Andrew Gets His Legs Back

At about 9, I checked the United States embassy air which turned out to be of "good quality." I decided I'd go on my first run in 14 days. I ran all the way from the BeiWai dorm, down the city canal, all the way to the Summer Palace. To stay warm I tried to keep in the direct sunlight. When I got into shadows I crossed the canal at points where I knew the ice was thick enough.  It was around 5 miles there to make the round trip 10. I ran against the wind the whole time there but didn't  experience it as much on the return. In the Summer Palace park, I found some old ladies practicing taijiquan - or taichi. Naturally, I walked over to them and asked if I could join. They were happy to let me try it out. I stayed with them for a good 20 minutes then kept on running.

Upon my return to BeiWai, I took the longest shower yet. A few classmates decided to check out a coffee shop that my roommate suggested. We got to it, it wasn't open. We went over to another shop and finally ended up going to the upstairs of a bakery near BeiWai. I bought a whole loaf of bread to eat for lunch. Up in the 'nook' area we cranked out a lot of homework that needed to be done. When I got finished, a classmate joined me on a trip to the Silk Market. The ride there on the subway took a long time and by the time we got there, the place was closing down for Spring Festival. It didn't look like anyone involved - with the exception of the city officials - wanted to close it down. Shop owners were angry and all the foreign customers were ticked off that they couldn't enter. We tried all the doors but they were all guarded by police.

My quick thinking classmate said we should go to the Red Bridge Pearl Market. I hadn't been there yet so we made our way over there even though it was a longshot at being open. Turns out we had about an hour left to get stuff before it would get shut down like the Silk Market. This place seemed a lot nicer and less touristy than the other one. My friend was on a mission to get an overcoat and ended up bargaining one down from 1600元 to 300元! I'm pretty sure it isn't really quality cashmere or even cashmere at all but it looks good. We gandered the four other levels to see if we wanted any more souvenirs. I was exhausted and hungry so we made our way back. It was such a clear evening that there was actually a purple tint to the sky at dusk. The skies were blue all day but I didn't quite realize it until that moment (other than being able to run).

Here's a comparison between today's weather and two days ago...Theses pics are around the same time.

Priority number one was getting food. At this point I had only eaten that bread and and apple so I was starving. We rounded up a few others then walked as little as possible to find an open restaurant. I ordered this amazing fried noodle and mushroom dish then polished off two other dishes that my buddies didn't want. I was still hungry after that so I got some pickled vegetables to top myself off. The air was extra cool tonight so I didn't waste any time returning to the dorm. The people at Helen's invited us over later to light off some fireworks before Spring Festival actually started. We lit off a few huge ones that dwarf the ones back home. After losing my hearing from explosives I had to call it a night.

A Failed Attempt or Adventure?

I slept in again. Maybe my body is recuperating from all this pollution. Seriously, a detox process might be necessary when I get into cleaner air. I missed the group going to Tea Street because of my sleepiness but I caught up to them on the way to the station. A member of the group printed off Google directions, so we followed those. Not much time passed before we decided to throw out the directions completely. Beijing is a city that changes every year so any directions online will probably be useless. We attempted to get to the Tea Street on our own. We got a majority of the way there before the bus ticket lady kicked us off the bus and didn't tell us what to do.

It was a really cold day so along with great confusion, we were super chilly. This was one of the days where the siberian winds swept over Beijing and made the air much cleaner at the cost of the temperature. We never made it to our planned destination because we had to get back in time for our farewell lunch with Jeremiah. It's really nice that transportation in Beijing is outrageously cheap. Getting to the other side of the city cost us about $1.50. Also, it's great that we can speak Chinese because any other oblivious tourist wouldn't have been able to do what we did with figuring out our own route on the spot and asking for directions.

We got back fast because I pulled the others along with a brisk pace (I'm known for it now). The first thing I did was make hot tea to warm myself up. We headed over to the restaurant of a nice hotel and ate a big meal. I'm also known for how much food I can put down. Always the last one eating and asking to finish other's meals has become commonplace. IES took care of the bill and Jeremiah gave a speech. He said that he always looks forward to the St. Olaf Asian Conversation class every year. We are consistently the most prepared group of all that come to visit Beijing and have made a lasting impact on the program, and continuing a great tradition of the Asian Conners before us. The meal itself was good and I took over the sauteed mushroom dish. This far into the trip, numerous people insist on using their own chopsticks at meals. I'm pushing for a 'chopstick pledge' when we return to Olaf, to only use chopsticks at mealtime.

