What did you learn in China? Part 3 of 3

When going to China, I felt that I was going there to have awesome experiences and learn from them. The awesome experiences did happen (and how!) but recently the question of what I learnt in China came to mind. It is nice to do all this overseas travel, but you would hope to learn something while you are doing it!

With some thinking, I realised that there were nine major lessons that I have learnt from China. I have divided them into three parts, and will tell you the lessons I learnt, and the experiences that led me to learning the lesson.

In this third part of the series, I look at my final three lessons, and finish on a photographically diverse note.

Lesson 6: People are more similar than you think.

Chinese citizens are often categorised by foreigners as being inherently different people. In reality, I think Chinese people are similar to Western people. The best place to see it is a summer weekend's visit to the Olympic Forest Park. Watching local Chinese people have picnics with their families, laze in hammocks and enjoy the tranquility really made me realise that Chinese people have the same simple wants and desires as everyone else.

Chinese people are extremely helpful. The greatest help I recieved occurred early in my stay in Beijing. I was standing on a bus, and for whatever reason, not hanging on.  The bus, which was going at quite a pace, suddenly braked, and I went flying, literally flying towards the front of the bus. Around me I could hear the audible gasps of everyone alarmed by my predicament. I was waiting to meet my doom when suddenly a pair of arms came from nowhere and grabbed me. I said a very grateful 'xie xie' to the face of the 40-year old man connected to the arms, and he gave me a 'think nothing of it' gesture in response.

(Addendum: Having had someone save me once, I did get a chance to save someone back at the Beijing Olympic Water Park. A young woman about 4'10" tall swam out to the deep end (6 feet) of the pool, panicked and started flailing. I was the closest person to her, so I grabbed her and carried her into safety. She was very grateful, and asked the obligatory 'what country are you from' question. She probably now thinks all Australians are lifeguards.)

Lesson 7: Go explore!

The best way I could think of showing the benefits of exploring around China was not in words, but rather pictures showing the different experiences Molly, I and some of my friends (Ashly) took part in.

Grasslands near Hohhot, Inner Mongolia

Snow Day at Mutianyu Great Wall, Beijing

Sichuan Tea House, Renmin Park Chengdu, Sichuan

 Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan

Guiyang Monkey Park, Guizhou

Buddhist Grotteos, Datong, Shanxi

Harbin Ice Festival, Heilongjiang

 Rides at Jiayuguan Amusement Centre, Gansu

 Flaming Mountains, Turpan, Xinjiang

Melbourne Cup Day Turtle Races, Beijing

What did you learn in China? Part 2 of 3

When going to China, I felt that I was going there to have awesome experiences and learn from them.  The awesome experiences did happen (and how!) but recently the question of what I learnt in China came to mind.  It is nice to do all this overseas travel, but you would hope to learn something while you are doing it!

With some thinking, I realised that there were nine major lessons that I have learnt from China.  I have divided them into three parts, and will tell you the lessons I learnt, and the experiences that led me to learning the lesson. In this second part, I look at three more lessons.

Lesson 4: Putting yourself out there and making mistakes makes life fun.

Learning Chinese is the classic example of how putting yourself out there can make life more interesting and fun.  Practising your Chinese with cab drivers provides you with a personal view of the lives of ordinary people in Beijing.  Molly’s favourite cab-driver had a wonderful 30 minute discussion with her, with him telling her that his wife was pregnant, and that he didn’t care whether it was a boy or girl.

One day Molly, Adrienne and I decided to go to Huanghuacheng, a section of the Great Wall none of us had been to before.  After taking an indirect route by buses, we arrived and were faced with a climb up a scary rickety 20 foot ladder.

Climbing the rickety ladder, not attached at the top or bottom!

Having braved the ladder, we went on a lovely walk on a section with barely a tourist in sight.

At the end of the walk, we decided we did not want to go back down the rickety ladder, and instead took a different path.  However, the further we went down the path, the louder we heard dogs howling.  While we were scared, the prospect of the ladder forced us onwards.  We found an old Chinese guy at a fence with a group of dogs, saying it was private property and we needed to go back.  RMB60 later, we continued down the path and found the bus stop, and that’s where the story gets interesting.

