Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Parade

Security has been tight across Beijing due to the national parade that set for tomorrow.

Recently I was walking around Tiananmen Square and police were standing at each of the street corners. At one such corner sat an armored personnel carrier, the words special police emblazoned on its black surface.

I, along with almost everyone passing by, stopped to take photos of the sight. The officer pictured above seemed to pose for us, flashing his bayonet on his assault rifle.

The government wants things to run perfectly for the coming parade, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of the People Republic of China. Plans are in place to manipulate the weather so the skies will be clear, and even pigeons have been prohibited from flying in the capital tomorrow.

Unfortunately this also means that normal people like me cannot attend the event. Due to fears of terrorism, the entire center of the city has been locked down. Citizens living in the neighborhoods where the parade will be held have also been evacuated out. Unless one has been invited to the event, watching the TV will be the only way to enjoy the spectacle.

Not exactly the happy go lucky celebration I expected. As one of my classmates said of the parade today, "Let's celebrate our 60th anniversary by declaring martial law."

The security situation has even spilled over to my university campus. Now when I enter through one of the school gates I usually have to stop and pull out my student ID.

Internet access also hasn't been the same in the last week. I can no longer access my blog at all in spite of the proxy sites I use, and instead have to email my dad the updates. I plan to change this site's domain name soon.

So I guess I won't be able to attend tomorrow's parade. But really, now I just want it to be done and over with. Hopefully it'll also mean the end for all this security.

Sex toys

Never did I think I would see these words in a museum: A set of dildos.

Beijing Capital Museum recently opened two great exhibits on ancient China. Along with the Xia Dynasty pottery and Xinjiang mummies on display were these items. They are dated to the Han Dynasty (202 BC to 220 AD).

One can only wonder how awkward the find was for the archaeologists who discovered them.

First story

Lately I’ve been learning a lot about bones.

Specifically about ones that could tell the future.

They call them oracle bones and more than 3,000 years ago they were used by ancient Chinese kings to foretell events.

I’ve been starting to freelance for an archaeology website, and so lately I’ve been visiting Beijing’s National Library of China, where several are on display.

Even as it’s only about ancient bones locked behind glass, the story has been a pretty challenging one.

Note taking in English is one thing, but scribbling on a pad in Chinese is far harder. Feels like it takes three times longer just to jot down all the characters I’ve seen on some of the library’s display captions. Then to spend hours making sure you thoroughly translated them, and researched what it all meant.

Another thing is access. It’s hard to prove that you’re a reporter for a publication, when you only have a student visa, and the publication you’re writing for is not totally well known.

“We can’t let you take pictures since we aren’t totally sure you’re a journalist,” one of the library officials told me as I visited the place. Luckily, he was pretty easy going and let me take a few pictures of the exhibit; it helped that I was dressed nice and lugged around a computer and big camera.

Though I speak Chinese well, I’ve felt quite embarrassed when talking with the library’s PR woman. I’m sure she’s been a bit puzzled/annoyed with my not always perfect Chinese speech. But she’s patiently listened to me, giving me a hardy laugh when I’m not sure if I’m saying something right.

It’s been tough and I’m still working on the article. But the experience has been worth it. I have to say, taking the above picture was one of the best feelings I’ve had as a journalist in a long while. Felt like I got a scoop or something.

First day of school

It's much easier to be a student than a teacher. So easy that I have nothing really to say. I came to class, opened up my book and paid attention. Far less nerve-wrecking than my first day when I was an English teacher in Xi'an. Inexperienced teacher + class of 57 students = clusterfuck.

Here in Tsinghua I've been assigned to one of the more advanced classes. I think it's a good fit so far, and I hope to learn a lot. My classmates come from different backgrounds, but it seems predominately filled with students who are from Hong Kong. They speak Cantonese, but wish to improve on their Mandarin.

When introductions came I was impressed by some of the other foreign students, who spoke Mandarin well, and yet had been studying language for only three years.

"Hello everyone, my name is Gan Shi Jie (my chinese name)," I said in Mandarin during my introduction. "I'm a Chinese-American so I've been learning the language since I was young. But I've learned it pretty slowly," I joked.

