After spending three days touring Beijing, these are some of my thoughts on the city.  Most hold true for the other parts of China I’ve now visited as well.  (I wrote most of this a week ago but couldn’t post it until now.)

The City:

Beijing is very, very big, but not terribly compact like cities in Korea or Japan that are constricted by geography. The major highways are a series of rings that radiate from The Forbidden City which is at the city center.

While not sleek and clean, the city does a good job of keep trash off the street and there are flowers and trees strategically placed by roadways and on sidewalks everywhere. Not the total concrete jungle I was expecting.

The streets:

Traffic, to the outside observer, is total and utter chaos. Cars, motorcycles, motorbikes (which are plentiful), and bicycles use their horns instead of their turn signals, cut each other off at intersections, shoot for gaps between pedestrians on crosswalks that are half the size of their vehicles, and drive on sidewalks if it’s convenient. However, in the midst of the chaos all the drivers are calm, pedestrians don’t flee in panic or even hurry to get out of the way, and miraculously everyone gets where they want to go with only centimeters away from disaster. No cars on the road sport fender bender scars, and so far we’ve only seen evidence of one minor accident. Whatever the impending doom, no one slams on the breaks, sprints out of the way, or otherwise moves in an unpredictable or panicked fashion. Everyone just keeps going the way they were headed (though they might slow down and lean on the horn) and squeezes by. I’m convinced that this elaborate scene is the modern practice of Tai Chi.

The Group:

Our study abroad group consists of only five students and our professor. Interestingly, in the two years I’ve had her as a teacher I have never heard Dr. Li speak more English (to us) or more Chinese (to the tour guides) as I have in China.

Of the other students in the group, two have taken two semesters of Chinese language and the other two haven’t taken any at all. At this point it’s obvious that Daniel and I came on the trip because we’re hardcore Chinese language students, and the other three came mainly because they’re history buffs. It’s an interesting dynamic. For example, we all walk into a giant history museum with minimal English signage. While Miles is looking in awe at artifacts and enthusiastically muttering about this dynasty or that legendary figure, I join a Chinese school group lecture since the lecturer has crisp moderately-paced Mandarin and uses a laser pointer to point at what she’s talking about. Although I don’t follow much of what she says, I’m still getting more out of the experience than I would otherwise.  Culture and history are interesting to me, but if given the choice I’d rather work on my language skills.

We all get along great.  Everyone in the group has been friendly, polite, studious, and on time.  There aren’t any picky eaters or trouble makers.  Also (interestingly) the non-Chinese speakers don’t rely on me, Daniel, or Miles to communicate which is admirable.

The Food:

Although we’re now on our own to get food in Qingdao, until last week almost every meal was like Thanksgiving dinner. Always many dishes for everyone to share (always more dishes than people!) and hotel breakfasts, too, is pretty heavy and filling fare. Everything is delicious! Why can’t we have good Chinese food in the states?? It’s also extremely cheap by US standards.

The…. Toilets:

One thing I definitely was not adequately prepared for was the squatting toilets. All three of the hotels we’ve stayed in have had western-style sitting toilets, but every park, restaurant, and museum exclusively has squatty potties. They’re not hard to use, exactly, but having lived a life where every toilet stall door has a foot-high gap above the floor makes me irrationally self-conscious. Also, there’s nowhere to put my stuff (like my backpack) since stalls are small and the little floor space is usually covered in toilet water.

Pro tip: toilet paper is rarely in the stalls, but instead a single roll is often by the entrance for everyone to grab before they go. Actually, they may not even have toilet paper to be honest… best to bring your own. Oh, and don’t flush it after you use it or else the toilet (even Western-style toilets) will get stopped up and the cleaning lady will fuss at you. Better to put it in the trash can… yeah.