Blog #7 Golden Week, Shanghai, and the Great Wall!

Hao jiu bu jian! In Chinese, this means “long time no see.” I apologize for not keeping up-to-date on this blog. I have had a lot of wonderful experiences in the recent weeks and I haven’t had as much downtime as I would have liked.  Nonetheless, I am experiencing China everyday and LOVING it! Let me share what’s been going on since my last post. Sorry that this post isn’t bite size!

Golden Week has long since been over (Oct. 1 was the beginning of Golden Week). It was a great, relaxing time for me. I was able to visit the zoo with my Chinese Teacher’s nephew and his friends. They are only 14 years old, but they all aspired to speak English and maybe studying the United States one day. I had to ask them many times what they wanted to do when they grew up because in Chinese culture it is common to keep your dreams to yourself. The reason is because in the past it wasn’t uncommon for other individuals to try and ruin your plans, even if they had nothing to gain from it. At the zoo, one of the xiao pengyou, literally ‘small friend’ used to refer to people much younger than you, told me that the Panda exhibit would be especially busy due to it being National Week (Golden Week is just another name for National Week) and the panda being a national treasure of China.  I was able to see a live panda for the first time, but the xiao pengyou was right, there were tons of people!  I got a lot of pictures of the five pandas and some pictures of the people trying to catch a glimpse of the pandas eating bamboo. I have perfected my “push n sidestep forward” technique to get through the crowds because, like mastery of chopsticks, there are just some skills you must learn in order to survive in China. I must admit that it also helps being slightly taller than the average Chinese person.

After the zoo, we all went to a Beijing Small Eats restaurant. The American equivalent of this would be an a la carte restaurant. There were at least 40 different stalls, all offering different, odd foods. My friends made me try so many different dishes. For the weirdest dish award, it was a toss up between the scorpions or what I was told was raw donkey meat. And no, the scorpion didn’t sting me. It was actually pretty good, I ate the whole stick of scorpions instead of just eating the one shown in the video (working on getting this uploaded). Overall my day with my xiao pengyous was full of adventure and language practice, both Chinese and English! The rest of my Golden Week was filled with hanging out with friends and doing homework, nothing special but exactly what I needed!

After a week of midterms, I was given a week off for fall break, which I spent in Shanghai (Oct. 25-31^st).  Often, the important question posed to all expats in China is whether to live in Shanghai or Beijing. Interestingly enough, I would choose Shanghai. It is such a wonderful place. The best comparison to understand the difference between Beijing and Shanghai that I have heard is that Beijing is to Washington DC as Shanghai is to New York City. Sadly, I have not yet been to New York City, but if it is like Shanghai, then I want to go (but first I need to visit Chicago because I miss it a lot). There are two major districts of Shanghai: Puxi and Pudong. The apartment that we rented was in Puxi, only about 15 minutes from the Bund. The buildings in Shanghai were massive and the architecture was magnificent. The friends that I went with and I went on a walking tour of the city’s diverse architecture. The Bund area has a good variety of modern architecture and old architecture. I have never been to France, but the French Concession’s buildings made me feel like I was in a different country (which my friends said felt like France, imagine that). We only took a cab and subway a few times, so I got to experience the buildings and get to know the streets of Shanghai quite well.

Architecture aside, the historical aspect was also impressive. Many great leaders lived in Shanghai at some point in their lives. I visited many different sites: Zhou Enlai’s house (First Premier of the PRC), Sun Yat-sen’s house (Leader of the Revolution of 1911, which ended the rule of dynasties and established the ROC), the place of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, the Shanghai Museum (contained exhibits on currency, clothing, and calligraphy), and the Urban and City Planning Museum. I enjoyed all of the places, but my favorites were the urban planning museum and the place of the First National Congress. I liked the urban planning museum because it showed how the city was constructed (with a scaled model of the whole city) and had a special exhibit on the song, “The East is Red.” It was interesting to go through the exhibit because it was mostly in Chinese, but my rudimentary skills still allowed me (along with a few references to my Chinese dictionary) to read the propaganda as individuals did when it was released. The song was performed almost like a musical, with dancing and many different individuals involved. As I listened to one of the other propaganda songs, I understood what they were singing (I can’t remember completely, but it was something along the lines of how they would beat down the Americans) and my face must have showed disapproval because one of the guards started walking towards me. I quickly moved to the next part of the exhibit to avoid confrontation.