You see there was only one bus left that day, and we had to stand on one side of the road to get it.  However, there was only cover on one side of the road, and that wasn’t on the same side.  Five minutes after we arrived at the bus stop, it started raining heavily.  The clouds darkened the sky and we could only see headlights coming down the road towards us.  We retreated to the sheltered side, but any time we saw a vehicle, we madly dashed across the road to be ready to catch it. Five or six times we dashed across the road when a vehicle came, only to be disappointed.  By the time the bus arrived, Molly and I were totally drenched, but after a good wringing out of our clothes on the bus, we were in good spirits.

 The bus stop in the five minutes before the impending doom..

Unfortunately for us though, the last connecting bus to Beijing had already left.  In the end, we accepted an offer from an illegal taxi and set off on the way home.  We cruised along for a while and were well into playing a travelling game when suddenly the taxi started breaking down. The driver pulled to the side of the road, checked under the bonnet and off we went again.  We then arrived at a toll booth, the taxi driver slowed down and could not get the taxi going again.  The driver told Andrew to get in the driver’s seat and steer, while the driver and the tollbooth operator pushed the taxi out of the toll booth to the side of the road.  Thankfully the taxi then started working and we made it home, having been lost, drenched and broken down in the middle of nowhere, but still having had an amazing experience.  How many foreigners get to drive a taxi in Beijing?

Lesson 5: You will always have problems.  The challenge is to enjoy life despite them.

In our final months in China, we experienced some major issues in relation to job changes and immigration.  Despite these issues causing considerable stress, we still took some time to go out and enjoy ourselves.  Our journey to the Fangshan Line (link: http://molldrew.blogspot.com/2011/07/fangshan-line-world-park-and-cool.html) and the Amazing Beijing adventure race (link: http://molldrew.blogspot.com/2011/05/amazing-beijing-adventure-race-round-1.html) occurred during this stressful period, and gave us a great boost during a difficult time.

What did you learn in China? Part 1 of 3

When going to China, I felt that I was going there to have awesome experiences and learn from them.  The awesome experiences did happen (and how!) but recently the question of what I learnt in China came to mind.  It is nice to do all this overseas travel, but you would hope to learn something while you are doing it!

With some thinking, I realised that there were nine major lessons that I have learnt from China.  I have divided them into three parts, and will tell you the lessons I learnt, and the experiences that led me to learning the lesson.

Lesson 1: Don’t worry about problems. You will be surprised what you can overcome.

How did I learn this?

• Thrusting yourself into a country that speaks a foreign language is always going to produce issues.  One of our largest was trying to register at the police station.  In China foreigners need to take their passport, rental contract and landlord’s ID number to register at the local police station.  Failure to do so makes renewing your visa difficult, if not impossible.   In one house that we lived the landlord steadfastly refused to give us his ID number.  Presumably as a tax dodge, the landlord came up with a stream of excuses as to why he couldn’t give us the number, including that he had lost his ID and didn’t intend on replacing it.  All seemed lost, until we complained to a policewoman about our problems.  She contacted our real estate, told them to solve the issue and we had the ID number within two minutes.

• Most people who have lived in China for an extended period have one horrible food poisoning story.  Molly and I had ours in one of the most beautiful places in the world.  We had travelled up to Lake Karakul, high in the Himalayas bordering Kyrgyzstan.  Suffering altitude sickness, and having struggled to hold food down for two days, Andrew H was in a terrible state, but was nothing on Molly.  Molly was in deep trouble if we did not get foods into her quickly.  We headed into the restaurant, only to find out they were out of everything except tasteless buns, a bland seaweed soup and rice.  For two hours, Andrew H nursed Molly, feeding her the concoction.  It was a scary and difficult time, but we did enough to keep Molly going.  Thankfully by the next morning we had recovered enough to enjoy the stunning scenery.  (many thanks to Andrew S for all he did for us in this tricky time)

The aftermath at the glorious Lake Karakul

Lesson 2: The world is not stable, but instability can bring amazing opportunities.

