Leaving China and the Wrap-up: Thanks Light!

The last week found everyone scrambling to buy souvenirs, see a little more of the city, and squeeze just a little more vocabulary into our heads. I barely the time to visit a high school friend staying with his grandparents in Beijing and find a few final presents for people back at home. The rest of my time was either nap-time or study time (睡午觉 was a Chinese custom that most of us enthusiastically 习惯 to). Friday came pretty quickly and before we knew it, classes were over. We concluded with our final Chinese table lunch, watching a slideshow and reminiscing. Here are a few photos of us and the teachers:

Nick while kneeling was still taller than some of the teachers...


Me and Xiao Li Laoshi (the pose was her idea heh)


哥们儿 with Xiao Tang and Zhou laoshi. I should've worn the program shirt, I know...


I was a little torn up: both because I was leaving China and because I rediscovered how early the next morning my flight was. That night after saying all my goodbyes and promising to email with my yuban, I slept for a short time and woke up extremely early to head to the airport. After being dropped off at the wrong terminal, I was pleased that I could use only Chinese to find my way to the right area for my flight. I hopped on the plane, and my time in China was officially over.

In the time I have had after my trip, I have realized that China is now a major interest for me: the memories and knowledge I gained on this trip aren't going away any time soon and I hope to return sometime in the near future, maybe even in the next summer if I can swing it. I've loved my experience, both because of the environment/people at DSIC and because of the sides of China that I would have never seen or understood without going there. It is my opinion that everyone at Yale who has even a small interest should take advantage of the Light Fellowship and the experience it allows you to have. This year I plan to get enthusiastically involved in another year of Chinese as well as other China/Asia-related classes and much of that should be credited to the Fellowship. Thanks to the Fellowship Staff and everyone else involved in helping me have such a great experience!

Zhongwen Zhiye

The second to last weekend, we all got together for a talent show. Each person had to either have an act or be part of one, and some people even joined multiple groups so there was a seemingly infinite procession of acts. Brendan, Nick and I decided immediately that we would be singing the Chinese national anthem. This was risky business because we would be singing it in front of all our teachers and language partners, Chinese citizens who might not take a poorly-sung national anthem very well. So, we made sure to grab at least one person who could sing--The Yale Alley Cats came to the rescue in the form of James, an acappella singer and friend. Even though we were upstaged by a few of the acts (I remember specifically a mini-play/opera), I felt like we held our own with James' help. The teachers were either pleased or amused, both of which I'll take over indignant ;).

After the talent show, we hung out with the teachers for a a little bit as the room was converted into an impromptu dance floor. It was fun, albeit a little offsetting, to dance right next to the program head as well as the teachers that had been in charge of us for the last 7 weeks. In those few moments I got my first feeling of the program really starting to wrap up, and in much of the following week my spirits lowered as I realized I would soon have to return to my 老家。shucks.

The Silk Market

One of my favorite locations that I had the opportunity to visit in Beijing was the Silk market. Just a few subway stops away from UIBE, this market was a laowai's paradise. The massive, multi-story market was built to cater to foreign tourists looking specifically to buy Chinese knock offs of their favorite brands (We visited the Dongwuyuan market also but the selection wasn't great. The glasses market was also fairly interesting, but the silk market was my favorite.)


The Front of the Market

Usually it is hard to get me excited about shopping, so the reason I think this market was so memorable was the amount of interaction we had with the laobans (shopkeepers). In this market, nothing has a registered price so you must bargain over everything. The shopkeepers are smart: they can bargain in every language (once as I spoke with a shopkeeper, I heard her use English, Spanish, and German in succession), and they are determined to rip off every foreigner in their purchase. The rule we went with (as the teachers told us) was to cut the given price by about 1/5 in our first counter-offer. It was a fun, and somewhat theatrical experience to argue with each shopkeeper: if you pushed them far enough they all inevitably had a sick mother, rent problems, etc. Here are a few pictures of the market's hectic interior (packed with small individual stalls and hordes of tourists).

Part of the watch section


Down one of the aisles


Me with some of our favorite laobans. Despite her getting ready to hit me, they look too happy for Nick and I to have gotten a good deal. We actually decided that the measure of how disappointed/happy a seller was was also an indicator of how good our bargaining skills were. The more upset the better--if they called us names under their breath or told us not to come back to their stall again, we knew our final price was better than average. This type of shopping is addictive. I came back with 2 new pairs of shoes, 2 tshirts, a polo, and various gifts for my family members. Hopefully at least I made them all happy through my spending--right mom and dad?