The food in Shanghai was delicious. If you don’t know already, Shanghai is made up of two characters: 上 (Shàng) 海(hǎi), which together roughly mean “on the sea.” As you can imagine the seafood was quite prevalent. I had it through interesting mediums though, such as crab dumplings! I think one of my favorite meals was the last one I had, which was sushi in an upscale designer mall. The sushi was extremely fresh and proved to be a great capstone to the trip.

After returning to Beijing, classes resumed and I was able to visit the Great Wall! This is a place that my dad has long talked about visiting. Now I can bring back my stories and pictures to get my mother and him excited for their trip to see me next semester and of course, see the Great Wall. I visited the Mutianyu section of the wall. It was very scenic and surprisingly. not that crowded. The weather was nice and I was able to get some nice photos. I rode a ski lift to the top of the wall and later tobogganed down. There were a lot of steps and I was only able to visit 3 of the watchtowers, but the fact I was on the wall was more than enough to awe me. My estimations of the wall's size is about 20 feet high and 12 feet wide. It wasn't as big as I expected, but nonetheless impressive.

Besides seeing the Great Wall, I had another funny experience happen to me while walking up to the ski lift. I saw many stalls filled with crap souvenirs that tourists get conned into buy for exorbitant prices. One stall in particular had a painting that caught my eye. I walked on knowing that I wouldn't want to carry said painting over the Great Wall, so I would bargain on it once before we left. When the time came that I returned to the stall, I brought my friend Scott along to experience what I knew would make a great story (I just didn't know how great until afterwards). The painting was of 8 abstractly drawn humans in Mao suits mooning the viewer of the painting. I didn't actually think of the political significance until after I wrote down this story in my journal, but it was the fact that I wanted to bargain on a butt painting with a Chinese merchant. I approached the merchant and said in Chinese, "Yo, how much for that butt painting?" To which he replied, "Depends, what butt painting are you talking about?" I turn to look, the stall had some how gained at least 6 more butt paintings since I had last seen it. Two of them were the exact one I wanted only smaller, and then there were four other new ones. Trying to not laugh, I answered, "The top one with all of the butts." Since this guy deals butt paintings everyday, it isn't hard for him to keep a straight face, "Ah, 400 kuai ($67 USD)." I tried bringing him down to $16USD, but his wife wouldn't have any of it because they were "quality paintings." Scott and I walked away as the woman shouted and kept lowering the price eventually coming within mere cents of my original offer. In the end, I butted out of that deal because what does one do with a butt painting anyways?

About a week and a half ago, a friend and I started to plan the Beijing Center’s talent show. The event took place this past Friday, and turned out to be a lot of fun with talents varying from guitar players, singers, and dancers to calligraphy artists, comedy acts, and fast dumpling eaters! I performed alongside some of my friends in our group called, Gaofushuai (高富帅). In Chinese, this is the equivalent to tall, dark, and handsome; however, the direct translation is tall, rich, and handsome. Having three members in the group and three Chinese characters, we assigned one to each of us. Benton, the tallest in the group is naturally called Gao. As for me, I am Fu, or rich (which doesn’t make sense because my bank account says otherwise). And Scott, the sole Canadian, is Shuai, or handsome. The group was founded one day after we created our original single, 冰茶or iced tea. We didn’t sing our original hit, but we performed one of my personal favorites, Edelweiss. I am trying to locate a video of our performance, but until then you’ll have to wait. In the end, we came in third place! The night went off without a hitch and my roommate, Mike, played a wonderful traditional guitar piece that stole the show!

