First Week Back in Beijing

Lots of things have made me feel unintelligent living in Beijing. Embarrassing miscommunications, paying the wrong amount, and so on. I think today tops everything.

As I've written about before, I have host family here. They have been incredibly generous in making sure we get to see as much of Beijing as possible. So today I decided to give them a little present. Because I didn't realize how useful it might have been to bring gifts from New York, I decided the most meaningful gift I could give was a cd of a few of my recordings of me playing piano. I had the cd in my bag, all ready, very excited. At one point, our host father dropped us off at the subway station to go park his car. When he realized he couldn't find a spot, he pulled back up in front of us and told us to get back in. As I quickly sat back down, I heard a loud "crrrckkk." Two half cd's is probably one of the most useless gifts in the world. After an explanation and an apology, I told him I would make the cd again for next time. Oops.

Anyway, other than me being a klutz, the day was very interesting. Though I am still not exactly sure what my host father's job is (the Chinese is too technical), it is something related to subway development. He told us he was going to take us to his office building. We weren't exactly sure why. Once we entered, everything suddenly became top secret. His son wasn't allowed to enter (too young). Swine flu screening. Metal detector. No pictures (so no pictures...). Then we suddenly found ourselves in Beijing's Subway System Control Center. You know in space movies, where something goes wrong, and they have to communicate with the control center? The room looked something like that. Hundreds of massive tv screens. Tons of computers. a screen showing where all of Beijing's subways were at all times. Pretty neat.

Afterwards, we went to the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall, a museum focusing on both the history and current development taking place in Beijing. The most amazing part of the museum was a giant 3D model of all of Beijing. Here it is:

More pictures of the museum in the album.

The first half of the pictures in the album are from Saturday's trip to Longqing Xia, considered one of Beijing's most beautiful sites. The main attraction there was bungee jumping. After convincing myself that I was going to jump... I decided just to watch. Some pretty neat pictures and videos in the album though.

Meanwhile, the work continues to build up. Our schedule has changed slightly. Rather than have two small drill classes in the morning, we have one long one, followed by a short "debate" class - two students one teacher. In the afternoon, we are now expected to prepare a five minute summary of a news story every day. Speaking Chinese is difficult enough on its own. Similarly, discussing Obama's health care policy, or China's Tibet and Taiwan problems, or the U.S.'s role in world affairs, in ENGLISH isn't easy. Combining the two... not fun.

But somewhat exciting. Before coming here I could hardly complete a full sentence. Now I can kind of debate current events. "Kind of" meaning I probably sound like a third grader doing it. I guess that's not too bad.

Unbelievably, there are only three more weeks. Still, lots to go - including a badminton match with my host father and some of his friends scheduled for sometime next week. And two more regular tests and a final. Nothing else new for now. Here's this week's photo album (HBA Week 6):

http://picasaweb.google.com/LouisGilbert15

内蒙古 (Inner Mongolia)

I just sat at my computer for about 10 minutes thinking about how to start describing the past week. Nothing - until I realized our trip to Inner Mongolia could best be summarized with a picture:

Day 2 of our trip. Out in the Inner Mongolian grasslands at some sort of retreat. Living in 蒙古包 (Mongolian tents - seen in the background of the picture). After dinner, one of our teachers decided to teach us a Chinese game that turned out to be fairly similar duck duck goose. The minute we started playing, nearly all of the other guests (locals) hurried over to watch. Curious. What the hell were 20 外国人 (waiguoren - foreigners) doing sitting in a circle, running around each other? What the hell were we doing here in the first place?

Growing up in New York, it would be an oddity to see a mass of people all of the same ethnicity. In Beijing, it is normal. It is odd to see foreigners. Nevertheless, our program is at a University which specializes in teaching Chinese, so there are many foreigners on campus and in the surrounding neighborhood. Throughout my week in Inner Mongolia, I saw 7 (exactly) foreigners. I remember each one, and I remember where and when I saw them. Everywhere we went, we were an attraction. Several times people would almost jump back when they saw us. A lot of the time they would say "hello" with a big grin on their face - only to be shocked when we answered 你好 (ni hao) and occassionally started conversations in Chinese. In a store, a child saw three of us and started cracking up. A factory worker I interviewed said it was the first time he had ever had a conversation with a foreigner. So while we still get the occasional 外国人！in Beijing (today at KFC actually), it almost feels like home to be back.

