I spent the last winter break in the most logical way possible, I went to China.
More specifically I went on a Mechanical Engineering school trip to Beijing. The purpose of the trip was to explore what university is like in China and to gain a better understanding of the Chinese culture. The trip was especially valuable considering the economic power China is becoming. For this we toured several universities and industries. We also got to see all the awesome tourist sights Beijing had to offer.
The group of students contained 20 students who were 2nd-4th year Mech/Manu students. The group consisted of Lindsey, Tony, Ivanna, Song, Travis, Nick, Mike, Ashley, Justin, Garret, Danny, Nick R., Justin P., Brian, Brian N., Bo, Danny C., Steve, Jack and me. We were left Canada on December 28 and returned January 11, 2007.
I would like to give a huge thanks to Kitty and Laura who organized the whole trip. Also, thanks to Dr. Kwok who was our accompanying professor.
Since the trip was a school trip, there were generally events scheduled for the day. These included things like industry and campus tours and lectures. We also got tours and visited the tourist sites. Evenings were generally not scheduled so we took maximum advantage of them to party. It’d take way too long for me to do a run down of everything we did, so instead here’s an overview of everything.
General
First off some basic facts, Beijing is the capital of China and has a population of almost 15 million people. It’s basically on the other side of the world and has a time zone of +15 hours from Calgary.
When the Communists gained power in China most of the old city was destroyed. Due to this China has a cool mix of architecture. You see lots of Stalinist architecture (massive imposing buildings) from when China and the USSR were cooperating. I’ve also never seen so many just epic and massively modern buildings spread through out a city.
However, as impressive as the buildings were, it was often hard to see them. Beijing is by far the smoggiest city I have ever been in (and I’ve been to Cairo). Everybody on our trip had a hacking cough after spending a few days in the city.
I almost forgot what clean air looked like if it weren’t for a few ridiculously windy days. Due to the high humidly, Beijing always felt 10 degrees colder than it was. So when it got windy, it was the kind of wind which chilled you to your soul. However, the wind was really effective at blowing the smog away. Here is some pictures of the building outside my dorm window on a regular smoggy day and on a windy smog less day. Believe it or not, the pictures were taking at about the same time (between 8-9 am) and the sky was completely clear on both days. I think they do a good job showing the smog.
Beijing smog
Believe it or not this is basically the same pic as above except on a windy day
Money and Shopping
Chinese currency can be confusing. The base name for the currency is the renminbi (RMB or the people’s currency). However, the Chinese dollar equivalent is called a yuan (¥). $1 Can = 6.63 ¥.
There are 10 jiao in a yuan and 10 fen in a jiao. The thing about jiao and fen is that they’re basically useless unless you’re a local. You can literally buy nothing for a fen and nobody wants to bother with them. I got stuck with about 30 fen in the first day and spent the rest of my trip trying to unload them. The jiao is extra annoying because it can be either a bill or a coin. So that meant I had both a pocket and a wallet full of nearly useless currency.
Chinese Money!!
The bills with Mao on it are jiao, the coins and other bills are yuan and the smallest coin is a fen
The bills with Mao on it are jiao, the coins and other bills are yuan and the smallest coin is a fen
Stuff was a fraction of the price that it would be anywhere else. Luckily there was lots of time in the schedule for shopping and we all took full advantage of it. Even me, who generally doesn’t like to shop, had to buy and extra bag to bring it all home.
Most places (such as the Silk or Pearl Market) required that we barter for prices. If one was good at bartering, you could get a great price. Right off the bat it was noticeable that the clerks would try to take advantage of the fact we were foreigners and weren’t really sure how much stuff costs. It was possible to get things almost 5% of the clerk’s starting price. It was also very noticeable that people in our crew of Asian descent has a much easier time getting lower prices than others.
The only downside about shopping in Beijing is that most of the stuff was fake. You would never know if the jacket you just bought would fall apart or burst into flames 40 seconds after you put it on.
Language
Language was a bit of an issue. In Beijing the language was Chinese mandarin and English was rare. Well it was sometimes possible to find an English speaker, it was impossible to rely on it. Often people who you needed to communicate with didn’t speak English and you’d need to work around it.
Jack, Kitty, Laura and Dr. Kwok could write and speak mandarin. They did a great job helping us out. When we had to go somewhere they’d either write us a note or we’d use something like the Lonely Planet to show the cab driver the Chinese name.
The Olympics
One thing was obvious from the second that we got off the plane; Beijing is really excited to be hosting the Olympics in 2008. Really excited. Like scary excited. It was also very obvious that they are spending a lot of money on it. Most places we went we saw some evidence of the upcoming Olympics.