As for goals between now and the end of the semester, I am starting to become more comfortable in the language and I am trying to experience it in new ways. My goal for now is to read 魔戒 (Mó jiè), The Lord of the Rings. It is pretty hard, but I enjoy it so I will stick with it. There is a lot of vocabulary that I am able to make flashcards out of, but the downside is that it takes about 30 minutes to read a page! As they say in Chinese, 加油 (jiā yóu, to add oil meaning step up your efforts or cheer on)!

Until next time,

张睿杰

(I have a lot of pictures and I will work on uploading them all into a new album!)

Blog #6: My Biking Adventure

My weeks are becoming routine and filled with classes and homework. There still is the occasional story, but mostly nothing out of the ordinary. From here on out, most of my blogs will just be highlights of my week and weekend. I am preparing a few special topics like food in Beijing, places you should visit, and maybe a few interviews with some of my Chinese friends. They have some interesting stories and insights!

This weekend, I picked up my suit from Lisa's Tailor. My friends and I went into her shop a total of three times over a span of about 2 weeks. The first appointment was to pick out the material for the suit (I chose 30% polyester, 70% cotton because it was more economical), the style of the jacket (I went with the classic look: two-button closure, notched lapel, single back vent, and 3 exterior pockets. We also were measured for our size. I chose a slim-fit due to my lengthy, stick figuresque body. The second visit took place about a week later and was a fitting. There were only a few minor adjustments for my suit like pants length and bringing out the waist a bit. Finally, the pickup was the third meeting. The pictures shown on imgur are from the third meeting. I am a proud owner of a "from scratch" suit. Time to hit the opera and the equivalent of Broadway, if they have one!

On Saturday, I went on a TBC (The Beijing Center, the program I am enrolled in through Loyola) sponsored bike riding activity. We rode from our campus to Chaoyang Park. It was about 45 minutes of riding, but the bikes were nice and the view of the city from the “bike lane” was fun to say the least. In China, there is a marked bike lane like I previously mentioned, but vehicles drive and park in it all the time. The buses were probably the most annoying because they liked to cut off the cyclists to get to their bus stops. I got my revenge on a few buses with a little help from my fellow cyclists. We formed a small peloton and merge in front of a bus showing that it could not push us around. While on the same vein, for safety, I wore a helmet. Not trying to give my mother a heart attack, but that was about the safest part. I was riding alongside my fellow Loyolan, Jarek, and he kept joking about how we would probably have to merge onto a Chinese highway to get to the park. Well if it counts for anything, we were on a busy road most of the way (in the “bike lane”) and then we had to get on the highway. Just imagine about 20 or so people on bikes in the “bike lane” with cars merging on and off the highway. It was quite the experience, but worth it. The park was a lot of fun! The admission to the park was only $0.42, but the rides cost $6.67 each. I allotted myself 1 ticket to any ride, but more on that later.

We had a picnic lunch in the park. I hadn’t found out until that morning that I would need to pack a lunch, so I bought a loaf of bread and same apple jam to make sandwiches. This proved to be a good idea, as some other students didn’t get the memo about packing their lunches. Everyone shared what food they had to make a nice lunch for all! Amongst the other picnickers were brides and grooms! I saw at least 6 different couples getting their pre-wedding pictures (I don’t know if this is just a China thing or a universal one. The bride wore her dress and the groom wore his tuxedo). There were lots of shops in the park. One shop sold scooters for little kids ($20), 2-person tents ($30), and what I thought was really weird, a speedbag with boxing gloves ($25). There was also an interesting selection of hats with some of the most profound words of the English language (explicit ones of course).

