Confucian temples and dinner at our hotel. Our way from Hangzhou to Beijing and back was an overnight train. Thankfully, we got sleeper cars both times and had a pretty relaxing ride. I had a strange experience on the way back since I had the bottom bunk and mostly one Chinese family as neighbors. As I groggily woke up on the train, I realized that the whole family of six was sitting around me, one on my bed, and they were all watching me. The Chinese sometimes stare at us with a look that seems very close to amazement. It’s a look that is usually too fascinated and innocent to seem rude. This is the look that I was getting as I tried to wake up. They ended up being a very nice family who quickly sent their daughter to get me hot water when I started to try to make coffee. They also shared their food with me, and I taught them some origami when they looked curiously at the origami we had made the night before. It was fun to try out some of my Chinese with them and get to know their names and where they lived.

The rest of the trip home we filled with talking, snacks, Yahtzee, coloring, and relaxing. It was a good time to think about the trip that was wrapping up. We got to see so much while we were in Beijing. For me it was the kind of week filled with experiences that helped me keep some perspective of my time in China. I realized that there are so many facets in Chinese culture and people yet to be discovered. Since I live in an international dorm, it’s sometimes easy for me to see the Chinese as a big clumped-together group. It’s humbling for me to admit that I group the people of China together so much. I think there’s a barrier created by language, outer appearances, and those cultural differences that I don’t quite understand or put my finger to quite yet. Also, I’m dealing with a lot of changes and I think I instinctively simplify my concept of the Chinese people together to give my brain some rest. But I want to get to know more families like the one on the train and break down the barrier some more. I want to talk to some more people who have all different perspectives of China and life in general. Obviously the richness of culture is not in sameness but diversity, and I have to reach out to see more of that diversity. It will take some work.

We start classes again this week and will continue climbing the great wall of the Chinese language. My week in Beijing was a good, tiring, and full one. I am very lucky to see everything that I did and have this amazing Chinese experience!