Two Chinas

There are two Chinas. One China exists in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong. The other China exists in the rest of the country. The main reason these places are as good as different countries is because of development and Westernization. 

In short - this

versus this:

It's a world of difference.

One is even able to find different countries and different worlds even within these Westernized cities. For example, in Beijing, I stayed in hotels and homes far away from the brightly lit and English speaking shopping districts - places with no foreigners and no English speakers - places where speaking Chinese is needed to survive. Even the country’s capital has poor places to rival the images we see of Indian and African slums. These places have one room shacks, trash-strewn alleys and streets, and poorly-clothed people and children. 

Beijing Alleyway/Slum

Not all areas of China are as beautiful as Wangfujing or Tiananmen Square. 

Wanjfujing Shopping District

This is simply reality in China - some areas are incredibly beautiful and amazing to behold, but some areas are poor, polluted, dirty, and difficult to live in. The same is true in every country, and China is no exception. If you want to find a new, excited, fast-paced way of life, you can find it. If you want to find a more rural, relaxed, and traditional environment, you can also find it. 

An easy way to find older and more traditional Chinese culture is to stay in one of Beijing’s remaining Hutongs, which are alleys populated with elderly locals and families.


Within these alleys one can find all sorts of food and community. The elderly sit in the courtyards between their houses or on the street and play chess and watch the passers-by and families come and go as they go to work and pick up their children from school. It is obvious that most of these people know each other and see each other daily, so it is truly a community in the utmost sense of the word. Sadly, these areas are dwindling year by year as some are bulldozed annually to make way for apartment and business building, but some are legally protected by the government as cultural landmarks. 

In Beijing there are many districts, and within some districts, especially in areas concentrated with apartment buildings, things seem more….well, Chinese, and a little less developed. The restaurants are all Chinese and English speakers are rare. Life is more easy-going than the hustle and bustle of the Beijing that most foreigners know. It is the ideal halfway point for a Westerner who knows Chinese to stay if they enjoy the Northeastern style. 永泰小区, in the northern part of Beijing, is one example of this type of place. 

（Pic: The building I stayed in in 永泰小区）

Because Mandarin Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect, understanding the local language presents few problems to the Mandarin learner, in stark contrast to the rest of China, which has numerous dialects. Dialects will be discussed in full in a later chapter. 

Away from the Hutongs are the huge (and expensive) shopping districts of Wangfujing, which is famous throughout China and contains its share of English speakers. The area is brightly lit with lights resembling rain on many streets and modernization is everywhere. Nearby Chang’e Avenue is stuffed with cars, government buildings, and Tiananmen Square lies in the heart of downtown. 

These famous and developed areas of Beijing, just like other famous areas in China, are not much different than the big cities of America. They will, of course, be Chinese, but the feel of these areas and the look of them will be approximately the same. The people who wish to travel to China, but not get uncomfortable with the language difficulty or see and experience things that might shock them will feel right at home in these areas. 

In China’s poorer and less-developed regions away from the east coast, one will find a completely different world of Chinese culture. You can see crowds of people practicing Tai Chi on the streets, doing exercises, playing cards or chess or mahjong, quietly sipping tea and watching the traffic, or downing a few beers with friends and talking to passersby. These things happen in Beijing and the other big cities, but not as much. The environment of the smaller cities very much enhances the feeling of community and people are more relaxed and take things easier. 

A strange phenomenon emerges in many poor areas of the world, including China. In the poorer and less-developed areas, people have less money and live in poorer conditions, but seem to be much happier and content people overall than the wealthy and comfortable people in the cities. The nicest, happiest, and most hospitable people I ever met in China lived in a small 7‘x11’, one room house with very few possessions, no private bathroom, no shower facilities, and even their house was not fully closed to the houses on either side. The top 1.5 feet of the 10-foot wall was open to either side.

 The most kind and hospitable people I have met, on the whole, live in what America calls poverty. The less people have, the more willing they are to share what they have with you. If you spend all your time in China’s big urban areas and never experience what life in rural China is like, you will have missed a wonderful opportunity. 

Been Busy!

