A Family of Yalies

So it's a late night again, and what do we do on late nights? We reflect. This time, maybe not so much about China-the-big-picture, but rather China-as-experienced-by-one-foreign-student. It's no secret that studying abroad can be a lonely, isolating experience. You're transplanted to an entirely new environment and forced to deal with an alien culture. You go through highs and lows, depending on your experiences at any given point. Sometimes it's almost too much to deal with and you just want to... oh, I don't know, get yourself deported.

But luckily enough for me, I ended up studying abroad with a fantastic group of Yalies. I mean, look at them, don't they look pretty awesome?

Beijing Half-Marathon

No, I didn't run it. Only someone completely out of their mind would run for miles along the streets of Beijing.

Luckily, there's one person in the program who fits that description, and his name is Miles Grimshaw (blogger extraordinaire... I guess). You can read his much more personal account of the morning here.

Miles, whether due to his captivating charm or outright bribery techniques (the promise of buying us food), convinced my friend Liz and me to wake up at 6 AM this morning to travel to his race's starting point at Tiananmen Square. As if the 6 AM wake-up call wasn't bad enough, one look outside indicated that it was going to be a gloomy, miserable day. And gloomy it was. The only brightness to be seen amongst the racers were the points of fluorescent yellow that marked the officially distributed tote bags. You can see as we're exiting the subway just how many tote bags were on their way to the starting line:

Tianjin! 天津！

Was the previous post a bit of a downer? I thought so too, so here are some fun pictures of my day trip last Friday to 天津 Tiānjīn, a coastal town just 30 minutes from Beijing by train. I love the quaint atmosphere there; it's like a happier Beijing in some ways. The shopping was great, the air was cleaner, and the food was... really really interesting. It was actually a colonial town for a while when the British occupied it back in the Opium War days. Now, I would normally be very excited to show you all the pictures, but I must sadly report that my beautiful camera has succumbed to old age and now blurs pictures around the edges, so Blogger won't accept some of them! :(

But still, enjoy the pictures (and two whole videos)!

College Kids and Cultural Conflicts

Caveat: This is not the nicest of blog posts, but the purpose of this blog is to let friends and family know about my experience of living in China, and this topic has played a major role in that experience. Therefore, this entry might not be very PC. Apologies.

One thing about the Yale-PKU program that had me very excited was the opportunity to live with a real, live Chinese college student. I was so excited to learn about Chinese culture first-hand. Now, I knew there would probably be times where our cultures would bring us into some conflict, but I was excited for that too. It would be an opportunity to open dialogue on the differences in our cultures and allow us to help understand each other better.

No. Conflicts are stressful, especially when both parties are operating under different sets of rules. My recent conflicts with some of the Chinese students, while certainly not indicative of Chinese culture as a whole, has illuminated just how wide the cultural gulf stretches. As you can guess, one of these instances was very recent. But first, I'll give you a general sense of some of the more stress-inducing characters in this little drama.

The Great Wall of China

You might have heard of it. You might have seen the pictures. You might have been there yourself. But no matter how many times you've heard it described, no matter how many pictures have flown before your eyes, no matter how many steps you've taken up its steep sides, there is nothing that ever extinguishes that incredible rush of awe when you behold the Great Wall of China unwinding before you in all its glory (and there's nothing to be done about my poor poetic efforts when I'm writing on sleep deprivation).

Today's trek to the Jīnshānlǐng (金山岭) section of the Great Wall was... humbling, to say the least. My group consisted of a small contingent of people affiliated with the Yale-PKU program in one way or another, including all of our Yale professors (and some of their kids!) and my Chinese language teacher.

T.G.I. Friday's

I'll elaborate after posting on the Great Wall, promise!

Also, I'm trying to beat Miles. :)

Didn't See That Coming

A friend sent me this news article, which has me blogging during a break in class:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11529920

Chinese veteran politicians call for reform

"A group of 23 Communist Party elders in China has written a letter calling for an end to the country's restrictions on freedom of speech."

Crazy, right? And right on the heels of very blatant critique of Chinese oppression through the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo. The goverment's got to be having a great time right now. And by great time, I mean they are probably feeling very off-kilter, being attacked by multiple fronts in such a short period of time, and right before their big "Let's plan the future of our country" meeting.

The Beijing Bookworm...