A brief class followed lunch. Most people went into town afterwards but I had to catch up on some of my own work. I skyped my parents again and complained to them about how little money I had left. I didn't run out of money, I just didn't want to exchange more at the bank this late into the trip. I decided that food was my only spending option at this point.

Mao and Friends

I hit the snooze button 10 times this morning. I think traveling outside the States is finally getting to my body. I got dressed quickly to meet my research buddy for our final observation on the subway at 7. It's amazing that people are still traveling, even this early in the day. Granted a majority were commuters, but a good chunk was made up of Spring Festival travelers.

I made plans on the subway to meet Adam again. We met at Wangfujing station and walked over to Tiananmen Square. We took pics here and there, doing the touristy thing. Compared to the first time I was there, the weather was much worse. And just as bad as yesterday. I was spoiled over the course of the past two weeks with the unusually nice weather. Visibility must have been 1/3 of a mile. Once we got done in the Square, we went to see Mao.

When we first attempted to get in line, they pointed us toward the bag checkin. Apparently we can't take our bags in to see a dead guy. What a difficult process. Once we checked my backpack We walked over to get through all the checkpoints outside his tomb. With the bag drop off, there was another screening for anyone getting into the Square, another sifting people who didn't have bags, then an ID check (I used a photocopy of my passport), then finally a metal detector and body scanner. At this last checkpoint, they found our cameras... A guard pulled us aside then in broken English told us that we had to bring our cameras to the bag checkin. I walked all the way back to where I purchased a slot for my backpack and had to pay another fee for the cameras.

They say that seeing Mao is free with ID, but they get you with the unforeseen charges. I walked back through all the security checkpoints and found Adam. As we walked toward the tomb entrance, we saw someone selling white flowers to lay at Mao's statue. I asked a guard if we ought to buy flowers. He got this really funny look on his face like I shouldn't seriously be asking that question and responded, "only you can decide. (in Chinese)" We each bought a flower for 3元 and walked inside. I saw a lady pushing a cart of white flowers out of the building and thought, they're just cycling the flowers back to being sold again, what a way to make money. Adam still had his iPhone on him, meaning that the metal detectors did not work. We totally could have brought in our cameras.

As we entered the building, we placed our flowers on a stand in front of a big white statue of Mao. There stood two secret service members on each side. Adam crossed himself as he laid his flower and elicited puzzled looks from these secret service guys. Next, we walked around a wall to see Mao lying in a glass coffin, in a bigger glass box. A communist flag lay over the lower half of his body and fresh flowers encircled his coffin. Two highly decorated soldiers stood on either side of Mao's body, standing perfectly still and looking straight ahead. Mao himself was an odd sight to see: not too great in stature and looked a little like a wax figure. I keep wondering to myself how long he will last and how much money the government spends on him each year.

Once we exited, Adam and I made our way over to the other side of Tiananmen to get some pictures of Mao's portrait. We then headed down to the nearest station and rode to the silk market. I bought a small tripod for my camera and Adam bought a 12 sided rubik's 'cube' for his brother (who I'd be visiting in two weeks). I accidentally dropped the cube and the guy guilt tripped me into buying it. I fixed it up eventually to give to Lukas. Adam and I said good bye on the subway and I made my way back for class lunch. We convinced our teacher to hold class over lunch in a restaurant but she backed out last minute. Instead, most of us ate together at the Sichuan restaurant. We ended up still having class right after that, which turned out to be non substantial.


A select few of us decided to go to the hutongs today. If you remember, these are the back alley markets of Beijing. In fact, the one we went to is the last open air markets in the city. We got off at what we guessed to be the correct exit. After realizing we walked a few blocks in the wrong direction, I finally turned us around to ask a traffic police. Our biggest landmark was Gulou, the drum tower, and from there I could get us back to the hutong by memory. We got to Gulou and got to Houhai, one of the lakes East of the Forbidden City. Rather than walking all the way around it, one of the guys suggested going across it. Since we saw others walking around on it we figured it would be safe enough. It saved us a lot of time. 