Sorry I haven't done posts the past two days - I got a job offer at the International High School of New Orleans teaching Chinese and have spent the past day and a half traveling, interviewing, and teaching a class as a trial run. The teaching part was fun, no problems, but I was surprised at the unevenness of the kids' learning, given that the current teacher is Chinese.

New Orleans is a great city and I'd love nothing more than to be able to work and live there in the emerging Chinese community, but the school was not upfront with me on certain matters, and I will probably decline the job.

I will be back to normal posts tomorrow, promise!

For now - I'm going to do a shameless plug for my YouTube account: youtube.com/austinguidry2

My two favorites are these - Beijing: Take 2


I like the video because it represents a fun and not fun time in China. I got a little dose of American things and I got to see a different side of Beijing. It wasn't the shiny and new Beijing I had seen before. I lived in an average residential complex with a non-English-speaking Chinese guy. I spoke Chinese all the time and really got into the everyday grind of writing, reading, going out to enjoy the tourist sites and make friends. It was a good time for me, although I got pretty sick in the course of it. You can tell at the beginning. My voice is a little funky.

白塔山 - Bai Ta Shan



I love this video because it was an unexpectedly good time. My friend Benjamin Xi had recently returned to Lanzhou from my university in Texas, so we were both excited to hang out together with Stan. Ben was so excited once we got off campus, and that excitement and fun rubbed off on me and Stan. Check out Ben's little thing at 1:10-1:12....great time. Bai Ta Shan's surrounding area is a really neat place, especially around the Western peak where the mosque is. Lots of good restaurants and good people live and work there.

My Favorite Pictures: Part 1

Today, I thought I'd start a series of my favorite pictures and stories. I've got 10 for you to look at today and I hope you'll be interested! Please feel free to leave comments and to subscribe! Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Today we've got 9 from Lanzhou and the last one is from Beijing. I planned it to be a little more eclectic, but by the time I finished, I realized they were almost all from Lanzhou. Next time, I'll mix it up a little bit.

I was an exchange student (the 1st ever) to attend Lanzhou University of Technology. The university has two campuses and the 1st time I went to the west campus of the university, I met some total strangers and they invited me back to their rented apartment and cooked a huge meal for me and 3 friends I was meeting there. 

You can see that people do meals differently in China - all the dishes are the in the middle of the table and are shared by everyone, but everyone has their own rice bowl. It's a much more enjoyable experience than everyone spooning off onto their own plate. It's a group experience.

This was taken at a primary school assembly in Lanzhou, where I talked to some of the kids and did some games and all kinds of stuff. It was an "English Adventure Day", so they were desperately trying to find a foreigner to participate. 

It was an interesting experience - the kids put on short English language plays like Snow White and everyone did their best to participate, although it was hot that day and the sun was beating down on everyone for the whole 2-hour(ish) assembly. Props to the kids for putting up with it!

This is the 兰州理工大学运动会。The Lanzhou University of Technology "Sports Meeting" - it's kind of like the university's version of the Olympics. All the departments show up and parade in like in this picture, there are shows of martial arts, their ROTC (ish) program, music, and there are events like the hundred meter dash, tug-of-war, etc. It's a cool thing and I'd recommend anyone who goes to China to study to attend a meeting like this if their university holds one.

These are 3 good friends of mine (r to l) Zhu Jiacan (Mike), Xia Fei (Kevin), and "Suella" Zhang. They're all good people and really friendly and speak great English. We took this on the West campus of LUT.

This is from the time I tried Stinky Tofu. It was not exactly my favorite, as you can see...but the night market was a really cool place!!!

This is Eric, the son of one of my teachers. He's really cool and super hyper and super funny, but the only thing is that he gets angry when people speak English because he can't understand :( poor kid

My band!! Exchange Student Band - I was an exchange student, and Freddy and Janson are now exchange students in Chicago, and Christina is an exchange teacher. She was only in the band for one performance, so I guess it was E.S.T. Band for one performance. E.S. Band forever!

This is a pic of ZhongShan bridge (中山桥) in downtown Lanzhou. It was the first bridge built across the Yellow River in a Provincial level city in all of China! Cool! It's a little over 100 years old - super cool! A lot of YouTube vids that you will see of Lanzhou will feature this bridge.

