Fog (smog), Communism and Food

Welcome to Dan and Jesse’s blog while in China. We left Brussels on March 22nd, flying through London Heathrow on British Airways. The 10 hour flight from London to Beijing was delayed by 90 minutes as they had to change the plane, due no doubt to “mechanical issues”, but we arrived in Beijing safely, if not an hour late. We were picked up by a driver and taken to our accommodations on the campus of the China Foreign Affairs University where we will be studying for their spring semester. The International Exchange Center, where we are staying, is set up like a hotel, with a reception desk and maids to clean our rooms. We also get hot water delivered to our door every morning, good for tea or to cook our noodles. I though I was done with ramen noodles after undergrad, but this has proven me wrong.

Arriving a week before orientation, we had several days to look around the capital city. We’ve taken in Tian’ amen Square – with the ever-present giant portrait of Mao Tsetung and the mausoleum with his embalmed body – and the Forbidden City, home to Chinese emperors for 600 years, ending with the Qing dynasty in the early 20th century. Off-limits to commoners for hundreds of years, the Forbidden City exists essentially as it did when in official use and is the central focus point of Beijing. Consisting of 9,999 rooms (9 is one of several lucky numbers in China), the Forbidden City is an enormous footprint at the center of Beijing. We spent over an hour inside the walls, but saw less than half of what was available to explore. A future trip will have to be made to see the rest of it.

Part of our time was spent watching the Olympics, though much of the coverage on CCTV was focused on the Chinese athletes, so we saw much aerials, curling, figure skating and short track speed skating. Luckily however, we were able to watch several hockey games, including the gold medal game between Canada and the USA. Seeing as how Dan is Canadian and Jesse is American, the 4am game provided a spicy atmosphere inside the dorm-style room. Despite the early time, both of us were enthralled by the action and managed to keep the insults to a minimum.

Several of Dan’s friends from his time in South Korea came over to Beijing several days ago and we joined them for dinner on a couple nights. Our meals consisted of Peking duck, friend rice, veggies, sizzling beef, prawns, spicy chicken wings, ribs and many bottles of Tsing Tao. Both meals were amazing and for what we got, the 150 RMB price per person (about 18 Euro or $21) was well worth it. But even here that is rather expensive. Our first meal was at a Hot Pot, where you are given a flavored broth in which you cook cabbage, lettuce, carrots, radish, tomatoes, tofu and your choice of meat as well as noodles. This meal, along with a beer, was 33 RMB and took us nearly two hours to eat. Additionally, a restaurant near campus, appropriately named “Beef Noodle Restaurant” serves a beef noodle dish for 8RMB. Both of us are rather sick of noodles however, as they are more popular in Beijing while rice is a more prevalent dish in the South.

Naturally the smog here is ever-present, yesterday being the first day we’ve seen blue sky since we’ve been here. It’s constantly gray, making the atmosphere quite drab and the older buildings display the classic hallmarks of Communist thinking. Chinese are constantly spitting, a vain attempt to rid their bodies of the pollution. People rarely wait for others to get off the metro before pushing their way on. The green walk light at intersections means you can cross the street, but if a car comes, it’s not going to stop for you. Both of us decided to take a full 20 hours of Mandarin classes, as the IR classes on offer are essentially the same as what we took at Kent. We are going to audit a couple classes (Foreign Policy Analysis, American Foreign Policies) just to see what they say in them, but we decided that our time in China would be best served by learning as much Chinese as possible. As a notoriously difficult language, our progress may be slow, but if we establish a good base, both of us will be satisfied. We both will have to write our Master’s Thesis while here, so when classes start next week, our days will be quite full.

As can be imagined, many websites are blocked from inside China. Facebook, YouTube and the like are unavailable, while several others are blocked randomly during the day, forcing us to wait 15 minutes and try again. While our TV has CNN and BBC, they regularly monitor the stories that are broadcast. Several days ago, CNN was airing a piece about the Earthquakes in China last year and the parents who protested the shoddy construction of the schools. Several minutes into the show, the TV screen went black and only returned when a new story was being aired. It is amazing the lengths they will go to block any criticism of the government.

That’s it for now, more will be forthcoming as our adventures continue and classes begin.

Chinese words of the day:
Dan – 丹 (Dān)
Jesse – 杰西 (Jié xi)
Hello – 您好 (Nín hǎo)
Thank you – 谢谢 (Xièxiè)
Beijing – 北京 (Běijīng)
China – 中国 (Zhōngguó)

Dan and Jesse

Advertisement