How did I learn this?

• China jobs for expats have a habit of disappearing or changing with little notice.  At one stage my job was suddenly changed and I was left vulnerable. Luckily I quickly found a job at the Department of Agriculture.  Working at the Agriculture office for five and a half months was a wonderful experience.  Amy, James, Nancy and Cindy created a positive work environment that was only punctured by regular games of table tennis.

DAFF staff - Great working environment, and then great people to hand around with (Sadly no picture of Nancy - too busy playing table tennis!)

• Beijing is an amazingly flexible city.  Go away for a week and you’ll come back to find half the shops had changed hands  and your favourite ice cream place has shut down.  The change did provide benefits however, encouraging you to go out and explore the changes and find yourself a new favourite ice cream shop.

Lesson 3: Abject poverty still exists, and we are fortunate to avoid it.

How did I learn this?

• People beg in developed countries, but the sheer scale of poverty only hits home when you are in a developing country.  Missing limbs and burnt skin are common among Chinese beggars, but the strongest impact anyone had on me was a lady who often lay near Tuanjiehu station in eastern Beijing.  She was young, but could not / would not stand, as the burns across her body were too severe.  In Australia, she would be treated and would probably lead a relatively normal life. In China, she is left to beg on the streets.

• China’s governance system leaves local governments with low tax revenues and high spending requirements.  To make up the gap, local governments seize farming land, selling it to developers for a fat profit.  The displaced farmers are given minimal compensation, leading many to end up in poverty.  Other farmers are left fearing the government could seize their property at any moment.

Wonderful wedding and then sadness..

October has been a life changing month.  Settling into our Petersham home has been overshadowed by two events, one really happy and one terribly sad.

On Saturday 15^th October Molldrew got married in a simple ceremony held at Andrew’s Dad’s place.  It was a small event that will be followed by a bigger party in Sydney and a renewal of the vows wedding ceremony in the United States.  It was wonderful celebrating our love in such a fashion.  Many thanks to Andrew’s Dad and Lee for their help with the event.  We had a three day honeymoon at the beach, and plan to have a proper honeymoon (probably in Iceland) after the renewal of the vows in the United States.

Just four days later Molly’s grammie, Lucille Gertrude McKenzie, died.  Lucille was an intelligent, talented woman who had a keen mind even as her health diminished.  Watching Lucille’s spirit transcend into her artwork even as arthritis affected her hands showed her immense power.  We were so happy that we got to spend as much time as we did with her when we were in the US a month ago, and very grateful that Andrew got to meet her.  She is missed.

Having dealt with two large events so close together, it really drives home what is important in our relationship.  While the wedding was great fun, it wasn’t a big changing moment in our relationship.  The moment that brought us together was our wonderful 66.5-hour train journey from Beijing to the Pakistani part of the Himalayas in July 2010.  The trip had immense highs (beautiful scenery, food and companionship) and lows (food poisoning that you wouldn’t believe!).  Going through the trip experiences together bonded us, and convinced us that we were the right people to spend the rest of our lives with. (We will have to blog on that trip soon.)

In the end, the bigger event in terms of our relationship was the sad death of Molly’s grammie.  With Molly being so far away from her family, the two of us bonded even closer together to deal with the sad loss.

We look forward to getting the chance to celebrate our wedding with friends and family in both Australia and the US!

An Australian’s view on Michigan – Part 1: Ann Arbor

In this three part series, I will explore Michigan through the eyes of an Australian who had just spent three years in China. In the first part, I will discuss Ann Arbor, a wonderful town where natural beauty combines with fun, friendly people and huge tasty ice creams.

Ann Arbor is a wonderful town located about an hour and a half drive’s west of Detroit. The town is most famous for being the home to the University of Michigan, the highest rated public university in the world. Spending a month based in Ann Arbor was a wonderful experience, with three features of the town standing out in particular: scenery, people and food.

1. Change of scenery

 The tallest building in Ann Arbor, just a tad smaller than most buildings in the Beijing metropolis!

