When in China...be in an Olympic-promo commercial

During our first week here (sorry, this post is much delayed), Anna, Beth, Shanthi, Andrew and I were in a short film, produced by BOCOG (remember this stands for Beijing Organizing Commitee of Olympic Games) and intended to promote international friendship during the Games.

To describe this experience as a "hurry up and wait" game would be all too true. So I won't describe it all, other to say that I dreamt that night the following chant, which may or may not have been repeated for 4 hours whilst banging noise makers (or thundersticks, whatever you call 'em at your University):

HO HO HAI! HO HO HAI! HO HO HAI!

Go China, go. :)

P.S. I still have not seen this commercial, although someone has recently told me they've seen parts of it on TV. Somewhere. Becoming skeptical, but the experience was definitely worth having.

798 Art District

I liked this larger-than-life structure. I have many more/creepier photos of this and scuffed faces like it, but I didn't want to make my blog completely morbid. :)
This painting was completed last year by a "femail artist of youth" whose style, "in regard to theme, flowers still dominate". I love the artist bios you can find in the galleries.
According to the guidebook, the 798 District takes its name from a military weapon measurement. That might explain the many military-themed structures around the place.
The steam sounded like a jet about to take off; quite a unique ambience!
I call this one, "two men and a spray painted wall".
Monroe + Mao = 2gether 4ever

This window is on the mid-level of a stairwell leading to an exhibit. I like it because, the character next to the word "zhong" (middle), looks like a smiley face.
Side of a food stand.
798.

Today I went to the 798 Art District on the outskirts of Beijing--streets of art exhibits and galleries. My favorite was a photography studio of Tibetan peoples, but I also enjoyed a ceramics piece of a child doing a hand stand entitled, "Smile anyway".

Ya Show Market

Today I got three pearl necklaces, two pairs of pearl earrings, a gold-dipped leaf necklace, and a neon pink and sparkly fish necklace. For twenty dollars. I also got a long lacy peach-colored shirt (picture awaiting) for fifteen.

I love the Ya Show Market.

It's a mixed zone, of sorts (if you'll pardon the shameless allusion to my volunteer position) because it's cheaply manufactured--but convincingly executed--brand name knocks offs from China meets foreign happy spenders.

When I first heard about the Ya Show Market, I assumed it would be outside and rather hush hush; quite the contrary, it has its own mall! It's the craziest, most spectacular thing:

Basement: Shoes, wallets and bags! Prada, Tous, Jimmy Choo, Nike, Adidas, Puma, Abercrombie, Polo, D&G, Gucci, Chloe, you name it.

First floor: Shirts, skirts, dresses, some belts

Second floor: Electronics,knick knacks

Third floor: Sunglasses, pearls, rocks, "jade", glass, jewelry of all sorts, mazhong sets


And you walk around this mall and (mostly) women yell out to you to come try on their jackets or jeans, and then once you find a pair you enjoy, the haggling begins. You and the store owner (more like a cubicle manager, actually) will take turns entering prices via a calculator.

It'll flow something like this:

Owner: Oh, you like this one? Normally I charge this price. *Enters 2300*.
You: Laugh. That's ridiculous. I'd give you something like this. *Enters 50 onto calculator*
Owner: WHAT? You mean 50 American money?
You: No no no no, that's FAKE. I'd give you 50 kuai.
Owner: That's your joking price, Lady, give me a REAL price.
You: That IS a real price because that is NOT a real bag. Fifty kuai.
Owner: Please, need more, I lose money.
You: Ok, give me a better price then.
Owner: Ok, ok, because you are a clever lady and a special friend, I can give you this price, and this price only. *Enters 1700*
You: What? I thought we were friends. I can't pay that much. I'll give you THIS much, because you're a friend. *Enter 60 onto calculator*
Owner: You're JOKING me, Friend! No, can't do. Impossible
You: Okay, I'll look around at other places then. *turn to walk away*

...you walk away, slowly, glance at the other cubicles with the EXACT same merchandise.