At the end of our classes, the teachers gave us a bit of homework. I look forward to it. Maybe it's because I was a teacher before, and had such a hard time getting my students in Xi'an to do their homework. All those days of telling them to "study a little everyday" and "don't give up". Now I have to follow my own advice. I guess, in a way, I haven't left my classroom in Xi'an.

Hold the scorpion

I've seen cooked dog sold on the streets, but this is new. And no, they're not dead. Actually they were alive and kicking, if that's anatomically correct. Apparently the shop barbecue grills them, and then you eat them on a stick. Maybe its something I can try in the future, but I feel bad for those scorpions.

Get ready to party

October 1st will be a big day here. It'll mark 60 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

To celebrate the anniversary, the country is planning a major parade in Beijing. Yesterday, the event’s final rehearsal was held, causing the entire downtown area to be shutdown and restricted from public view.

From what I’ve read over 100,000 students, as well as army personnel, participated in the run through. I didn’t have a chance to go and catch a glimpse of what was going on, but journalists noted seeing dozens of tanks and army vehicles coming through the city as part of those preparations.

I look forward to seeing the parade since I don’t think I’ve ever seen actual military weapons flaunted in such a way before. But it does also remind me of one of the last time tanks came to Beijing and how it wasn't under such celebratory circumstances.

I went downtown hoping to see if there were any leftovers of the rehearsal. There were no tanks, but you could already see that the groundwork for next month’s parade had been laid. Huge TV screens meant for a stadium audience now loomed over Tiananmen Square. Bleachers lay wrapped in plastic near the entrance to the Forbidden City.

I was also surprised by the security; to enter Tiananmen Square, I had to send my backpack through a scanner you'd find at an airport. News reports have said the Chinese government is trying to clamp down on anything that might disrupt the coming anniversary, even causing websites like Facebook and Twitter to be blocked.

It was the cloudiest day thus far, making it pretty crummy to take pictures. Looking at my photos it feels like the life was sucked out of them, my most vibrant shot coming from a mega-sized video screen broadcasting flowers.

The MIT of China

When I was a teacher in Xi'an, I taught in what was an old steel factory. Warehouses had been converted into classrooms while a few leftover smokestacks still puffed pollution into the air. I was fond of the place, but admittedly it was uglier than a typical university. I remember one of my students telling me: "We bring our girlfriends to anywhere but our university."

Tsinghua University, is a very different place. Founded in 1911, it's one of the country's best colleges.

Back in Xi’an, when I told my students I’d be going there to study, many of them were in envy. In China, students all have to take a nine-hour test to gain entrance into the country’s universities, with only the best test takers being accepted into the top schools.

The college I taught at in Xi'an was a third-tier school, and thus rather low on the college rankings. As for me, I only had to fill out an application and attach my college transcript to get into Tsinghua. "I'm just going there to study Chinese," I've told my students. "It's not a big deal."

The school has a lot of history. It was built around a former Qing Dynasty garden, making some of the areas quite scenic looking. From what I read Mao Ze Dong used to take swims in one of the recreational pools at the university. And plenty of influential people, like China's current President Hu Jintao, are alums of the school. It's even been referred to as the MIT of China, in part because the school specializes in the sciences.

One thing that's striking about the campus is how large it is. Just walking from one end to the next feels like it can take 45 minutes to an hour. A bicycle is a must have, and I've never seen so many concentrated in one area before. In Xi'an, most of my students just walked or didn't feel like spending the money on one.

Military training is mandatory for all college students in China. Lately I've been seeing platoons of camouflaged students marching through the campus streets. Here a few students are receiving instruction on fighting stances. Their chants can be heard all the way to the foreign student dorms, which stand far in the background.

This is where I live. Pretty cozy. One nice perk is that the cleaning staff come by every other day and wipe the floors and change our bedding. There are, of course, some drawbacks. Me and my roommate clean our clothes in the lone washer on the other end of the hallway. We then hang our clothes out to dry, old school style. I don't understand why laundry dryers aren't more popular in China; something I'll have to investigate one day.

