Well its 12:04 am on July 4th. Happy 4th everyone!
I officially got back home on Monday morning at 4 am... though it really seemed like the longest Sunday ever. Our plane ride was 13 hours and we got into chicago technically only 30 minutes after we left. Insane.
First of all, the trip was amazing... there are so many stories to tell... I took almost 1000 pictures... so I will wade through them and eventually get some of the best up online so that you guys can check them out. China was.... just... amazing.
I think 25 years of age was the perfect time to go for me... still young enough and naive enough to be shocked and suprised, but old enough to appreciate the growth and the breakdown of my preconcieved notions.
I wish you could all go some day.
We visited 4 cities: Beijing, Xi'an, Souzhou, and Shanghai. Beijing is known for the Forbidden City, the Summer and Winter Palaces, and the Great Wall. Xi'an is known for the Terracotta Warriors. Souzhou (pronouced Soo-joe) is the "Venice of the East" with its beautiful gardens and canals. Shanghai is the mistress or concubine of China where old traditions meet new technologies and more high rise apartments than ive seen in my life.
Again, there is such a wealth of knowledge to convey... so many things that I saw and did and so many little side stories and bits of history... It took over 2 hours to go through my pictures with Ethan tonight, and I had spent at least 2 hours talking to him about it before then. I spent 3 hours this morning before that telling my mom things, and she hasnt even seen the pictures.
I guess the most important things were the differences and similarities between our cultures. China is amazing because you will walk down the street that, for all intensive purposes, looks and smells like a slum... and then you turn the corner and a gorgeous garden or a pagoda or a temple pops up out of nowhere. Especially in Beijing, a lot of people live in places that seem almost worse than our ghettos... yet the buildings are 300 years old and the gates have intricate iron work or beautful bronze animals on the roofs. So I think thats what struck me the most at first... people in abject poverty living next to perfectly manicured gardens and hedgework. People with no arms or legs or with sick children begging on the streets right outside the wall of a Buddhist temple.
Another thing that struck me about China, particularly Beijing, was how
dirty it was. I have not seen blue sky for two weeks. For those of you who have witnessed my seasonal depression, you can just imagine how I was feeling... and it wasnt hazy from humidity, it wasnt grey because it was cloudy and going to rain... it was
smog. I have never ever seen smog before. It was digusting. Not only that but there was dirt and grit and grime everywhere. And the strangest part is that there were people sweeping and cleaning 24/7. Even when we were out at 1am, there were still people sweeping the streets. I sad to say that I did not get to take a picture of the toilets. And when I say toilet, I mean hole in the ground that you squat over... but hopefully I will get one from someone else that I will post for you guys.
The chinese value their education. Kindgergarden is for 6 year olds, but before that children often go into pre-schools where they learn culture... like dancing or art or karate or music or lean to play crazy chinese instruments. Compulsory educatin is from k to 9th grade. After that, if you want to go to high school and university, you pay for it. But everyone we met was intelligent, well-spoken, and knowledgable not only about China, but about other countries as well. Education is just so important there... which is so unlike here. We take for granted our education and what we are freely given. Kids in china have one month off during chinese new year in the winter and 2 months off in the summer but other than that, no breaks. And usually after school they go to an after school program to study something else, often related, again, to the arts. Oh if I could convey that to my students!!!! Only 60% of the students in china who want to go to univeristy can because the population is that huge. Here, you can always get into a college somewhere, if you can pay... and sometimes even if you cant. So that was a lot different.
The university students we talked to, and even a lot of the high school students, knew basic english. It was embarassing to realize that really, we didnt know ANY chinese. We knew what a 1 and a half year old chinese child could say. Only in the past few years have schools really been offering oriental languages.... but if I could go back and take Chinese, I totally would. Its SUCH a cool language... and being full immersed in it was really neat, I learned so much faster because I had to USE the words I was learning all the time.
One cultural difference that I really DIDNT like was the fact that no one waits their turn. Its like it never occured to the Chinese to wait patiently in line. Public bathrooms are pretty much a melee. It doesnt matter that you had been waiting there for 5 mins for someone to come out of the stall, some little old lady will walk right in front of you and go in to the bathroom before you even take one step. And that whole mentality was found shopping too... if you were looking at something and you put it down to consider something else, people had no problems picking it up and looking it over and sometimes even buying it before you made your decision. In the markets, no one ever said "Dui bu chi" (excuse me/im sorry) to get past you, they literally pushed you out of the way. It was ridiculous. Coming from a culture where that kind of behaviour is considered extremely rude, it was hard to accept that its just how things were there and it wasnt meant out of rudeness or anything. All that being said, traffic was a NIGHTMARE. I could write books on how crazy it was. But just think about million of chinese people on foot, bike, scooter, rickshaw, bus, trolley, and car all trying to use the streets at the same time and apply the "every man for himself" policy. Yeah. Pedestrian right of way does NOT exist there.
