And yet, my first impression of Beijing was very positive. Despite whatever may lay behind it, the first impression is always the first impression. The airport was incredibly modern and nothing less than of international standard. The highway to my university was smooth, well paved, and marked.  It was lined with forests of tall and dignified trees, giving me a sense that things had always been this way. Signs were written in both English and Chinese. Even the campus of the Beijing Sport University looked clean, well-tended, and broad. My dorm room was very modern and clean, and the water which poured out from the modern bathroom was also hot and clean. Recalling all this in retrospect now, I’ve realized that this is exactly the first impression Beijing hopes all visitors will have arriving into the city, especially come 2008.

 

 

 

What do I see of daily life in Beijing? Construction on a primitive level is always taking place. Peasants in worn, street clothes wearing no helmets and sometimes no shoes are operating highly dangerous steel cutters. Construction is rarely taped off. I step away to avoid the embers falling on me.

 

I never knew what a brick of coal looked like until China. I never had even an inkling of the concept of energy usage until seeing here it at its most basic level. An old man pulls a wooden cart. Inside there are a hundred neatly stacked black, cylindrical bricks of coal. He pulls the cart down the street and sells the bricks to his regular customers. They store the bricks in stacks just inside the entrance ways of their homes and businesses. I see the bricks used to heat large, black woks set up on the sidewalk, or in a man’s cart.  From those woks they sell the sweet potatoes that I sometimes buy. For roasted chestnuts, coals ground to the size of gravel are put in the wok and heated. The chestnuts are added and the man uses his shovel to stir the coal. From what I have seen in all the cities I’ve visited all over China, coal is still a very important means for survival for many people.

 

 

 

 

I have developed the habit of always bargaining in China. Despite the fact that my lunches and dinners are between 3-5 RMB (40-60 cents) and taxi rides to the city are 25 RMB (3 US Dollars), I always feel the need ask for a fair price. In the shopping areas in Beijing, merchants will quote all customers (Chinese and foreign) a price that is between double and triple what the item really should cost. If you don’t bargain, they figure everyone is happy with the price, especially them! Haggling a little about the price is a protection measure for me, just something to make sure that, as a foreigner, they can’t pull the wool over me so easily.

 

Smoking is rampant. When I am eating in a restaurant, a man is always smoking at the table next to me. Maybe four or five men are smoking at tables next to me. I can never taste what I am eating this way. The restaurant is always filled with smoke and the hostess must open the door at times to let the smoke out. When sleeping in the 2nd class trains, every 5 minutes, a man is smoking in the hallway and the entire train car smells of smoke. When I get home from the train station, my clothes smell like smoke. There is no avoiding second-hand smoke in China.

 

The sound of men and women, young and old, hawking phlegm, fills the air. They spit it anywhere. I’ve learned to avoid stepping in the mucous-saliva puddles on the sidewalks. Men and women pick their noses in public, vigorously. If it is not pickable, they will cover one nostril with a finger and blow out their noses as hard as they can until the offending item ejects/sprays out of their nose and onto the sidewalk. Some will do this over a trashbin out of courtesy.

 

But Beijingers, on the whole, are a simple group. They seek a simple, uncomplicated life. And in many respects, there is an innocence in their thoughts. They have the best intentions in mind. Why did the school clerk not give me a receipt for my purchase? Because he has it written down right there in his books of course! They don’t even imagine that things could be done otherwise; that they wouldn’t do the right thing. Maybe they believe that everyone else is doing the same. Is this their key to happiness?

 

I have one, genuine Chinese friend. He is on track to be a gym teacher, but he actually wants to be a businessman. The other day, he texted me his excitement about having the opportunity to join the Communist Party. He sounded so happy. He said he was very lucky and would now have a chance at a better job in the future. After my initial reaction, I was able to wish him good luck. He, like all other undergraduates, lives in a dorm room smaller than mine with 5 other bunkmates. They have a shared bathroom for the whole floor and the shower facilities are in an entirely different building and run only during specific hours.

 

 

I have my own bathroom and hot shower in my room and can stay up whenever I please; their lights go out at 11:30pm. When he’s online, he messages me from the desktop computer that’s inside his bed. His bunkmates also have computers installed at the foot of their beds. Seeing my condition compared to theirs, I felt too spoiled. 

 

 

International students here. We are placed in our own dorms, taking our own classes in a separate building, and not informed of the university functions. Life for the Chinese students is not interrupted by our presence. It is likely the same situation for many international students in many universities around the world. I suppose some students enjoy the comfort and safety this provides; whereas, I am only chagrined at the lack of immersion. When living in a foreign country, I enjoy actively adapting to become one of the locals. China is the first country where I could not nor had the desire to do this. Sadly, for this reason, after 3 months of living here, I could not tap into this culture. I don’t understand, even on an intuitive level, how the Chinese people think and feel. In other countries, my lack of language ability did not hinder my ability to sense/pick-up the general vibe, but here, I feel I have nothing to grab on to.

 

Maybe the bleak, cold weather has affected my thoughts, but I can only guess they are thinking, “At every corner, everywhere I go, it is easy to see hardship. Best to do what is necessary to improve one’s condition. I don’t want to work all day for 60 RMB.”