  

Ann Arbor is a lovely town, about 1/60^th the size of Beijing. The largest building in Ann Arbor is about the same size as our Beijing apartment block.

A smaller population does have advantages. Ann Arbor is known as ‘Tree Town’ and the streets have a wonderful leafy suburban feel that does not exist in Beijing. The ability to get in the car and drive 30 minutes to a wonderful kayaking spot was also appreciated!

 

2. Fun, smart people

I was impressed by Molly’s family and friends. I met many fun, smart people of various backgrounds and ages. I had wonderfully deep discussions with a variety of people, and I treasure how open these people were with me. I now know where to go if I want detailed discussions on sexuality and gender issues!

While meeting all these smart, fun people I was struck by how many people did not have jobs. While some smart people are unemployed for periods in Australia, the number of unemployed or underemployed people in Ann Arbor was concerning. I will discuss this issue further in the third part of the series, where I consider the economic implications and lessons of Michigan.

3. Great tasty food

Living in Beijing, I adopted a rather care-free attitude towards my food. Having researched for work the numerous problems in Chinese food safety, I would generally put something in my mouth if it wouldn’t give me food poisoning or kill me in less than 24 hours.

In comparison to Beijing, the residents of Ann Arbor should be referred to as food connoisseurs! Residents of Ann Arbor appear highly concerned about the food that they eat, priding themselves on consuming organic locally-grown foods. The desire for high quality foods has led to the establishment of food co-operatives, farmers markets and high quality restaurants. While I could talk incessantly about the tasty food in the markets, let’s move to my personal highlight of Ann Arbor food: the ice cream!

Washtenaw Dairy has the biggest, best value ice cream I have ever tasted. For starters, Washtenaw Dairy doesn’t believe in small sizes. A small (kids) ice cream is about double the size of a normal ice cream. A regular ice cream (with waffle cone) is only a little over three dollars, and is a mountain of ice cream.

Washtenaw Dairy ice creams are creamy with strong natural tasting flavours. Over my five visits to the dairy I settled on Blueberry Wafflecone and Triple Chocolate Overload as my favourites. However, I never found a flavour I did not like.

This is a 'regular' sized ice cream. The mind boggles as to how big a double would be!

Beijing Subway - Line 13 Mountains, Markets, Korean food!

Line 13 is the longest subway line in Beijing at about 41 kilometres. Shaped in an inverted U shape, the purpose of the line to take work commuters living on the outskirts of Beijing to the city centre. While residential buildings dominate the line's views, there were three scenic spots that caught our eyes.

Black Mountain Park
(Xierqi subway stop and then walk about 3 kilometres west)

Black Mountain Park is a large area on the outskirts of Beijing that is extremely forested and green. It is a wonderful park that you can walk around for hours. Almost unique in Beijing, it also contains several picturesque hills that provide some good fun exercise.

The park is also dotted with statues and interesting landscape features. If you want to get out of Beijing but don't have much time, this place is highly recommended.

 A nice statue. We don't know why it needs a cape though!

Beiyuan Markets
( North-east of Beiyuan subway stop)


This market in the middle of nowhere, and sells practically everything. The marketplace consists of several football field sized buildings. Each building sells different produce. Meat, fruits and vegetables, household appliances and electronics, shoes and clothing and general bric-a-brac. Similar to most markets in the middle of nowhere, prices are very good.

Shaoyaoju eateries & night street market
(West of Shaoyaoju subway stop)

As mentioned in our resturants section, Shaoyaoju has some eateries we would recommend.

1. Duck place - A favourite of our friends.
2. Noodles restaurant - A student favourite with different noodle dishes.
   
3. Lakers – Pub that does decent RMB20 hamburgers and RMB40 large pizzas with decent cheese toppings
4. Korean place – Cheap good Korean place (RMB10-12 a dish). We particularly enjoy the bibimbap, spicy thick mitiao and meat and egg dishes (shaoniurou, shown on the wall picture menu).

On Wenxueguan Lu northeast of the Korean restaurant is a nice street night market that sells a range of produce, clothes and general random items.