Inner Mongolia...

More pictures and commentary coming soon...

Randomness...

Here are some more pictures... I hope you enjoy.

If anyone is actually looking at the pictures please leave a comment so I know. I might actually write about the pictures...

798 Art District in Dashanzi

Test Test Test


Test Test Test


Test Test Test

Transportation in Beijing...

Rainy Days in Beijing...

I was planning on showing you photos of our excursion to the Summer Palace, a World Heritage site located here in Beijing. It is so popular that more than 30,000 people visited last Sunday. Wanting to avoid the crowds and have a more relaxing visit, I skipped school today so I could make the trip during a relatively slow weekday.

Today it rained. A lot...

So, instead I show you photos of me and Sujin at "Sculpting in Time." A cafe right across the street from the Wudaokou station covering two floors with additional seating on the roof. The atmosphere is very similar to what you might find in an Ann Arbor coffee shop. It has a very international feel as many of the patrons are foreign students from all over the world who have come to Beijing to work or study as well as the Chinese folks who like to hang out with them. You can find a whole wall of reading material, mostly in English, but also many other languages. If you bring your laptop you can connect to their WiFi and check your e-mail and plan your next trip. The coffee here is pretty good and you can actually get one free refill here, which is not a very common thing. In China it seems, you can drink tea all the live long day for one low price but coffee? no. Coffee is expensive.

The Great Wall at Badaling

So we did what every visitor is required to do and went to the Great Wall. We went to a section of the wall located at Badaling. It is considered the Mickey Mouse version of the wall since it is refurbished, close to Beijing and filled with tourists, and less "authentic" than other sections. You will often hear conversations like this among expats: "You went to Badaling? Well, you haven't really seen the Great Wall until you have been to (insert section of Great Wall that you have been to but the person you are speaking with hasn't, you snob)".

So we decide to go during the May 1st holiday week. A time when 1.2 billion people have the week off and want to go on vacation. Traffic is terrible, buses are crowded and prices are raised. We actually wanted to go out of town that week and when we tried to buy a bus ticket, the ticket agent just laughed.

So, we take the subway to Deshengmen (德胜门) and start looking for the 912 bus. We were told to be careful to get on the 912 bus to Badaling and not the 912 bus to some other place I can't remember. So, why have numbers for the buses if the same number goes to different places? Interesting question and I would love to answer it but...not a clue.

The bus is, of course, SRO and after about an hour I am feeling a little bit claustrophobic. After two hours, I want off the bus so I can walk home. After three, I don't remember. It just seemed to take a really long time.

Just before we arrived I was able to peek through the front window of the bus and see a traffic sign that said "Great Wall 13 Kilometers." We then immediately pulled into a rest stop and I thought we were just going to use the restroom and be asked to buy T-shirts and souvenirs before heading out for the last 13 kilometers. But then, everyone got off the bus and dispersed and the bus drove out without us. Feeling a little lost and confused I asked the nearest Chinese man, a college student, "how do we get to the Great Wall from here?" He told me to buy a ticket and just walk. Sensing my confusion he just pointed up to the nearest mountain and said "it's right there!" I sure felt like an idiot. I was already tired from standing on the bus forever and thought that we still had 13 kilometers to go that I did not even bother to look up and around me.

The wall in photos and on the National Geographic channel always looked like a long wall that rolled across the gentle hills of the Chinese countryside. I didn't find it to be that exactly. It was more of the straight up and down vertical climb you see in the picture above. If you want the climbing the great wall experience without the expense of coming to China, use a stairmaster in a sauna for six or seven hours while watching the Discovery channel.

The engineers and designers of the Great Wall built it in such a way that in order to get back to your bus, you must first walk through a row of vendors hawking all sorts of cheap Chinese crap. Here you can get Mao watches, Mao bags, books about the Great Wall, postcards, "I climbed the Great Wall" t-shirts, ashtrays, lighters, hats, etc. etc. If you go, do not pay any more than $1 dollar for anything. The Chinese vendors are all very excited when they try to sell you something. It is kind of fun walking up and down the aisle of stalls and watch them jump up and try to sell you something as you walk by. It is kind of like seeing the wave done at a major sporting event.

There is also a dirty camel that you can sit on and have your picture taken with for something like $3. To take its picture is $1, or free if you wait until the owner of the camel walks away for a smoke and to deal with other customers. The owner says you can not take his picture or touch the camel because he will get angry and spit at you. Apparently, the camel will not spit only on the condition that you give him $3.