Olympic merchandize was extremely available the whole time. Whenever we got near a tourist site we were swamped by people trying to sell us Olympic gear. If one wanted to buy it from a store, one was always around the block.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with the mascots but they’re known as the Friendlies. When I first saw them I found them creepy. However now that I have seem them on every item possible, I now find them surprising cute.
To give you an idea how hardcore Beijing is for the Olympics, 2 weeks before they start, Beijing is shutting off all the industry surrounding Beijing to cut down on the smog. Well this will do new and wonderfully awesome things for the lungs of the Beijing citizens; it will also cost an obscene amount of money.
The Food
For the most part the organizers were responsible for our meals. Due to this we basically ate like kings the whole time. As many of you know real Chinese food is different from the Chinese food we eat here in Canada. However even the “real” Chinese food we have here in Canada is different from what we ate in Beijing because the food here is all Cantonese food. So I got to try many many things I’ve never had before.
We ate lots of fish
I liked much of the food in Beijing and definitely never went hungry. However, I’ve never seen so many wacky mushroom dishes in my life. Another aspect of Beijing food is that the rice is served at the end (because unless you’re poor, you shouldn’t be filling up on rice). Since we all wanted rice, we often requested our Mandarin speakers to order the rice first.
I liked the random bread snacks
Our average meal (notice the amount of dishes)
When we had free days and didn’t have Mandarin speakers we generally acted like losers and went to McDonalds. So now I can say I’ve eaten McDonalds in yet another country.
Yay! McDonalds
By far the most exciting food we ate was scorpion. They come on a stick of 4 and they’re deep fried. You eat the stinger and everything. They actually tasted a bit like burnt chicken. We also ate some bug cocoon but I found it way too spicy and didn’t like it.
Notice the cocoon on the top shelf
The Universities
Being a school trip we spent lots of time on several Universities. The one we spent the most time at was the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB). We stayed at their dorms from Dec. 29 to Jan 7. USTB treated us very well and we had a great time being toured around their campus.
We made good use of our dorms
One of our tasks at USTB was to deconstruct and reconstruct a gear box
Another one was to machine your own washer.
Song shows her's off
Song shows her's off
We also visited TSINGHUA University, which was basically the most elite university of China. It was really interesting to see the small differences between the schools.
Tsinghua Students and me
Finally we spent some time at the China University of Petroleum. We spent Jan 8-10 on their facilities, including one night we spent on their training facility in country side. It was cool and got to see things in a different setting.
In all our time in the universities we got to spend a fair bit of time talking to Chinese students. They were all really friendly and I got some friends who are my new email buddies. One thing that I found really interesting is how school was different between Canada and China. In China they are very technical. Their students get quite specialized quite early on. In Canada there a much larger focus on concepts and the big picture. I’m not sure which method is better, but I’m happy that I don’t have to specialize until I get into the industry.
Justin and me with students from Petro U.
Industry Visits
We visited several different industries in China. These include Hyundai Moto Manufacturing, Yanjing Beer manufacturing and the Capital Steel foundry. Capital Steel was definitely the most impressive since it was so big and there was so much fire.
Foundry Fire
We were all very impressed by the fire
Us at the fake Forbidden City they built for a visiting high level Communist official
We also got a lecture by the construction company SinoMach. Now, well I’m not overly interested in that industry, it was amazing to see the amount of money they were talking about. I tell you, after hearing how much money the Chinese are dedicating just to city construction, I’m learning Mandarin.
Activities
We did a huge variety of stuff while we were there. For example, the first night we went to karaoke. I tell you, the Chinese love their karaoke. Now a Chinese karaoke bar is different from what your probably used to. Instead of what we have, a bar is made up of many tiny rooms. Basically you go there with a group of friends and go to one of the rooms. In the room is your own personal karaoke machine and you just give’re. To give you idea how popular karaoke (or KTV as it is called in China), the bar we went to had 150 rooms. We had to wait 30 minutes and cram 20 people into an 8 person room since it’s the only space they had for us.
We also checked out a Chinese acrobat show. It was the coolest thing I have every seen ever. There were so many things that caused me to reevaluate the limits of the human body and soul.
Yes, these people have bent their spines in the wrong direction and are supporting their body using their mouths
Similarly we saw a kung-fu show. It was the classic of boy leaves mother to learn kung fu, boy learns kung fu and becomes man, man falls in love with imaginary spirit he created in his mind, man redeems self by breaking metal over head, man becomes kung fu master. To be honest the show had way too much ballet and not enough kung fu!
We also had the honor to learn some Tai Chi. It was cool but never have I had to squat so low in my life. We also learned some fan dancing which will come in handy next time I’m in “da club”.
Jack takes on a student of Tai Chi
While we were in the country side we got to play around with cheap Chinese fire works. Best 50¥ I have ever spent.
