Just Living

So, all in all, it has mostly just been life as normal. My internet is down, and I am at a nearby internet cafe, but it is not a very good one. Rather that bringing my own laptop and getting wireless, this is a place where I put down 6 yuan and I get to use their computer for an hour, but it is slow. Granted, faster than the internet I get in the dorm, but a lot slower than the wireless place. I think I may have to go there sometime to upload all the photos I want to to my photobucket site. This weekend was super: Thursday, after my morning classes were over, I went to a market across from the Zoo (only about a 10 minute bus ride). Boy was that crazy. It makes places like the Mall of America look like such kids stuff. This was a random Thursday, and it made the day after Thanksgiving in Walmart seem like a walk in the park. It was literally hard to walk down a hallway at times. The layout of the place was just a concrete floor, with a grid pattern on each floor. There were maybe 6 or 8 floors. Little shops populated the entire area, none more than 8 or 9 feet wide, and maybe 5 feet deep. I ended up buying two pair of pants (one of which is really cool, one of which is too tight to be comfortable), a Manchu-button style shirt, and the most adorable hat that I have ever seen. It is a watermelon! What I mean is, there is a band of green at the edge, and the rest is red with black specks throughout it. My first adventure in shopping, and the whole bunch cost me a little over $20. Although it may be a lot cheaper than I would get the equivalent in the U.S., I still think I need to watch my spending a bit more carefully. I don't want to eat up all my savings while I am here.


Friday after our test (we have a Chinese test every other Friday) a bunch of us went up to the new summer palace. What a beautiful place! A huge lake surrounded by carefully cultivated trees, incredible rock outcroppings, and amazing traditional Chinese architecture. As with all touristy places, people where hawking their goods. I have several people try to sell me postcards, one a kite (Chinese style), some watches, t-shirts, and a hat. I ended up buying a 'Beijing 2008 Olympics' baseball cap, just so I can be sure I get some kind of Olympic paraphernalia.

On Saturday I got up early so that I could get down to Wangfujing (sort of the main commercial district of Beijing, a 'downtown,' or at least one downtown, because a city this big has plenty. The only comparisons are really other 'world capitals' like New York, Paris, Tokyo, and the like.) I was going down there to meet a photographer that I had been in contact with online for a little while through a modeling website, and we were planning to have a photo shoot. Unfortunately, his assistant ended up coming down to the lobby to tell me that he had to leave because his wife was having a baby. Whoa! I wasn't disappointing or anything, as it just gave me a few more hours to add to my mini-vacation that day. I stopped by the foreign language bookstore on Wangfujing and bought an English-language copy of 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' one of the four great Chinese novels, and I have been told the best. There is also a very famous McDonald's on Wangfujing, which used to be the largest in the world. I hadn't eaten at McDonald's in China, and I wanted a place to sit down and do some homework for a few hours anyway. I didn't know of any coffee shops around, so I headed in and ordered some kind of egg, muffin, cheese, and plastic concoction. GOD IT WAS HORRENDOUS! I am amazed that the place is so successful. Maybe it really is one of those 'gotta catch them young' kind of places, because I can't see how anyone would prefer that over a banana, a jian bing (a kind of egg-pancake which is common street food here, and is cheaper than a burger at McDonald's), or even just a PB&J sandwich. Regardless, the second floor of the McDonald's was pretty chill (granted, it was about 9am), and made a very good study environment. I end up writing a two page piece that I ended up using for an oral test, very successfully, I might add. After I got sick of homework, it was off to... well, wander around for a while. There was an aikido class a few stops to the east on the subway that I wanted to check out, but it wasn't until 2:30. I could have just gone back to the dorm for a few hours, but I wanted to spend a day out and about. Eventually I found oriental plaza (it was pretty controversial at the time of it's building, because it is basically a big upper-class mall, and as a basic 'worship capitalism' kind of building within sight of Tiananamen Square and other historically important locations, it was severely unliked by many locals). I wandered around there for a while, and grabbed some munchies at an AMAZING bakery that was on the lower level. I would gladly pay another 6 kuai for one of those cream and strawberry pastries. Mmmmm. Regardless, I got on the subway and eventually found the aikido place. Finding new places in hard with a sort of lack of good address, a lack of competence in the native language, and having never been to a place before. However, I got a change to talk to the teacher, take a class, and I even bought a gi (Japanese martial arts outfit) for cheaper than I had ever imagined, working out to about 20 U.S. dollars. Can't find 'em for less that 40 or 50 bucks in the states. I really liked the class. Since I had done a bit of aikido before, my lack of fluency in Chinese didn't hold me back too much. The format of aikido class (teacher demonstrates, then the students pair up to practice) helped too, since I could see exactly what was supposed to be done, then I had another person to help me do it. It is a ways away though. I timed myself on the trip back, with a 10 minute walk to the subway, a 25 minute subway ride, a 15 minute bus ride, and 5 minutes to get back to my dorm room, that makes almost an hour to get there or back. I like aikido a lot, and the calm atmosphere while learning various joint-locky things really appeals to me, as well as the total lack of arrogance and machismo that is common in many more modern martial arts school, but I don't want to spend over and hour and a half commuting there and back each time I want to go to class. Also, they only have three classes a week, Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday evening, which is a little strange, but the weekend classes are actually more convenient for me than weekday evening classes would be, especially considering the commute. Regardless, I want some more info about some places that are closer: one possible aikido school, two possible kung fu organizations, and a one man outfit. I don't want to rush my choice of training location. Observing all my options is my best way to find the best place.



