Sardines and Smells and Chinese Pride

Friday August 22, 2008  Beijing, China  7:49 pm

Sardines and Smells

World Record

Chinese Pride

Lets see, so Wednesday morning I needed to go to the US Embassy to get more pages in my passport.  I finally accomplished a long term goal of filling it up!  After three hours of wandering, I finally found the Embassy.  Attempting to take the public transport system in Beijing is not my favorite thing.  NO ONE speaks English, so I have to rely on showing the bus person the name of the stop in Chinese and let them tell me when to get off.  I never thought I was claustrophobic, but being packed in like sardines with hundreds of other Chinese people is beginning to make me a little masochistic haha.  And being cramped in and pushed and shoved and poked doesn’t only happen on the subway and buses, but in lines everywhere.  It is definitely true that the concept of personal space is foreign to the Chinese mind. I am craving the nice open spaces of Texas!  Then once I left the bus station I showed people on the street the address in Chinese and they just look at me like I just landed from the moon.  Even if they did understand, since they know zero English I’m not sure if they’re directions would be very helpful anyway.  I finally wandered around long enough until I found a Westerner who knew English, and they directed me to the British embassy, where someone finally could direct to the American Embassy, which was somewhat hidden.  The brand new one that a bunch of Aggies helped to build doesn’t open until next month.  It was good to hear American English again.  In all my travels it was my first time to visit a US Embassy.  I was actually pretty surprised because there were a lot of Chinese people working there, and seemingly pretty low key security.  I only saw one Marine.

 

Also, another note about being cramped in with hundreds of Chinese is the smells.  I have already discovered at least a dozen new smells that I did not know existed before.  And none of them were pleasant.  Many of the taxis have a strange odor, but I’m sure I will get used to it eventually.

 

I also had my first experience with the state run media today.  There is an English daily newspaper published here in Beijing (it costs 1.5 RMB or 22 cents), and there was an article in it today really thrashing the West’s reporting on the bad air quality of Beijing for the Olympics.  It was quite sarcastic suggesting that if the air was as bad as all the Westerners claimed it was, that athletes would be keeling over dead in the middle of their events.  He blatantly said that the experiments that Western journalists did on the air were useless because they already made up their minds about the results. 

 

Wednesday afternoon I was walking to a Starbucks to check email and journal when I was stopped by a strangely outgoing and friendly Chinese girl.  It turns out she was trying to sell me some of her artwork so she could pay for her school.  The are was actually quite stunning, and I felt only slightly bad for refusing.  I ended up falling asleep at Starbucks.  Then I headed off to meet up with my roommate (who I sold my extra track and field ticket to) to the Bird’s Nest for that nights track and field events.  The stadium truly is stunning.  It and the Water Cube are both so much more beautiful in person than on TV.  That night we saw heats of the Men’s 800m, the Women’s Hammer Throw final (where a massive Chinese woman won silver), the Women’s 400m hurdles heats, Men’s 110m hurdle semis, Men’s Pole Vault qualifying, and the Big Kahuna the Mens 200m Final.  The Pole Vault was certainly exciting to watch (aided greatly by the $6 binoculars I bought outside the stadium).  But Usain Bolt stole the show again by smashing the world record and winning by over half a second.  The Americans had a good showing with silver and bronze.  There were several Jamaicans sitting in front of us who went nuts when Bolt won.  It was surreal to be there and see a world record like that, then see the replay on TV the next day and be able to say “I was there!”. 

 

Thursday morning I slept in and went off in search of some Olympic souvenirs.  I found the official flagship store, and had and even crazier experience of being buffeted by waves of Chinese flowing in and out of this shop.  I did end up getting a few things, but I have never seen a more inefficient system for consumers.  Not only did you have to pick out your item, get a ticket from the employee, then go wait in line to pay, get another ticket, and return to get your item, but the cashiers had no concept of customer satisfaction.  I guess capitalism is still pretty new to them.  Despite lines of dozens of people long, the cashiers made no apparent effort to be speedy, and would turn to chat to each other while checking people out.  It was quite frustrating, as in similar situations in the States, people get things moving pretty quickly. It was like the opposite experience to the one I had in McDonalds that I mentioned in my last post.  I had similar frustrations with Chinese workers doing ticket and security checks at venues and subway stations.  They make no attempt to speed things up even when thousands of people are waiting in line, and take their merry time.  But I guess I shouldn’t complain as the venues have been safe.

 

Thursday night I met up with the Canadian family (who I happen to sit next to at the triathlon) whose son was competing in the modern pentathlon.  They got me a free ticket, and helped explain the sport to me as we watched the last two of five events, the equestrian and running.  They son Joshua Riker-Fox placed 24^th out of 36 I believe.  Still a good finish as it was his first Olympics.  It was moving to watch how exciting and nervous his parents were.

 

Today I just relaxed and wandered around town with some Brits from the hostel.  We walked through a small food market, where you can buy crickets, silk worms, and seahorses on a stick.  Yes, none of that was a typo.  I did not try any, as my previous cricket experience was less than satisfactory.  The Brits tried the crickets, (which were actually quite large, so they must be a different species or something than the ones I had) and they said that they weren’t too bad.  Also on the menu here is chicken and duck heart, as well as some other organ (our best guess was kidney or liver), all served on a stick.  It made me miss home food J. 

