Hong Kong

This picture was taken from my youth hostel by this gentleman.


I'm currently in Hong Kong renewing my visa so that I can go back to the Motherland. This place is unlike any city I've ever seen. Certain areas of HK are so DENSE with people and buildings that it makes Beijing seem like suburbia.

I'm going to write a lengthy post to reflect on everything after I leave. For now, I will leave you with some pictures that I harvested off of Flickr. Unfortunately, I don't have a camera of my own. Follow the links.

Lots and lots of signs.

Lots and lots and lots of buildings.

More to come.

Old-School

Last week I did something I've been meaning to do for a while--I got myself some slick new wheels. The bicycle is older than I am, so it only cost me 80RMB (or $11.70). The previous owner was an elderly Chinese man who lives on the opposite side of town. His younger neighbor helped him put up a classified add on a popular Beijing expat website and I was happy to take it off his hands.


picture from this website


The bike is classic Beijing style, and looks similar to the one in the above picture, minus the basket in the front. The frame on mine also looks thicker and more worn. I really wanted to get an old bike though. It just seems so authentic. Also, an old bike is much less likely to be stolen (as Uncle Eric is always reminds me).

I picked up the bike on the south-east side and I live on the north-west side. I took the subway to get there, but taking the subway back was not an option since I couldn't bring the bike on with me. Equipped with only a single gear, I trekked across the city for nearly two hours before I got home. It was a really nice ride though. This city is as flat as a chessboard, and has bike lanes everywhere. Nightfall came before I reached T-Square and the Forbidden City, so it was beautifully lit up as I pedaled past. Beijing really is an interesting place to live.

Three Paragraphs

The only Olympic events that you can watch without tickets are the cycling races. After church today I went with a few friends to stand by the road and watch the cyclists. They all passed in a matter of seconds, but I can officially say that I've attended an Olympic event. Cool.

I went to a very charismatic international church on Saturday night. The people were really nice and genuine. However, I was a little weirded out when the lady behind me kept blowing a conch shell during worship songs. Good times.

USA vs. China in basketball tonight. I'm gonna get together with some friends to watch the game on TV. I'm hoping for a close game instead of a complete smackdown.

Let the Madness Begin

KABLOOSH!

Click HERE to see some more pictures of the opening ceremony.

I went with Eric to watch the opening ceremony at University of Science & Technology Beijing a couple days ago. The city has set up a bunch of "Olympic Cultural Squares", which are basically outdoor areas outfitted with huge screens so that crowds can gather to watch live Olympic footage.

The field was full of people reclining on the grass, all watching a spectacular--but long--opening ceremony. It was cool to know that all the events we saw on the screen were happening just a couple miles away. We experienced the flash and the thunderous boom of the fireworks from Beijing National Stadium (aka Bird's Nest) as we watched the festivities.

When the athletes from each country were introduced, I took note of what teams received applause from the audience around me--besides team China and Hu Jintao of course.

They were Russia, Iraq, USA, Canada, North Korea, Pakistan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. An interesting combination. Japan was the only country that received some boos, which was disappointing but not surprising. The 'average Zhou' (linguistic pun alert!) in China doesn't have the nicest sentiments for the Japanese, but I think it's getting better.

Also, George Bush, Russian PM Vladimir Putin, and Kobe Bryant received quite a bit of applause. Chinese youth have an unhealthy obsession with Kobe Bryant.

Living in Beijing

Landscape:
-Plenty of nice parks and public places. I can sit on a park bench older than my country.
-Lot's of coffee shops, tea houses, bars, and other places to study and chill.
-I like the subway system.
-The worst air pollution I've seen in any Chinese city. Supposedly getting better.

People:
-Hundreds of thousands of university students live in Haidian District, where I live. Qinghua University and Beijing University--the Harvard and Yale of China--are a few minutes walk from my university.
-All of these students can speak English (at varying skill levels, of course). There are many foreigners in China who speak little or no Chinese and have lived here for years.
-Beijingers have a reputation for talking about politics. This makes for some really interesting conversations.

Economic:
-DVDs for $0.50-$3.00
-hipster shoes, jeans, or tailor made pants for $10.00
-subway ticket to anywhere in the city for $0.30
-Really fantastic food. Ranging anywhere from $1-$20 per meal.
-No need to own a car. No need to pay for gas, insurance, and maintenance.
-In my opinion, China is a great place to make money doing creative or artistic jobs. ie: writing, making music, art & design, being the token white guy in a Chinese TV commercial or soap opera.
-Of course, work as an English teacher or tutor is widely available. The pay is quite good, even by American standards.

Other stuff:
-A jammin' music and arts scene.
-An absolutely fascinating political environment.
-Weird TV shows and news broadcasts, courtesy of the CCP.
-Suprisingly thriving churches.
-Much more.


