Saturday, July 6, 2013 – 9:37 a.m.

I originally wrote this as a journal entry from my room in the Shiny Pearl Hotel, or Ming Zhu Yuan the morning that I and 20+ other American teachers arrived in Wuhan on an overnight train from Beijing.

Wow, I am in China! I arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, July 3rd at 10:30 p.m., so I’ve been in China going on 3 days. I briefly passed through Tokyo, Japan on a two-hour layover between New York and Beijing. Even writing these details feels surreal. A couple of times a day I pinch myself, because I cannot believe how wonderfully blessed I am right now in this moment. So far, I have met wonderful people, including Catrice (although only virtually), Bob, Brenda, Michelle, Dave and Adi, Jarrad, D., etc.

On our first day we visited Tian An Men Square,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Forbidden City,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and The Temple of Heaven in Beijing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ate delicious food , including Beijing duck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, we only caught the last 15-20 minutes of a Kung Fu Show, because we were caught in traffic;  this seems to be a typical experience in such a large and populated city.

On our second day in Beijing, we climbed the Badaling section (1 of 4) of the Great Wall of China. We had an hour to climb – I walked for 45 minutes; they don’t call it the Great Wall for nothing. Some of the steps were so steep we literally had to climb with our hands and feet. Even the walkways were steep. The Wall took approximately 250 years to build by hand and is extraordinary with spectacular views of trees and mountains. Incidentally, both days in Beijing were filled with uncharacteristically clear blue skies.

We did get caught in a brief rain and wind storm that reminded us all of a scene from the Wizard of Oz, but it passed quickly.

Later that afternoon on our second day, we visited a Hutong community in Beijing. According to our tour guide, this particular community was founded by the Mongolians and preceded the Ming and Ching dynasties (The Bell and Watch Towers were over 800 years old). Unfortunately, when Independence came, the Chinese government took the family quadrangles (portions of land that where three generations of each family lived), and redistributed smaller portions of government owned property to each family to live in. The people seemed happy; however, the living conditions reminded me of those of U.S. housing projects where resources are limited, the housing is controlled by the government, and scores of people live in close proximity. The people in the Hutong community even shared public restrooms. I wonder if government officials live under the same conditions… no, I know better than to wonder that.

I know there is much I have to learn about socialism (including the difference between socialism and communism), but I don’t see how socialism promotes equality when men are still paid more than women for the same job, higher ranking officials receive larger pensions than the working class, and violation of the “One Child” rule results in as much as the equivalent of $30,000 U.S. currency. Women and families are not equally prepared to pay such fines and women are thus forced into using birth control, getting abortions, or harming or abandoning their babies after they are born.

On another note, the street vendors in Hutong and in Beijing in general were persistent and aggressive. Outside of The Forbidden City a vendor walked so close to me that I had to move over to my right. I suddenly felt a thud on my butt, and I had flashbacks of Queen Latifah’s U.N.I.T.Y.! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8cHxydDb7o) Luckily, no one was trying to get fresh with me. Apparently, I had stepped on another vendors rug with his goods on it. His mean face was fiercer than mine, so I kept it moving! I didn’t want to get into trouble on my first full day in China : )