After lunch, we all walked around and enjoyed the scenery. One group of students wanted to do bumper cars while my roommate, two friends, and I wanted to do a rollercoaster (go big or go home, right?), but we never thought about the safety standards in China. As we arrived to the ride, we saw them doing a test run with nobody on board. We appeared to be the only riders (whether we were just the bravest or stupidest, I don’t think I can objectively answer that) in line for the ride. The ride consisted of a 30ft drop into a loopty-loop and then two consecutive corkscrews. It would only last about 40 seconds. As we boarded, I chose the front car (because the back is for suckers!). I fastened my seatbelt and then lowered my harness. The attendant came over to check us and saw I had incorrectly secured myself. The belt wasn’t to keep me down, it was for the harness to stay down. Unlike in the States where the harnesses click as they come down over your head, the harness I was using had no locking mechanism other than this puny seatbelt. It didn’t hit me until we started our ascent to the top of the hill, I could unbuckle myself and jump off at anytime. I think that was the only rollercoaster I have actually been on where the screaming was warranted. After we arrived safely into the station, I think the four of us had decided that was enough for the day and we headed back to campus on our bikes.

Sadly, the pollution was too high to do the 5k race in Beijing. However, I found out that the 5k takes place at the end of every month so I will have many more chances!

In other news, National Week, which celebrates the founding of People’s Republic of China in 1949, starts on Wednesday (October 1) and lasts until the 8^th of October. I had originally planned to visit Qingdao, but those plans fell through due to me having to apply for my resident permit and not receiving my passport back until the day before the holiday starts. This is the famous holiday where millions of people will head back to their hometowns, thus rendering any form of transportation a nightmare. We were told by our school administrators to start our return back to Beijing from our various vacation spots at least two days before we had to be back for school or otherwise we might not make it back in time.

As for me, I will spend National Week doing homework and visiting some famous spots in Beijing (as long as I can get through the crowds). I am sure I will have more stories next week!

Until then… thanks for reading,

Zack Zehner

(Updated) Blog #5: The Forbidden City and How I got on the jumbotron at a soccer match in China

I had been looking to this past weekend since I arrived in Beijing because my program had a trip to the Forbidden City planned. The Forbidden City is the Imperial Palace of the Emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It was started in 1406 and finished in 1420. The Forbidden City is the largest and most complete group of ancient building that China has preserved (all but one building has been repaired due to fires). In total, 24 Emperors lived in the Forbidden City. In 1911, the last emperor, Puyi (only age three when he succeeded the throne), of Qing Dynasty was overthrown and the Republic of China was established lead by the Kuomintang (headed by Sun Yat-sen). In 1925, the Forbidden City was repurposed as the museum it is today.

6 fast facts about the Forbidden City:

1) It occupies 720,000 square meters or 180 acres. To give a physical comparison, the Vatican is only 440,000 square meters. It took over 200,000 laborers to complete the Forbidden City.

2) There are 9,999 rooms inside the City. Nine is a lucky number for the Chinese.

3) The walls of the city are 32 feet high and the drainage moat around the city is 165 feet wide.

4) All of the buildings are made from painted wood. To deal with fires, there are giant bronze cauldrons filled with water (see pictures) placed throughout the palace.

5) At the end of the 18^th century, it is said that about 9,000 people lived in the City (guards, servants, eunuchs, concubines, civil servants, and of course, the Royal Family.

6) Speaking of concubines, Emperors were entitled to several wives and lots of concubines. Concubines were well-educated women selected from the best Manchu families. The Emperor would choose which concubine would visit him each night and the number of times each concubine was chosen determined her social standing in the palace.

The whole experience of visiting the Forbidden City was thought provoking. As I walked from building to building, pushing my way through the crowds to the front (this is a socially acceptable practice), I couldn’t help but think that the number of tourists pale in comparison to the 9,000 inhabitants of earlier times. I am horrible at estimating (I believe my brother inherited that skill instead of me), so I can’t make a good guess of how many people were visiting the Forbidden City that day. But it was very crowded and with crowds, there is chaos. I can’t imagine how the Emperors kept control of the palace. However, if you relate the governance of the Forbidden City to Modern-day China, it is still hard to imagine how the Party stays in control of the 1.3 billion residents. Moments like this make me realize the complexity and secretive nature of Chinese politics.

