Back in Beijing

I got back last Wednesday morning to a bit different Beijing than I had left a month before.  I got in at 7:30 am, and the train station was booming.  I had forgotten that there was no subway station at the Beijing West train station, and I really didn’t want to take a bus with my pack, so I went outside and tried to hail a cab.  I’ve had hard times finding cabs before, but never this bad.  I waited by the street for a while with no luck, so I walked around for a few minutes trying to decide what to do.  One guy asked if I was looking for a taxi, and I said that I was.  He asked where I was going—to Wangfujing (not too far away).  He quoted me a price of Y100 for the ride.  I argued with him for a moment, and then seeing that he was used to dealing with tourists, I told him he was crazy and walked away.  That’s when I saw a sign saying “taxis”.  I tried to enter the driveway where the sign was, but the guard yelled at me.  I asked him where to go, and he said they had set up a taxi stop under the train station, but that I had to go all the way back down and into the station to get there.  After another 10 minutes or so of trying to find how to get down there, I finally made it back into the train station, and found the taxi stop.  Seeing the huuuuge line of tourists waiting for taxis at this “taxi stop” where there weren’t even that many taxis, I laughed out loud, and walked away, knowing that I’d have to wait at least an hour at that rate to get a taxi.  So, I walked maybe 3 or 4 blocks east and was able to pick up a taxi at the regular metered rate.

I had booked a hostel at Wangfujing for about Y35 a night.  I put my stuff down, took a shower, sent my clothes to be cleaned, and then headed over to the IES building at Beiwai to visit teachers, friends, and relax a bit.  After grabbing lunch with some of the old crew, I headed with the orientation team for the summer program and a bunch of the new students to the Silk Market to get a new suitcase.  So, for the past few days, I’ve really just been laying low, spending time with friends, repacking all of my stuff, and doing a little last-minute shopping.

One of my friends from last semester told me an interesting story.  Every now and then, someone will come around the university looking for foreigners to be featured in commercials, advertisements, etc.  My friend heard through someone else that there were some people looking for a foreigner to take part in some sort of propaganda (‘propaganda’ doesn’t have a negative connotation in China as it does in the US).  There has been a rumor going around that the five fuwas (the Beijing Olympic characters) each represent a different disaster for China this year.  (See this article.)  This propaganda was being filmed by the Ministry of Internet something or another, and was meant to dispel these rumors.  The concept of the advertisement (which was being filmed and photographed) was to tell people not to accept fake things.  In the ad, my friend and a Chinese girl are at lunch.  They eat, ask for the bill, and pay with a  Y50 bill, only to have the fuwuyuan (waitress) return saying, “I’m sorry, but this is a fake bill.”  (Counterfeit bills aren’t that uncommon in Beijing these days, and most every shopkeeper will check a Y50 or Y100 bill before accepting it.)  Next, to show that they wouldn’t accept fake things either, the other girl at the table takes the Y50 bill and burns it over a candle, paying with a different bill instead.  I just found this interesting, that the government’s response to rumors of the Olympic characters representing disasters was so indirect as to say that clearly the rumors are false, and that accepting false things is bad—ESPECIALLY, when the government does such a good job of keeping people from questioning many of the “false” pieces of information that they convey on state-run news networks. 

Anyway, I’m just hanging out right now.  I’m probably going out tonight.  We were going to go out last night, but it rained harder than I’ve ever seen in Beijing (and maybe in many other places as well).  There was some minor flooding on the roads, and my shoes and socks were soaked after a minute outside.  The rain continued into today (not as hard, though) making it not such a great day to go to the Forbidden City as I had originally planned.  So, I went shopping instead, and plan to go to the Forbidden City with some of my friends tomorrow instead.  Monday, I will get up late (to at least slightly try to dispel jetlag), go get lunch with some of my teachers, and then head over to the airport for my 6:30pm flight back to the States.  I have a two-hour layover in D.C. before getting into Philadelphia at around 11:18pm.  (Of course, I’m flying on United, so who knows…)  I have plenty of things to do when I get back, and I want to keep myself busy this summer (not just with work, but with fun as well).  I’ve heard that gas prices are skyrocketing, which will make some of this difficult, but we’ll see!