Guns, Germs, and Steel

Silk Market

Today is the first day of the National Holiday week here in China that continues through next Sunday. The National Holiday, which is officially on October 1st, celebrates the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949 by Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party after their victorious civil WAR with Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang Party. I’m not sure what to expect this week besides a ubiquitous amount of Chinese flags and a deluge of visitors from all around China coming to Tiananmen Square to celebrate. Should be interesting.

The weather turned cold mid-week and people have begun bundling up in the mornings, buying new winter coats, and drinking a lot more hot coffee. Classes have also started thinning out as one friend told me she only had 5 people in her class one day. I was able to get some real-world application for classroom studies on Saturday when some classmates and I went to the Silk Market, a “fake goods” area of town that is a regular stop for tourists making the rounds in downtown Beijing. The thin façade of legitimacy as you walk inside (no visible DIRT, clean floors and orderly stalls) quickly vanishes when the first clerk accosts you with shouts of “lookee, lookee, you want buy shoes for you girlfriend?” and grabs you by the arm to drag you into their bathroom-sized stall. Nevertheless haggling with them over prices on items I had no intention of buying allowed to me to practice my Chinese more than at any point in the trip. I learned words for lots of new things like “belt”, “scarf”, “I’m getting angry”, and “don’t come back!” It was surprising to learn how many languages in which they could bargain as my friends knew Spanish and Italian and said the Chinese store clerks almost spoke it fluently.

We had taken a taxi to get to the market but the traffic was really bad so we decided to try the subway on the way back. It was very easy on which to get around and it only cost 2 kuai, or about 30 US cents. The traffic can be quite harrowing at times because there are so many pedestrians, bikers, cars, motorcyclists (which are really more like mopeds), and other miscellaneous vehicles like this motorized bicycle with a large METAL covering that surrounds the driver. I’ve heard that these have been outlawed but they still prowl the streets and even serve as taxis for short distances. One night on my way back to the dormitory a woman on a bicycle collided head on with one and the impact was strong enough to knock her backwards. She wasn’t injured but was very upset and a guy she was with on another bicycle came back and began to argue with the other driver. I’ve heard differing accounts on how often this sort of thing happens; some people say it is quite safe and rarely occurs while others say it happens all the time, it’s just not talked about.

A Day in the Life

Dorm Room
It’s a Saturday afternoon and I’m preparing to go play tennis with my roommate around 7 pm. We haven’t been able to play much because the courts are always crowded plus you have to pay to play on them, a couple of dollars per hour. This week has consisted mostly of waking up around 7 am in order to be at school at 8. We have comprehensive class for the first two hours where we practice speaking, writing and listening, then a 20 minute break from 950 to 1010. The next two hours is either speaking class or listening class. I have two female teachers and one male teacher. All three seem to be diligent in their preparation and serious about teaching class. The ages of the students in my class ranges from a woman who looks to be in her late 30s to early 40s with two kids to several recent high school graduates, one of which I believe is 17.

After class most people go out to eat for lunch. Recently I went to a small fruit market that had a tiny café in the back with four tables and four chairs at each table. After waiting about 10 minutes for one of the tables to open, we sat down and ordered dumplings, or 饺子 (jiaozi). They’re a fairly authentic Chinese dish and they’re usually stuffed with meat or vegetables. I think some of ours had lamb and then some had vegetables. A small bowl is used to put spices and some kind of sauce (vinegar or soy sauce) in which you dump the dumplings. It all tasted really good and I think I ended up paying less than 2 US dollars for the whole meal. We’ve since been back several times.

I’ve been able to interact with the Chinese (besides my teachers) fairly often but not as much as I’d like, but it’s obviously very difficult at this point. In addition to waiters and waitresses, I was able to speak with a woman from the dormitory who came to inspect our room the other day. She was checking to make sure we had everything in our room that the list said we should have and we alternated between saying the items in Chinese and English, then answering in the affirmative (“yo”, “yo”, 有，有, or “we have”, “we have”) or the negative (“mei yo”, 没有，”we don’t have”). I noticed that she had brought a pen and let my roommate borrow it, then picked up my pen to sign the document. I was afraid she had mistaken my pen to be hers so I told her (in Chinese) that that was my pen! She thought this was very funny and said she just wanted to borrow it, to which I agreed, then told me that I was very strange.

Extra MSG

What would a trip to a foreign country be without a food-related incident? I'm sure there will be plenty while I'm here, but I had my first one today while eating at a restaurant down the street from my hotel. Choosing from a picture menu is helpful but it didn't preclude my picking a dish I wasn't quite sure how to eat. I chose a braised pork and green bean soup dish with a side of rice but I didn't realize the chopped up pork meat would still be attached to the bone. After putting the first piece of pork in my mouth I realized my mistake but found no quick remedy except for spitting the bone out and placing it beside the bowl. It has seemed to me so far that the Chinese eating etiquette is limited compared to ours, with the slurping and placing two arms on the table, so I thought I'd be okay. There were no Western utensils to cut the meat off with and my chopstick experience is sparse so I kept going with my meal. Later the waitress offered me another plate on which to place my bone scraps along with a curious smile. The adventure only cost me $3.65 and a little piece of my dignity.

After an all-day rain yesterday I've seen the blue Beijing sky for the first time today. I also had my first class today after taking a placement test on Monday. They grade the classes as A, B, C, D with three levels in each grade and "A" being beginner. I got into the first level of "B" along with my roommate, Jose. Jose and I both went to Embry-Riddle and we had met a couple of times at school but had never gotten to know each other very well. We went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch yesterday, a Korean restaurant last night, and then an Islamic restaurant on campus today. The district of Beijing that we're in, Haidian, is very diverse because of all the universities around. My class this morning was from 8 am to noon and it seemed very intense but I think I'll learn a lot.

Islamic restaurant on campus

Rough Landing

Bags are packed.

My first meal in China was at KFC.

My plane arrived in Beijing with a thud. The passengers let out a collective gasp and then began nervously laughing. Luckily that was the only part of my day of traveling that didn't go smoothly. I made it to my hotel with all my bags and quicker than scheduled.

There is definitely a noticeable haze in Beijing but I couldn't tell from just breathing when walking around; running may be different, although everybody was riding around on bicycles and I did notice one person jogging yesterday. When riding from the airport to my hotel in the taxi yesterday I realized how sprawling Beijing is. It's hard to tell where the main part of the city begins as large buildings sprout in clusters in several different locations. The architecture of these buildings was fairly monotonous with the same drab, austere layout that resembles a military barrack only taller. I haven't been able to see any of the new buildings yet. The weather was pretty hot and muggy and we had a short shower later in the day.


All the people I've met have been very friendly, especially one Chinese lady on the airplane who spoke fluent English that helped me with getting a taxi. The hotel, which cost 50 something dollars a night, had a friendly staff with a bell boy that carried my bags to my room. I got to walk around campus and spoke to some people who reserved my dorm room for the semester. All in all a good start to my trip but very tiring. I fell asleep at about 730 last night and didn't get up until 730 this morning. Classes won't start until Monday so I'll just be getting acclimated over the weekend. I think people can comment on this blog (not sure how it works) but I hope you all will comment or email me to keep in touch. My schedule isn't set yet as far as classes so I don't know how long I'll be able to keep this blog going but we'll see.