After the Forbidden City tour, I tagged along with some friends to the popular Wangfujing Avenue. We had lunch at a McDonalds, my first Chinese McDonalds experience. It wasn’t too much different other than the portion sizes; it is much smaller here. I won’t go into too much detail because I am planning a ‘Foods of China’ post in the near future. The restaurant happened to be in a fancy mall where a live advertisement was talking place. The advertisement included dancing teeth and two performers dancing to Michael Jackson songs. At the end of the performance, they mentioned something about a brand of toothpaste and reminded everyone to brush their teeth! It was quite interesting to experience.

Just across the street was a foreign bookstore. My friend and I split off from the rest of the group so we could check out the books. I ended up buying two Chinese language-learning books: Chinese Idioms and Chinese Breeze Graded Reader Level 3. I have read some of the Chinese Breeze series before and was quite happy to see that instead of costing about $5-7 in the US, it was only $2 here. I may have to stock up on these before going home.

The next part of my day isn’t for the wary hearted. My friends and I had caught wind of the epic rivalry between Beijing Guoan Football Club and the Tianjin Teda Football Club. Their match was this weekend and the tickets were already sold out. This didn’t stop us though. We set off for Worker’s Stadium in the Sanlitun district. My friend Jarek and I arrived to the stadium before the other group of guys we were meeting up with had arrived.

We saw loads of stands selling concessions, jerseys, scarves, hats, and etc. We both wanted to get some jerseys (which I later bought for about $13), but first we needed to get tickets. In America, scalpers are relatively easy to find with their “I need tickets” signs. In China, it is a different story. I walked around asking person after person, “我们没有比赛票。我们可以在哪儿卖？ (We don’t have tickets. Where can we buy some.” I quickly picked up on a new vocabulary word, 黄牛 meaning scalper. It literally translates to “yellow cow.” I don’t know the origin, but I learned to use it quickly. I asked everyone around if they were yellow cows. No one laughed, just replied with a polite ‘no.’ As the gates opened, I changed tactics and asked the people selling merchandise.  One woman working a stand told me to go into a building located behind her. I knew some of the characters and when I looked up the meaning of the ones I didn’t know, I learned the sign meant, “Sell your tickets here.” I thought it was clever that America and China shared this same aspect of scalpers asking the customer to “sell the ticket” when in reality they were buying the ticket. As I went inside, I asked the man at a desk if they sold tickets. He laughed in a nervous way and said no they can’t sell tickets here. At the moment it occurred to me that even as corrupt and non-rule-following China is sometimes, I could be breaking a law. I immediately left the building and went in front of the entrance to the stadium to gather myself. We met some others trying to find tickets, so we traded numbers with them promising to inform each other if we had any luck. Shortly after, I found a yellow cow, but he was fresh out of tickets. I asked him where I could find another yellow cow and he gave me a very generic answer of, “Over there” with his finger pointing into a sea of people. Feeling as if it was a lost cause, we almost gave up. I noticed the yellow cow saw us standing around and no longer looking for tickets. He called someone on his phone and at the same time the rest of our group showed up. Now instead of needing two tickets, we needed seven.

