Things I want to remember forever...

On the bus ride the other day I jotted down some topics that I wanted to be sure and tell people about as well as remember years from now. I am going to try to explain them at this time.

The Olympics
Holy cow! From first stepping off the plane to climbing the Great Wall to going on a bus tour of the Olympic venues, we have definitely seen the impact the 2008 Olympics has had and will have on this city! It is extremely difficult not to catch the Olympic spirit. There are signs EVERYWHERE that say, “Beijing 2008” or “One World. One Dream.” People are constantly working to prepare. We have seen people planting flowers and trees at all hours of the day and night. Seriously, we have seen people planting flowers on Saturday night at midnight. Beijing and China want to showcase to the rest of the world the wonders of their city. There are thousands of trees planted EVERYWHERE and they have gigantic teepee-style support systems on them. There is extensive landscaping that was just recently put in nearly all of the medians. We learned on our Olympic tour that they will be eliminating half of the cars by only allowing odd or even license plate numbers on the road every other day. We learned that they will have everything prepared by July 20th. It seems like just last night they put up more signs all over the city on the overpass crosswalks saying, “Welcome” and the theme. They have also recently put up more actual road signs directing people to the venues. On the inside lane of traffic they have painted big Olympic rings, indicating that starting on a certain date, only cars with Olympic passes can drive in that lane. Even in the subways lanes, we have seen paintings of Olympic Characters on the track walls. DongFang has told us that the prices of tours and special attractions have gone up as well. This city is ready for the Olympics and we are so excited to be here during their preparation. It will be neat to see how much Beijing transforms while we travel to Inner Mongolia next week.

Construction
There is so much construction going on within this city. I am not sure if it is the Olympics or just general growth of a city of about 20 million, but there is always something being built. We see lots of big cranes behind the guardrail fence type things on the side of the road. We have been informed that wherever we see one of those, it is likely that a subway line is going in there. There are skyscraper buildings ALL OVER THE PLACE. Many of them are apartment complexes and others are office buildings for major businesses. Since many of the people from the countryside come to Beijing as some type of migrant worker, they are willing to work all hours of the day and night for whatever money they can get. On the west side of the campus we have watched a big, somewhat elaborate gate being built. It is amazing to see what can be accomplished by lots of people working around the clock seven days a week.

The Economics of It All
1.3 Billion people live here. My main reason for coming on this trip was to learn about how in the world they feed and provide for the needs of all of those people. After being here for a month, I have even more of an interest in studying economics. It is flat out fascinating. Everything here is so cheap. I can’t get over how cheap it is. We go out to eat basically every meal and never spend over $3 or $4 and most times it is more like $1. I realize that most of the people here have very little money so they really cannot pay for too much, but I would think that with so much demand, the prices would have to be higher than what they are. I guess I have never noticed a lack of supply. Everything is available and right at their finger tips. Furthermore, everything any American could want can be found in Beijing. Of course, they have McDonalds, KFC, Dairy Queen, Pizza Hut, Dominos, and Starbucks, plus any other fast food joint, but you can get also whatever you would ever need from stores like Wal-Mart (they have at least one here) or the Nike store or wherever. The place is amazing.

Transportation
The way people get around here is yet another amazing characteristic of China as a whole. Where do I begin? Okay, well first of all, most people walk to a lot of the places they are going. When we go jogging in the mornings we pass hundreds (and I do mean hundreds if not thousands) of people walking to work, school, or wherever. On the main roads they have a designated bike lane that is as wide as a side street in Columbus. People ride half motorized, half pedal, big tricycle-like bikes that they haul everything from flats of toilet paper to big cart loads of produce like watermelons. They ride a smaller, but more powerful tricycle thing to haul big jugs of drinking water and in the tourist areas, people. We see lots and lots of normal bicycles all over the place. People ride those in the bike lanes too and there are often people one or two passengers riding on them. There are taxis available at all times here. All we have to do is walk out of the building or venue we are visiting and look around and we’ll quickly be able to hail a taxi. Most times, the trip only costs an average of 28 Yuan which is about four dollars and when you split that by four people it amounts to a ride across town for basically a dollar. You cannot get that anywhere in the United States. We learned in class that the taxis are subsidized by the government to combat the high fuel prices and that helps keep the price low. Still, the Chinese students rarely take taxi rides as they think it is took expensive. They prefer to take the subway or bus. I’ll talk about the bus first. The busing system is so very vast. There are buses that go all over the city. If you can figure out the routes, it isn’t a bad way to go considering it costs 1 Yuan to get on which is 15 cents. The citizens here carry bus cards that they can add money to, but each time we get on a bus we just pay our money and the lady manning the money booth (yes, they have an extra employee doing this) gives us a ticket. The buses do get pretty crowded and sometimes we have to stand for a whole thirty minute stop and go ride, but it gets us to our destination. When we go on field trips, we see morning commuters jam packed onto buses and I become even more thankful for the nice air conditioned bus China Baba (I am not sure if I am spelling that correctly but Baba means father) drives us around in. I have ridden the subway twice now. That is another interesting experience to highlight. The subway system is complex, but very useful and they are expanding it to be even better. The subways do become rather crowded and you have to watch your stuff for pick pocketing, but that is all part of the experience. On a subway it is extremely rare to get a seat. We have learned from our lecturers and the Chinese students that it is nothing for Chinese people to ride the train for a couple days to get across the country. On Monday we will ride the train for ten hours so we will see how that mode of transportation is compared to the rest of the country. Oh yea, some people have cars too, but it is usually only one car per family.

