It has been officially five months since I first arrived in China and for me the time has flown by so quickly. I remember I was talking to someone at the subway for how long I had been staying in the country so far, and I told him “Well I’ve been here for three months since June” and he was quick to point out that my numbers weren’t really adding up. It must have been that a couple of months ago I was telling a lot of people how long I had been studying in China and “three months” just developed into an automatic response.
Sometime during the beginning of the month, Tsinghua University held a multicultural event with students from all over the world setting up booths to display some of the unique aspects of their countries. It was similar to the event that Syracuse University holds each year, where professors set up booths at the center of HBC to give students a taste of foods from various countries, but the major difference between the two events was size. Tsinghua University’s event had booths lined down the street in front of one of its main student centers, what everyone refers to as C-Lou (C 楼.) At the end of the street, people could pick up a paper passport to be stamped at each of the booths representing a country, and if they filled out all 22 visa spaces, they could receive a prize. Interestingly enough, there was no American booth at the event, though honestly it does not seem that there are many American students at the university other than those coming in from Syracuse. Some of the other countries that could be seen represented included Myanmar, Japan, Singapore, Germany, and Indonesia. At the booths you could play games, eat food, and pose with people dressed in traditional style clothing, among other things. I didn't get to stay very long at the event, but before I left, I visited the Mongolian booth and received a special calligraphy painting from a student who was volunteering to make them.
Mid-November, our SU group made its way down to the Forbidden City (Gugong Bowuyuan 故宫博物院). The day was unfortunately terribly hazy, however with that atmosphere combined with the size of the maze-like structure, the enchanting architectural design of the buildings, and the forest garden located towards its center, you could almost feel as though you were walking through a realistic dream. The day felt cut short, as we only had a limited amount of time to explore the city that Friday afternoon. We had just finished taking midterms that week, and I was in the mood to relax and see some more of China outside of the classroom. So, I went with someone else who suggested a visit to Jingshan Park (Jingshan Gongyuan 景山公园) located right next to the Forbidden City. Paying the 2 yuan entrance fee, we made our way up to the top of a hill where a famous religious shrine was located. There inside you could see a giant sitting golden Buddha statue overlooking the city. A young man was playing some traditional Chinese music, chanting towards the statue, and nearby you could see some of the common tourist knickknacks sold at small shops. This was a sight not so atypical with what you would find in most other religious temples in China. Yet, you walk out to the front and you can catch a glimpse of almost the entire layout of the Forbidden City, and it really is an incredible scene to take in. Afterwards, I made my way through a nearby market and strolled along a small river until the sky fell dark, enjoying the colorful lighting that reflected off the water from the clubs and bars keeping the nightlife alive for locals. I even happened to chance upon a documentary filming along an alleyway that night.
This month I have gone out more with friends, discovering other places I was unaware of. As it turns out, near one of the sites where I practice kung fu, there is a lively shopping street that attracts a lot of tourists. Ironically I had walked by it quite a number of times, but I never actually went through it. At Wangfujing 王府井, you can see a sharp contrast between the rich and poor if you do a little exploring. There is a mall that is literally filled with nothing but the most expensive brands of clothing and accessories you could think of, such as Rolex, Prada, and Coach, and if you walk a short distance past that, you will find a small neighborhood filled with people who are scraping by to make a living. It is also at this market area where you will find more beggars and scammers due to the large number of tourists. There was one night I went out to explore the area surrounding Wangfujing when two ladies approached me and invited me to go get tea with them. The first thing I thought was that it had to be the typical scam where two ladies, usually relatives, go up to foreigners and invite them out to go get a drink, and when it comes time to pay for the bill, they will force the foreigner to pay for everything. I decided, “you know what, let’s see where this take me”, and sure enough, it wasn’t long before they said that they were sisters. A coincidence maybe, but as we were walking along, they were talking about how they just finished eating a big meal, so I mentioned that I was looking for a place to eat dinner rather than to go get drinks, and they told me they knew of a spot. We got there and the waitress handed me a menu, and it was filled with almost nothing but expensive teas; single pots costing almost up to 100 kuai (about $16) each. I looked up at them, and these two ladies weren’t even bothering to look through the menu that was already sitting at our table. I told the waitress I was only looking for something to eat, and she looked at me puzzled as if she didn’t know what I was talking about. The two ladies then started pressuring me to pick a tea. So, annoyed, I lied and said all I wanted was Sprite. The waitress told me they didn’t sell any, so I glimpsed through the menu again and asked her why I was able to find it in there. At the end, I told them everything was too expensive for me and that I was just going to eat back home, with the ladies calling after me and claiming that their prices were only steep because they were located in an expensive area like Wangfujing. Within minutes after leaving, I was walking along the main street towards the subway station when I heard a woman screaming loudly at a foreigner to go drink tea with her. The guy repeatedly told her no as she kept insisting, and as he moved himself away from her, she had a fit about it. She made eye contact with me then, and I quickly ran off before she could try to invite me next.