Sunday, Jaime and I had a big day planned. While Jaime went to church on the east side of the city, I headed to 紫竹院 (bamboo park) to play 空竹 （Chinese yo yo/diabolo). The little old lady there, as well as her friends, other people playing with 空竹, were happy to see the foreigner return. I learned some more new tricks, including a really impressive one where I let go of one of the sticks and the diabolo and just released stick spin around to be caught while I continue to play. I can't pull it off cleanly nor consistently, but it is an awesome trick with a lot of potential. Anyway, after that I headed back to the dorm to drop of my diabolo and head out to Tiananmen. I met Jaime there, and we headed to our goal: the forbidden city! Commonly called gu gong (故宫, roughly "the palace museum"), this is where the emperors of China have lived for about the past 500 years. What an amazing place. Walking through here made me feel distinctly different from my friends who are studying in Germany, or Central and South America. I'm not just studying abroad in a different country, but in the capital of an ancient empire, and empire and civilization mighty and influential enough to consider themselves the center of the world, and have nobody call them out on it. It is an incredible feeling to go through these massive courtyards and think back to movies I've seen that have scenes there ("The Last Emperor", and "Curse of the Golden Lotus" specifically come to mind). I haven't got all the photos uploaded yet, but it's gonna be a work in progress for a while. Together, Jaime and I got about 200. There are a fair number of doubles, since we both took pictures of the scenery an architecture, but that still leaves a lot of 'em.

Photos at http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a4/evilgollum/China/

Datong Weekend

So CET organized a trip to Datong this weekend. We went to see the Hanging Temple (built into the side of a cliff, with elements of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism present), the Wooden Pagoda (a big... well, a big wooden pagoda), some grottoes with a lot of Buddhas in them, and a random town with some random other Buddhist temple. Pictures are up on my photobucket site, and damn! Some of these sights are just incredible. I got a new camera before we left for the weekend. Jamie helped me barter it down to 800 kuai (about $114) for the camera and a big memory card. A good buy, because, other than how fast it east up AA batteries, is is a great camera. Excellent quality pictures, good video, and even sound recording, which I will definitely use for interviewing for my ICRP and for other research projects. I also bartered on my own for the first time (successfully). I bought some jacket that I think will come in handy when the weather gets colder. Aside form all the touristy stuff we did, it was a five hour bus ride from Beijing, as well as a few hours each day to get between cities/temples, so I brought along my Gandhi book and my MP3 player. I am pleased to say that I have finished my Gandhi book, and I have gotten a start on my audio book of Henry David Thoreau's 'Walden'. I am also planning on reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms, once of the four great novels of Chinese history, but it is huge, so I think I may not get around to that immediately. While walking through the town, I took a bunch of pictures of the poorer, older China, that isn't shown off to foreigners like the Bird's Nest and the shiny parts of Beijing are. I'm hoping to get them printed up. I think they would make a nice series of photographs to hang above the fireplace someday.


