Blue Sky in Beijing

The sky is blue. Yesterday was a beautiful day, sunny and blue sky. This was a surprise to me as I thought that I would be gasping for air in the heavy smog, gray air. There have been days I can look directly at the sun through the smog and it looks like a fiery red orb. But i'm not having a problem breathing. So yesterday in the beautiful weather we traveled into the center of Beijing, Tiananmen Square about an hour away from Beijing University. To get there we had to take a bus, lightrail, and subway. All forms of transportation were sparkling new it was one of the best public transportation experiences i have had. And they even re-use the subway tickets! So this adventure was an assignment from our teacher, a "scavenger hunt." We made it there with no troubles, thanks to the fact that my partner speaks Chinese and everyone was more than willing to help us. While I was buying my light rail ticket a Chinese man came up to me to gesture that I was doing it wrong, the machine does not accept 1 yuan bills only 5 yuan bills or 1 yuan coins. He thought it was pretty funny and had a big smile on his face. It seems like everyone I see has a big smile on their face. I guess its because they are staring at me in amazement, pretty cool I think but I will definitely never feel like an insider here no matter how much Chinese I know. After our pleasant Beijing mass transportation journey we arrived in front of a big portrait of Mao at the Forbidden Palace. We didn’t make our way into the outer gates of the palace but instead went under the street to Tiananmen Square where we observed lots of Chinese tourists taking pictures and waiting in line to see Mao’s body. Outside the mausoleum we, and by we I mean by partner Anastasia, talked to a man who came here from Shanghai to see Mao. He arrived yeterday and recommended that we go inside. So we did. On our first attempt we were denied because there are no cameras allowed, but we made it in on our second attempt. You had to have some form of ID to get in, I think passport would do, but we were able to use our Beijing University ID cards. The guards seemed impressed that we went to Beijing University. We were all shuffled through the grandiose building that Mao’s actual body is believed to be held in. It was a quick experience with no time for stopping and staring. My immediate impression was that he looked very will preserved, waxy, and big. He seemed larger than life, which I guess is fitting since a lot of Chinese people view him as God. I was surprised at the wide range of people I saw on the square. There was a whole spectrum, older Chinese, young children, middle aged and even young couples in their 20s. We also saw two tall Canadian guys. We observed them struggling to interact with the Chinese people who kept on coming up to them and asking them for a picture with them. It was quite a sight, they were truly perplexed but I guess the Chinese told them that it was because they were handsome. For some reason no one approached us with this same request. I had a funny interaction with some people that were staring at us while we asked for help from an officer. Anastasia was communicating in Chinese with him and multiple groups of Chinese people came to listen in, they were getting awfully close so I said ni hao, and they responded with I have no idea what so I say bu zhidao and then they said some more stuff with some laughing and the gist that I got was they were telling me not to say ni hao if I couldn’t speak any Chinese so I said duibuqi, sorry. Then we found a hutong, one of the hundreds of older Beijing neighborhoods, to explore and have lunch. For lunch we had noodle with egg and tomato and a tofu dish and some beer to drink. All together it cost 23 kuai which is $3.50, for two people! The standard of living here is much lower as our taxi drier told us on our way back to beida (beijing university). Anastasia started a conversation with him and he commented on how bad the US economy is and how that effects China's economy but how it is easier to live without a job in China, etc. When we got back to the dorm, we are living in an international dorm on campus in suites with three people in each suite, we passed out. There are 9 people on the program. In each suite there are 2 American students and 1 chinese beida student. I really like my chinese roommate. Right now she is in the room reading the Dog racing book that I got for christmas, yes her english is that good, but I help her improve her english and she helps me learn Chinese. It is great. But I can't get internet in my room so I am heartbroken not to hang out with her right now. Her name is Ling Li and she is a Senior at Bei da. She is a math and finance major from some city north of Beijing. She takes really good care of me, when we cross the street she links arms with me and stands on the side closer to the cars. I joke around a lot with her, I'm not sure if she completely understands me but I think she does. Today we went to a section of the great wall and hiked through about 9 towers. It was an hour drive from beida. It was amazing, I can't imagine what went into building it. It was on top of mountains and we took a cable car up to it and a toboggan down!
Well that's all for now. I'm having lots of fun in China and miss everyone! Tomorrow we start classes. Chinese class at 9 for two hours and then taiji (tai chi) in the afternoon. ttyl. xoxoxo