I really enjoy living in Beijing. However, I know that my experience would be much drastically different if I was a working class Beijinger. My paycheck would be lower, I'd work longer hours, probably have to commute several hours a day to work, etc, etc, etc. For a young white male, life in China is extremely laidback and worry free. There is never a shortage of people wanting to be your friend (girlfriend). There are constant temptations to waste time, waste money, and think of yourself as the center of the universe.

But these temptations are not unique to my current living situation, they follow me around the globe. So how do I avoid living a wasted life? It starts with a force that many find irrelevant, imaginary, or plain insulting. The Grace of God. May I not take it for granted.

Anyway, the Olympics start tomorrow. Watch the opening ceremony, it will surely be amazing. There will be plenty of interesting news stories on Beijing in the coming days. Also, today I was sitting in a cafe next to members of the US Swim Team. Cool!

Basketball Camp

Studying at Beijing Language & Culture University (BLCU) kinda feels like a summer camp. Each day has its structered list of activities including learning, recreation time, and eating cafeteria food. You also hang out with a bunch of people that you don't know very well.

I have Chinese class for 4 hours in the morning, eat lunch, teach English for 2 hours, and then come back to campus to play basketball until dinner. The time after dinner is reserved for doing homework and vegging out. Rinse and repeat, Monday through Friday.

One thing that has surprised me is how much I've been playing basketball. It seems to be the default activity around campus. Even some of the younger Chinese teachers come out and play. We've had some intense games too. A couple days ago I injured my eye when going for a rebound. I got a small cut and a black eye, but it's not too bad. My glasses pretty much cover up the bruise.

Today I was playing some 4-on-4 for several hours. Among the 8 people on the court, I counted 7 nationalities! Guys from Turkey, Nigeria, Vietnam, France, USA, Argentina, and China. Speaking of international sporting events, the Olympics start in 9 days. The anticipation is building...

Skadoosh!

Somehow blogging isn't as fun when you've lost your digital camera and your computer is broken, but I'll try to keep updating every once in a while.

I'm definitely moving out of the hobo-living-out-of-a-backpack phase of my trip. This week marks the start of school and work for me. I'll be studying Chinese Monday through Friday at Beijing Language and Culture University from 8am to Noon.

I also got a job teaching conversational English from 1.30pm to 3.30pm Monday through Friday. I've only worked for 3 days, but I think I'm gonna like this job. Basically, I hang out with 4 Korean kids, asking them questions and telling them stories (in English, of course) for 2 hours a day. The language school is on the 9th floor of a building that is a short walk from my university dormitory. There is a sizable Korean community in my neighborhood, and this language school is run by Koreans, hence the reason all my students are Korean. The kids are all between 12 and 15-- not the easiest age to work with-- but none of them are punks and their attention span is about as long as mine.

After teaching, I am free to hang out in cafes and internet bars, do my Chinese homework, and feed my Wikipedia, YouTube, and blog reading addictions. I've also been playing some basketball on campus. I feel so tall in this country.

On Sundays, I attend Haidian Church which has the best English-preaching I've ever heard in this country. I've heard some pretty wacky sermons at other state-controlled churches, but the pastor here is the real deal. He is an excellent preacher, speaks perfect English, and is not afraid to use the words "sinner" and "Jesus" at least 2 dozen times in every sermon. It seems churches are getting more and more freedom these days, at least in Beijing, praise God. I'm looking for ways to get more involved at this church.

So, I guess this is my life right now, and I must say I'm really liking it. I'm surprised that the romance of living abroad hasn't started to wear off yet, but I'm expecting it will start after a few weeks of school and work. Anyway, the Olympics will come soon, which is going to be crazy. I'll definitely have some related-posts. I'm interested to see how the Olympic coverage on TV will portray this fascinating city. More later. Peace.

Sensory Overload

Knowing exactly what to write about is difficult at times. I get a certain adrenaline boost from traveling that makes me go into super-analytical mode. Probably because I'm constantly being exposed to things that I haven't given much thought to before. My journal is filled with thoughts and outlines about theology, philosophy, Chinese language, politics, places to travel, poetry, sketches, crazy stories I've heard, profiles of people that I've met, etc, etc, etc. The last two months have been very intellectually stimulating. Perhaps more than any other time in my life.

Anyway, tonight I will leave the laid-back atmosphere of southern China and return to Beijing. A 40-hour train ride. It will be good to settle in and focus on studying Chinese for a little while.

Deep South

I've left Chengdu and just arrived in Kunming. Unfortunately, before I left Chengdu I lost my camera. I either got pick-pocketed, or my camera fell out of my pocket while I was in the taxi. Or I was pick-pocketed by the taxi driver, haha. Anyway, the Chengdu tourism office called all the taxi companies for me, but said they had no luck. I'm pretty sure it's gone forever. That's life I guess. Unfortunately, this means that all the pictures I took for the last 1-2 weeks are gone. I wish I still had the pictures from the village in the Sichuan earthquake zone.

