Well kids, the unfortunate truth is that Maarten Troost was not lying when he complained about how horrible the air pollution is here. Nor was he exaggerating. It’s bad. On top of it being bad, I had a sore throat bothering me off and on before I left, and of course now it is back in full force. I used to like going outside or opening my window for some fresh air (even in NY!) but now I am cowering in my dorm room in fear of breathing any more outside fumes.
The throat condition was no doubt exacerbated by the amount of walking outside I have already done today. We started out the morning with a voluntary excursion across the city to the Houhai district to check out some hutongs. Getting there first involved catching a bus, then getting off and walking a few blocks to the subway. I must say I was quite impressed with both modes of transportation. Clean, on time, and efficient. Not terribly crowded either. We bought a card that allows us to swipe on the buses (at a discount rate) and subways so we won’t have to buy tickets everytime. It’s kinda like the Oyster card for London, so of course I love it. How fangbian. Also the bus is so cheap! Only .40 kuai!
Going to Houhai during the day was nice, because it wasn’t so crowded and crazy like it gets at night. The area was really nice, with a big lake where people were boating, fishing, and swimming (the last one at their own risk). Too bad the smog had to diminish the splendor! OK I should stop complaining and probably accept this condition as a fact of life here. (Though that doesn’t make it any more tolerable!). Anyway we stopped in this one shop selling lots of stuff from Tibet, and the staff was really funny and nice and wanted to take lots of pictures with us crazy waiguoren. I tried helping some girls bargain for things but I don’t think I did much for them. However I’m a little more prepared for when I go out shopping on my own, since I had a bit of fun helping them. Too bad they were overwhelmed by the salesmanship… which really wasn’t that bad, in my opinion. I’ve dealt with much pushier people, even in America.
Then in the afternoon we had this scavenger hunt activity where we paired up with someone and had to go find a random landmark they had assigned to us. We weren’t allowed to ask any native English speakers for help, or to take a taxi. Lucky for us, there are tons of Olympic volunteers on our campus, so I asked them (in Chinese!) to help us and they kindly wrote directions for the bus (in Chinese!). We made it there and back (our was a French supermarket chain called JiaYueFu that’s basically like Walmart on crack) and a nice student helped us find the campus again on the bus ride home. Beijing people are nice when your lost! But I still have a long way to go in completely understanding directions. Mostly it’s a lot of me pointing, asking Nei biar? And I nod a lot, even though I don’t understand. But I try! And I think if I had to get somewhere on my own I would be ok… provided I had a map and a piece of paper so people could write things down for me.
A successful (if wearying) excursion.