Now for the trip. Last Friday afternoon, we took an 11 hour train to Huhhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia. I think the following picture gives a good idea of what the train ride was like:

Small room. 6 beds. Often other people hanging out in our room (like our teacher Guan Laoshi). Crowded, claustrophobic, not that comfortable, but still fun.

11 hours later we arrived in Huhhot, got on a bus, and drove out to Siziwangqi grassland. I have tons of pictures which I'll post a link to at the end. Once there, we broke up into groups of 5 students and 2 teachers and went out to interview local shepherd families. For those of you who don't know, the purpose of the trip was a "social investigation," or to better understand life in Inner Mongolia. At the end of the week, each student had to write a 1200 character report on his or her discoveries (something I just finished).

Later that night, we watched and then participated in a Mongolian Wrestling match. Mongolia (and Inner Mongolia - which is a province in China) has three national sports: wrestling, horseracing, and archery. Wrestling is simple: first one to the ground loses. Here's me about to get crushed:

Next day, Sunday, was similar. Drive to different grassland (site of the first picture), horseriding there, "traditional" Mongolian party at night (not really traditional, very touristy). Monday was more interviews, then drive to Dongsheng city where we checked into a hotel. First shower in three days. A real bed. Internet. Breakfast that didn't involve unfamilar animal parts. Living in the grasslands was a unique experience, but it was nice to be back in a city. The album Inner Mongolia Days 3 and 4 are pictures of Dongsheng, Inner Mongolia's wealthiest city.

Tuesday morning we drove to Erdos Cashmere factory, one of the largest cashmere companies in the world. After touring the factories exhibition center, we got to see parts of the factory itself and talk to the workers. Lots of neat pictures. Later in the day, we visited Genghis Khan's (renovated) tomb. Pretty interesting except for the fact that I had no idea what our tour guide was saying the entire time. After the tour, we got to interview some of the guards of the tomb. Amazingly, the guards are direct decendents of Genghis Khan's closest cirlce of advisors. Not that most of Inner Mongolia isn't somehow related to Genghis Khan (supposedly 8% of Asia), but his advisors passed on the job of guarding the tomb from generation to generation - all the way to the 21 year old man we interviewed. If you ever think work is difficult, think of this: he works from 7:00 in the morning to 5:30 in the evening 365 days a year. He expected to work until he is 50. That is 10585 days, or 111,142.5 hours left to go. Luckily, he says he likes his job and feels his work is important.

Day 5 started with a visit to the desert. What we thought was going to be a "cultural experience" turned out to be kind of like Disneyland in the desert. Rides, food, and an overpriced gift shop. Fun, but very touristy and expensive. Night, bus back to Huhhot.

Day 6 began with a visit to Mengniu Dairy factory, the largest dairy factory in China. I forgot my camera battery, so unfortunately no pictures. At night we took a trip to Ruyi square to visit a giant "music fountain" (really just a fountain with music playing outdoors). It's becoming incredibly slow to upload pictures into my blog, but there are many of Huhhot (a really, really cool city - especially at night) and the fountain.

Day 7 included a visit to a local high school (which involved me, alone, having to talk to 4 high school girls completely in Chinese for 45 minutes - one of the most intimidating experiences of my life) followed by a visit to 内蒙古大学 (Inner Mongolia University). There my friend Dominic and I got paired with two college girls who showed us around the school, took us to lunch, and, of course, took us to a bubble tea store (we're addicted, and milk tea is one of Inner Mongolia's specialties). 10 hours after meeting the college students (I am still not sure why they decided to leave 10 hours with nothing planned - we met up with some of our teachers, went to an arcade, went to McDonald's, went to dinner, went back to the bubble tea store for seconds, and somehow managed to fill the day) we got on the bus back to the train station. After another claustrophobic 11 hours, we were back in Beijing.

This past week was one of the most interesting weeks of my life. For the past 18 years, I would have never guessed I would ever set foot in Inner Mongolia. I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't really realize how developed an area it is. Giant cities. If move to the U.S. Huhhot would be our 10th largest city by population. And it is growing quickly. GDP growth averaged about 20% from 2003 to 2007. Massive factories. Beautiful buildings. Yet only a bus ride away life carries on in the grasslands as it has for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

It's Sunday evening. I haven't started my homework for tomorrow, when classes start up again. A familiar feeling.