Owner: Ok, ok, come back, Lady. I'll give you my last price--500, just for you.
You: I'm not paying more than 75.
Owner: Please, that price is IMPOSSIBLE!


...this will go on for 45 minutes. Until you're both cranky, both tired, and both cannot believe you're actually calling the other one friend.

My most proud moment: Got a "jade" happy buddha down from 2300 to 75. I didn't buy it, though, because I wasn't going to pay any more than 50 for it.

I love bargaining, but it can sure wear you out!!



I also have a Prada bag. For $8.00.

The Basic s of Beijing (this is for you, Mom and Aunt Betty :)

It has occurred to me that, while my field trips excite me, it might be nice for people back home to know what daily life is like. So this post is dedicated to the ladies in my life who like that sort of thing: my mother and aunts. :)

First thing first: This is the first thing you will see once exiting a plane, if you're anything like me. This is called, in English, a "squatter". There are of these here than toilets, and I'm at the point where I prefer them to toilets for the following reasons:

1. I feel it's cleaner; not to overshare, but there's less touching involved in the process. You figure it out. :)

2. It's a heck of a lot faster

3. It's nice to bend my knees that deeply---it's actually building my leg muscles in a simple way!

Some other weird things about the bathrooms here, which I'll post more about later:

1. Bring own soap, as none is usually provided

2. Own toilet paper, which is NOT to be thrown into the toilet or squatter, but discarded in the trash bin NEXT to the bowl. Interesting.

Chinese ruins

There was a giant concrete maze that people walked through to get the structure seen below. It was funny to see the confusion on peoples' faces as they realized that they STILL had to keep walking around and around and around...
Photo opp in the ruins of the old Imperial gardens--these were trampled by the French and British armies in the 1840s--1860s, during the Opium Wars. God, I love history class.
Me playing in the ruins.
Arthur, our tour guide from BOCOG, took us to the lotus exhibition of the old imperial gardens. Behind a large lily pad pond are old fragments of what used to be a magnificent collection of gardens and structures.

Ming tombs--oh wait, maybe just some other stuff

This is a replica of the empress's tomb. People throw money at this empty, red box. I wonder who keeps it...
I love the guardian lions that decorate most of the doors. So did this little kid.
Only during thunderstorms.
Please--no megaphones in the tombs. Thank you.
This is Justin, myself, Lini and Jane, our adviser, just outside of the Ming Tombs. We were lucky it was such a clear day--if you get a chance to look at some of my photos of the Forbidden City, you'll notice that often there is a very dusty, gray haze over Beijing. It seems to be clearing up. :)
A view of another Ming tomb.
Lantern at a restaurant.
This vase was something I saw on a "how vases are made" tour provided by BOCOG. This particular vase was made in The Friendship Store, one of the first foreigner-friendly stores in Beijing. Ridiculously highly priced things...beautiful, but unaffordable.
This girl was ADORABLE. She was a little nervous to have her picture taken, but after I asked if I could take her photo, her parents became so proud and were having her pose with her hands on her hips and stuff.

These were taken at/around the Ming tombs. The Ming Tombs are a very fascinating place because it is the burial grounds of the last 13 Ming Emperors; only one of the tombs, that of the 4th Ming Emperor, is open to the public because it has been excavated. Unfortunately, within 6 hours after modern oxygen crept into the tomb, everything that had been mummified dissipated. So, the ancient bodies are no longer there, but you could walk through the empty tomb. I didn't take many photos; it just looked like a large concrete structure under ground. Sorry, Folks.

The vase is from a factory-tour we went through, the lantern was a decoration outside of a restaurant.

Calligraphy lesson!

http://en.beijing2008.cn/volunteers/news/n214419251.shtml


is the address of a story that "Leslie", the journalist pictured doing calligraphy below, wrote about my friend David and my experiences during calligraphy class. Some of the things we say are pretty funny (and we don't remember really saying them...) and we may or may not sound like 5-year olds. Either way, I think it's pretty awesome.

Since I'm not getting the link to work properly, I've copied/pasted it here for your convenience.


Olympic Volunteers from U.S. Learn Calligraphy

BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- "It's just like drawing a picture," Emily Doolittle said as she was trying to write Chinese characters at a calligraphy class here on Tuesday.