Another one of the cooler activities we had a chance to partake in was a rickshaw ride through the Houhai area of Beijing. Being one of areas not completely revolutionized by the communists, the area was much older. Laura had organized a sweet tour where the ricthots drove us around the area. Part of the tour was we got to eat lunch in a resident’s house. We were shocked to discover that the small room where we were eating would serve as the bedroom for 3 families.
Rickshaws!!!
Us in the Chinese families home
The Houhai area would also lead to one of more awesome discoveries within China. It happened when Danny, Travis, Justin and I were wandering the area and noticed a frozen pond where lots of people were skating and decided to investigate. I tell you, the Chinese love to skate. Everyone there was having an absolutely glorious time, it’s one of the happiest atmosphere’s I’ve ever been in.
The interesting thing about the scene was that there was way more than skating going on the ice, much more! There were bumper cars, hockey, these odd chairs with blades on them and even an area cut out of the ice where people could swim.
Bumper car on ice!!!
Most importantly though, there was something that would revolutionize the way I think about ice and bikes: the ice bike!!!!!
Ice Bike!!!
We need to reverse engineer this ASAP
We need to reverse engineer this ASAP
The device was simple but fun. The thing was powered with normal bike wheels but it contained a frame that keep it balanced on the ice with skates. You could steer with a blade connected to the handle bars. One could really get moving cruising around the ice.
Night life and stuff
When one thinks Beijing, you generally don’t think of its night life. I can assure though, it’s got an awesome bar scene. Since it was a school trip and all there wasn’t much time to go out, though we took advantage of every tiny minute that was granted to us.
Booze is quite cheap in China. A beer in a grocery store is costs about 30 cents Canadian. That’s a good thing. The Beijing beer was ok. I rated it as watery but inoffensive, but it definitely got the job done.
However the booze of choice was not beer, it was a substance so foul it could reduce grown men to tears. That substance is known as rice wine.
Rice Wine!!!!
Rice wine does not have a pleasant taste. It also has an average alcohol content of 56%. In most places it would be used as fuel for a small vehicle. When one drinks rice wine they generally just have a small shot of it with dinner. However, when we discovered a bottle cost under a dollar in the grocery store, we didn’t stop at one shot.
Drinking rice wine is an art form. It must be done correctly in order to avoid your body from rejecting it. Here’s a helpful guide where Justin displays the correct ways to drink rice wine:
Correct
Correct
Wrong
The sites
When it came to site seeing, most of it was done with a group. However it was generally groups wander so we could all split up (thank God). Here’s a quick run down of some of the cool things we saw.
Tiananmen Square – Now this is a big public square. In total it stretches a 1km and no picture can pick up the majesty of it. Here’s a quick rundown of the lay out. At the most south you have this bitching building which is called the guard tower.
Traveling north one comes to the tomb of Mao (more on this later).
A bit more north of that you reach this rectangle thing that acts as the symbolic center of the Chinese universe (not bad for a rectangle thing).
One the east on west of this square is City museum and the Chinese government building.
Finally you reach the flag, cross a road and come to the Gate of Heavenly Peace where the famous picture of Mao hangs.
Gate of Heavenly Peace
The whole area is actually a nice place to hang out in and an extremely pleasant area. It almost makes one forget it was the location of one of the most horrifying events in recent memory. I guess it doesn’t surprise me that the Chinese government would want to downplay that one a bit.
The Forbidden City- Once one passes through Gate of Heavenly Peace under the portrait of Mao one enters the Forbidden City. For those not in know, the Forbidden City is the fancy name given to what is basically a castle. The reason it was called the Forbidden City is because it is really big and it was forbidden for regular people to enter it.
The Forbidden City was pretty cool, though most of the more impressive parts were under restoration for the Olympics. After seeing all the scaffolding a I got a serious flashback of Europe.
This would have been really impressive...
Jingshan Park – This is the name of a park that located directly north of the Forbidden City. Its hill is often visible in pictures showing the city (that is when the smog is clear). It was shockingly green for the winter and offered a beautiful view of the city.
The Summer Palace – This is the name of large area where the Chinese royalty would spend their summers. The place is huge and contains things such as a palace, a lake and several temples. We had to move fast to cover the whole area. The best part were a collection of ruins were one could climb around in.
Ruins in summer palace
Garret celebrates the ruins with a back flip
Garret walking on the lake
The Temple of Heaven – While you might not recognize the name, I guarantee you’ve seen many pictures of this. The Temple is located inside a nice park. One of the coolest things in the park was a little enclosing where there was something called the Echo wall. It was possible to go to the other side of the enclose (behind a building) and talk. You’d then be heard on the other side of the enclose (behind another building).
Hijinks!!
