Julius in Beijing: 塞翁失马

Sitting and reflecting in 北京文化公园 (Beijing Cultural Park).

塞翁失马 is a Chinese idiom (成语) that means something along the lines of ‘life is a cycle of good and bad luck.’ Chinese idioms are popular expressions used by the Chinese; I like to think of them as parables. Many exhibit a very positive outlook on life while others exhibit a more pessimistic view of life. Either way, you can learn a lot from these idioms.

My four-day adventure with Adam before the start of ACC (Associated Colleges in China), my Mandarin immersion program, was full of experiences with ‘good and bad luck.’ Like the Chinese idiom 塞翁失马 teaches us, every negative experience in our lives turns into a positive one (and so on). Here are two things that have happened since I arrived in Beijing since Sunday. Observe how they apply so well to 塞翁失马 .

I arrived in Beijing around midnight this past Sunday, drenched in tediousness and jetlagged. All I wanted to do was rest. But although it was practically Monday morning when I caught the taxi to my hostel near Tiananmen Square, the driver was extremely vigilant and nice. He wanted to know where I was from. He wanted to know where I was studying in Beijing. He wanted to know me.

Since meeting him, I’ve met tons of other Chinese people who are happy to get to know me just as much as I am to get to know them. Chinese people are so genuinely interested in the lives of foreigners—whether it be at the Silk and Pearl Supermarket, in a taxi, on the subway train, in a restaurant, or walking down the street. Their kindness has made me so much more comfortable and confident in my Chinese language abilities. Also, it has solidified my love for the generosity and benevolence of the Chinese.

I was afraid the hostel would either not exist or be unsafe. Turns out not only did the hostel exist, but it was clean and safe as well. The interior décor reminded me of a traditional Chinese home with a beautiful garden, lamps, and Asian-style furniture. Some modern flair was even added to make it suitable to its most visited guests: Westerners.

Tangent: While on the topic of Westerners, the night I moved into my hostel I met this really mean guy from Germany. He looked cool and was nice to everyone else, but I think he had something against Americans. He basically snickered in my face when I introduced myself and told him where I was from. But I realized I came to China to meet Chinese people. Whatever qualms he had with the United States were overshadowed by the awesome travelers of all ages that I met at the hostel.

For you prospective Light Fellows, definitely take the opportunity to travel around China before or after your immersion programs. Hostels are a safe, cheap housing option for short stays around China. Check online reviews of different hostels in order to determine whether it’s safe for you to live there. Do your research.

On Wednesday I went to Old Beijing (老北京). I stumbled upon this old city brimming with foreign tourists, popular coffee and fast food chains, traditional Chinese architecture, and various souvenir shops. Wandering through this area is apparently a target for Chinese salespeople to swindle tourists. I’m not exactly sure whether I was cheated or not, but I’m now much more aware of my interactions with Chinese salespeople in touristy areas. I met a middle-aged guy who said he worked for IBM as a computer engineer and his younger sister who was an English teacher. Both of them were from Xi’an and had never been to Beijing before. Adam and I shared our experiences studying Chinese with them, the places we’d been in Beijing during previous trips, and a whole host of other topics.

We spent a good amount of time walking and talking with them until they stopped us near a fancy teahouse in Old Beijing. The guy claimed he had read about it before and had always wanted to visit it. Many Chinese go out to fancy teahouses to meet friends and family, so it seemed like a great cultural experience. We were all led to a nice VIP-esque room with space just for the four of us; we conversed a lot more, delving deeper and deeper into one another’s lives. For example, I told them Adam’s ACT score, and they now know he’s a genius. We ended up trying Chinese red wine and ten different teas—from fruit tea to Buddha tea to jasmine tea. It was an awesome cultural experience. However, the reason I sound a bit skeptical about the whole thing is because when we got the bill it was 1860RMB. The guy went downstairs to pay with his credit card while Adam and I, once regaining our consciousness after realizing we’d drank $150 worth of tea, perplexingly grabbed our wallets and counted out 930RMB. (We supposedly split the bill with our tea guests, but we’ll never know.)

Some time before we head back to the U.S., we’ll return to Old Beijing and see whether that man and woman are still trying to swindle people. We won’t beat them up, don’t worry. We just want to know whether we got cheated or not. Apparently many foreigners get swindled this way. If you plan on visiting China, don’t fall for it! There are tons of genuinely kind and awesome Chinese people who will not take advantage of you. Take the taxi driver I described above, for instance.

