Halfway Around the World and Back
If you've ever considered traveling to China, more likely than not you have an adventurous streak. Coming from California, where China is literally on the other side of the world, I was met with two realities. First, I found myself as far away from home as possible without inter-planetary travel. As the old saying goes, you can only walk into a forest halfway, because beyond that you will be walking out. The second reality was more complicated. In relation to what the other side of the world has to offer, the comfortable relationship I have with my own culture and sense of society was turned upside down. We typically refer to this as “culture shock.” Not only did my pale skin and curly hair have me sticking out like a sore thumb, but also I was surrounded by a language I had never studied. Plus being in a place where you're warned not to drink the water always puts me a bit on edge.
One of many maps we had trouble locating ourselves on, unless we were looking for a McDonalds.
I have an adventurous spirit, and it lives and breathes on this kind of experience. It's like getting my travel bug hands dirty. From start to finish, and even now, the adventure was like walking through an interactive museum with endless winding hallways and no map or program. In the first hours of the trip, still at LAX bound for Hong Kong, seeing other passengers traveling with surgical masks so as not to contract swine flu or other infections had me reflecting on the overly exaggerated, fear mongering style of our American media. Arriving at the Hong Kong airport had my mother and I discussing how disappointed international travelers must be when they arrive at the Tom Bradley terminal. It is severely lacking in entertainment and foodstuffs unlike the Hong Kong airport, which houses a mall with an entertainment center.
But these simple observations were just in-transit experiences. I've ridden in planes and traveled on trains and attend university in a city commanded by its public transportation system so I was mostly excited about seeing what it's like for the people, the residents, the locals. Would they be rude? Would they stare? Could I stare back? Would I feel safe? These questions swam in my head for the months leading up to the trip, and stayed with me until my first walk around Beijing on our first day. People stared, but nobody stopped. And by the first block, I was more comfortable looking the people in the eye and smiling than I ever have been walking on the street back home. Maybe it was because I stood out like a foreigner so readily, but it was a bizarre feeling, realizing that I felt more comfortable being a friendly person on a walk down a street in China than I ever felt in California.
This gentleman is one of many local residents trying to stay cool in the hot, humid air.
My anxiety about social interactions with the locals was the only real hump of the trip, and it was surprisingly small. The language barrier wasn't too difficult, though it was humbling when I realized I was in a place where I didn't even know how to count to ten. Not that it made me feel small or childish—mostly it made me wish I had picked up a CD for Rosetta Stone and learned a few phrases in conversational Mandarin. My only regret in the two weeks was not being able to talk to all the interesting shop owners and street vendors I walked past.
In Beijing we experienced the silk markets, which for me were a one-time thing. My mother loved them, because she's a skilled hand at the art of bartering. I, however, was much more contented to sit and watch all the commotion. It's literally five floors of cubicle-sized mini-stores selling shoes and art and shirts and scarves and guitars and Chinese souvenirs like traditional opera masks or painted scrolls. The sales people come at you like hawks trying to sell their merchandise. It was like observing a swap meet on speed after a three-night bender in Vegas—and it happens every day. To think that as I write this there are people passing calculators back and forth arguing over the price of a pearl necklace or a camera really puts things in perspective if I'm ever feeling anxious.
(Left)Even the walls along the staircases at the Silk Marketplace are plastered with things to buy.
(Right)The silk for sale is stacked into cabinets, waiting to be measured and cut.
Calculators proved invaluable between sales person and customer while bartering over price.
Of the four nights we were in Beijing, one of them was spent out on the town and it was thrilling. Never have I ever gone from eating Peking duck (absolutely amazing! I now know what savory tastes like), to walking through the streets lined with illegal street vendors selling clothes and books and toys, to paying what came to about $15 for a full body massage, to drinking at a bar playing foosball, to walking into another bar and ordering beer pong. Yes, you can order beer pong in China and they even set up the table for you.
Traditional tourist spots in Beijing, like the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Great Wall, were almost too much to take in all at once. Tiananmen Square has some weird vibes traveling through it. It's not hard to take a moment of silence while walking through, imagining all that went on during the protests twenty years ago. And The Great Wall is more than just a wall. Sitting on it, looking up at the sky on the clear day we were granted, taking in the surrounding countryside on either side leaves my head swimming. It is one of the most personal moments I have ever experienced with a landscape and it brought me a much-needed sense of serenity.
The beautifully intricate architectural details within the Forbidden City.
A view of the Great Wall from the inside of one of the many watchtowers built for lookout.
After Beijing we traveled to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors. The city of Xi'an and I didn't really get along because there was a lot of smog in the air and it made my throat itchy, so outside of the tour to see the warriors I preferred to stay in the hotel reading and writing post cards. But seeing the warriors was a marvelous sight. To imagine the intense dedication of craftsmanship to create thousands of life sized warriors; all with distinctly unique features from one another was mind-boggling.
One of three vast pits filled with rows of unearthed Terracotta Warriors.
From Xi'an we traveled to Chengdu, which we both agreed was our favorite city of the trip. We had a brilliant tour guide named Fay who made us feel like we had arrived to visit an old friend. She took us to the Chengdu Panda Preserve, where we were able to hold a real live panda for a sizable donation. If you are thinking about traveling to China, do it just to hold a panda. I guarantee it will be worth the trip.
A picture of me while holding Xiu Xiu, at the Chengdu Panda Preserve.
Teenage pandas feasting on bamboo, an adult panda, and three pandas hanging out.
Our final destination after Chengdu was Hong Kong. This was the most westernized city on the whole trip, and almost everyone spoke English. We stayed at the Holiday Inn on Kowloon and spent our time lying by the pool on the roof, eating garlic noodles from the local 7 Eleven. The first night we went out by the water to see a light show of Hong Kong viewed from Kowloon.
It's set to a futuristic soundtrack and is a nice, free treat the city puts on. But mostly there were a lot of high-end shopping malls and boutiques. The streets were narrow and winding. It was fun getting lost looking for the hotel after wandering the city.
The garlic noodles were so good I had to take a picture of the in-store ad. The cost is in Hong Kong Dollars about .85 cents American.
The view of Hong Kong from Kowloon's Walk of the Stars.
Finally we departed for LAX from the Hong Kong International Airport, where we spent the afternoon. They have a 4D movie theater where we watched Star Trek, an arcade where I played an hour worth of video games, and interactive photo booths where we had our pictures taken, and then got to decorate them with lots of little symbols and characters.
Landing back at LAX, it felt good to be home. The two weeks spent traveling to four different cities half way around the world left my wanderlust quite satisfied. I gained some wonderful memories, tasted some delicious food, snapped some priceless photos, held a panda, bonded with my mom, and gained for myself a sense of serenity. And in a word, when people ask me what China was like, all I can say is it's beautiful.
Olivia J. Hubert
San Francisco State University