I've only been in Beijing for about a week. But from what I can tell it's a very different place than Xi'an. Really, it's just the little things. During my year in Xi'an, I had grown so used to seeing the occasional child pee on the streets that it became a norm. Now I feel it somewhat bizarre that I haven't witnessed anything like that yet. (Not that I'm looking forward to that kind of thing.)

Due to what I've read and seen, I get the sense that things are more modern, up-and-coming in Beijing. While McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut were common in Xi'an, Beijing has its own Google office just south of my campus. When I went to grab dinner at a noodle restaurant the server placed my order wirelessly via a cellphone pad. Everyone here uses cards for everything, whether to ride the bus or buy groceries at the store. Not like in Xi'an where most transactions revolved around cash.

It's the reason why I came to Beijing. In Xi'an it felt like you could only be one of two things foreigners in China have usually always been relegated to: a teacher or a student. But in Beijing, things are moving faster and the career opportunities are more. So I decided to come and give it a shot. We'll see how things go. But at the very least it so far looks like I won't have to worry about seeing any displays of public urination.

Feelin’ better

Indeed, I did get sick. Caught a bit of a cold and have tried to stay in bed these past few days. I’m better now, with only these lingering coughs erupting from my mouth every now and then. Not exactly how I was hoping to start my time in Beijing. Instead, it feels like this city’s been beating the crap out me, with my each cough feeling like I’ve taken another jab.

Earlier in the week, I did end up telling the school I wasn’t feeling well, something which I was reluctant to do. Didn’t want to put up with the fuss with what might happen, like spending a few days in a hospital. But I also didn’t want to endanger the whole dorm either.

“I have a sore throat,” I told the staff working at my dorm.

Their response surprised me: at first, the two staff members simply looked at each other, as if I had told the wrong people about this.

“Don’t worry about it,” one of the workers then replied. “You’re probably just getting used to the conditions. Drink lots of water. That will help.”

Another worker than took my temperature, zapping my forehead with the barcode reader-like device. “Oh, you’re fine,” he said.

No quarantine for me. I think the staff workers just didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, and perhaps wanted to save me some trouble. So far, I don’t think I’ve infected my roommate; just a few minutes ago I sanitized his computer keyboard with Purell.

Hopefully this will be the last time I have to talk about experiencing disease in China. But yesterday I received this email from the school.

“In the recent days, since several students have been found infected by the influenza A(H1N1) virus, the university has raised the alert level of controlling this disease.”

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I also took a test today.

To figure out our class schedules, the school required all Chinese language students to take a placement test. To my surprise, it was actually hard.

The test was mainly listening and writing. I wish I could have studied more for it, but my illness gave me little motivation to flick through my flashcards. Oh well, I did my best and hope I get placed in a class where I can learn a lot. But it does disturb me a bit to see all my years of studying Chinese simply evaluated by a short one-hour test.

Moreover, I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for my students in Xi’an. During my year there we went over one English listening test after another, with the aim of all my students passing China’s CET-4 exam.

“Don’t think too much when you take the test,” I remember telling them. “Read the answers first before you listen to the question,” I advised.

Well, today I used those same tips and strategies when taking my test. Turns out it’s much easier said than done.

In other test-related matters, I did receive some good news yesterday. I’ve been wondering how my students fared on their CET-4 exams, but have been too afraid to ask, for fear that maybe some didn’t pass. One of my students, however, contacted me, saying that she had passed.

“Your teaching helped me succeed,” Joy added in her text message.

I felt one part congratulatory, and one part relieved. After putting all the work teaching in Xi’an, it’s good to know that I helped at least one student overcome that test. In recent days, some of my former students have been contacting me over QQ, China’s instant messaging program, and asking me when I’ll return to Xi’an. I’d love to see them again, and hopefully I’ll hear that more of my students passed the exam.

But in the meantime, I’ve become a student somewhat like them. Guess I’ll get to experience both sides of the coin. Perhaps, I’ll be asking my former students for tips on how to study Chinese.