Wangfujing is a nice place to visit though regardless, and when I did go with some friends, we had a great time. We visited a place called the Donghuamen Night Market (Donghuamen 东华门 ) that’s right off the edge of the main plaza where you can find all sorts of unique foods that you wouldn’t typically find back home. When I say unique though, it’s not really the kind of food you’d regularly want to put on your dinner plate, not unless you can stomach cockroach, centipede, pigeon, or tarantula. When I went there with my friends, it was initially a shock because I had never realized something like this was around. One of my friends had wanted to come here to eat a bull’s testicle as a challenge. Frankly I love a good challenge too, so when he offered some to the rest of us, I went in for it as well. I wound up ending the night eating some small scorpions and snake as well, though I didn’t think the snake was as big of a deal because it reminded me of eating eel with my host family in Suzhou for dinner one night. Before China, I think the most unique thing I had eaten was fried alligator at my local state fair, though that is something I look forward to eating every year when it’s available. My first actual eating challenge after arriving here was duck’s tongue at our final reception dinner with CLS in Suzhou, and then in Beijing it was with pig’s foot. I probably shouldn't be using the word “challenge” to describe eating these things though, because in actuality there are a lot of people in the world who eat bugs and other things that Westerners are afraid to try. Typically in China, people do not like to waste food. Having the world’s largest population in a mountainous region where a lot of the land is non-arable though, it should be easy to understand why. However, there are some things at this market that even the Chinese won't touch; things that are more meant for people who like the attention of eating weird stuff. Aside from the food, if you walk towards the center of the plaza in Wangfujing, you’ll find another popular tourist market where you can get more food and all sorts of popular souvenirs to bring home, called the Wangfujing Snack Street (Xiaochi Jie 小吃街 ). The tidbit here though is you’ll have to play your hand at bargaining if you want to avoid being ripped off, however my experience was that it was a little bit easier to haggle here than it was at the Silk Market. The scenery of the market is really cool too, with red lanterns hung everywhere above your head and golden lighting that seems to attract people like moths to a lamp. If you walk in far enough, you’ll also find a small arcade.
One of the last places I visited was the largest mosque in Beijing, Niujie Mosque (Niujie Libaisi 牛街礼拜寺), as part of a field trip with my SU group. We visited different sections, chatting about what we thought of the structure, and ended the evening by going out to eat hot pot together. For me this was an experience I feel was different than what it would have otherwise been due to the timing though, as it was shortly after the attack on Paris and reading about the growing fear of Islam in different countries. Yet, in China, I got the impression that Chinese Muslims were hardly affected by the situation, and there were no outward signs of growing dissent among the people towards their religion. It was very different from what I could see was happening in America, and with elections soon about to take place, it felt weird watching all of this hectic news from outside of the country. I start to wonder more about how culture shock will hit me when I return to the states.
Finally, the majority of us all celebrated Thanksgiving together with our SU professors. Instead of a large carved turkey, however, our main dish was Peking Roasted Duck (with turkey as a side). It was really a Chinese themed dinner, with several dishes I couldn’t name on a rotating platter for everyone to share. I did, of course, miss traditional family Thanksgiving dishes I’d have every year at this time, such as stuffing, squash, and pumpkin pie (but not the canned yams). I had to kick myself for one thing though; the one day we were celebrating the holiday, I forgot one of our school cafeterias served cooked pumpkin everyday as a dish. Besides the food though, it was nice to get together when we couldn’t with our families.