The guys with me were really slow walkers and at times I felt I was dragging them along. They didn't seem to have too much confidence in my directional skills but I got us there in surprisingly quick time. The first thing I bought were apples and oranges. I ended up eating one of each later and found them to be some of the sweetest I'd ever had. We also stumbled upon a tea stand that was selling mugs for 8元 each. I ended up getting 3 of them. The guy selling the mugs was super fun and enjoyed that we spoke Chinese. He tried to get us to buy some tea as well but the mugs were good enough for me.

The others wanted to stick around but I decided to make my way back to the subway and do some work at base camp. It didn't take me too long to find the subway, however we did originally get off on a more distant station. I walked down music street past a ton of guitar stores and down to the subway station in fast time. Back at BeiWai I got some writing done and skyped the family. It's so amazing what technology allows us to do.

Tourism At It's Finest

2012 January 18, Wednesday

I tried to keep the streak of eating huajuan for breakfast today. I bought two late last night at the supermarket but I knew they’d not be as good as Baba’s. I also had to awkwardly gerry-rig my own steamer out of two different pots and a strainer. They didn’t turn out super well, however, they satisfied my craving. I’ll miss huajuan back home. It’s also weird living in a dorm again, I got used to being in a home. I keep saying that about my home stay but it is with sincerity and I honestly miss it already. 

Ito-sensei (our St. Olaf professor) returned from Japan last night! She spent a week with the Japanese-studying people in our class. Now, Ito-sensei is here to teach our class for the last week and will take us to Tokyo on Monday. The class today was very simple: What happened in the last week? We got into a heated discussion about Chines lifestyle at the provocation of one student. Other than that, class was full of our own stories and hearing of our classmates’ adventures in Japan. 

For lunch Andy, Erik, Vinh and I headed over to food alley. It’s a 15 minutes walk from our dorm to the different places to eat behind East BeiWai. We ended up at a TINY baozi shop that fit eight people comfortably. I got a tray of 9 veggie baozis while the others got jiaozi - dumplings - or meat baozis. It’s funny how so many of these ‘restaurants’ are in this area and still manage to stay in business. 

We watched some TV in our room as other students drifted in and out. We watched this silly children’s cartoon that was actually Japanese in origin. My roommate asked a Chinese person in the dorm about it and said it was dubbed. I got ahold of Adam then decided to meet around 1300 (military time is used in China) to visit the Olympic Park. I began my long trek to the subway station when my phone ran out of minutes. One of the requirements for IES is that we have a cell phone. Luckily they’re really cheap and recharging their minutes is as simple as buying a card at any store and punching in a number. Unfortunately, I went to about 3 stores that pointed me in 3 different directions. I found my way to Chaoshifa, the supermarket, where I met some Austin College that let me use their cell phone quickly. I called my RA to ask for help. She pointed me to a news stand where I could find one, China Unicom specifically. They didn’t have my provider so I went into Chaoshifa. They had it, but only 50 元 worth (I only needed like 10 or 20 元 to get me through the rest of my stay). 

It took me about 45 minutes to get back on track and had to call Adam to let him know why I was late. I met him at Wangfujing station then we continued onto two other railway lines before getting to the park. Let me say again how cool it is to see another Spud on the other side of the world! The first thing we observed when we stepped out of the subway was the smog. This was by-far the worst day since we arrived. Visibility was down to about half a mile. The next thing we noticed was how expansive it was. It was all flat and empty until giant light poles or athletic complexes shot up from the ground. We took our pictures in front of the Birds Nest and Water Cube like the tourists we were. Currently, the Birds Nest has a snow park in it. We needed tickets to enter but I saw a brochure with the different exhibits that we could find almost anywhere in wintery Minnesota. Additionally the Water Cube was transformed into an indoor water park - and a big one. We didn’t spend the rest of the day together as I needed to return for a class dinner. Adam got off the subway at his stop and I continued to mine over the period of an hour. It’s so funny to see foreigners here. Especially the ones who don’t speak Chinese. I saw three adults stumble their way around the station and get separated on the train and almost break into tears (the easiest thing to do is get out at the next station and wait for them). 

