This is a video from the Beijing Airport relating to the H1N1 problem:
I've returned from China with a decent case of jet lag, so I've been
combating it the only way, trying to keep with the sleeping pattern of
this time zone by not succumbing to naps, the usual. China is exactly 12
hours ahead so I feel like it's so much later than it actually is all
the time.
The plane ride was terrible. The plane hit
turbulence most of the way from China and over most of Russia. There
was a baby screaming most of the flight too, but eventually I got to
sleep. When the plane reached the North Pole, I was asleep for the rest
of the flight, save for the 90 minutes I spent watching Mulan.
We
went through customs in Newark because I was so
tired and I hadn't eaten on the entire plane ride from China because
plane food makes me feel bloated and ill. My friend made me eat
pretzels though.
Anyway, the plane from New York or New Jersey or
whatever was delayed from 9 to 11 pm, and then when we boarded, the
plane chilled on the runway for like another hour or two as it kept
getting rerouted because of the storms. I can't tell you how long
because of course, I was asleep again.
Oh and that screaming baby
was on the plane again. And I was sitting next to some jerk who
had his elbow in my side the entire flight because apparently he didn't
get enough room being in the aisle.
I didn't think much about the trip until recently. Overall, I felt as if it was a very eyeopening experience for me. I had been to Japan a few times before so I had experience with Asia but China was totally different than Japan or the US. The people have a much deeper sense of community than the US, where the individual is key. Despite the fact China is considered a communist country, it seems as if they have the capitalist bug much bigger than we do in the US. As for the difference between Japan and China, well, here's is something I've noticed; in an encounter with a girl named Mariko last summer in Japan, she stated bluntly "Japanese people do not smile". After she said that, it echoed in my mind and I told my host mother, who said "I guess that is true, on the train we all look down and not at each other". In China, everyone seems to be beaming and stare at each other... and do they stare! It's not rude at all to stare in China, so to a foreigner it's a little unnerving at first. The only thing I could do to combat this is stare back. Additionally, I have a scenerio that I had experienced in both China and Japan that had very different results; I'm in an elevator with two businessmen in Japan, feeling awkward, as the two staunch suited men stare down at the ground and ride down 9 floors with me. It's quiet, and the silence is stifiling. Same experience, but in China, I hop into an elevator with two men and they greet me with a little nihao and ask me what floor I'm going to, and they press the button for me! How considerate! They look me in the face and smile. I wait till I get off at my floor and say xiexie.
As a foreign female, I felt much less pressure on my physical appearance than I felt in Japan. I never felt leered at by men nor scorned in disgust by females because of my full, caucasian figure. That's not to say I didn't feel awkward at times, but I didn't feel as if I was in the way like in Japan. It seemed as if every girl and boy in Tokyo was a fashion model, but in Beijing, it looked as if people just threw on the first thing they found in the morning and left. They didn't look scrubby, but rather comfortable and easy-going. As for being a foreigner, I felt that the Chinese natives were not afraid of me, but rather curious as to what this blinding pale waigo-ren (foreigner) was. At make up stores, I was complimented for my "pink" skin color (in China, they avoid tans and pigmentation with umbrellas, detachable sleeves, full face sunglass-like shields and even skin whitening cosmetics, one type of facial cleanser I've recieved as a sample and used when I returned to America), told that my coarse, curly red hair was beautiful at the hair salon and by a few girls I met (very good self-esteem boost!), and Sammy, one of the students at Beijing Jiaotong, explained the Chinese facination with foreign eyes.
Another difference between China and Japan was the noise levels in public areas. Restaurants? Loud. Parks? Also loud. Chinese people love to talk! I wanted to take a video of our bus driver in Beijing because he had such an interesting, nasally voice. Listening to him speak Mandarin juxtaposed to Dr. To's was funny. But I am convinced that Chinese people actually can't understand each other, they just pretend they do. I am convinced of this because I've played music for people in Chinese and asked what the music is about and they say "I don't know, he's talking too fast" or "I can't understand her accent". Even if the singer is speaking Mandarin. The exception is Jay Chou because nobody knows what's he's mumbling to music about:
And from all the points already mentioned, it would probably not surprising if I said China had a much more relaxing atmosphere compared to Japan. In Japan, everything was rigid, scheduled, and perfectly aligned. Sure I stuck out like a sore thumb, but I didn't feel like it was difficult to conform to Chinese daily living like it was in Japan.
I would love to go back to China and see more sights such as the Terracotta Army and maybe venture to the northern parts or Zhucheng and see some paleontology digs. The earth is rich with fossils in that area, and I've been reading news of new species being discovered in the past few months, such as the duckbilled Hadrosaurus and Suzhousaurus. Here are their pictures, respectively:
What I might miss the most about China is the food; their culture puts an emphasis on balance, and this shows in the meals. There's always sweet, sour, spicy, hot, cold, dry, crunchy, soupy, vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy, all different types of food (and of course, steamed rice)! Besides the meal times, I found myself in many convenience stores browsing for new snacks and drinks because they had such a variety. I had curried crackers, apple milk, litchee and honey yogurt, pizza chips, cucumber chips, aloe juice drinks, tons of different teas with dried fruit and amazing scents, bread with peanut butter baked in, dried octopus jerky, melon soda, anything you can think of!
Additionally, the Chinese will eat anything. When I say anything, I don't mean it in a bad way, but rather they utilize every piece of the animal or plant. Traditional Chinese medicine say that food can heal anything, so they eat certain things to cure certain problems. Have a big test coming up? Eat a goat brain. Bad vision? Chicken eyeballs. Want to have a more passionate relationship with your significant other? Cow testicles apparently help. Food is very important to them, one of their greetings are "Have you eaten yet?" (forget what it is in Chinese). Nonetheless, the only strange foods I ate (and knew about) was jellyfish, cuttlefish, bamboo (tasted like pencil eraser), and this nasty fruit called a durian:
Horrible. They even make hard candy out of it.
The best food I had? I loved the Shanghai dumplings we had near the Yuyuan Gardens that had a bit of meat and delicious soup you had to suck out of it. Litchee flavored anything was sweet and tasty. Apple Milk was a surprising necessity for me, as it was a nutritional drink and provided electrolytes without being a sports drink.
The only fast food restaurants I visited were KFC and Pizza Hut, but besides those two I tried to avoid American food. The Pizza Hut was very fancy, while the KFC was very similar to its Western counterpart. The chicken, however, was a mix of white and dark meat, which is rare in American fast food. Fast food restaurants and American chains are heavily peppered all over the city, the most visible are McDonalds and KFC. There's a KFC on nearly every street and in every mall. I also noticed a Dunkin Donuts in Shanghai and a few Burger Kings, and there was another popular fastfood chain called Kung Fu with a Bruce Lee look-alike on the logo.
Such an intense restaurant. I didn't get the opportunity to try it, but apparently it's fast food Chinese style. I bet it could make it in the US.
On the final day in China, we had a goodbye party in a swanky, rotating restaurant overlooking Beijing, which was very sad for me. I really hope I get to see Maggie and Mengying again, whether it be in the US or China. I also hope I'll get to see everyone from the group again because they were so fun and engaged in everything around them. I can't wait until the semester starts and we get to meet the new exchange students from Beijing and Shanghai in the US, because they were so helpful while we were in their country, I want to help them with anything in mine.
The only thing I am wondering is, where will I travel to next?
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Man, he really gets around. You can even be friends with Hai Bao on facebook!
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