But then I heard, in English, “Hello, you need tickets?” It was another yellow cow. The phone call was for us! The man spoke to me explaining that he had VIP cards that could get us into the game. His friend would lead each member of our group one at a time into the stadium and then the last person would pay. I was extremely skeptical of these cards so I need to let him know I wasn’t the average foreigner. I switched into Chinese and asked him to let me see the cards. He continued to explain the cards while I looked at them; they looked legitimate. I told him I needed to discuss with my friends. Some were on board, others were not. I told two of my friends to bombard the guy with questions about the football stadium so I could buy time to call my roommate and check if it was a scam. Turns out that VIP cards are real and it wasn’t a scam. At $30 a person, we thought we would try it. I picked my friend Scott to go first because his Chinese is pretty good and I thought he could hold his own if anything started to go bad. As the man’s friend took each of my friends one by one, I got a lot of Chinese practice with the yellow cow, whose name is Fan. Fan was actually a high-level ticket promoter in China, doing things for the NBA in China as well. We traded contacts in case I wanted tickets to any other sporting events in China (which is actually hard because the online platforms aren’t developed so ticket sales are still mostly through box offices). After three friends were inside, I noticed that the man guiding my friends had a new hat, one of my friends. I laughed and figured he took it to disguise himself from the security and ticket checkers (my assumption was correct).  I called inside to my friends to make sure everything was okay, and they said it was working. Only one of them was actually sitting down because the man would have to take us through another ticket check to get to our seats. Then suddenly, my phone call was dropped, I was out of minutes and my phone was utterly useless. This is point in the story where it starts to get shady.

As my last friend left me, I saw the guys from earlier that were also looking for tickets. I asked them if that had any, but they had no such luck. I told them about our deal and I offered to introduce them. Fan explained the package and then they asked me, “This isn’t one of those schemes where the guys take you inside and then beat you up is it?” It had never crossed my mind, but I was much bigger than Fan and his friend and it was a public place so I didn’t really worry about it. The foreigners seemed interested, but wanted to see how the package went down with me before committing to it. To make matters more complex, a host and a few cameramen came up to me and asked, "Do you speak Chinese?" They wanted me to predict the score of the match. I did my best predicting the score with my mind on other things. The host told me if my prediction was correct, I would appear on the jumbotron at the end of the game (I guessed the final score to be 2-1, advantage Guoan). Then the man who guided all of my friends returned and it was my turn. Fan asked me to pay him outside the gate, but I refused because that wasn’t part of the deal. He gave me a little bit of a hard time, but I wasn’t going to budge. His reasoning for the early payment was because his friend wanted to watch the game so we could just go into the stadium together and Fan would be able to go home. This was fishy because my friends who I had just met were also wanting the deal where standing right there. I explained that Fan had just agreed to help them into the game and his friend would have to come out again anyways, so he could just bring out the money. Fan looked a little disappointed because I had outwitted him. He conceded and I went into the stadium.

I met up with my friends at gate 27, but our seats were at gate 18. The man wanted the money and since he spoke no English, I did my best to sternly say that we had to be sitting down before I paid him. He took my friends in two at a time. Each trip took about 8 minutes. When it was just me and two others, Jarek and Scott, I told them that they would be the eyes and ears on the inside. If anything went wrong, they needed to get a hold of me before I gave the money to the man. The man took them away and I was alone. The thought of Fan and his friend isolating me on purpose ran through my mind again, but it was quickly pushed away once the 6 military men march by me. They marched by me a total of 4 times in 25 minutes. I wondered where this guy was, and more importantly, where were my friends?

Suddenly, I see Scott and four others leave Gate 18. No sign of the Chinese man. After asking what happened, they said that he got detained. As he was taking Scott and Jarek through, a police officer threw the man up against the wall and 7 other police officers starting beating him up. Scott lowered his head and continued on while Jarek stopped to watch. Eventually, the five of them were all together. One of the other guys had been dropped off at the bathroom by the Chinese man to help avoid suspicious. We called our friend at the bathroom and told him to come find us outside gate 18. We found out that when he was taken in, the Chinese man had slipped an attendant that figured out what he was doing a 50 kuai bill (about $10). We started for the entrance because none of us were interested in the game anymore. They seemed a little bummed until I told them that I hadn’t paid the guy. Everyone started jumping and high-fiving each other while giggling like little school girls. Then Scott says, “Well… Jarek and I still have the VIP cards too.” We were all even more excited, but then we figured that we should return them to Fan outside if he was still there because he has my contact information.