Doolittle is one of the 24 students from the University of Iowa in the United States, who started their week-long orientation course on Chinese culture, environment, economy, media and ethnic minorities at Tsinghua University as of Monday.

"I once took a Chinese calligraphy class in my university two years ago. It was really hard to figure out how to write Chinese characters," Doolittle told Xinhua.

Gao Yuan, teacher of the calligraphy class, started with the origin of the Chinese characters, and then went on with the discovery of oracles.

Gao pointed out that the idea of the Olympic emblem comes from the Xiaozhuan style and the seal, which the Chinese people always use for signature.

"I ever learned the oracles of mouth and water. It's so cool! The shapes of the characters look like what they are in reality," Doolittle said.

Following Gao, she put down time and time again the Chinese characters of Beijing, the Olympic Games as well as the University of Iowa of the United States.

Having known her Chinese name Du Kaili means victory plus beauty, Doolittle couldn't be more exciting. She wrote down her Chinese name, of which she also took photos.

David McNace, who has learned Chinese for two semesters, got very proud of his Chinese name Mai Dawei that was given by his Chinese teacher in his university.

"We used to read names backwards, so my name sounds like Weida (great in Chinese)," McNace said to Doolittle, showing his pride. "You see, my name is full of greatness."

"I will hang it (his name) on my door when I'm back," McNace added after he finished his Chinese name on the paper.

After taking the Chinese culture course, they will join the other 268 overseas Olympic media volunteers in the training by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) and serve media operation during the Games.

They will work at the Main Press Center or the International Broadcast Center or with particular sports such as tennis and wrestling.

According to the BOCOG, some 22,000 overseas Olympic volunteers will come to China for the upcoming Games this year.

Vending Machine beverages: Original gravity 11 degrees percent?

Here's a good picture to sum up our first experiences in Beijing:

1. There is beer for 25 cents in the vending machines. No joke.

2. The ingredients list really says, Original gravity: 11 degrees %.


Your guess is as good as mine. :)

The Summer Palace

Much to my surprise, The Summer Palace is only a couple hundred years old; the last Empress, Cixi (who is often blamed/credited, depending on viewpoint, for the fall of Imperial China), who was Puyi's grandmother. She lived during the 1800s. And that's all I remember from my China History 101 class. The Summer Palace was where Puyi and Cixi hung out when weather in Beijing was excrutiating. The architecture is gorgeous and the man-made lake is beautiful and fun for paddle boating. Today it is used as a public park, and you can see HUNDREDS of people throughout the park; paddle boating, battery boating, sitting, napping, eating snacks from a nearby vendor, playing cards, families having picnics, looking at nature (there are nature trails), power walking, tourists looking at the palace itself, whatever you want. It's a great park!

Even the Chinese will vote for Obama.

This is the first/only time I've seen something Obama-like in China, but it would make sense that he's popular here. In the last few weeks, I've seen Beijing definitely transform--not just since last October, but even in the 4 weeks we've been here! Construction sites which were barely begun when we arrived now are open malls. Obama represents change, hope for the future, and I can't imagine a city which is embodying those traits more than Beijing today.

This is the princess's mother, who is OBSESSED with marrying off her daughter, the Emperor's sister.
Martial arts/fight scene between a jealous brother and the groom-to-be
Beijing green tea. Lini is pouring.
I love this picture because it shows the pit as well as what's going on onstage. In this scene, the jealous Emperor is leading his army to find his sister and brother-in-law. The couple know of the Emperor's plot to kill the army general (bro in law), so they have fled during the night.
Some of our Iowa friends in front of the stage before the Beijing opera began.
Lini and I in the VIP seats :) Our tea was delicious--it's the typical Beijing tea, which means you cover the cup which a matching lid while you drink it so that you don't accidentally drink the leaves.

Literally. Five minutes of "WOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo"
"shhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" . interesting.