 

Another cultural note on the Chinese pride.  All of the talk in the Western press about how this Olympics is a huge boost for Chinese national pride is not overstated.  It is so true.  The Chinese are stoked that they are beating the US in gold medals.  (I know we are winning in overall medals, but here every tally is ranked by gold medals so that China is on top)  I even had one Chinese guy ask me with a smirk on his face if I knew how many gold medals the US had, just so he good quickly remind me of how many more China had.  On the more subtle side (or maybe not)… Nike put up large displays of mannequins wearing Chinese Olympic uniforms doing different sports in the one of the large, high end touristy malls here.  I walked by it three times before I noticed that there are three sets of track and field athletes with a Chinese mannequin positioned slightly ahead of a mannequin wearing a USA uniform.  I wonder if this was Nike’s idea or the Chinese government, but I found it quite noteworthy.  (see photo)

Star Studded Beijing Olympics Day 1

Wednesday August 20, 2008  Starbucks in Beijing, China    2:19 pm

Wow, so much to say.  So I have been in China almost 3 days now.  I arrived on Sunday late afternoon and was met at the airport by an English speaking lady from English First, the company I am working for.  She was quite helpful.  Because I had my large bicycle case with me, there wasn’t room for all of us in the car so we took a train to Tianjin.  We had a bit of difficulty finding taxis and then a train that wasn’t sold out.  While waiting for the train, Luna took me to have Beijing duck, which was quite good.  It is basically just sliced pieces of duck meat dipped in sauce and you put them in a rice tortilla, much like fajitas.  The ‘bullet’ train went over 200 mph! We got to Tianjin and on the way to drop me off at my hotel, we passed a man peeing on the street.  I guess Tianjin is more ‘real China’ than Beijing.  The next morning I went for a run to scope out the area as usual, and Tianjin seems to be a beautiful city.  People from the school picked me up again and we went to the police to register, as all foreigners must do within 24 hours of arriving in China, even tourists.  While we were waiting, a man saw me and turned to me to try to practice his English.  He was very kind, and it turns out his daughter who was with him is an English major.  He gave me his name and phone number and told me to call him if I needed help with anything.  I was certainly struck by the openness and friendliness of my first experience with local Chinese culture.

            Then I caught the train back to Beijing in the afternoon and caught a cab to my hostel.  The taxis here are really quite cheap here, although not as cheap as the 15 cent bus rides.  The hostel is not great.  The shower is pretty dirty, it doesn’t have a toilet, only a squatty potty, and the bed is basically just a metal slap with a blanket.  (A squatty potty for those who don’t know is pretty much like it sounds, not a toilet but just a hole in the ground where one must squat to do their business.  Also, not toilet paper.)  It is not any softer than sleeping on an tile floor with a blanket.  But I will survive.  The guys at the front desk are quite helpful.  My next trip was off to pick up my Olympic tickets, which proved to be quite simple.  I already sold my extra track and field ticket to my roommate at the hostel.  We walked around town a little bit and saw Tiananmen Square briefly, which was cool more for its history than its beauty.  Lou, an English girl who went with me, really wanted a ‘local’ meal, since this was her first night in Asia.  Having just come off from 6 weeks in Thailand, I was looking for anything but rice, but alas I went along with her.  There would be plenty of time for the proverbial McDonalds later.

            The next morning was yesterday, which was Tuesday.  It was a most storied and incredible day.  I got up early to go to the men’s triathlon event which it turns out was an over 2 hour bus ride from my hostel, but is still in Beijing.  Just to give you an idea how immense Beijing is in land mass, I heard later that the city of Beijing is roughly the size of Belgium!  And I thought Houston was large.  I set out to find the triathlon venue with only my ticket and some scribbled Chinese from the guy from my hotel.  I showed everyone on the bus and thought I was a goner until I miraculously found one Chinese person on the bus who spoke English (I was the only foreigner on the bus) who was also going to the triathlon.  He was very helpful.  Inside the even I sat next to some Canadians, who turned out their brother was competing for Canada in the modern pentathlon on Thursday.  His mom said she might be able to get me some tickets.  It was quite nice to speak normal English.  The race was close, and I thought the Americans had a good chance since two of them came off the bike in the lead pack.  But they couldn’t hang on in the run and in a thrilling sprint finish a German guy outran Simon Whitfield of Canada.  I followed the Canadians back to the city and went to the Olympic park to walk around the stadium.  I was really keen on finding tickets to the last night of gymnastics that night.  Despite all the news reports about police cracking down on scalping, there were hundreds of people selling tickets on the street right next to the sign announcing that it was prohibited.  It was literally a giant buffet line on the street of hundreds of local Chinese selling all sorts of tickets at ridiculous prices.  But after some haggling I finally got a gymnastics ticket for 1700 RMB, or about $210!  My quest was successful about 2 hours before the event started Considering the guy I had bought my other tickets from said he sold his gymnastics tickets for over $600, I was pretty pleased with my buy.  I met a German guy on the street who was also on a quest for gymnastics tickets, and he was eventually successful as well. .  I went in, grabbed some dinner and walked around a bit.  Both the ‘Bird’s Nest’ Stadium and the Water Cube were more incredible in person than on TV.  Truly beautiful venues. I was soo pumped as I walked in the stadium.  Since I hadn’t eaten anything all day, I quickly ran to McDonalds for dinner, as it is the only option for food inside the Olympic Complex.  Strangely enough, this turned out to be a great analogy for China.  There were about a dozen registers and hundreds of people pouring through the restaurant to get food.  I have never seen so many people at a McDonald’s in my life.  Behind the counter were scores of employees rushing around to efficiently bring dozens of meals per minute to hungry and pushy customers.  Here was a perfect example of how personal space as we know it does not exist in China.  I thought it was a great analogy of China using its biggest resource, people, in a workmanlike almost Communist style to efficiently feed the masses.  Maybe I am being over poetic about a simple trip to McDonalds, but I thought it was interesting. 