This is a view of south-western Lanzhou - this bridge is the 七里河桥 Qi Li He bridge. At night, it's lit up with neon and it changes colors and it's is really, really cool! This was taken from the western part of the Bai Ta mountain, 白塔山.

This is one of my favorites from the whole trip - this is a jump back to Beijing. This was taken as I exited the Forbidden City's north entrance. The pagoda/pavilion/whatever that you see in the top center of the picture is the central pagoda/pavilion/whatever of Jingshan Park.

It's actually a part of Chinese fengshui. If you have a palace or importance building, it is good fengshui to have it surrounded by water (the moat of the Forbidden City), and then on the north side protected by a hill (Jingshan Park, created by the earth scooped out for the moat). The hill and water are supposed to protect you from demons.

Mummies, My Time in Beijing, and Home Schools

So - chronological order! Mummies!

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-09/05/content_13620103.htm  

- apparently a villager in Jiangxi Province was digging and stumbled across a tomb dating back from the Ming Dynasty! There were 3 coffins and one of them contained a well-preserved body with hair, skin, fingernails and everything! Cool!



I have mixed feelings about my time in Beijing, at least the second time around. I stayed in 永泰小区, which is in the northern part of the city and has no English speakers and only 1 Western restaurant, McDonald's, which was about 3 miles away from where I stayed. The great thing about being in a non-English speaking place is that your language skills get so much better because if you don't speak Chinese - you don't eat. You can't do anything without speaking Chinese.

I did, however, get to go to all of the major tourist destinations! That was pretty cool, but had its downsides as well. Overall, I think I enjoyed my time.

So I went to a lot of the same places and established friendships with some of the waiters and stuff and met some cool people. It was okay, but I really began to miss speaking English. I called my friends Benjamin and Linda a couple of times because I really wanted to speak English. I called my dad a few times too. It was also lonely, because I didn't know anybody in Beijing - I just knew Guang Lin, who was the guy I was staying with in Linda's apartment (long story). He was cool, but he didn't speak English, so I had nobody to fall back on to speak my 'native' language.

So, really, Chinese became my native language and kind of already was because I practiced so much in Lanzhou (off campus). When I came back to America, I was overwhelmed with English - it was like learning my native language over again. The first couple of days were really hard and I was having trouble finding words like 'shelf' and 'overpass' in my vocabulary...it was weird.

And last (and....least...interesting?) is that home schools are on the rise in China - people just aren't putting as much faith in public education as they used to. Because China's schools are so big and impersonal, creative thinking, individualism, and innovation are nonexistent in the classroom. So, parents have started to personalize education (which I think is a great idea for Chinese kids) on their own.

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-09/05/content_13621268.htm

I'm going to try to integrate more daily events and stuff like that on my YouTube and tie it in with my blog - I really love doing this and I'd like to get it out there. I'd love to just do commentary on what's happening in China right now along with sharing my experience....it'd be easy and fun!

But the whole part of a salary...................yeah............oh well, a guy can dream, right?