...is my heaven in Beijing. Seriously. I'd call it one of Beijing's best kept secrets, but I think the secret has been out for a while. So what is The Bookworm? Well, it's a lending library. A giant, glorious lending library, tucked away on one of the side streets of Sanlitun. It's also a bookstore. And a café. And a hotspot for Beijing literary culture. Here it is in all its glory:

Late Night Thoughts

Apologies to people expecting a nice, polished blog post, but it's late and I'm doing a lot of reflecting, and I feel the need to pour out my thoughts into the void that is the internet.

With the exception of two brief weeks in August, I have been living and studying in China since the first week of June. The time up to now has given me a lot to think about when it comes to this country, its people and its future. I'm not professing to be an expert after a few months here; in fact, I'm asserting the exact opposite. The more I learn about the whole concept of "China," the more I realize how much I have yet to learn and understand.

What did "China" mean to me before coming here, or even before taking an interest in studying Chinese? Superficially, it was that weird, exotic country out east. It had silk, it had tea, and it had a billion people. Economically, it was where everything was made. And it owned a lot of American dollars. I knew that. Politically, it was the world's biggest conundrum: a successful Communist state? A progressive authoritarian regime? How in the world was it working?

Panjiayuan Flea Market!

After our impromptu journey to Tiantan Park, we headed back to the bus station and grabbed a bus back to Panjiayuan Flea Market. The gates were actually open to us this time, so we sauntered in and prepared to deal with the incredible clutter of random nonsense for sale. As almost any Beijing guidebook will tell you, most of the stuff here is fake. Fake antiques, fake jade, fake "original" artwork, etc. But it's a great place to buy random trinkets if you're into that sort of thing. To give you an idea of the magnitude of this place, here are some pictures of one section of the market:

umm... lucky tassel things?

artwork lane

Early Morning at Tiantan Park

After watching the Chinese do their flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square, Nicole and I grabbed more food and got on the subway for 潘家园, otherwise known as Pānjiāyuán, Beijing's famous flea market. By this point, it's about 6:45 AM. We finally get off the subway and take a 15 minute walk to the gate of the flea market, only to find out that it doesn't open for another hour.

So what do we do? We consult this bus schedule below...

...and choose the one that says 天坛北门. Can you spot it?

Wal-Mart... in China

The fruits of my covert mission to photo-document the Wal-Mart products of Beijing, China...

Red Flag Over China

This past Tuesday, I got it into my head that I wanted to see the the Chinese flag being raised over Tiananmen Square at dawn. It's actually incredibly important to the Chinese people that they see it at least once, and I figured there was never as good a time as any to witness the occasion than National Week. So I mentioned my plan to my friend Nicole, and the both of us decided to pull an all-nighter and catch the first (5:10 AM) subway from the university out to Tiananmen Square.

The flag is raised at Tiananmen exactly at sunrise every morning, every day of the year. That means 4:30 AM during the peak of summer, and about 7:30 AM for the dead of winter. On Wednesday, October 6th, when we went to see the flag, it was scheduled to go up at 6:15 AM.

So, come 5:15 AM, we were up, alert (ish) and ready to venture out into Beijing. The subway was, predictably, almost totally empty. I was torn between frolicking among the empty cars or laying out on a string of seats to sleep.

China Rebel Wins Peace Prize!

Click here for the New York Times article.

What happened...
Liu Xiaobo, an avid advocate for democracy in China, received the Nobel Peace Prize while serving an 11-year prison sentence in his home country. He was recognized for being a persistent and unquenchable voice for freedom in a state that notably lacks it. He is the first Chinese national to receive the prize.

How I found out...
When I got back from a day out in Beijing, I got on the Times website, as usual. I was totally stunned by the cover story I saw floating right in front of me. Apparently my reaction panicked one of my Chinese "suitemates" sitting on the couch opposite me, because she asked if I was ok. I just told her, "Come here! Come here! Oh my God, come read this!" In hindsight, maybe having a Chinese national come read about the oppression in her country had the potential to end very badly. Good thing it didn't.

新疆: Conclusions

When we left for Xinjiang, I thought I had no expectations for what I was going to see, but that ended up being completely false. I had to have some kind of expectations, because otherwise I wouldn't have been so surprised by what I saw.

Most important realization first: Chinese people are not all Chinese
...or at least, not the traditional Western perception of Chinese. I thought I had realized that fact after going to the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park, but I wasn't prepared for the stark difference in culture between the Han Chinese and the Muslim Uighers. To me, they're truly two different races of people living under the same national flag... and unfortunately, they seem to be two unequal races.