We found Fan outside on the phone pacing franticly. I could only catch some of what he was saying because he was speaking Chinese so fast. I heard him say, “There are only six out here, where is the seventh?” I then told him that one of our buddies had distanced himself from Fan and the game because we were all pretty nervous still. I gave him the cards back and Fan apologized, “I am sorry I ruined your guys’ first football game in Beijing. Want me to find you more tickets?” NO! We had had enough excitement for the night. We told him thanks and he felt extremely bad. We didn’t lose any money, only our friends’ hat.

Reflecting on the experience, the man might have been supposed to get my money before “getting arrested,” as part of the scheme, but somehow we avoided it all. We ended up going to the Sports Bar outside the stadium for burgers and watched the game on the big screen TVs there. I wish I would have gotten to see my face of the jumbotron..

Scott and me at the Sports Bar afterwards trying to look tough in our Guo'an gear.

Blog #4: I'm not in Chicago anymore, Welcome to China.

Sorry that this post is a little late. I have been a little máng (busy) lately. The homework load is quite different than what I am used to in America. At UIBE, I only go to each class once a week so the reading assignments are half of the book or the dreaded “see how far you can get.” I have been doing my best to keep up with the readings, but this doesn’t come without putting in the long hours. It sounds like I am begging for sympathy, but I am not. I really have enjoyed everything I have read so far! Each book has been extremely insightful (one book on the Communist Party, another on Buddhism, and the last one is about a man’s adventure in China during the 1980’s). In addition to the readings, I have been meeting with my tutor, Echo, four hours each week. She is a senior at UIBE and has not only helped me with my Chinese, but also with my assimilation into the culture. I can’t think of a time we have met where she hasn’t told me something I didn’t know about Chaoyang (the district of Beijing I am living in) or Chinese culture. Recently, she informed me about a beggar I saw on the subway. If you don’t want to read something sad, skip to the next paragraph now. I am serious, don’t say I didn’t warn you. While headed to Ya Xiu market (I will talk about this later in the post), I heard someone singing on the subway. It was a man, but I couldn’t see him. I stood on my tiptoes to see over the sea of heads, but no luck. As the singing got closer, I became more confused, “Where is this music coming from?” Being graced with the attribute of tallness, I was a little disappointed I couldn’t figure out where this man was at. Then I looked down. This man was scooting on the floor with his hands singing. He had crutches, but it all appeared to be fake. To add to his scheme, who I assumed to be his girlfriend or wife was behind him with their baby and a box for money. She bowed as she passed the other subway riders. This may seem insensitive, but having been in Chicago for two years and China for a month, I know a faker when I see it. I leaned over to my friend and said, “I think he went all out for that one; can’t walk, singing love songs, girlfriend with the baby following him. I don’t think he could have added anything else unless he was blind!” (There are an unusually high number of “blind” musicians in Beijing. If you come to visit, then you will understand what I mean.) Well I told all of this to my tutor who told me that they were most likely fake. [Last chance to turn back] To jump ahead to the sad part, the baby was also most likely not their baby. There is a problem in China with baby stealing. Unsuspecting parents will have their babies snatched by these beggars and then used to help them get money. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they also feed the baby sleeping medicine to ensure it doesn’t cry and scare away potential donors. I have no clue what they do with the babies after the day ends, but rest (somewhat) assured that there is an organization to help catch the criminals and reunite the parents with their babies. My tutor told me that if I see this happen again, I can take a picture of the criminals and the baby’s face and send it into this organization, who will then post the photos online with their location. The parents will look on the website and if they find their baby, they will call the local police and try to catch the criminals in the act. I can only hope that this actually has some successes. Sorry for the sad story, back to happy blogging now.

Even though I sound really busy with my studies, I am enjoying the China life. Last weekend, I went to play what I thought was going to a pick-up game of basketball, but ended up being a full-fledge practice! I am really grateful that my friends who studied abroad at Loyola last semester (Chinese UIBE students) invited me to join their team. I met all of my teammates and gave a short speech to introduce myself. We are in the top division so we will have some talented players to compete with in the tournament. Luckily, the new stadium that is being built will be finished in time for the championship game! I will keep you all posted on our progress through practices and games.