I went back to the bamboo park this morning, the first is a while, and I bought a new diabolo. It is a lot nicer than the one I got in the states. The lady that sells them is also really good at diabolo. She taught me three or four new tricks in 20 minutes. I think I will definitely try to return there on the weekend mornings to learn more diabolo. I could become pretty good by the time I get back to the states. Still looking for a martial arts place, but getting closer. A friend found a place that does Aikido, BJJ, Jeet Kune Do, and some other stuff relatively close. I am excited to check it out, because Aikido and JKD are the things that I would most like to study. The Wushu teacher from Sports University still hasn't gotten a hold of us, which is too bad, 'cause I'd love to learn some crazy Shaolin Staff. I am still thinking about visiting Shaolin Temple during winter break. I finally got the wireless internet working on my laptop too. All I had to do was press 'function F3.' Wow. That was simple. But it enables me to go the the nicer internet cafe, the other being more of a gaming environment where I have to pay to use a computer, and this place being a cafe where I can get their wireless signal on my computer as long as I buy something off their menu. One fruit dish later, I was happily typing and uploading away. Speaking of which, my photos are all uploaded now, and I am getting a bit bored. 再见!

WangFuJing

So, I was originally just accompanying Jamie to an international bookstore on WangFuJing (王府井） Street, but we found another large bookstore first. In there, I got to looking at the classical Chinese literature section. I was already interested in reading Legend of the Condor Heroes (射雕英雄传), a famous martial arts novel writer by a Hong Kong guy in the 1950s, but now I am thinking about looking into seriously old school stuff, like The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (红楼梦), and Outlaws of the Marsh (also called Water Margin, 水浒全传). These are all super intense though, as in, they kind of put the Lord of the Rings trilogy (魔戒, in case you are interested)to shame for being too puny to count as classic literature. However, that was not our only stop. After this we kept walking down WangFuJing street, heading toward the International Bookstore. As we walked, the dark clouds in the distance grew closer, and people started to run. It felt like I was in a disaster movie, or maybe the Chinese version of Godzilla. But soon enough it started raining. Jamie and I sought shelter in a nearby grocery store, but as I should know by now, very little in China is what it seems. It was actually some kind of super shopping center, with different stores on each level, and sometimes two or three on the same level, integrated enough so that it looked like it was one store with different sections. I ended up looking at digital cameras there, but it was a bit expensive, so I told the lady that I wanted to look at other stores. Then she said I could have it for cheaper, and I was really confused, 'cause the price tag said 1,280 RMB, but she just said I could have it (and a memory card) for 1000 RMB. I didn't understand, and tried to clarify. Then Jamie put his arm over my shoulder and lifted the veil from my eyes. She was bartering to get me to buy it. She has already dropped the price that much, so she was willing to drop it more. In the end, I got the camera and a 2Gig memory card for 800 RMB. And I used by brand new debit card (in Chinese they call it a dragon card, 龙卡) to buy it. I had just cashed all my travelers checks and opened a bank account that afternoon. Jamie and I wandered around the store some more, and he eventually got to looking for an umbrella. The store workers were so surprised that we (meaning he, I had trouble even following the conversations) had such good Chinese, that we started chatting. Tired of being labeled a 美国人 (American), I told them that I was from France. We talked for about 15 or 20 minutes, and some guy from the other side of the store who was selling sodas even brought us two free cups of coke. Sweet!