Anyway, the train from Chengdu to Kunming had some AMAZING views. I love taking the sleeper trains. Besides cheap transportation, you get a place to stay for the night and some incredible views of the countryside, small villages, mountains, farms, etc. You also get to hang out with some interesting people. An African man and his Chinese wife sat close to me with their three bi-racial children. They had immigrated to America, but were currently travelling in China with their kids. The three kids spoke a mix of American English and Mandarin. The entire train was staring at their family in disbelief for the first hour or so. I met this other guy who was returning home from college for the summer. We started talking and found out that both of us play guitar. He had a guitar stowed under his bunk on the train so we jammed in between the train cars for a while. We sang “Hotel California” in the middle of the night while everyone else slept. He was a really good guitar player considering he'd only been playing for a year.

I arrived in Kunming today and was surprised by moderate flooding throughout the city. I had a little trouble getting to my youth hostel. Some of the bus routes were altered due to the water on the streets. I finally found a good bus that took me to the hostel. The water was knee to waste high on one street, and the bus driver just plowed through it for a couple blocks. It was awesome. Everyone on the bus was laughing or taking pictures. This afternoon I walked around downtown and visited a couple mosques. Kunming has a sizable Muslim population. One mosque had a really inexpensive restaurant at the bottom. I completely stuffed myself for 5 RMB (less than a dollar)! It is interesting to see so many Chinese Muslims.

Sichuan

I left Beijing several days ago to come to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. In a couple days I will head to Kunming, which is a little further south.

Chengdu has an incredible vibe that I really enjoy. The food is delicious, and the culture is really laid-back. Buying street food at 2am, even on a weekday, is no problem since people stay up so late. Also, everything is much cheaper than in Beijing.

I've been really impressed with some of the expats here. Freelance musicians, magazine creators/editors, and others who have started small non-profits. All of these people are in their mid-twenties--not much older than me. It takes creativity and courage to invent a job for yourself in an unfamiliar country.

I went to a small, earthquake-stricken village about two hours outside of Chengdu today. I met some people who had been going there every Sunday for the last 5 weeks to play with the kids. There were about 20 foreigners in the group this week.

Many of the homes in the village had been completely destroyed by the earthquake, so lots of people stayed in tents next to the rubble. A depressing scene. Nonetheless, hanging out with the kids for a few hours was a lot of fun. Being able to speak some basic Mandarin also made my experience much more enjoyable. I'll eventually put up a couple pictures.

I think Chengdu ties Beijing as my favorite city in China. ASU has an exchange program with Sichuan University (located in Chengdu), which I'm definitely considering for the future. This city would be a great place to live.

Many more stories, but I lack the time and discipline to write them out. Perhaps I'll get in the mood once I stop travelling and settle in Beijing.

Alive and Kicking

So what have I been doing lately?

After finishing my teaching gig at Nanjing Medical University, I spent a little more than a week traveling to some big cities in Eastern China. These included Suzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai. I stayed in a youth hostel for one night, and the rest of the time I stayed in people's homes using the website Couchsurfing.com. This was an incredibly positive experience for me.

-Met some awesome people from all over the world. Musicians, intellectuals, world-travelers, country folks, common people, socialists, missionaries, artists, etc.
-Heard some unbelievable stories involving trans-continental hitchhiking, underground churches, the Chinese mafia, etc, etc, etc.
-Spent hours discussing Chinese politics, society and language. This country holds a very complex political and sociological environment.
-Ate some great (and not-so-great) food.
-Improved my Mandarin by wandering through old neighborhoods and talking to the residents.
-My iPod has been invaluable to me. I listen to lots of music, podcasts, and sermons as I travel by foot, bus and subway.

I am currently in Beijing taking care of some administrative details involving my school, which starts July 21st. In a few days, I will go to the deep (and not-so-deep) South to do some hiking, biking and exploring. The SD-card slot on my computer seems to be broken, so I have only been able to upload a few pictures and no videos. I am trying to remedy this somehow.

Olympic Torch Relay

Here is a video from when I saw the Olympic torch.

The Olympics are a major force in advertising in and out of Beijing and many Chinese people are kind of obsessed. I saw a grown man on the bus who had a cell phone decorated with the Olympic mascot cartoon characters. The equivalent would be a man carrying around a cartoon-themed lunchbox. This kind of enthusiasm is so strange to me.

I think the hypefest surrounding the Olympics is both a result and a cause of hyper-nationalism. Not to say that all Chinese are hyper-nationalists, but there are lots that are. This makes conversation very interesting at times.

Life in a Bubble (May 23)

This is all I did for the entire day. I provided a rough English translation of the conversation in this clip. My Mandarin is still pretty sketchy so there might be a few errors.