I started to get an awful headache from, I think, the smog because my breathing was a little painful as well. The feeling in my lungs was like when you release your breath after holding it for as long as you can, that burning sensation. Or when you just get finished running a mile race on an indoor track although much more mild. How I wish I could be running. Of course if I did, I’d end up breathing the equivalent of 2 packs of cigarettes. Adam told me that the air pollution here is 30% better than it was in 1980. How’s that for a wakeup call, knowing how bad it is now and how much worse it was back then. I definitely have more free time not being in a home stay and not sitting in front of a TV watching dumb soap operas. 

Dinner for tonight was a bowl of instant ramen noodles. It was not filling and definitely did not compare with Baba’s fine cooking. After a while Addy and I played hacky sack under the nearest streetlight then met up with a crew going to Helen’s. Helen’s is definitely surpassing my expectations set by PBD Pizza. I bought a burger that tasted so amazing! Having ketchup again brought me back to the States. I think part of why we come here to hang out is for that reason: getting that feeling of America while we’re in China. It’s definitely not something I or the others look for, but it is the only real hang out setting we’ve been able to find - and a hang out joint is not culturally Chinese. 

I found out today that we will have the opportunity to eat with Chinese families for the first night of Spring Festival! I am very excited about this for a lot of reasons. First, home cooked food. Second, it’s our last night in China. Third, celebrating with people who know what we will be celebrating. A full cultural experience!

A New Home

This was to be my bittersweet, final breakfast with Baba and Mama. Wanton dumplings in broth and huajuan, obviously. I took my time getting ready for school. I packed my bags and set them by the door. Baba wanted me to come back to lunch one last time, thus I could take my stuff then. I brought all my dirty laundry to wash at IES and so I wouldn't have more to carry later. I threw my clothes in the wash then, it turned out, we'd be having a check-in with Jeremiah at 10:30 so I got time to kill and got a lot of writing done. At 'class,' Jeremiah and IES director Brian talked to us about our final few days and thanked us for an awesome time.

By 11:30 we were done so I returned home to get more time with the family. Baba began to cook, and this time I joined him in the kitchen to see him at work. He's a pretty good cook if I've ever met one. He whips things up so quickly and does a nice job of cutting vegetables as well. He's probably been doing this for years. Baba and I ate right away. This soup of cooked melon slices and fatty meat, fried chives and the gross sweet pepperoni (the pepperoni still had an odd taste - like an expired, sweet taste), and huajuan for myself. 

Lunch ended and the TV came on as per usual. Baba kept nodding off to sleep but when he wasn't snoozing, he'd be checking out the window to see if Mama was on her way back I assumed. I was supposed to check in at the dormitory at 1:00 and that's when Mama finally arrived. I decided that I wouldn't hurry off but rather stay and spend more time with them. However, this spending time ended up being no speaking in front of the television for another hour before I called it quits. I asked for one last group photo then they escorted me all the way to the elevator. I'll really miss these guys. I truly hope to return and stay with them, but with better Chinese speaking capability. 

The weather was awful today. The smog made it difficult to breathe and unfortunately I'd gotten used to semi-clear weather from the past few days. Now it was so bad that you could look directly at the sun like it was the moon. 

I got into my room and ended up rooming with another Ole. I was the substitution for his Chinese roommate that left for home. I had to change the sheets and tidy up then I moved all my clothes into the drawer and closet. Next, I brought my laundry to hang on ropes the old roommate left up. 

After I got settled, two other classmates and I went off to do a religious site tour in the city. This was one of the tours we had to design for class. The first site was the Catholic church. It's location was odd, being across from a huge shopping plaza and between two towering apartment buildings. It was a quaint, gothic cathedral with well-kept grounds. Next, we had to visit the Lama temple and Confucian temple but they closed by the time we got to them.  

We returned then went to dinner behind East BeiWai, the restaurant capital of the neighborhood. We  sat in at a kitchen-sized place with a closet-sized kitchen. Truly off the main drag. I got this egg and tomato noodle soup. It was pretty good but I was hoping for some fried noodles, I'll have to return here for them. We headed back and joined a few of our guys playing hackey-sack under a streetlight. When more people came, we headed over to Helen's. It's a place almost exactly like PBD, with American music and a log cabin feel. They serve American breakfasts and meals like lasagna and burgers for a relatively cheap price. I was there for a while until the friends I was with decided to go out on the town. I headed back to the dorm for my first night sleep there. 