By the time we got outside the rain had mostly stopped, and we found the international bookstore quickly. Jaime wanted to buy some English language children's books for a kid that he was tutoring, and I looking for bilingual versions of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but to no avail. I want something with English on one page, and Chines on the other, so that I can both read the novel, and improve my language (although, to be honest, I would probably mostly just read the English. But still...). As we left this bookstore, we walked around a corner, and saw the most wonderful thing: food. 30 or 40 stalls set up, with workers yelling the names of food in English and Chinese, shouting out prices... the WangFuJing night food market that I had been looking for. After walking the length and having many people shout out thickly accented "hello"s, and the names of various meats, Jaime and I shared some shark on a stick, I ate a snake, and he got some lamb's kidney. I was thinking about starfish and scorpion, but they were both a bit expensive. Still, I think it was a good first venture. I will have to go back there to try more wild food. They have squid, various testicles, goat penis, sea urchin, fried banana pudding, fruit with a sugary syrup over it... the list goes on. Some of these workers were really energetic! They would start to prepare the food before you even settled on a price, and some even grabbed an arm and pulled you close to shout their foods to you. Jaime played along with one guy, bartered a bit, and then bought some meat after agreeing on price of 5 kuai. I handed the guy s 10 kuai bill, then he started to try and sell us three for 10 kuai instead of one for five. We shouted back and forth, and when I finally got my 5 kuai of change back, he slapped my arm for being so stingy. He could never get away with that in the states. Somebody would sue his ass so fast! But a lot more stuff flies in China. This evening really showed me how much my listening needs to improve. I couldn't understand most of what people said to me, even though I could speak fine. Something that will just take time. My old camera was broken, and I didn't have batteries for my new one yet, so no pictures, but next time I go to WangFuJing I will definitely snap a couple shots.

Lao She Teahouse, Lama Temple, Paralympic Judo

We have a field trip to the Lao She teahouse today, a touristy little teahouse that has a sampling of various kinds of traditional Chinese entertainment, from 相声 (cross talk, a comic dialogue) to storytelling, a little sampling of 京剧 (Beijing opera) and some 杂技 (acrobatics). I am pretty excited, because I have been interested in acrobatics for a while, and this will be my first time seeing Chinese acrobatics in China. I told a teacher that I was interested in doing my ICRP (integrated cultural research project) and he was very excited, so I might even get a chance to speak with one of the performers, or get the name of a contact after the show tonight.

On Sunday some friends and I went to Worker's Stadium (Only the PRC would give it a name like that, eh?) to watch the paralympic judo finals. Imagine two blind people, who are both highly proficient in their martial art, going at it on the mat. Really exciting. When the Chinese competitors were up, my spine tingled from nearly the entire stadium shouting 加油 (literally means 'add oil to the fire', used as a cheer) in unison. That kind of power from the crowd was just amazing. It was also my first big sporting event, which was cool, and I can say that I have officially been to a (para)Olympic event now.

My classes still haven't been too exciting. The history and politics classes I took at Kalamazoo covered everything so far in much better detail. With the teacher lecturing with as little detail of the events as he is doing, I feel as though I know more, which is disappointment, because there should be a whole class offered here on these issues. But I think that we will soon be wrapping up the 'background info' part of the class and starting the 'contemporary social issues' part of the class, which should be cool. I've also found a few more martial arts places through some English language magazines here in Beijing (published mainly for expatriates, I assume), so I hope to check out some of those within the next week. A few of them look really convenient. Even though several are on the opposite side of town (a judo place is even right next to the German embassy!), they are right next to the subway, which is super nice. I know I've said it before, and I will say it again: I love the public transportation here in Beijing.

On Tuesday, one of my more open weekdays, Jamie (a friend, former suitemate, and future housemate) and I went to the Lama Temple yesterday. Lama Temple (雍和宮) is the biggest temple in Beijing, and it is the biggest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet. The buildings were beautiful, and there were dozens of amazing statues, many of which looked more Hindu that Buddhist. There were a lot of pictures that we weren't allowed to take, mostly inside the rooms that housed Buddha statues, but we got a few of the buildings' outsides. The culmination of the temple is a 26 meter (that's a little over 85 feet!) foot tall Buddha statue carves from one single sandalwood tree. It was about four stories tall, and was apparently in the Guinness Book of World Records. Aside from the incredible statues and architecture, one of the most interesting things about the temple/museum is how many people from the city came to offer prayers. Every time we passed a Buddha statue there were Chinese people, in t-shirts, monks robes, slutty looking skirts, punk rocker hoodies, and everything else, holding incense sticks in their hands and bowing the the Buddha. Regardless of whether they prayed for wisdom, good grades, a promotion at work, or to get lucky that night, the duality of the old and new was very interesting. These are people from all walks of life in the city of Beijing, coming to a 300+ year old Buddhist temple to say a prayer. Just another example to the interesting dichotomy between the new and the old that I see here.

I'll try and get some pictures up when I get back to a 网吧 (internet cafe/bar).