Demonstrating how to drink that tea. :)

a few good quotes from the Beijing opera

The translations from ancient Mandarin to modern English were pretty fabulous. Here are some cool ones that popped up on the screen next to the stage:

1. "Princess, my love. I come here to marry you, but your brother always wants to kill me. I do hope you will care about this in the future."


2. "He is so annoying! Shut up!" (that just seems ancient Mandarin-like, don't you think?)


and then there was the princess's aria, which was the longest moment of my life. She was full of screeches, high-pitched yelps (think: angry Ferbie), some bark-like sounds that I did NOT imagine possible via a human vocal cord. All in all, I enjoyed the sound of it because it was so different. For the first three minutes. After that, I got a little irritated with the wavering noises. I could tell she was balancing on one syllable for quite a long time before finally edging onto the next syllable of her lyrics. The screen on the side of her stage translated from Mandarin to English what she was singing. During that whole time, at LEAST an exhausting, temporarily delightful, 5 minutes, the screen didn't change once. It took her all that time to sing only the following:

"My name is (name). I am a princess."

Beijing Opera

Beijing Opera.

Just to give you an idea of how culturally significant opera may be here, back when I took Chinese class, we learned how to say "Beijing opera" before we learned how to say, "I need water."

One of the last stops of the 3-day BOCOG tour (which, by the way, was an awesome 3 days!) our tour guide, Arthur, took us to an opera about a love between an army general and an Imperial princess. And how his 5 best friends meddle, and how her brother wants to kill him. And there was a crazy wise man. And an old mother who was obsessed with marrying off her daughter. THE BEST PART, though, was that I luckily drew VIP VIP tickets! Out of 300 students, only a handful (I'd say about a dozen) of us got to sit in the balcony. We had a great view of the stage, plus we sat in some cushy seats, as opposed to wooden chairs that the rest of the suckers--I mean, students--had to sit. Heh. :)

In my VIP seat, I sat next to my friend from Iowa, Lini Ge. We had tea and four cakes, including moon cake. Moon cake is one of my favorite Chinese treats, traditionally served around the lunar festival in autumn. It's a rather hard cake filled with sweet bean paste. It's wonderful. :)

The second best thing about the opera: the princess's maids sounded like...are you ready for this...Ferbies. Do you remember ferbies from the late 1990s? They're little robotic dog-like creatures that kind of go, "rarrrararara" in a high pitched voice. over. And Over. And over. Again.

The third best thing about the opera (and I'm not quite sure that this shouldn't be the number 1 best thing) was the costuming. The costumes were exquisite--bold colored (yellow, reds, blues) robes with beaded collars, 4-inch soled shoes, bright white make up, long and dark braided hair, my gosh. It was gorgeous.

I now know why the Chinese value their opera they way they do.

Well, sure I hope this post saves! The internet connection here really lacks something to be desired....

Great Wall and the Mexican President

I found Nate and David when the group got shoulder-to-shoulder. This is me calmin' me down.
Before the wall got too crowded. :) Behind me you can faintly see the "One World One Dream" sign.
Close up of peoples' names carved into the wall
As you can see, there is an obscene number of other people here. It took 20 minutes for us to reach that curve of the wall in the background from where this photo was taken (above). After realizing how ridiculous it was, a small group of us decided to turn back because the crazy parasols EVERYWHERE were really crampin' our style. Once we reached the exit, however, we were forced by a red army guard to stay on the Great Wall; the presidente de Mexico was preparing to exit his section of the wall and as a security precaution, we were to stay put.

Truth be told, I understood this but I was quite angry; no one informed me that the president of Mexico was in attendance and this would potentially cause a delay in my exit. The ONLY reason I minded was because--well, did you SEE the crazy amount of people on this wall? People were trying to leave, could not, became frustrated, began yelling, pushing--it was almost scary.