Here are (lots of) photos from the trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/LouisGilbert15

Off To Inner Mongolia

One semester down, one to go. After a total of about twelve hours of sleep in the past three days (not too bad), the first semester of HBA is finally over. Four of the longest weeks of my life. On top of preparing for today's midterm and memorizing lines for a group skit, I've been busy packing for Inner Mongolia. We leave in less than two hours, get on the train at around 6:30, and eleven hours later arrive in Huhhot, only to begin a three-hour bus ride to Siziwangqi grassland, where we will spend the first two days.

Everyone's excited. Everyone's ready for a break from classes. Everyone just loaded up on food in case lamb intestines don't work out. I'm not sure when I'll next have internet access, so I don't know when I'll be able to write again. No new pictures yet, but many coming soon.

Week 3 - Shisanling, 4th of July, Gugong, and Beihai Gongyuan

So we've finished what the director of the program told us was the hardest week. I don't buy it. On top of a midterm next week covering well over a thousand new vocabulary words, we have to begin outlining our social study reports and the questions we plan to ask for the interviews we will be conducting. Week 5 is what HBA calls the "Social Study Week." Every student chooses one of several trips and spends a week somewhere interviewing locals and writing about their experiences. So next Friday night, I'll be on an 11-hour train ride to Inner Mongolia for what should be an exciting break from classes. I had initially planned on going to Shanghai, but in the end I decided that if I am ever back in this country, travelling to Shanghai would be far easier than going to Inner Mongolia. Who knows. Our first breakfast there is lamb intestine. I think I'm in for a fun week.

Anyway, this past week was busy enough. On Monday, we had our first guest speaker, Gregory Gilligan, Head of Government Relations for McDonald's in China. He is an old friend of the director of HBA. Coontinuing something I mentioned last week, I thought one of his comments about conducting business in China was very interesting. A student asked him what the major differences were between business in America and business in China. He said in America, people generally start business relationships with a full level of trust. Only once someone else does something to break that trust does the relationship begin to deteriorate. In China, on the other hand, business partners begin with absolutely no trust in each other. They have to work their way up from the bottom. To me, this made sense. Down to the most basic street haggling transactions, it seems like most people here assume others are trying to rip them off. I don't get that feeling back home.

A busy week was followed by an even busier weekend. We boarded a bus at 8:00 Saturday morning to head to Shisanling (literally 13 tombs), the burial site of 13 of the Ming Dynasty emperors. Though not as fun as the Great Wall, the pictures I'm posting hopefully paint a picture of how impressive the site was. Shisanling is massive. We needed a bus to travel from tomb to tomb.

When we returned, we realized it was July 4th (none of our teachers were excited). We decided we needed a break from Chinese food and were going to try to find an American restaurant for dinner. We ended up at TGIFriday's. Can't really get more American than that.

After dinner, a bunch of students had the idea to go to a Karaoke bar. Karaoke is wildly popular here. You rent a private room, choose a bunch of songs, and compete against one other person. Only the scores never made any sense. No one cared. Probably the best song of the night was some song from SNL about putting something in a box. As many of you would expect, I didn't sing at all. I hate singing.

Sunday morning, my host father volunteered to take us to Gugong, the Forbidden City, where the Ming and Qing Dynasty Emperors lived. We met him at 9:30 and spent the day walking through Gugong and Beihai Gongyuan, a beautiful park nearby. After a late lunch (in which I felt obligated to try the strangest looking food I've ever eaten and am glad I still don't know what it was), we got back at 3:30, exhausted from hours of walking in humid weather approaching 100 degrees. Also mentally exhausted from six hours of trying to piece together our host father's rapid Chinese. Not much is more awkward then listening to a whole lot of Chinese, then trying to figure out whether you are supposed to laugh, act surprised, answer a question, or just agree. Most of the time we just said, "O, dui" - a polite way of agreeing. To be fair, I'm exaggerating a little. We are able to communicate and carry out conversations with him. It's just very challenging.

Once again, it's Sunday night and I have lots of homework to do. Nevertheless, Andy Roddick vs. Roger Federer will be on my tv in the background. Can't miss it. Plus, it's in Chinese, so it's good listening practice anyway. Until next post, check out my new pictures (HBA Week 3):

http://picasaweb.google.com/LouisGilbert15