Beijing In a Minute. The Beginning of 'Lasts'

If I haven't fully described Beijing to you, here it is. The first thing you notice is the smog. It's the air you have to breathe. Some wear masks and most don't. When the wind blows from the north the smog and clouds go away at the cost of the warmer weather. Otherwise sometimes you can't even see the sun through the clouds. The next thing you see is that the city is really spread out. The city planning committee is not able to build a central "skyscraper district" because of the ancient hutong - ancient residential neighborhoods - randomly placed throughout the city. You'll see tall buildings randomly placed because that's the only place they could build them. The people are friendly, when you interact with them. On the street, ever car will honk at you and the pedestrians walk anywhere on the sidewalk (cars get parked on sidewalks too). When you talk to someone in their own language they will immediately light up and speak really fast to you, so fast you can't keep up! Crime is extremely low because of the policed-state condition. There are cameras EVERYWHERE. The streets are dirty and the farther off the tourist traps you get, the more trash lines the street. 

Food is super cheap. I can buy two very delicious apples for just under a dollar and a tray of 9 steamed buns for even less. Tiny restaurants are everywhere and before you eat you'll want to sanitize your hands as well as the [reusable] chopsticks the restaurant provides. If it's not a mainstream restaurant then this is the case, otherwise follow procedure. Squatting toilets are everywhere and don't forget to bring your own toilet paper because none is provided for you - except in the airport. Oh and because the plumbing infrastructure is not modern, don't toss used TP in the toilet but rather in the small garbage provided. The water quality is unsafe too, so drink filtered or boiled water always. Although China is still a developing country, so much of its goods outweigh the not-so-goods. Tradition is everywhere. People love to talk about the ancient city and the beauty of their culture. For a nation only 60ish years young, a 7000 year-old history gives everyone something to talk about. Beijing's parks are beautiful and the architecture of the old sites remain breathtaking. In summation, I love the people and their history. The food is great and the lack of 'luxuries' can be overlooked. Leaving here will definitely be hard.

Breakfast today was this tofu soup, a giant fried pancake thing, and a spicy dish from dinner (I think it's giving me bad gas). I got to school only to find out that class was cancelled. Apparently Jeremiah had his hands full with the new long-term students that he decided to turn us loose on the city. I did another set of observations on the subway with my partner. Even now the traffic on our line was insane! People push their way in with their suitcases and you're constantly breathing in someone else's face. They need to get home for Spring Festival and nothing will stop them. My partner and I got separated at the transfer station because she got pushed aside as the doors were closing on my train. 

I went on ahead to meet Adam for lunch again. This time, he came over to my side of town so I could give him a taste of the non-tourist Beijing. First, I had to exchange money at the Postal Bank of China because I didn't have any cash. It took about 45 minutes but I got enough to hopefully last me the rest of my stay here. We were turned away from one restaurant because they were shutting down for Spring Festival. Eventually, we ate at a sit down doughnut place whose specialty is fish of all things. We had these spicy dishes that he had a hard time eating. I ended up ordering a egg fried rice dish to help him out. We also drank this fruit chunked-milk juice that was really good. Once we got done eating we walked around the back alleys behind East BeiWai. We got some egg tarts from this street vendor to satisfy our sweet tooth. Once we walked back through the East campus, we shared our pictures in the student lounge. We discovered that we both visited the Forbidden City on the same day at the same time! I'm sure that he's in at least one of the pictures I took. 

I walked Adam back to the subway when it was time for me to go to my family dinner. I had to run back because I was going to be late, and this was my last supper at my home stay. I returned and Baba finished his cigarette outside the 7th story window and began to cook in the kitchen. We ate a steamed chicken, that spicy dish (sorry I don't know what's in it except for thin slices of a starchy vegetable and small sliced peppers), rice and corn soup, sweet potatoes, 'sauteed' onions, a bowl of this really fatty meat, practically only fat, and of course I ate all the huajuan they provided. 

Once dinner ended, we exchanged emails and addresses. Also, I got Mom and Dad on Skype so they could meet Baba and Mama themselves. It was hard because of the language barrier but there are somethings that can be expressed without words, and enough was said in that manner. They said their goodbyes and let me talk with my parents for a while. It was fun to catch up and see them again. The ~14 hour time difference really messes with me. We watched some more television then I was too tired to stay up any longer.