Guards Everywhere!
There’s this element of safety that occurs in China. First of all, there are people everywhere so if someone wanted to do something, they’re bound to be caught. We (Jessica, Ashley, and I) go jogging nearly everyday and I have never felt in danger at all. In the U.S., I feel like you have to watch yourself at all times. With all these people around, you are just fine. Also, somewhat similar to how there multiple times more people working than we would have anywhere you go, there are guards and police men everywhere. There are guards at the gates to the campus. There are guards standing by big parking lot entrance arms, manually pushing down on the other end of the lever every time the arm needs to go up. There a guards milling around all of the busy areas. We saw police men at every block when we walked quite a distance one Sunday afternoon. The thing is, these guards to not act completely official or serious like guards in uniform in the United States would. When they march together, they do not always walk in straight rows or separate themselves evenly. They smile, talk, and laugh with each other while on duty. We learned in class that many young men come from the countryside to serve as guards because it is one of the only ways to get into the city unless you make it into the university. It is those people we are seeing posing as guards around the city.

Blonde Hair/Americans
Anywhere we go, we get stared at. People quickly pick us out as foreigners and then watch us and even stop to talk to us. We’ve been many places where they’ve stopped and asked Jessica or Ashley to get pictures with them. Their blonde hair pulls them right in. DongFang told us the reason they do that is that they are likely traveling as well and they want to be able to show their family back home a picture of a real, live American. Specifically at the Great Wall, several families stopped and asked Jessica for a picture.

Spitting
Before coming to China, I’d heard and Melissa had told us about how the Chinese and/or the Olympic committee were trying to get people to quit spitting/hacking before the Olympics. I have to admit, I hardly believed it would be a big deal. Boy, was I wrong. People hack up big wads of spit and let it loose whenever they feel like it. I realize they are breathing in lots of smog and that dusty air eventually gets to you, but geepers creepers, with everyone hacking up a big loogie, you are reminded of the habit at least once an hour. It is not just men that do this spitting either. Women and children of all ages can be found throwing one out. They do it from the bus window, from their bicycle, in the middle of a crowded street, just anywhere. It’s true! They spit!

The Prevalence of English
The children are taught English in school, so many people know at least a few words. However, most people are almost afraid to use it, even if they know it. Some can carry on a conversation with you with no mistakes and then say, “Sorry, my English is poor.” I don’t know if they are fishing for a compliment or what, but they’ve got it. Lots of children have ran up to our group and said simply, “Hello.” Many times, we then say, “Hello. How are you?” They quickly respond back the memorized answer they have from school, “Fine. Thank you.” Lots of the English they learn is of the British style so they often use the word, “quite.” I remember one concern Ashley had before coming here was that we’d see signs all over and have no idea what they said. The thing is, many times where English translations right next to the signs are. Many people at least are able to use their basic numbers to they can say how old they are or how many people work at a certain place and others know a lot more. Some people simply stop us and want to talk to us on the bus or at McDonalds so that they can practice their English. They even have places here called, “English Corner” where people just gather at a corn of a street to practice English with each other. It makes me wonder why the Chinese know so much English, but such a small percentage of Americans know Chinese. I know that it is because the Chinese want to come to America since there is so much competition for jobs here as well as a host of other reasons, but it is for sure interesting to watch their investment in English.

Six Outerbelts
Look at a map of any big city, and it’s likely you’ll find an outerbelt highway going around it. In Columbus we have 270. In Indianapolis, it is 465. In Beijing, they have six of these, and they are called, “Ring Roads.” Square miles wise, Beijing is not that much bigger than Columbus with all of its suburbs, but these ring roads make it easier for people to get around. The first ring is in the center and it goes out all the way to the sixth ring which is nearly in the countryside. I think we live between the fourth and fifth ring.

Space
The people of Beijing have little space in nearly all situations. We have been to Mrs. Mao’s and DongFang’s homes and both are nice apartments. I’ve mentioned before that there are skyscrapers of apartments EVERYWHERE. No where in the city can you look around and not see a gigantic apartment complex. The people have to live somewhere, and they do not have much space at all. Since they do not have yards, they spend a lot of leisure time in the parks, but the parks quickly fill up as well. Always, there are lots and lots of people walking in the streets. Sometimes, when I am running, I’ll tell myself, “Okay, I’ll count until I cross paths with 100 people and then I’ll stop.” That doesn’t take long at all so then I usually have to start over. There is no space on the buses or subway for much wiggle room. Things are just tight. When people buy groceries, first of all they have to walk them or bus them clear home and second of all they don’t have much space to store them, so they don’t buy too many at once. In the countryside, we see every little nook and cranny, being used for growing something. They are even growing corn in the side banks of creeks and ditches.

