Justin, a well educated friend of mine in Beijing who hails from central Texas and originally southeast Texas works with the Global Times in Beijing and from time to time writes interesting articles.
The following two stories arrived in my email box from an American friend working here in Beijing. She arrived four months ago:
My entire week really has been yucky, but today was particularly frustrating. Note that this week started on Saturday as I have been working through the weekend. At 4:00 pm this afternoon I made an executive decision and decided to treat myself to my favorite summertime treat from Starbucks. This morning, while getting my morning coffee, I noticed that this sugar filled Strawberry delight has returned for the summer. With anticipation and excitement I waited patiently for my guilty pleasure to be perfectly blended, a young Chinese women chatted me up. This lovely, American born Chinese lady from LA, arrived in China 8 years ago. Presently she heads some (my opinion) big fancy operation here in China. This brief conversation brightened my day tremendously. After the natural business card exchange I received (less than sixty minutes later) an e-mail from her connecting me with 2 or 3 colleagues in my office whom I have not met yet and invited me to an event in June relating rto my field of work. This extremely friendly and lovely young lady even works in my same complex. We will share lunch soon.
After polishing off my tasty Strawberry Starbucks afternoon beverage, and my work day was ending, I visited the young ladies room. I do not typically share this tidbit of information, but this is where this story starts: As I exited the stall, a young chinese woman with 2 large and overflowing boxes on a dolly stood hawking handbags. She obviously did not work at my office; as nobody in our office would lug boxes like this around. She sells purses, shoes, etc. Amanda previously operated a stall at the Silk market. Presently, she sells directly to the customers with whom she has relationships. I quickly learn that one of the my big bosses (I have not yet met) regularly makes purchases. She accepted my card and I hope she contacts. I believe she will be my new ghandbag friend. I Just need to provide her with the product number. She had the most awesome Christian Lubaton black open toe pumps. I soooo want them — RMB 550 — these shoes are $550 back home. As I was looking though the box of goodies she was delivering today, my colleagues were coming in and out of the restroom. Nobody really flinched or batted an eye. I kept thinking…….only in China.
Recently I spent too much time in cars in Beijing with friends. I also moved to a new apartment. My commute from Shuangjing to Liangmaqiao lasts right around twenty minutes via bicycle. During rush hour it may take two extra minutes. The subway commute may be 12 minutes from subway to subway. The car ride can take an hour each way easily because of traffic.
I bike or subway most places. Many trips in a car take quite a bit longer than even walking. The wait for a parking space, the time it takes to get into or out of a parking space, the time spent haggling with the parking attendant about the price of the parking fee, and the wait at traffic lights all add up to hours and days quickly. I sense that car driving folks in Beijing have zero value for their wasted time. I know I save hours each week by staying out of automobiles as much as possible. One lesson I learned from way back includes the phrase, “time is money,” and I save hours weekly by staying out of cars. I feel like I’m nearly alone in this thought. At least my car driving friends won’t have any part of a conversation about leaving their cars at home.
I love my bike. I love the ease of riding and parking it. I love that my commute is not affected (in terms of time of commute) by rush hour.
When describing things in my world I attempt to entertain as well as keep the attention of my audience. In describing things such as the reason I work for me I enjoy using a one word description and then elaborating on that. Some folks only require the one word description; therefore, the one word must be powerful enough. Why I work for myself can be described using the word, freedom. The political campaign that I involved myself with back in the fall of 2001 can be described as eye-opening or reassuring. Some experiences takes a lifetime to describe. The political experience description, in a sentence…. I learned who my friends are not.
Today I spend my time in Beijing. In a word I describe my experience here, “variety.” Every single day I encounter the opportunity for variety on every level. I wake-up each morning with the opportunity to eat so many different wonderful foods. I can share that with so many of my interesting and unique friends from all over China and the world. I venture out into my new world via bike, on foot, taxi, subway, or private car. What I do each day varies. How much money I spend (or don’t spend) and my encounters with everything and everyone in my fantastic new world changes all of the time. I continue to notice the differences in cultures as they all meet in this incredibly diverse community. I love love love my new world and all of the challenges as well as surprises that come along with my living in it.