Beijing's Greener Side

Today we didn't have class, which was nice for a change. This meant I got to spend more time with my Chinese parents. We ate a relaxed breakfast of bread and milk, they even brought out some jam that I'm assuming one of their prior host student brought. They called it "American jam" and it had Minnesota in big letters across the label. I chuckled to myself. 

They decided to take me to the park today! Baba and I started walking to the bus stop, I told him that I needed to exchange money at the bank to pay for the park entry fee. He just chuckled and gave me a 100 元 bill and said something that I assumed was pay me back later. Mama caught up to us when we were waiting for the bus to arrive. These two really seem to have fun teasing each other. Baba says something snarky then Mama hits him and laughs. It's good to see. We rode the bus for a long time. We passed good quality high rises that would be the Chinese-apartment buildings version of suburbs in the US. We saw a McDonalds along the way as well and Baba taught me the transliteration to be "mài dāng láo" or 麦当劳. Mama also pointed out the giant canal/trench that I could run along from their house. It leads all the way to the Summer Palace which is where we were headed.

We got to the park and as I stepped in, the view took me aback. This place was huge! For those of you who don't know, the Summer Palace was the emperor's escape during the hot summer months and where he went to celebrate his birthday. The park has a very big lake in it with a few islands and an earthen causeway that cuts across it. The path goes all around the park, which also has plenty of bridges. Baba first showed me the "shíqī kōng qiáo" or 17 Tunnel Bridge. It's the longest bridge in any of China's parks. On it are balustrades (I think) with 544 little lion statues, with multiple lions on each balustrade. 

Baba brought their camera with because they didn't want me missing out on capturing today. What an awesome guy. So although the pictures from his ancient camera are a little lower in quality, I still have pictures and I'm happy with that. We walked around the park clockwise. Along the way, Mama told me that the willow trees line the whole lake and that the lake itself is covered in lotus flowers in the spring. We came across another bride that also has its own name. This one, they explained to me got its name from how it looks like an arched back. Right before the causeway, we came across old guys playing with Chinese yo-yos and really long whips. The guys with the yo-yos were unbelievable! They had the string twisted between their legs and around their back yet they still guided the yo-yo without mistake. Mama ushered me to try the whip and when I did it was impossible to make it crack without losing an eye. 

We made our way to the other side where the giant pagoda was then through this outdoor hallway with hundreds of different murals painted on the ceiling. Mama pointed a few of them out and told me a short story about each. There were a lot of foreigners here and I couldn't help thinking to myself how lucky I was to not only have local tour guides, but also to live with them too. I was freezing cold for the second half of our time there so Baba suggested that I run around a little. For something that we consider to look a little silly, running around in jeans to get warm actually works. We stopped at a bathroom too and the first think I did was run my hand under the hot tap water that helped my hands defrost. 

We got back to our apartment building and as we got in the elevator, I got a phone call. One of my classmates called me to say he'd found my camera! It turns out that sometime before we got in that cab, my camera got into his jacket. I was so elated. God is so good, somehow I had this feeling it'd show up and I was right. This is only a small testament to how God does care. I had lunch at home then quickly rushed over to school to get my camera. What a good feeling to have it in my hands again. It was a gift from my parents and grandparents so losing it would have been hard to tell them (I told Mom and Dad after I found it...). 

I sat in the library for a while burning through some papers I had to write. New semester students arrived the night before and were individually frequenting in and out of the library. Some of them spoke a little Chinese and others didn't speak a lick. It'll be interesting to hear how they improve after the semester of severe language immersion. Time came for me to head home and I first took the bus down the road to a big supermarket to buy some tea. The place was so busy because people were just getting off work and needed to do shopping for dinner and breakfast the next morning. The amazing thing about the Chinese is that they buy by necessity, meaning they'll only buy food for the next meal usually. It really is a good idea and it saves a lot of waste. 

After supper I met up with the gang at PBD Pizza. It's a joint about half a mile walk from the school. PBD has a log cabin feel and has really good pizza and fries for really cheap, making it a great hangout spot. There's a foosball table there too that we played a few tournaments on. I told Baba and Mama that I wouldn't be back too late so I left earlier than everyone else to find my parents already asleep.