First impressions of Beijing

Although I have only been in Beijing for one week, it feels like a decade. My arrival here is a distant memory: waiting one hour for a taxi into the city, defending my spot in line with my life, and trying to convey basic questions in a language that is as exotic to me as Mars. I feel completely out of my element in China; if I can make it here I will be able to make it anywhere.

Here is a list of surprising observations I have made this past week.

1. On motorbikes and scooters, I see whole families piled on top of one another, with little to no

    safety precautions taken. On electronic scooters I sometimes see I'll see a child standing in the 

    front and his or her father sitting behind him. On the busy streets of Beijing, that is 

    very scary. 

2. Most of the time when you ask for shui, water, waiters will give it to you steaming hot!The traditional reason being that it is better for digestion than cold water. Modern reasons being that tap water is not safe, so to make it drinkable it must first be boiled. The first time a waiter asked me if I wanted hot or cold water, I thought it was a trick question!

3. It is so hot here, I see people fall asleep everywhere: on benches, in open cars, in their stores, on little stools on the side of the street; even taxi cab drivers have been known to drift off to sleep while driving!

4. I see fake crocs everywhere, worn by teen girls, young women, mothers, grandmothers and even little kids!

5. In the Guangdong region (in the south) they will serve hot water with your plates and utensils so you can wash them 
    before eating with them. Don’t forget to discard the old water!

   These are hundred-year eggs that I ate in Foshan (in the Guangdong province)

6. Unlike in the north, people rarely eat off of plates. Their use is mainly for holding the bowl and

    discarded food items. Often, restaurants  send the dishes off to factories to clean them. When they 

    come back, they are covered in plastic.

7. I have finally gotten used to the public bathrooms here: procelain holes in the ground instead of toilets. Nowadays what makes me over-the-moon happy is to see hand soap in the bathroom!

8. In touristy areas, it is very common to take ask to have a picture taken with you if you look western. I have gotten this at least 10 times. Sometimes parents drag their kids to have their photo taken with me.

9. Here, honking is used by larger vehicles to tell the smaller ones that they are coming and they are not going to stop, So they better move or else! On the road it is a hierarchy. The bigger vehicles can do whatever they want and the smaller vehicles (people being the lowest on the totem pole) have no say in the matter.

     NBD, just a car driving on the sidewalk:

China is a dynamic country where old meets new, creating interesting innovations for new situations arising everyday. Here, I have met some extremely nice people who have gone out of their way to help me and make me feel comfortable. For one of the most populated cities this level of generosity is amazing.  I am excited to make Beijing my home for the next four months.

Photo: Julie Lamin-Sidique