The Laundry System
Okay, the washing machine is not like the ones we have in the U.S. First, you check to make sure the drain mechanism is on the plug option. This was a difficult concept to figure out at first since all of the labeling is in Chinese. Once the drain is plugged and the water hose is hooked up from the sink to the machine, you turn on the water in the sink and fill up the machine. There is no water heater in that room, so we’re only operating with cold. We’re okay with that, we appreciate what we can get. While it s filling with water, you can add clothes and soap. Once it is all full, you turn it on the “slosh cycle” which turns the load one way and then stops and then turns the load the other way and stops, sloshing back and forth for a period of fifteen minutes. Once that time is done, you drain the water by turning to the appropriate Chinese word. Then you plug the drain again and fill back up to rinse. The drain goes into a Chinese “hover toilet” which is below the machine. The rinse portion needs to be repeated a couple of times to ensure the soap is removed. Next, the clothes are moved from right side to the left side of the machine for the “spin cycle.” The left side of the machine is the size of a small bucket. You pack the clothes in and turn it on. At first, the machine acts like it is going to topple over because it is out of balance, but it quickly balances itself out and then spins like crazy. If you run two, five-minute, cycles of the spinning the clothes are practically dry by the time they come out. We have a big string of twine hanging completely across our room where we hang our clothes for drying and then spray them with wrinkle releaser. It takes less than a day for them to dry.

Gaining Appreciation for Home
It is hard to explain the feelings one gets when leaving home and going to a foreign land for six weeks, but whether we admit it or not, there are things we miss from home. Further, there are things we look forward to and are excited about at home too. Sometimes, I think about coming home and all the things I want to do. I want to go get ice cream with Seth, my fiancé. I want to go see our friends and family. I want to simply get in my car and go somewhere. We are excited about being able to cook something as simple as frozen pizzas since we eat out every meal. It is amazing how a meal of American food perks us up. It is not like we are not having a good time and learning lots, because we are, but having a break from the constant Chinese culture for a cheeseburger and French fries does a group of American kids a lot of good. We miss being able to talk to our friends and family so easily, but we often say how nice it is not having a cell phone and not being with people with cell phones. We are able to focus on what we are doing and who we are with rather than calling or texting someone all the time. Plus, we don’t have to constantly check to see if we have it with us. We have often talked about what we are going to do when we get home. Ashley, Jessica, and I want to stop at a Taco Bell in Columbus upon our return. I am excited about doing anything when we get home. We have all these things we are looking forward to and we talked about how it will make us gain an appreciation for everything. We also talked about how a person could really gain from living life like it is your first day back from a foreign country. It will be exciting to see people for the first time, but what if we were that excited all the time. It will be a real treat to get a quesadilla from Applebee’s, but what if we looked forward to and appreciated stuff like that this much all the time. I know it isn’t possible to keep that level of excitement, but it is something to think about.

Learning!
There is no better way to learn about something than to go see it and immerse oneself in the experience. What a neat way to learn! No matter where you look, there are people who are a prime example of the things we are learning in class. Also, there are always people answer questions and explain the things we are seeing. While here, we are required to write research papers and give presentations about certain topics to our classmates. It will be great to learn from the key points each of us picked out of our research. Interestingly, I have found there is so much information about any topic you could imagine on the internet. Of course, I knew that before, but if a person just took the time to read some articles or research a topic, one could learn so much.

The Friendliness of the Chinese People
We have been in China for four weeks and I cannot recall one time that we have been treated poorly or as undesirable. Everyone has been extremely friendly to us. I realize that in most places all over the world, people are friendly, but the citizens of China and particularly Beijing, have gone above and beyond. First of all, the people at our school, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, have done so much for us. The students take us on field trips every weekend, spending their entire Saturday with us. They love to practice their English and hang on our every word. I know they are interested in our culture and are gaining from being with us, but they are so friendly. DongFang, our coordinator from China, is extremely friendly. She has a motherly element to her, but she is also like a sister or a friend. It is common for Chinese people to put their arms around each other and even hold hands. They are not doing this in any sort of romantic way; it is just a way they show friendly love to each other. I usually sit near the front of the bus and DongFang often puts her hand on mine or on my legs when she is making an announcement or explaining something we are doing. She and Mrs. Mao invited us into their homes and Mrs. Nia took our entire group to lunch. They love to be welcoming. Strangers say hello to us and love to find out where we are from. They smile big when they serve us our Big Macs and French fries at McDonalds and greet us with a knowing nod when we walk into the gates of the campus. We often need someone to write down where we need to go in Chinese and then utilize a taxi to get to the destination. Often the drivers take us right to the place and point to the exact building or entrance we need. If we can’t find it once there, we can show the paper to anyone and they’ll point us in the right direction. Once, we were looking for an Olympic store in a mall and showed the paper to someone and the guy responded saying, “I’ll take you.” He walked us halfway through the mall, right to the store. I don’t think a very high percentage of Americans would do something like that for a group of Chinese kids. The Chinese people are great!

We are having an amazing time and learning so much in China. I know I will reflect on this experience for the remainder of my life. China and the Chinese people affect every aspect of our world and I feel grateful to be seeing their culture and country in person.