Yesterday was another intense experience. I would say that it was probably 塞翁失马. Adam and I left the hostel around 4:30pm to get to the foreign students dormitory at the university where we are studying this summer. We crossed the street and waited for a taxi. And then we waited for a taxi. None of them would pick us up—even the vacant ones. After forty minutes, we decided to leave and ended up walking about four long blocks to Tiananmen Square. (In Beijing, blocks are really long.) I think the taxi drivers didn’t want to pick us up because it was rush hour and we had our luggage for the entire summer with us. The drivers assumed we were going to one of the airports in Beijing, which would have made them lose a lot of money.

We walked and walked until we finally reached Tiananmen. When we got there it was impossible to catch a taxi. We were standing on 南池子大街, which is like six or seven lanes wide. We stood there for about another forty minutes, mostly resting, but also trying to figure out how to get to CUEB (Capital University of Economics and Business) by subway. Two Chinese guys must have sensed our bewilderment and came to our assistance. We finally found the subway directions. Now we had to drag our luggage through the Beijing subway system.

There are between 1.3 and 1.6 billion people living in this country. It was an “interesting” trek. We had to let one train pass us up because it was way too crowded. The next train was just as crowded, but we barged our way into the train car with our luggage. Fewer and fewer people left the train at each stop than entered it. There were three Chinese guys standing behind Adam. Apparently someone had their hands on his butt during most of the train ride. I accidentally rolled over a woman’s foot. Another woman pushed her way onto the train and fell on my big luggage case—then she yelled 哎呀! I learned not to bring anything but my self onto a Beijing subway train. I also learned that everyone wants to get home—no matter how dangerous it could be. Being in the midst of Beijing’s street and subway traffic is such a huge adrenaline rush. And it can be frustrating at times, but what type of public transportation isn’t? At least that’s the way I’ll see my future trips on public transportation in Beijing for the next two months.

So we exit at an intersection that turns out to be one of the busiest and most difficult to find taxis. People were running and scurrying all over wide multiple-lane streets. It was quite insane. I saw two public buses crash into each other—no damage. But traffic moved on, and so did both bus drivers. Adam and I stood near an island on the corner of one of the streets and waited for a taxi. We probably could’ve walked to the university, but we didn’t know how to get there from the train station. No taxi stopped, of course.

However, a really nice lady was waiting for someone to pick her up and was nice enough to give us a ride to CUEB, since it was so close to the train stop. She stuffed us in the back seat with two huge dogs and my big luggage case. The dogs, Ricky and Bobby, were really nice. Bobby licked all over my shirt and my face. He licked my hair (my head is practically bald right now). He stepped all over my legs. Ricky huffed and puffed and panted in my face. His breath smelled really, really bad. But this story is塞翁失马 because after all those issues with finding a taxi, we ran into a nice lady who gave us a FREE ride to the foreign students dormitory INSIDE the university. It was probably an inconvenience for her, and we did give her a small gift to show our appreciation because she wouldn’t take money.

Like anyone spending an entire summer in a foreign (and when I say foreign I mean non-Western) country studying the native language at an intensive immersion program like ACC, I felt really nervous on the way to this campus. I also felt really intimidated when I was awakened by my roommate, Kris, who had arrived while I was sleeping with quite proficient pronunciation: “我让你起床了吗？” (“Did I wake you?”) Although that’s a fairly simple phrase to comprehend, it was 6:30 in the morning, and I was impressed with his Chinese language skills. I just stared at him as I realized that this program was filled with other highly motivated students like him. I know this experience will be an awesome one. My classmates all have multifarious academic experiences with Chinese and are at various levels. But we all have one thing in common: we want to reach fluency. I’m excited to study around and to study with some of the brightest Chinese minds in the world. (I say ‘in the world’ because some of the students are international students at American universities like Georgetown, University of Arizona, etc.) There’s no reason for me to feel nervous. And, as the Chinese would say: “别着急.” (Don’t worry.) I have the support of many of my ACC classmates (who are awesome by the way) and ACC teachers (who are also awesome by the way).

塞翁失马 has defined my experience in China so far. Not only have I found it a suitable description of the past four days spent on my own in the massive landmass that is Beijing, but it will also help me handle the ‘ups and downs’ that accompany studying abroad. For prospective Light Fellows, 塞翁失马 has helped me cope with the frustrations that tend to damper my study abroad experience, which on the whole has so far been remarkable. I know that when things go awry, there’s lots of good luck waiting around the corner for me.

Here are some photos from the past week: