China

China

Arriving in China was different than we anticipated. After being in India where there is a bit more chaos, the diligence and professionalism of the Chinese was appreciated. The difference in climate threw us off, going from India where it was maybe 80 degrees Fahrenheit to China, which was below freezing. We broke out our thick jackets that we had packed the entire trip and ended up purchasing some gloves and caps. We rented an apartment in Wangjing near the Olympic Park area and where many ex-pats from Korea live. We enjoyed a variety of foods from Korean to Japanese as well as Chinese, mmmmmm Peking duck! Our time in China was short compared to how much time we could spend there but it was made even more special with our visit with the Koh Family, friends of Sam and Roan’s from their school back home. We were lucky enough to visit with the Koh’s and spend time at the zoo, seeing the pandas and variety of animals as well as going to the Great Wall with them. The boys had a sleepover with their friends and seemed to all slip back into old times together. The hardest part, of course, was saying goodbye to their good friends and for us saying goodbye to Romi and Nam. Their generosity was also greatly appreciated and I hope that we can see them again soon. We found a great local guide, Connie, who helped us throw together some sort of itinerary. We didn’t want any official tours, but we found that we had absolutely no skills at understanding Chinese. So Connie was our lifeline for helping us send a package home, visiting the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square as well as helping us find the most delicious noodle house in Beijing. One our favorite adventure was to the Insect market where we saw all kinds of animals, but especially the crickets. Our driver kept several with him at all times, and we could here them chirping in most of the local noodle houses and restaurants we visited. These crickets are very special and very large. A great amount of care is spent on them, including lavish cages and habitats. Kites were also a very special thing. There were many kinds of kite stores and more spools or reels than I could comprehend. Very cool. China is such an interesting mixture of “old” China and a contemporary China where the politics are just a matter of fact. China, like the Middle East, is not the same as my pre-conceived notions led me to believe. It is a complex place that seems to be re-inventing itself. One of the things that struck me as funny was when our translator asked us if we knew the meaning behind the National Chinese Flag, while we were standing in Tiananmen Square looking at it flying above a portrait of Mao. She said that the background color of red stood for luck, blood, and victory, the large gold star was for the communist party, the first small gold star was for the peasants, the second gold star was for the workers, the third gold star was for the small city capitalists, and the fourth small gold star was for the large international capitalist corporations. All that kept going through my head at that point was the “Fight, Fight, Fight, for Washington State!” scene from the old John Candy movie “Volunteers”; anyway, China is a fascinating country, and one that I would defiantly visit again. There is more going on there than meets the eye.

Two last thoughts about the internet in China:

Social networking is the contemporary opiate of the people as well as blogging, both were conspicuously filtered although I could purchase a SIM chip for my cell phone without having to show any form of ID.