Video Footage From Beijing

My first 3 days in China were spent in Beijing. Here is some (kind of boring) video footage that I have been unable to upload until now. Unfortunately, I still have another video that I can't upload because of the terrible internet connection.

From May 22

I love to take walks around Nanjing. Sometimes I get lost, but I always find my way back and learn the layout of the city better. Usually I walk around for at least 2 hours at a time and maybe more. Here are the most interesting things I’ve seen. Some are more common sights than others.

A child of 9 or 10 started urinating on a busy street just a few feet in front of me. His red neckerchief (see example below) was securely fastened. I was tempted to take a picture but decided against it.

*I did not take this picture.




I’ve seen games of mahjong, cards, ping-pong, etc being played on the sidewalk.

I saw a flamboyant Chinese man with bleached blonde hair, really short shorts, and a swagger in his step. He was surrounded by a posse of young women who were definitely going for the diva look. People were staring at this man as he walked by.

A man finished his meal and started to ash his cigarette over a huge plate of left-overs. When he finished the cigarette he stuck it in the food to extinguish it and left it there.

I’ve seen taxi drivers swearing at each other in the street because of a car accident.

First Day of Teaching

Evidently, no one had told Gail that I was the substitute teacher, so she was expecting someone in the 30-50 range. She said she was pretty surprised when she first saw me. However, we have gotten along very well. She has helped me find my way around town a little bit.
Anyway, my first day of class was so-so. Much time was spent trying to figure out the student’s actual English level. They were all pretty surprised when someone their own age walked into the class. Also, every single one of my students is a girl. I don’t think there are any male nurses in China.
Today (Monday, May 19th), during class we had a three minute moment of silence for earth quake victims. For several minutes after class, sad children’s choir music was blasted through the loudspeakers. It was a little weird.
Also, at some points during the day they played air-raid sirens throughout the city. Gail told me that it is supposed to sound like wailing or weeping. Though I found many things strange, it was touching to see how people mourned for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake.

On Saturday (May 18) night I took a train from Beijing to Nanjing. It was supposed to be 14 hours, but it actually took 16. I guess you could describe this train as incredibly slow. I have no complaints though, because the train ride has probably been my favorite part of the trip so far. The train has these awesome triple-decker bunk beds so I did a lot of sleeping. I was in the middle bunk. When I wasn’t sleeping or listening to music in my bunk, I would just walk around the train.
A lot of the men would hang out between train cars to smoke and talk. Some of these guys were very excited to see a foreigner. I got lots of offers for coffee, cigarettes, beer, etc. A business card and a cigarette seem to be the standard gift.
The train arrived 2 hours late and there was no one there to pick me up when I got off. Luckily, I met a PhD student on the train who helped me out and let me use his cell phone. He also stayed with me for 30 minutes while I waited for them to arrive. He was stand-up guy, and I have his contact info so we’ll probably hang out later.
Ms. Zhang, who goes by Gail, came to pick me up with another teacher named Hu Liang. This was our first conversation as we were getting in the cab:
Gail: “So Jordan, how long have you been a nurse?”
Me: “Uhhh…actually”

TO BE CONTINUED

The First Post

Well, these first few days have kept me pretty busy. I’ve been doing a lot of boring stuff involving school registration, banking, etc. Fortunately, even the most mundane errands seem adventurous in an unfamiliar place. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to practice Mandarin.
I can’t upload video right now because YouTube seems to be blocked by the Great Firewall of China. I’ll try to figure something else later. Here is a list of some interesting things I’ve seen in Beijing:
-A woman using her finger to clean the earwax out of her boyfriend’s (?) ear on a very crowded sidewalk.
-A Jesus-fish magnet on the back of a Chinese person’s car
-Haidian district of Beijing seems to have a lot more westerners and a lot more Chinese hipster-types (ie. long hair, tight jeans and Converse All-Stars)
-A student at Renmin University English Corner gave me a short speech about where to find the “hot and sexy” girls in China. Hahaha, it was pretty funny/awkward. I don’t know how he knows so much slang. He probably listens to a lot of hip-hop or something.
-I went to a pretty good punk rock concert a couple nights ago. It seems like there are a thousand bands in Beijing now.
The plane ride over was great because I knew someone on both parts of the flight. From Phoenix to San Fran I sat right across from someone I went to high school with. It was so crazy because I haven’t even seen him for over a year. From San Fran to Beijing there was an ASU grad student on my flight. I had met him at the beginning of this school year. He is Chinese so he was flying back home for the summer. I slept for much of the flight. The best part was waking up and realizing we were flying over Siberia. There were beautiful snow-covered mountains as far as we could see. It was quite a breathtaking view. I thought of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and wondered if there was still a Russian Gulag hidden inside some freezing cave below me.