This night was some of the most exciting gymnastic event finals: Mens Parallel Bars, Womens Beam, and Mens High Bar.  I was particularly excited about seeing Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson on beam.  There were some empty seats so I went down closer to get a better view of the Beam.  On my way some other Aggies saw my A&M shirt and yelled out Gig’Em.  I think they were class of ’96 or something. I chatted with them for a bit, then went down and ended up with just about the best possible spot to watch the Beam.  I was right over the entrance where the athletes came in and out.  The first time Nastia came out with her dad I yelled her name and she turned to look up and me and gave a small smile and smirk.  Then after she won the silver I yelled out ‘Way to represent Texas’ and she turned to look up at me and gave me a smile and a wave.  Oh man was I excited! J  It was awesome to watch her and Shawn with the silver and gold.  Man what a great experience.  And American Jonathan Horton won silver on the High Bar.  But this is by no means the end of my Star Studded day.  I went with one of the Aggies I met out to where they film the ‘Today Show’ right outside the stadium.  If you can find on the NBC website or Youtube or somewhere the Today Show from August 19, I am in the background a few times, most prominently right behind Tiki Barber’s head.  Ya I know go figure, Tiki Barber, a running back who is the all time rushing and receiving yards leader for the New York Giants was an analyst for Track and Field and I got to see him from about 5 feet away.  I came all the way to the Olympics in Beijing to see an American football star.  Ironic.  Even better though, was the next segment of the Today Show where American swimming star and 11 time Olympic medalist Natalie Coughlin was doing a cooking segment.  After it finished not only did I get her autograph, but I got a picture with her!!!  She was really friendly, and I felt like I was dreaming.  Unbelievable.  I am hoping to meet the two American gymnasts at the Today Show tonight.  But again, don’t be fooled, there is more to this story.  After all this excitement I finally headed off to my soccer semifinal match that night, which turned out to be a soldout game between Brazil and Argentina!  Ronaldhino versus Messi.  Since I purchased the tickets over a week ago, I didn’t know who was going to be playing, but turns out I hit the jackpot.  And not only in who was playing in the game.  I didn’t arrive until halftime, but up until that point the score was 0-0.  Then less than 5 minutes after I arrived Argentina began their scoring spree and ended up with a dramatic 3-0 crushing of Brazil.  But here is the kicker.  As soon as I sat down in my seat, the guy next to me (who was Dutch) told me to look at the end of the row behind me.  And yes, even though I could scarcely believe it, there sat Kobe Bryant, basketball megastar from the Los Angeles Lakers!  I must have looked at least ten time before I could believe it.  It was really funny too, because the NBA is huge in China, and all these people kept walking by to take pictures of Kobe, not the soccer game.  He had a whole row of security guards along with almost 30 Chinese volunteers escort him out of the game.  But the climax is that as he was walking out right behind me, I stood up and said “Whats up Kobe?” and stuck out my hand, and he shook it!!!!  That means I got smiles, pictures, and shook hands with 3 Olympic gold medalists in a matter of 3 hours!!  It still sounds crazy when I think about it.  What a first day to the Beijing Olympics huh?  I guess everything from here on will seem really quiet.  Wow what a day!!

I had a real difficulty finding an empty taxi coming out of the soccer stadium. I began walking farther away and a Chinese guy offered to help and walked with me trying to flag down a cab.  He also helped me dodge the crazy cars and bikes while crossing the street.  The Chinese are very helpful and friendly.  Back at the hostel that night I met a British girl who speaks 4 languages already and is here to work on her Mandarin.  Pretty impressive at age 19. 

            Today I spent 3 hours taking buses the wrong way and asking dozens of people for directions who didn’t know English trying to find the American Embassy to get more pages added to my passport.  But in the end I made it.  Now I am at Starbucks to write down all my adventures.  Man I must still be jet lagged because I am exhausted even though I slept late this morning.  I have also developed a rather concerning sore throat, but I’m praying it will go away on its own soon. 

            On the Mandarin note, I have already learned 4 characters, and since during my day in Tianjin I saw 0 foreigners, I’m sure I will be quite immersed in the language.