What a Surreal Night

This blog has no theme in particular other than recording what was a very unusual evening for me.

A couple days ago, my friend and I took a little excursion to Beihai Park, which I've blogged about before, but felt like going to see on an uncloudy day. We were just walking around enjoying the scenery when she got a call from a friend inviting her (and subsequently me) to dinner with a potential client of his. This guy is in the private equity business, so he frequently wines and dines potential customers per Chinese tradition.

You see, in China business gets done a certain way. If a business is interested in working out a partnership or acquiring a client, a business representative is required to wine and dine him. They are expected to treat him and other potential guests to a quality meal that can run 10,000 RMB. Then, if the client expresses interest in having something to drink, the representative is obligated to buy him quality bottles of alcohol, as many as the group wants to drink. The representative also has to drink however much his guest wants him to drink, and is expected to be able to tolerate it. The total is now around 30,000 RMB. Finally, the representative has to present his potential partner/client with a gift to show good faith, and after dropping so much money on dinner, a cheap gift just won't cut it. So the gift also has to be in the tens of thousands of RMB range. This guy gave the example of a Louis Vuitton bag for the partner/client's wife. Grand total: potentially 60,000 RMB for one meeting, and this is only one of multiple meetings.

天安门广场, Tiananmen Square

For any American who has heard of Tiananmen Square (天安门广场, Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng), one historical event will usually come to mind: the massacre on June 4th, 1989. You can read the original BBC news article here. In fact, there is a very iconic image associated with the event of one man standing in front of a line of military tanks.

1.3 Billion + Me

It's common knowledge that China's population is ridiculous. Anyone who learns of your impending trip to China will tell you to "be ready to fight the crowds." I had absolutely no idea just how much of an understatement that would turn out to be.

There is literally no escaping the constant anxiety that comes with being in a crowd. You deal with it in every facet of your life. Examples:

• ordering food
• shopping for groceries
• paying for anything
• walking or biking along the streets*
• going to the market
• visiting tourist destinations
• taking a bus or subway
• flagging down a cab
• sitting in class

新疆: Part 3

Kashgar, China, was just a quick 90 minute flight out of Urumqi. For those keeping score at home, think of flying from Kearney to Denver. Same general direction, not-so-drastic change in altitude. Kashgar (also known as Kashi) is a decently-sized city located at one of the most fascinating crossroads in the world.

That's Right, I'm Published

...kind of... to a highly select group of individuals in which you, dear reader, are about to be included.

During the course of my trip to Xinjiang, I ended up grabbing the job of editor of our program's weekly newsletter, The Beida Bulldog. Every week I publish a brief few pages of interesting tidbits to share with the 20-odd people associated with our program. I'll be adding the newsletters, small as they are, to a separate tab on this blog. I'll also be adding a few errant thoughts that might not have made it into the newsletter, but are no less relevant to our daily lives here at Peking University.

If you decide to take a look, I hope you enjoy what you see of our program. I'm not as diligent about formatting as I should be, so please excuse a few errors here and there. Of course I'll welcome any feedback. And to any potential enrollees in the Yale-PKU Program, feel free to email me with questions about the program.

Now let's see if I can 1. figure out how to add a tab and 2. see if the PDF of the newsletters will upload.

P.S. I was getting a little tired of the black background; fall just seems so much more cheerful. And honestly, I think the new blog pattern is easier on the eyes.

Beijing Bumming/Blogging Blitzkrieg

Today, October 1st, 2010, marks the 61st anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Known as "National Day," or 国庆节 guóqìngjié, the celebration begins on this day every year and lasts for a full week... and there are Chinese flags literally EVERYWHERE.

The patriotic thing to do, I learned, is to wake up before dawn and go down to Tiananmen Square to watch them hoist the flag at daybreak. Yes, daybreak. I'll wait to see a flag-hoisting ceremony until the sun rises a little later, say 8 AM? Maybe I should check one of those astrological calendars.

新疆: Part 2

So where were we? The first day in Urumqi, I think. Before we move on from that, I'm just going to share a few scenes from the streets of the city.

1. Even if you're a Muslim woman who has to cover yourself from head to toe, you can still rock sparkly clothes, interesting skirts, and some pretty pointy heels.