Life in Beijing

So, I've had a full week of Chinese classes, food, and speech. Chinese class is a bit intense, and we move really fast (too fast, I think). I also have a 21st Century Beijing class (lots of reading for that), and a Philosophical Texts of China class (so far just mystic Buddhist cosmology, pretty irrelevant to everything in life). I hope to learn more later in the class though.

I've been exploring bits of the city via foot, bus, and subway, and I am liking the place more than ever. After days of searching in vain, I FINALLY found a martial arts store (a tiny little shack next to a sports university) and I bought some staffs from them. After another hunt in pursuit of a saw with which to cut the staffs down to the size of escrima sticks, I finally have the tools I need to practice escrima here. But speaking of martial arts, I have had a world of disappointment so far. My college doesn't have a martial arts club, and there are apparently far fewer martial arts school in Beijing than in a western city of comparable size. I found an Aikido club (hopefully), but it hasn't started for the school year yet (it is at a nearby university), so I have yet to find out if it is good or not yet. I would love to find some good Chinese martial arts, but places to learn them are surprisingly few and far between. Having a limited mastery of the Chinese language is a bit of a set back, since I am unable to do much more than ask people where something is when I am looking for a place, and phone calls are mostly beyond my ability. I have a Chinese cell phone though, which is convenient. I've also bought a handy little mandarin phrasebook, which is, so far, being more usefull to me than the vocab I learn in class. I can feel my Chinese getting better though. I am able to communicate a little more every week.

We went to the great wall yesterday. It is big. It is really big. You can't actually see it from space (the Chinese tried when they sent their first mission up a few years ago), but it is still really fucking big. My legs were tired afterward. It was fun though. I actually climbed it. Usually when people say they climbed the great wall, they mean the walked up the stairs. Not me. I mean that I literally rock climbed up the side of the great wall. If I was a mongol, China would be in trouble. ;) I also found a guard tower only accessible through such climbing, and got a great view of the surrounding area. By the time we had to leave, everyone was really exhausted. Fortunately some clever and business-minded individual decided to open a 'toboggan down the great wall' business. Wow. Aside from the fact that it is effectively a carnival-esque ride ten feet from one of the major symbols of China as a great nation, that was one sweet ride. Imagine sledding... down a mountain that was big enough to keep out invading armies for centuries. Whoa, right?

I haven't been able to go to the parks every morning like I did for the first few days, but I have gone every now and then. I found a group of old people who practice the Chinese yo-yo, and told me that they could show me where to buy them. I am excited, because they are way cheaper here than they are in the US. In fact, everything is cheaper. A very good meal can be had for about $5 to $10. I also found a juggling group online which I haven't gotten a chance to check out yet, and an environmental artsy group in Beijing (Greening the Beige). That could very well turn into an internship or a research project which I need to do for class/ICRP (Integrated Cultural Research Project).

I finally got to an internet cafe too. So I am uploading a bunch of photos right now. It is kind of slow, but WAY faster than the internet connection I have at the dorm. In the dorm I can't upload pictures at all.

I've been to see Tiananmen and the Great Wall. I haven't been inside the forbidden city for WangFuJin Street (commercial district) yet, but I will. Some friends and I are actually going to see the paralympic judo competition tonight. Blind judo. That is gonna be awesome. Another benefit of the exchange rate: the ticket cost about $8. SWEET!

It is amazing what a modern city Beijing is. The subway system and the bus system are very advanced. The Olympics were incredible, and the state's image is enormous. But it is characterized by duality. The elderly, the poor, the floating population (workers from outside of Beijing who live here but don't have any legal residence) all suffer from the things that Beijing's leaders, educated, yuppies, and youth benefit from. I was walking to check out a martial arts class a few days ago and I saw a dirty, poor, (probably floating population) woman breast feeding her baby. She was just sitting on the side walk with the little thing held close to her, with a hundred young, well dressed college students walking by. I guess some things might be the same everywhere in the world.

Photos:
http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a4/evilgollum/China/
My Photobucket albums used to have a password, but I edited them so that it should be public now. These will be continually updated. As the uploading takes time, I can't get everything uploaded that I want to in one sitting, but keep checking back every now and then.