Almost Home/Two Souls

Hey guys, I'm coming home in a few days! Today is September 1st! Lately I've been sick and lonely - I was out in the rain about a week ago and got bronchitis or something, but it's almost gone, so hooray! Not much to say about my time in Beijing other than that it's had it's ups and downs. I've been to see some cool places like the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace, among others, I've eaten some great food (and some American food!!), and had some laughs with Guang Lin, the guy who I've been staying with. I've also been lonely, homesick, and sick. It sucks being in a city where you don't know anybody and your only friend is at work all day 5 days a week and you've got nothing to do. Just gotta remember to keep it in perspective. There are a lot worse places than Beijing to be stuck for a couple of weeks. The French have a phrase, "The man who possesses two languages possesses two souls." I've had a lot of time to just sit back and think - maybe too much. I've been in China for 6 months and 9 days (I think), but it feels like I've been here forever. I've really made so much progress in my language and because of my language, I've really been able to fit into the Chinese culture and environment with few difficulties. When I think about home, I can remember every place with photographic clarity, but I can't remember the feelings I had - I can't remember a lot of the more personal stuff, the everyday activities. I've been really disconnected from America and I feel like I've sort of lost touch with my American side, my American 'soul'. Until I heard that phrase, I never really thought about that before. Also because I never really pursued a language before until now. I just learned enough Spanish to pass Spanish classes. And speak bad Spanish on purpose to make my Spanish-loving sister angry. But when you're in another language environment and you need to speak a different language all the time, the way you think changes. You stop thinking about translation and all idea of your native language goes out the window. You enter the mindset of another language, which is impossible to really articulate. The way you think about the way words are put together changes. The way you view words in your own language changes. The way you define words in your own language changes. You start to define English words using Chinese because it just makes more sense. The two languages and mindsets swirl together and, in some way, live in harmony with each other. All the time, I am, in some way, thinking in that way. Even when I watch the English language CCTV channel or watching one of my American DVDs, I am thinking about how strange a language English is and why we say things the way we do and why are English and Chinese so different. How would the Chinese say these things and other questions are always on my mind. It makes my brain super tired.... I don't know if it makes any sense to anyone else, but to me it's very real and it's every single day's reality. See you guys soon, Austin Don't worry about me - although things get rough sometimes, I'm trying to stay positive.

Stuck in Beijing

Hey everyone! So, in case you haven't heard, I am NOT back in the States yet. Right now I am stuck in Beijing, courtesy of Air China. I booked a ticket for an 11:30am flight from Lanzhou to Beijing, but when I arrived at the airport in Lanzhou at 10am, I was told that the flight time had been changed to 10:35am and was boarding and that I could not get on the plane! So I got a free flight change to Beijing, and I had to do some negotiating with Asiana Airlines to arrange another flight, but the first available wasn't until September 6th, so that is my new homecoming date. I am staying in a place called Yong Tai Xiao Qu 永泰小区, which is very nice, and pretty convenient. There are lots of restaurants and an internet bar and markets, but the catch is no foreigners and no English speakers. I guess it's a good thing, because I'm studying Chinese here and it's the perfect opportunity, but I really miss speaking English. I've been speaking Chinese all day every day since I got here on August 20th. It's nice, though, to be back here. I can go to the rest of the tourist sites I didn't get to visit last time I was here. I still have to go to the Summer Palace and Chairman Mao's Mausoleum (did I spell it right?), then I'll be done with the major sites! It's also a good time to sit down and reflect about my trip in China - I've decided I want to write a kind of cultural guide book or something like that based on my experiences here. I've got like 40 something pages done, so I'm on my way! Chairman Mao's Mausoleum - click to enlarge: Anyway, the money on this netbar computer is almost out, so I gotta go, bye!

Hutongs

It's 8:40pm on February 24th and I'm in my room at the 161 Hostel in Beijing. I'm typing this in Word so I can upload it later because the internet here is not so reliable.

Anyway, things here have been way beyond what I expected. It was hard to even know what to expect because everything is so different here. The place where I'm staying seemed kind of sketchy at first, because it's in one of the old hutongs of Beijing, which are one of the most truly unique places I have ever been.

There is a sense of community here that is really cool, because they are mostly residences and family or friend owned shops and the streets are very smushed in together along with the shops/houses themselves (most people lived in the back of their shops). There is even a type of meeting place where the people of LiShi Hutong can get together and hang out and do whatever they like. It's really interesting, a lot of the older people literally just sit outside their shops/front doors and just wait for people they know to come by and engage them in conversation and just shoot the breeze. It's really cool.

These hutongs are a completely different place than the major streets that they intersect. There is little road noise and few cars in lieu of foot traffic, and the same people come up and down the streets every day, so naturally, I garnered a few stares, but with a simple "Zao Shang Hao" or something friendly along those lines, they would crack a smile and/or laugh amiably and go on their way.

I skipped other sites such as Mao's Mausoleum and the Summer Palace and others because I've taken quite a liking to these back alleys of Beijing. Many….well, a great many, of them have been demolished in favor of major roads like DongSi or Wangfujing and Chang'an. They won't be here forever, not at the rate China is growing, so I think it is more important to experience these types of unique places in lieu of the other attractions that will be around for years and years and years to come.