I had to calm myself down; I did panic just a little bit in this situation because it was the closet to being lost in a crowd, with crowd mind-set, that I've ever been. Everyone learns something while studying abroad, though, and I suppose this was one of those times that I can take an opportunity to evaluate myself; I learned how to handle myself in a crowd, if it gets nuts (thankfully, this did not). All I did was stand near to a couple of friends, smiled a bit, and took photos of areas far away to concentrate on something else. :)

During the Ambassadors Conference last spring, a speaker mentioned that if you are stuck in a crowd which is all trying to filter through the same exit in a frantic hurry, you should first get to the wall and THEN go toward the exit; crowd studies show that those people who are closet to the sides of a place (ie touching a wall) reach the exit before those who are crammed in the middle (ie touching other people, but not a wall) because they tend to not get pushed back as easily and can edge themselves forward more.

Just so you all know--I tried it. It worked.


Not everyone can say they were stuck on the Great Wall because the presidente de Mexico was exiting it.

Well I can.

:)

Water Water Everywhere...(but trust me, you don't want to drink a drop of THIS)

Today BOCOG (Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games), the group for which I volunteer, took began its 3-day tour of Beijing for its 300 international student volunteers.

Let's just say it was quite an interesting start!

At 9 am we hopped on a bus, bound for Tsinghua Water Treatment Plant, which serves 800,000 people. Can you just do me a favor and imagine the 40,000 pounds of squishy, floating brown gunk? A treatment plant that serves an area with 800,000 people is an interesting way to start anyone's morning, indeed. We even saw watermelon seeds floating on the surface. Yummy.


Some quotes from the water plant:

As we walked on metal grids above the initial treatment stage and looked at oxygen and bacteria bubbling to the surface...

Nick C: Oh my god, there are actually life preservers on the railings! Crap, if I fall in that water, just let me drown.

Justin G: Look! Watermelon seeds!

Me: I think I'm going to get sick--seriously, can someone tell a quick story to distract me for a moment?

Cameron: Once there was a girl who really loved to draw. But she had no fingers. So she prayed to the god of war for fingers. He sent her to this plant and she never asked for anything else again.

Nick R: MMM, raging torrents of poop.

Me: This kind of reminds me of the scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory...


A few of the signs were pretty good, too. We saw the "Blower Room" and the "Dosing Room", both of which seemed pretty dangerous and made obnoxious noises. We ran out of them as quickly as we curiously entered them.


Truth be told, it was a very nice tour. I've visited a water treatment plant 3 previous times, but this one was more interesting---it was built in 2004, so it was very new. The tour guides were very nice, and red army guards saluted our group as we walked by (note: definitely the first time I've seen any type of military personnel in a water treatment facility). Workers at the plant also had samples of water from each of the sanitation stages so we could see progression. I will try to upload a picture, but I'm having difficulty uploading photos here.


It was a fine tour, but I'm just curious as to why BOCOG sent us to a water treatment plant. I mean, like I said earlier, a treatment plan which sees 40,000 pounds of crap each day and holds it for 13 days isn't exactly a scintillating destination for a glamorous morning tour of a city. My initial thought is to prove that, yes, China DOES clean its water, despite the scrutiny it faces for its pollution. Perhaps I was not impressed because I've visited 3 other water treatment plants before and once you've seen one, you've seen them all. And seeing the water treatment plant doesn't mean I'm going to start drinking the tap water here; my Chinese friends don't even drink tap here.



It reminded me of that old saying/poem, "water water everywhere, but not a drink".

I was grateful for the bottles of water on the bus today. ;)

Wo xihuan changcheng

"Wo xihuan changcheng" means, in Mandarin, "I enjoy the Great Wall". It is one of only a handful of sentences that I still remember from my Beginning Chinese I class during my sophomore year at the University of Iowa. "Wo xihuan changcheng", along with "Wo yao kaffei" (I want coffee) are my standard reponse when someone asks me, "Oh, you're going to China? Do you speak Chinese?"

Truth be told, my "Putonghua" (Mandarin, in Mandarin) used to be noticeably better. At one point, I could actually carry a conversation. Now I can listen and understand most numbers, but ordering food is nearly fruitless and if my taxi driver gets confused, I rely on hand gestures and, in extreme circumstances, shout "Dao le!" (Stop!) And then I climb out from the backseat and just look for another taxi driver to confuse. I always pay, of course.