Temple of Heaven
The Great Wall of China – Perhaps the greatest wall I saw all day. One must remember that the Great Wall is huge. It literally spanned all of China. So when visits the Great Wall, you only get to visit a section of it. We hit the Badaling section.
Yoda at the Great Wall of China
While the Badaling section is the most restored and touristy, but it was still impossibly cool. Walking along the wall was somewhat of a feat as it would get ridiculously steep in some areas. All in all I was not even remotely disappointed by it.
Mao’s Tomb – Similar to Lenin, Mao’s corpse had been preserved and it was possible to see him. Mike and I made it a policy on the plane ride in that we HAD to see him. That proved to be more difficult than it sounded though. Due to the packed schedule and Chinese holidays for the New Year, Mao’s tomb was closed any time we tried to see him. At one point we even lead a group there to discover that it was closed.
Our first attempt to get into Mao's Tomb
Now that's a good Mao Tomb Pic
There was only one chance; the day that we flew out we would have barely enough time to see him. The one problem was we were currently staying at the Petro University which was located far from the center of Beijing. At 6am a brave group set out to Mao. The trip took a bus and a metro, 4 hours of travel time and almost becoming dangerously lost in Beijing. But damn it, we got to see Mao.
We arrived early and were second in line. However, we were in line for about 5 minutes when a hoard of people got in line behind us. The trip through the tomb was interesting. First we were lead into the building by following a yellow line. The crowd stopped to buy flowers from a shop conveniently located outside the tomb. You would then enter the building and be greeted by a large statue of Mao. After people placed the flowers at the statue we were shuffled into one of two parallel halls. The halls lead us past a glass wall where it was possible to see Mao in his glass coffin.
He looked quite persevered (in a waxy sort of way) similar to Lenin. It was totally worth the trip. It now means that I have seen two Communist leaders in my goal to see them all. Watch out Hồ Chí Minh, you’re next.
The Party
I’m going to end this blog by describing one of the most unusual surreal moments of my life. It also happened to be one of the funniest and most memorable things I’ve experienced.
It took place on a day when we were staying at the USTB campus. We had just returned from visiting another university when we were informed that the USTB students were throwing us a party. Now as you all know, the term “party” is a vague one. It can mean anything from drinking, paint ball, something very R rated to a plethora of other things.
Danny C. did a good job setting the mood by asking the organizer “Is there going to be beer or should we bring our own?” We were informed “no beer” and was shuttled to the party which was taking place in a small gym.
Right off the bat things were unusual. As we walked in streamers were set off and we were greeted by applause. It’s not very often our entrances are celebrated in such an exciting manner.
The gym was organized with a row of chairs on each wall facing each other with empty space between. We came in and sat in the row opposite of the Chinese students, this meant we were one side on the gym and the some 50 Chinese students were on the other. It was like some middle school dance with boys on one side of the gym and girls on the other.
Just when I didn’t think things could get any odder, two MC’s came up speaking surprising good English. They told some canned jokes and introduced a Chinese emo band which played us a pleasant ditty.
Following the emo band things got even more surreal when a girl came up and proceeded to play the saw!! We were all still in shock from this when the MC came up to us to inform us that we would now have to present something. After much maneuvering the mike was thrust to me and I was pushed in front to perform.
Now if you know me, you know that I can’t do anything. My only real talent is my 1337 Smash Brother skills. So I did the only thing I could think of, I sang the Engineering song. Now this got odd reaction from the Chinese students since they didn’t know how to react (it’s not exactly the catchiest or cleanest of songs). So I diverted the mike to Garret and he did a back flip.
Now the back flip was impressive so it bought us some time. However not enough time and the mike was given to Danny to display his freestyle skills. Now Danny was in a bit of predicament. Well it is true he is quite a good free styler, he is more specialized in drunken free styling that generally involves someone’s mother in an improper situation. However to his credit he pulled off a nice clean rap.
Now that’s when things got really weird and a Chinese student came out to challenge Danny to a rap battle. So here we are in Beijing, at some party, with some 50 students looking at us, Danny and a Chinese dude are engaged in a rap battle when all of suddenly, the Chinese dude drops a F-bomb. Danny figured that if the student could swear, so could he, and he couldn’t get the mike fast enough.
Following the rap battle a Chinese punk band came out and proceeded to start playing. We moshed to the music and after a while the organizer approached us and said “Ok, now you can buy beer”.
We bought several flats of beer and the spent the next couple hours talking to Chinese students. We even managed to teach a couple of them how shotgun beer. It was our cultural gift.
This was defiantly one weird night, but damn was it fun and I met a lot of really cool people.
Ok I think this is long enough
China was an awesome time. The cool thing about this school trip was we were able to see the Chinese society in a way that would not be possible if we were tourists. Once again I’d like to thank the people who organized it since I can’t even imagine how much time this must have required.