We think that Philadelphia or New York is a city... no... Beijing is a city. From the center of Beijing, it takes
two hours to drive to the outer limits. There are approximately 11000000 people living in the city. thats 11 MILLION for those of you who arent too hot at counting 0s. The sheer volume of people means that there are people everywhere all the time, no matter what time of day. It is truly a city that never sleeps.
Think about Downingtown on a Friday night. The movie theater is packed. Bowling is packed. The restaurantes are packed. Everyone wants to know whats going on.... What hit me at the end of the trip is how incredibly
bored Americans are. And the reason is that we are given so much and able to access so much.... that we are left unable to entertain ourselves. In china, I never saw a packed restaurante. Busy, sure, but a 1.5 hour wait for Outback? No... nothing like that ever. What do people do there? Lots of times... just sitting around. Or squating. Occasionally you would see cards or maj jong. Sometimes people would sit and play instruments... But a lot of times you could see a family walking around the gardens or strolling through the temples or having a picnic.... and they werent bored. They didnt need something to entertain them, they were content to see beauty or to enjoy the company of the people around them... and that was so intensely different from here. The trip was so busy, and I was never bored, but it would have been so nice to just sit and enjoy a temple for the afternoon. The people there did not have a lot... but they did not "need" a lot, like we do. It made me really take a step back and think about the things that I thought I "needed"... and how often I want to go out a "do" something... and sure, there is plenty to be said for that, and we have the opportunity to enjoy and explore new things.... but I think learning about the Chinese has given me a breath of fresh air and really made me value my time with people more.
Aside from the whole not being able to wait in line thing, the people were
wonderful. Everyone was incredibly nice and genuine and interested in us. Everywhere we went, people stared at us (they werent being rude, even though we think its rude here) and they wanted to take pictures with us. Imagine a complete stranger coming up to you and speaking Chinese and trying to get you to take a picture with them?! Insane! I had never realized what a melting pot America really is. I mean sure, D-town in mostly white with maybe 15 to 20% of other races... maybe more, im not sure.... but there.... like 98 to 99% of the people are Chinese or at least Asian in general... so a lot of them had never seen caucasians before, let alone a whole group of them... and we are so different with different shades of skin and eye color and hair color... it must have been like a veritable rainbow to see us... And everyone was incredibly hospitable. They would bend over backwards to please us.... maybe because of the money, maybe just cuz they value hospitality.... but they were just wonderful.... We arent so much like that. We are jealous of our posessions and our money and our time... oh, especially our time.... I dont think we realize how much.... and they just werent.
Another thing I really enjoyed about the people is the closeness between friends and relatives. Emily, our tour guide, is 25 like me and still lives at home, and is planning on doing so until she marries. Thats just the way things are. And grandparents often move back in with children and so on... you can always see girlfriends holding hands, and even boys are a lot physically closer with each other than people here. It was crazy to see friends with linked arms walking down the street in the 98 degree heat... I was thinking how much I didnt want ANYONE to touch me or even to get close to me bc it was so hot.... but they were just naturally close to each other, and I really liked seeing that. They were not afraid to be that way.
Money. 8 yuan is equal to 1 dollar.... and everything, and I mean everything, was negotiable. Things were so cheap it made my head spin. I got a pair of converse sneakers (which are probably knock-offs, but I cant tell the difference) for $15. She started off asking $80. Bargaining was FABULOUS... and I am not a huge fan of shopping, but I wanted to shop all the time there because you could get everything for a much lower price than here and a much lower price than they started off asking for, especially if you spoke a little chinese. It was just so fun... and I got so much stuff, you have no idea... and everything I bought comes with a story. So money was definitely different there than here... you cant negotiate anything here, which is really no fun at all, and we really DO get robbed for this stuff. Things cost pennies to make in China and we are paying out the butt for them.... but....
The other thing I realize is how much hard work goes into the products made in China but sold here. We went to the silk factory, the silk embroidery research institute, the silk carpet factory, the jade factory, the pearl market, and the cloissonne factory.... I wont explain it all here... but it takes days, weeks, and months to make some of these products.... and they get paid SO little for their craft. The beauty of some of the products was incredible.... women spend their lives making these things... and we get them SO cheaply. So I really value now the things that we are able to buy without a second thought.... things that women put their souls into....
We are just so incredibly blessed and lucky and loved.... Even the poor people here have more than a lot of people there... sometimes it was like being in a 3rd world country... and sometimes it was just so jekyll and hyde because you would see a person begging in the streets, and even
he had a cell phone.... and occasionally you were overwhelmed with the beauty and history and culture that we simply dont have as Americans... We are blessed, but we are missing out on SO much.
this post is pretty long... and ive been writing for an hour now.... I really ought to try to sleep. I am taking the GREs on Wednesday and then working Thursday, Friday, and Sat. So I guess I will catch up with people as I am able... keep a lookout for post cards, those of you who sent me your addresses.... I could talk for days on everything... but I think what I wrote were some of the major long lasting effects... and we will see how things go as I adjust back to this culture.... and using forks. not too keen on forks now, to be honest. Chop sticks RULE.