Chinese Children...

Here are some pictures of children I took today while walking around Beijing. Enjoy!

Communist Noodles in Beijing...

The first here is one of me outside a North Korean Cold Noodle shop in Beijing. The second is of me, Sujin, and a waitress straight from the Communist North. Sujin spoke with her a bit about what she did in Pyongyang (waitress in a foreigner hotel), how she likes Beijing, the weather, etc. I didn't speak to her at all. That is not the sort of interaction with North Korea that I am used to so it made me a bit uncomfortable just to be there. The food was overpriced too.

Wangfujing...

We went to Wangfujing （王府井）, which is a fancy shopping area just a short walk from Tiananmen Square. There you can find many of the name brands that you may be used to back home such as Rolex, Nike, Prada, Armani, etc. After shopping for all that stuff, you can sit down and have a Big Mac at McDonalds or some ice cream at Haggendaz. Before you go nuts shopping here though, remember this. Beijing is "cheaper" than many major cities but it is not necessarily "cheap." A Rolex is still a Rolex no matter where you buy it and it ain't cheap.

Also in Wangfujing is what is called "Eat Street." It is a one block line of street stalls that sells all sorts of strange and wonderful foods!

There you can try cow stomach, squid, and other normal foods but also scorpions, all matter of bugs, sea horses, anything that came from the ocean and can be put on a stick. I am not convinced that Chinese people actually eat there or consider these foods a normal part of their diet. I think the vast majority of people that were eating there, including the Chinese, were tourists who wanted to do the Beijing thing and eat some bugs.

I tried the scorpion and it was not that good, not that bad. It just tasted crunchy and had way too much salt. One bad thing is I could still taste it in my mouth three hours later.

Mandarin Phrasebook...

I want to plug a book. Anyone coming to China, and Beijing specifically, should pick up a copy of the Mandarin Phrasebook. It has made my life here a whole heck of a lot easier. It has all sorts of essential phrases that you can get in other travel books like "Can you tell me how to get to..." and "How much for the..." but also sections more appropriate for long-term travelers, students, and expats. There are sections explaining how to rent an apartment, hire a maid, open a bank account, find a job, and, most importantly, pet grooming. Speaking of grooming, explaining to a man in Chinese how you want your hair cut is good speaking practice. Plus, you can see almost immediately if what you wanted to say was expressed properly.

Were it not for the Mandarin Phrasebook, I would never have been able to say "I will take one order of the fried scorpion with spicy salt please." More on that later...

Maybe we should just go back to the airport...

Getting from the airport to the school I was attending was difficult and frustrating to say the least.

First off, I came to China to learn to speak Chinese. Despite having completed two college years of Chinese I was not that good at speaking. First-year Chinese I did well since it was a summer course and the only course I was taking at the time. Second-year I did not do so well because I was also taking more than a full-time class load in my first year of grad school while also taking second-year Chinese. Going to grad school is hard enough without having to learn Chinese at the same time. Plus, since I am a grad student I do not get any credit for 200-level language courses. So, my Chinese ability is a function of basic economics. Do I read the 1000 pages of books and journal articles to prepare for my grad courses or do I listen to a tape all day and repeat "My name is Wang. I like watermelon. Do you like China?" in Chinese? I chose the former and decided to squeak by in my language courses by utilizing my knowledge of characters from my Japanese days. Secondly, on the way to China we had to move out of our apartment in Ann Arbor, store all our things at my Mother's house, pack for our trip to China, all the while not losing the map and instructions on how to get to the school from the airport that the school had generously supplied us with. We managed to get all but the last thing done. "Did you pack the map?" "I thought you packed the map!"

We took a bus into Haidian District where many of the colleges and schools are located. That much I knew. My school was in Haidian. We managed to make it to the Haidian district. From their we had to walk to the college. Unfortunately, every Chinese person we asked for directions assumed we were looking for the Beijing Language and Culture University. Although BLCU is close to where I study it is not so close that one can easily find it from where we were at. We ended up walking around in circles, literally, for probably close to three hours. My wife was furious and jet-lagged. Mostly, she was cold. I had told her that it had been 70 degrees in Beijing lately and it was only going to get hotter so there was no need to bring a lot of warm clothes. However, weather reports all over the world are equally as accurate it would seem. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt while the people who were giving me directions were wearing winter coats and gloves.

