China, a mystical land where wonders are created, armies clash and mystical masters of the Dao control the elements. The home of paper, noodles and more recently, the Olympic games. Some fear this place for its alien characteristics, while others believe it too far or too expensive to visit. Some however, choose to delve deep into the treasure that is 中国 and embrace the rich cultural heritage that comes with it.
I began my journey at 3 AM on August 26th of 2008. After a short night of restlessness, my cellphone alarm jolted me from my sleep and began what would be one of the longest days of my life. After an hour drive to the Denver airport and a quick greasy bite to eat at the terminal Burger King I was boarding my flight to Chicago, Illinois. While boarding and during the flight, thoughts raced through my head: Will I like China? Will I remember any Chinese? Will my Chinese roommate be awesome or awful? Will my 13 hour plane ride get shot down somewhere over Siberia? All these things and more shot back and forth through my thoughts and it seemed almost impossible for me to find any peace. Thankfully, the short night's sleep allowed me to lose myself in dreams, but still it seemed like the negative thoughts of the future would never leave.
When I awoke, I was landing in Chicago and it seemed like the months I passed in Colorado working in the factory and generally messing around had occurred years ago. The two hour plane ride and the the knowledge that my impending future was upon me was enough to drive all thoughts of my great summer far from my mind. When I disembarked, I only had to walk a few hundred yards to reach my next terminal, the one from which I would board my plane to Beijing. There familiar faces greeted me as Ajka had already been there for a while and Jamie had just arrived. Eric was also with us as he had also flown in from Denver. The four of us decided we needed to eat and we went to the closest "pizza" place we could find (as Ajka demanded she eat some CHICAGO pizza). There we found that the pizza was abhorenntly small and noot entirely appetizing so Jamie and I decided to get sandwiches instead. Being that it was in an airport we were dismally overcharged. While sitting and chatting we invariably spoke about Chinese and our trip, and were overheard by a gentleman from Hong Kong. Sitting in the Airport cafeteria, he talked with us a little in Chinese and us with him in broken pseudo-chinese. He laughed and was very excited that we would get to see his country, and demanded that we visit Hong Kong, Shang Hai, and Xi'An. We agreed to his request and after finishing our meal returned to the terminal.
I advised the others to change some of their American money for Chinese RenMinBi and they did so. We still aren't really sure what kind of exchange rate they got, but I'm convinced that it wasn't very good. Afterwards, more students from Kalamazoo started to arrive for our group flight to Beijing. Also, we talk a little with the other students who were going with us to China as they were the only other people in the terminal who were not Chinese and under the age of 35.
We were all very confused when the people at the desk demanded we hand over our boarding passes and passports for a "final check." They said that if we didn't do this we would not be able to board the plane. This wouldn't have been a big deal, except that they didn't announce the need to do it until all of the Chinese people were already in line and we ended up near the back because we didn't know what was going on. I was not pleased.
Afterwards, we boarded our plane and got to know the people we would be sitting next to for the next 13 hours. I was sitting next to a girl who was also a student with CET but was going for the Chinese Language program instead of the Chinese Studies program. She was very nice and we talked a bit about how nervous we were, how exciting this was, what our expectations were and generally were able to relieve some of the nervous tension we'd both accrued.
I then slept for about 6 hours.
I awoke to the rustling of the flight attendants as they came around with our first meal. I don’t really know what it was, nor do I think that anyone really wanted to eat it. After I had finished it, Kung Fu Panda came on the TVs and I watched it. I found it humorous, as I’m sure others did as well, that this movie was shown. When it was over a bowl of Ramen was served to us (United Airlines brand, woo!!) and we all ate the first Asian—albeit a fake type—food that would be a precursor to many more. For most of us it gave us pretty bad stomach aches, and I took more than one trip to the bathroom because of it.
I slept again for 2 hours.
Movies kept playing, mostly ones I didn’t want to watch. Made of Honor, Nym’s Island, and some other movie were all being played while I had slept of while we roamed the cabin talking to each other about what we were going to do in China. We met many more people who were doing the Chinese Language program and talked to them about how sad we were going to be that we spent all this time getting to know them and would then be separated from them due to our difference in programs and thus locations.
The hours dragged on as we talked with one another. At one point while I was talking to Alan, an older Asian man approached me. He suddenly appeared when I turned around and actually kind of frightened me. He was a professor out of Wisconsin, but was Chinese by birth. We spoke a little in Chinese and English about what China meant to students and him and the future and near the end of it, I was made sorely aware of my incompetence with the language. I was fairly embarrassed by the whole ordeal so I retreated further aft in the airplane and discovered a large group of Kalamazoo students talking to a Chinese girl.
Her name was Yu Miao and she was a twenty-four year old electrical engineer who was visiting her family in China. She was very interested in all of us and we had a very good conversation with her in broken Chinese and much English. She was very excited to teach us new phrases and learn English words from us. Near the end of it some of us had exchanged information with her and we went to return to our seats because the movie that had just begun was Iron Man.
After watching that magnificent work of art, it was nearly time to land and we began our descent into the unknown-ness that was China. Landing was confusing because the airport is actually outside the city. So there was no sight of buildings or anything as we began our descent. All we could see were trees and fields and it was very disorienting and unexpected.
We disembarked from our plane and began to follow the mass of people who snaked their way to the Chinese entry area. We had our passports and entry documents checked and proceeded to the baggage claim. While there, the cutest drug dogs I’ve ever seen came and sniffed all of our carryon luggage. Jamie’s bag was flagged as suspicious and they began rifling through his belongings. It turns out that the drug dogs are trained to seek out and flag Jamie’s grandmother’s homemade oatmeal cookies as they disrupt the public order. We waited a long time to get our bags, and the dogs came and sniffed his bags again and again the officers came and inspected his luggage. We got our bags and headed for customs.
Customs was abnormally lax, and we seemed to get through it in a matter of minutes. We left the terminals area and went down into the main entryway where we met our CET guide Wan Zhun. She got us all together and made sure we had all made it, although a few of us hadn’t. We then boarded a bus and got our first views of Beijing.
Beijing is a massive city with beautiful modern architecture. There are many hundreds of trees and parks and so many people that it’s mind-boggling. I’ve been informed that the trees and parks are entirely new, and that even 3 months ago they hadn’t yet been put in. The sheer speed with which this city is able to change is absolutely amazing, and although a bit disorienting at times, has as of yet been a very interesting and enlightening experience.
When we arrived at 首都师范大学 (Capitol Normal University) at the 国际文化大厦 (International Culture Plaza) we realized how lucky we were. The building is more like a hotel than anything else and we are given rooms with air conditioning, a color TV, a computer, a private bathroom, and only one roommate.
We checked in and made friends with people we didn’t already know. We explored the building a little and were told to arrive bright and early the next day for an orientation and then a placement exam, all of which would take several hours. But that couldn’t quell our excitement, as we had finally arrived.
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