Note: Xinhua News Agency reported that taxi drivers will all speak English by the Olympic Games, because English is the official language of the Games. Do they really? Let's just say this: The closest I've come to a coherent conversation with a driver was in Spanish. But more about taxis later---I digress from my main point: Wo xihuan changcheng.

Since arriving on June 22, we've been interviewed multiple times, and it never gets boring. Every interview attracted dozens of stares, and prompts strangers to take photos with us. Beth was even handed a random, (frightened, too) child for a photo by the child's (overly) enthusiastic father. We've been interviewed and recorded in the subway stations, the Forbidden City, restaurants, and The Temple of Heaven. Whenever the cameras rolled, other tourists and locals took pictures of us, thinking we were someone famous. At one point, literally dozens of young girls in heels and baggy t-shirts ran toward our group, and flashes came from every which direction as we all made the "peace" sign. If only we had this type of response when we walked down the streets in Iowa City. .

But my moment, my "Wo xihuan changcheng" moment, occurred at The Temple of Heaven, where the emperor would pray for rain. The Temple is, to be honest, more impressive in the Beijing guide books than in real life--it's something everyone sees once, but rarely return. There are kiosks inside of the temple selling ice cream, Beijing knots, and kodak cameras, if that tells you much. The formerly sacred blue and red traditional structures housing gold and incense lanterns are still beautiful, still round, still surrounded by trees in a park, but very much overwhelming with tourists. To see the golden alters inside of the temple buildings, had to practically snuggle with strangers to get any sort of view.

After my snuggle session with strangers and impatience with lines, the temple did manage to find a unique place in my mind. Behind the last round, concrete-floored temple, a small group of my colleagues and I were interviewed by, according to our study abroad adviser, "the largest news agency in southern China". I guess I can consider it part of my 15 minutes of fame. Here's what half of 1.3 billion people saw of me:


A large camera is glued to our faces as we stand in front of the tall blue and red temple. The sky is a dull gray (think: dishwater), but the gold detail on the temple must have makes up for it. Curious locals and other tourists are staring and discreetly taking a picture or two. We're used to it by now, but I still get a little irritated that strangers have 1 dimensional copies of me somewhere (seriously, what ARE you going to do with a picture of stranger, anyway?!) William, Elinathan, Sterling, Kevin, Cameron and I stand in a straight line for the camera to view us easily as Justin, our bilingual colleague, has the honor of holding the microphone and interviewing us.

William tells the camera he likes Beijing food, Elinathan likes the Forbidden City (if I remember correctly). Justin thanks them for their response, and then shares the microphone with me.

"Emily, what is your favorite part of Beijing?"

I think for a moment, relying on my favorite sentence that I've rehearsed dozens of times in my head since that Chinese class sophomore year, which I stood up in front of my class and recited for extra credit, which I wrote on pieces of paper when I was bored in other classes, which has been recited for friends of friends when they hear I was China-bound, to which their faces were impressed: "Wo xihuan changcheng."

And then I try to think of how to say, "yeah, I walked up stairs and stairs and more stairs in thinning air until I just about keeled over. It was the most intense workout I had since I quit track in 9th grade. An hour later, when I finally got up to the wall, a group of Iranian men kept taking pictures with me, all in a group and then individually with each one, which was fun at the time because they kept saying they liked my blond hair and that 'they liked Americans, and, do Americans like us?', and I said 'of course, of course' and it was all fun and friendly and I left the group feeling very pretty and laughing at the strange encounter--but once I saw a copy of the picture later, I realized why they were so fascinated by my appearance: I was so sweaty and tired and exhausted that my skin was bright pink, and I looked like one of those albino squirrels hanging up in the biology corner of MacBride Hall at the University of Iowa. Seriously, radioactive pink. I must've looked terrifying!"

But of course, I know how to say none of that in Mandarin, and I think Justin sees that I'm struggling, that I've got no more Chinese on hand, and so he says, "Thank you, Emily" and moves on to ask Cameron how he likes the people in Beijing.

And with that, I've decided that I'm going to improve my Chinese language skills. A lot.

Xie xie. (Thanks for reading, Folks).