We actually made it to the BLCU campus to find that the english-speaking staff was away on their lunch "hour" and would not be back for two hours. A nice lady from Oklahoma took pity on me and offered to help. She asked if the school I was looking for was associated with Australia somehow since she knew where an Australian school was and she could take me there. I said "No, I don't think thats the right school." So, she brought me to the campus bookstore where she thought the staff there might be able to help. They could not but I convinced them to let me use their computer to access the internet. Figuring that was the easiest way to get rid of me, they let me use it. Apparently the school is associated with Australia somehow. Where did that lady from Oklahoma go?

I now had the schools address and phone number. Now, if I only had a phone!

Even with an address and knowing the school was close, very close, we still had troubles finding it. One thing I did learn through asking everyone for directions was that in China no matter what it is, everything will take "about ten minutes." How far is the school from here? About ten minutes. When will they be back from lunch? About ten minutes. Everything, ten minutes. What "ten minutes" means in Chinese is "I don't know but if you walk that way for ten minutes and don't find it, you will probably walk another five. By then, you will be far enough away from me that you will not want to come back here and ask me any more questions."

We finally found some Korean students who knew where my school was. Beijing is loaded with Korean students. My wife forced them against there will to walk us to the front door of the school. It was obvious the kids wanted to help but did not want to walk us all the way to the school but Sujin pulled rank on them. Since she was more than ten years older than they were, the felt obliged to do what she told them.

We finally arrived at the school to find "Christina" in the office. She had been waiting for us to arrive. She got us set up in our hotel room which was attached to the school. It was cold in the room, the heater did not work, it was dirty, the hot water did not work, and the blankets and sheets were damp as if they had been washed and folded without drying. Despite all this, we both managed to fall asleep. That is how tired we were.

That is how I started my first day in China.

The picture is of me standing in front of my Ann Arbor apartment one week before the trip to China.

Visa

The first thing anyone needs to do if they want to go to China is get a Visa. Frankly, I have been a little bit spoiled in my international travels previously. When going to Canada I needed a driver's license and my good looks and that was sufficient. When going to Korea or Japan I just needed to show up with a passport. Sometimes even that was not necessary. Once, I showed up in Japan without a passport and politely asked if I could stay for three or four days to visit some friends. At first they refused but when I said "pretty please" they let me stay on condition that I promised to leave within a month. No problem.

China is different though. If you want to come to China start planning early. Paperwork needs to be transferred back and forth between you, the Chinese Embassy or Consulate, and China. I am here on a student visa so I first needed to wire some money to a Hong Kong bank to pay for application fees. The cost of the transfer cost more than the money transferred. I need a new bank. Then I waited for paperwork to be shipped from China back to the US so I could send it to the Consulate in Chicago to get my Visa. But it is not that simple. The Chinese Consulate requires that you show up in person or go through a representative who shows up in person (and charges you exorbitant fees for his time.) Mailing them your passport and paperwork is not an option. To top it all off, your wife will only realize at the last minute that her passport is set to expire while you are planning on being in China and "will that be a problem?" Yeah, probably...

Once all the paperwork is in order getting the Visa is actually not that painful a process. For anyone in the Midwest area, I would suggest getting up early and driving to the consulate in Chicago and getting the Visa yourself. Going to the consulate ourselves, including gas, food, parking, extra fees for same day service, was still cheaper and obviously a lot quicker than if we had went through a travel agent to do the leg work for us. Plus, as an added bonus, we got to spend a day in Chicago on a particularly warm and sunny early spring day!

The picture above is me waiting for our Visas to be processed.

Tom in China

I have been in China now for six weeks and can finally start writing about it. Why "finally"? For two reasons actually. First, the Hinesecay Overnmentgay found it in their best interests to block access to many blog hosting sites, including this one. Today, for some unknown reason I am not having trouble getting to the site so here I am. The second reason I haven't posted is it took me awhile to get used to this place. Frankly, the first two weeks I spent here was just lamenting the fact that I had come. As someone who has lived and worked overseas before I thought I was immune to "culture shock." Apparently that is not true. I didn't want to write some anti-China blog. I will leave that to the NYT and Lou Dobbs.

So, without further ado, let's begin!