Today I started back with my favorite Mandarin teacher. It’s been too long since my last lesson. I purchased Rosetta Stone some weeks ago. I still need to install it into my computer and get cracking on it. I imagine with the two to four weekly sessions with my instructor My comprehension will improve. I am not going anywhere so I will use the lessons to help structure my days. I already have Saturdays, Monday nights, and every weekday morning until 10am scheduled. Now, with the addition of the eight hours weekly of Mandarin lessons I should become more productive. It pains me to have the structure although I am aware that I need it and it will make me more productive in my Beijing world.
I know that I take my life into my hands every time I cross the street. In Texas, from where I hail, driving outranked other daily activities on the danger-0-meter. Now, spending time in Beijing, I found the new most dangerous thing to do each day. That’s biking. Occasionally I get in the car with others. I began driving in 1988 at the tender age of fifteen. I taught myself how to drive a 5 speed 1980 model Toyota Celica with manual steering. I attended driving school the summer before turning sixteen at my high school. I recall the lessons we learned. The most important thing that the coaches teaching impressed upon us dealt with safety. Automobiles kill people. We learned all sorts of things I had never thought about before. I don’t know which nugget of information that was thrown my way counts as the most important. The fact that cars kill people sticks in my head (even today) above all other things related to being in a vehicle. I respect the car, the road, other drivers, and especially the driver of the car I ride in. Being a passenger I observe all sorts of differences in China in relation to driving in central Texas.
Many difference relating to driving in Texas and Beijing come to mind. The quantity of cars on the road differs dramatically. It’s nearly incomprehensible to comprehend the quantity of vehicles in Beijing compared to Austin. I began driving at fifteen. My parents drove. Their parents drove and I think their grandparents may have even driven cars. In China I find that Chinese people I know have been driving for fewer than ten years. Their parents never drove and so on. Things that I don’t even think about such as looking behind me and using my mirrors when backing up don’t occur here with most people. I’ve seen many different people relying on folks getting out of their way as well as their sensors on their cars. When suggesting that a driver use his/ her mirrors I get extremely confusing looks.
Another difference – When driving a car with others in the car I always check to see that everybody completely closes their door and gets in the car. That’s not a regular occurrence here. Safety? That’s not high on the priority list here. Stop signs? Nobody obeys those in China.
In the defense of this country of first generation drivers…. what they do works. It’s so different from what I am used to. Their average speed (because of the traffic congestion) is so low that horrible wrecks like we see daily in Texas occur less frequently. My driving friends take drinking and driving much more seriously than most Texan drivers I know.
In summary I am intrigued and entertained.
This morning I woke at 5:15am before showering, taxiing to the Beijing west train station, and taking a 2 hour train ride to (Shijiazhuang) somewhere. Vicky from my wire cage factory greeted me with excitement outside of the station which I determined to be an hour from the middle of nowhere. We then hailed a taxi and journeyed to a bus station 16 minutes away. Our luxury bus took us three short hours past nowhereville. The bus ride was fine minus the cramped seats that squeezed my knees most of the time. Once we departed the bus we waited 15 minutes for a luxury sedan to greet us and drive us 5 minutes to a restaurant that would not serve us. Next we found an alternative eatery and dined on a quite tasty Chinese lunch that did not include the regular alcoholic beverages . I think we were in Anping County at this point. This delighted me tremendously. Once lunch concluded our posse continued to the factory for a 25 minute work session that concluded with an executive decision to drop me at a different train station for a direct (4:55pm) train (standing room only ) back to Beijing. The train station in Hengshui felt like a flashback 40 years. I boarded the train hoping to find a seat. After standing for nearly two hours I found a seat where I sat for the final ninety minutes of my slow train ride.
Each day I continue to expand my knowledge of the culture in my present home. I moved away from a very solid base of close friends. I had forgotten how many challenges arise in creating new relationships. I find so many levels to get through in finding that close personal relationship with my new friends. The challenge keeps me on my toes. I make visible progress daily and I am happy. I find that occasionally I feel alone when I have a certain story to share in the middle of my day as the person or persons I would share that story with is in the middle of his/ her night. The day will come (and I hope quickly) when I can call someone in my new city to share that story with.