Tag: Beijing

I wasn't going to share this story, but Yanmei finds it hilarious and thinks it would make a good blog post. It's a form of culture shock.

We were back at Peking University for the 117th anniversary celebration, Yanmei was meeting with some old classmates. Unfortunately not as many as she'd hoped. This was her 19th anniversary since she graduated. Probably better attendance at 20. Anyway I had a little stomach pain so I excused myself to use the restroom.

When I got to the restroom things were a little more urgent. I went into a stall and it was a traditional Chinese toilet where you have to squat. I had never used one of these in this scenario before. What to do with my pants? I wondered if I should take them off entirely, there was a hook on the wall. However I'd have to take off my shoes, so I decided not to.

I squatted down clutching my pants, but I'd positioned too far back and my pants kind of covered the hood or whatever you call it. I scootched forward until I was pretty sure I had everything aimed correctly and wouldn't wet the back of my pants. I finished my business, and luckily they had toilet paper. Yay Peking University, School of Government! Yanmei's big complaint about both Taiwan and China is often bathrooms have no toilet paper. This is why Australia is her favorite country, all the bathrooms she went to there had toilet paper.

So I went back out and went to Yanmei and whispered in her ear “I had a bit of diarrhea, don't tell anyone.” She said okay and we decided to go, since she was tired anyway. She told her friends we were leaving and even though they were speaking in Chinese I could tell what she said, because it went “blah blah blah blah diarrhea” and then everyone looked at me. 🙁 What the heck?! As we left she said there is no shame in this in China.

In the spirit of reciprocity I will share a story about Yanmei from this trip. This happened the second last day in Taiwan, I think. It was evening and she was in the bathroom brushing her teeth, then there were a series of unusually loud hacks and spits, then she brushed her teeth again (we use Sonicare toothbrushes, they are easy to hear), then more hacking and spitting, then more brushing, and so on.

Finally I asked if she was okay. She came out with this forlorn look on her face. It turned out she had mistaken a tube of hydrocortisone anti-itch cream for toothpaste and brushed her teeth with it. She noticed something different right away but thought it was just “Taiwan-style toothpaste” so she kept brushing for a while until she realized it wasn't right. Now she couldn't get the bitter taste out of her mouth even after brushing with real toothpaste several times. I googled it to see if it was poisonous, luckily it is not, so I suggested she rinse her mouth with saltwater. A few more rounds of brushing, gargling and spitting and her mouth was pretty much back to normal.

Anyway, not everything is fun and excitement on the trip, but as I told Yanmei on big island in Hawaii when it was pouring rain we have to try to make the best out of what we get even if it is not what we want.

-David

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We're not going to do daily sight seeing in Beijing, since we did that last time we were here. Yanmei is visiting with friends and family. However last night we did go to Tienamen square. Unfortunately they don't let people in at night anymore.

The place we live has a reveille at 7:55am everyday. I've never seen that before, but I've only stayed in international hotels in China before. Yanmei hasn't seen it either. It turns out there is a military barracks nearby and that is where it is from.

-David

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It is about a 3.5 hour flight from Taipei to Beijing. Our flight was uneventful, but when we arrived we disembarked onto the tarmac, which I thought was a little strange. In retrospect they must have wanted to get us down and out of the plane asap, because before we even cleared customs it started raining and there was lightning. By the time we got out the flight status boards were full of delays and cancellations, so we just barely made it. Lucky!

Yanmei has a friend, Amy, here who is letting us stay in her spare apartment. As I understand it, it is an investment property, and there is no one living here, so she is letting us use it for free, which is great. It is a pretty nice one bedroom apartment on the 15th floor of a 20 story building. There are several other similar buildings in the complex.

Since I am a foreigner and I'm not staying in a designated hotel, I have to register where I'm staying with the local police within 24 hours of my arrival. Amy said she would come back in the morning to take us to the police station.

Yanmei and I went out to a local restaurant to have dinner. There was a TV playing a Chinese war movie based in ancient times. I kept glancing at it because I felt like the actors were familiar. Finally I recognized they were Jackie Chan and John Cusack. Cusack was the leader of a Roman legion that somehow got to China, and Chan was the leader of the Chinese army. Seems like an interesting premise, I wonder if it will be released in the US, or if it has been I've never heard of it. The name of the movie is DragonBlade, I will have to look it up when I get home. I didn't get to see how it ended.

Anyway, the next morning Amy came back and took us to the police station to register. There was a door there that had an English translation on it “Propaganda Office”. I wanted to take a picture of that, but I thought it might be frowned on, and since I was in a police station I skipped taking the picture. The registration went smoothly, although I couldn't understand anything that was said. It is so nice to have a native speaker to help me.

After that Amy dropped us off at the subway, and we took it to Peking University, Yanmei's alma matter. We met four of Yanmei's friends that she'd met at UC Berkeley. Three of them were visiting scholars, and the other still lives in the Bay Area, and just happened to be visiting Beijing at the same time as us.

After lunch we toured Peking University. It was familiar to me because last time we were here we toured it, but then it was frozen in January, now everything was green and in bloom. For Yanmei it was nostalgic. Lots of new construction she says. Also the school anniversary is coming up on May 4th, so she's planning on going to that and hoping to see some old classmates.

By the way the weather is quite pleasant here so far other than the storm when we arrived. I regret packing my jeans, I haven't worn them once, and it looks like I won't need them.

-David

P.S. Internet access is slow here, so I'll be limiting the number of photos I upload for now.

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