Last Monday (September 8^th) was the Mid-Autumn Festival aka Moon Cake Day in China so we had the day off. We spent the day going to Tia*a*me* (*=n) Square. It was a powerful sight. I walked around thinking about what history had taken place on those grounds. Located in the back of the square was Mao Zedong’s mausoleum. I wasn’t able to go in because it was closed that day, but I will go back to see it. Conveniently, the square is close to Wangfujing Avenue (one of the most popular streets in Beijing). The group wandered over and had lunch at the most famous Peking roast duck restaurants in Beijing, Quanjude. There were multiple waiting rooms full of people waiting to eat here. Luckily, a Chinese roommate had gotten reservations and we got a few tables relatively quickly. For some reason, we got the biggest feast option. It included the roasted duck (head, heart, liver, and all!), sea cucumbers, duck tongue soup, and other typical Chinese dishes that didn’t involve duck. The food was great, but the bill was not. It came out to ¥243 ($40.50) per person! I think China has made me cheap(er), but that is equivalent to at least 10, if not 11, filled to the brim, I-can’t-eat-anymore-or-I’ll-throw-up-unless-it’s-dessert meals. Nonetheless, I had a good, famous meal. I will chalk it up to one of those “I am glad I experienced it, but I won’t do it again unless someone else is paying” experiences.

This past Saturday (September 13), I marked off my first thing on my imaginary “China to-do list.” I use the word imaginary only because if I were to have made the list, I still would be writing things I want to do. Anyways, I went to a Ya Xiu market again (where all of the fake items were) and bought an “Omega” watch. I paid about $30 dollars for it. I talked to the lady in Chinese so “she gave me a good price.” I was happy with my purchase until earlier today when I dropped it.. Now I understand the difference between real Omega’s an fake Omega’s. It was a good $30 dollar lesson.

But that was only a minor goal on my list (to get ripped off in China – CHECK), the real goal was to get a tailored suit! I know what you may be thinking, I am not going to repeat my last goal again. A professor at my school got a suit from the tailor I went to and he still has it. The experience was really cool, I went into the store with my friends. We picked out the material, told the tailor what type of suit we wanted (picked out all of the specifics, with the advice of my dad), and then got measured. In total, a suit from scratch cost me ¥1200 ($200). I think that is a steal as long as it holds up! It is quite common for businessmen to get a suit tailored while in China. As a matter of fact, I saw one picking up his suit as I was getting measured! I will keep everyone posted and I can recommend the business to anyone if you’d be visiting China anytime soon. Fashion show to follow.

So what is next amongst juggling school and navigating the local culture? National Week.  From October 1-7, I will have a break from school. However, everyone else will also be off of school and work (most likely). This means a mass migration back to their respective hometowns. I am hoping to brave the crowds and make a trip to Qingdao, located in southeast part of Shandong Province. It has a beach and mountains. A great place to getaway for a bit. I am still in the planning stages of the trip, but I am hoping to try my first-ever couchsurfing experience (don’t worry mom, I am going with friends). I have gotten in contact with the host, but we haven’t figured it all out yet. I will keep everyone posted on this trip too!

Before I end the post, I have two things that aren’t directly related to this specific post. First, the second edition to Silk Road blog post is currently being worked on. The first one took a lot of time to get the timeline and facts straight. With balancing school and blogging, the scale tips in favor of school. I promise it will come, but I want it to be just as informative as the last. Secondly, there has been a lack of pictures in my blogs. Blogger has a weird set-up regarding pictures in posts. If I have a lot of pictures, it just looks cluttered. I think I am going to use imgur (the way I posted photos for the Silk Road Blog Part 1 post) to share these images. I will provide a link to the albums in each blog post and on my main webpage. I hope this doesn’t lose me any followers!

Peace,

张睿杰