Shidu

The last weekend trip took us to Shidu, which is theoretically 2 or 3 hours outside of Beijing (but took us 5 because of traffic:( ) After watching much of Final Destination 3, or maybe Final Destination 4 (aren't they all the same?) we pulled up to a massive gravel parking lot in front of what looked like the Chinese equivalent of a fair. Shidu, although billed as a national "geopark" was about as commercial as it gets. After our tickets were checked we walked past the go-karts, Tchotchke stands, and a paintball area. We then crossed the river on one of the most 危险 wire bridges i've seen to arrive in the park proper. From there we did a little hiking: first up to a waterfall and then to a narrow rock gap similar to Rock City's "fat man squeeze." All along the (paved) path, we were harassed by vendors hocking snacks, sodas, and the like. The main event of the day was paddling on bamboo rafts.


On the rafts.

The paddle predictably consisted of some racing, but mostly a whole lot of raft collisions because the area for rafting was tiny compared to the number of boats on the water. Regardless it was a fun experience and we headed home pretty soon after. It was a fun day, but not exactly the kind of experience I would've predicted at a "geopark" so far from civilization.

I now look at my camera and wish I had some photos of the more cheesy side of Shidu, but of course I probably took the only two possible nature photos that could be taken there. Regardless, here they are ;)


looking up at the mountains


the waterfall

Hongluosi--The Snail Temple

For our 5th weekend trip we headed to Hongluosi, a Buddhist temple a few hours outside of the city. A very old Buddhist area, the temple first appeared to be a small outpost the mountainside, filled with a few very large statues of Buddha. Here are a few pictures of the standard area:


The walk up


One of the Buddhas


Courtyard Area

We got through the standard area pretty quickly and found a few signs pointing us further up the mountain. We began to climb and before I knew it we were halfway up the mountain. Katie and I (the slow ones) were left in the dust by the other guys but we trekked up regardless and made it to a pagoda at one of the peaks, stopping from going any further because the trail ahead was closed (not to mention I was completely exhausted). We met up with most of the other DSIC students there and headed down. On the way, we noticed a booth advertising a slide down for 30 kuai, and even though it was a slight rip off, we all paid up and zipped down the mountainside, enjoying another mix of commercialism and Chinese history. We ended the trip by trying different flavors of Chinese icecream, most notably corn and cheese flavors (surprisingly good but my the watermelon bingqilin remains my favorite haha). Before I forget: here are some views from along the way.

Chinglish

Everyone knows about the often-funny English translations on Chinese signs/menus so I thought I'd post a few pictures on here to lighten the mood. My favorite instance was on a pizza menu, for Meta-balls (like, whoah so meta), but I unfortunately have no picture so these few will have to do :P

my 语伴 and the college application process in China

My language partner and I would often compare our respective educations, and I learned alot about the Chinese college application process that I would probably forget if I didn't post it here for posterity, so here goes.

According to my yuban, and to parts of our textbook (thank you 高考 lesson) the only thing that matters in a Chinese high school student's application to college is their score on one test, the gaokao. Let me be clear here: nothing else is factored in except for their score. After taking the test, students can apply to one A level college, with a few other lower level colleges as backup. The top colleges in Beijing (Beida and Qinghua) take the students with highest combined scores on the test, stopping admission after the quota of top scores has been reached. If you are a point too low, you try to enter your safety school in another round but often the quotas have already been filled and you are out of luck. Some people are forced or choose to wait another year and take the gaokao again. While the Chinese compare the test to the SAT, it is much more comprehensive, testing student's English skills as well as higher level math and other subjects (I don't remember anything on the SAT that we didn't learn in middle school) so these students all take that time to review. However a few don't get a satisfactory score even on the second time and end up waiting another year or two to make a good score.

The gaokao doesn't only decide where you go to college. Once you get into a school, your scores on the gaokao determine your major. You can write a list of your top major choices, but if your combined score is too low compared to your peers, the quota for the major could be filled before you are chosen and you could end up in something different. For instance my language partner was placed into the German major by his scores (the test itself has no German).

As an American, I initially thought that this method was ethically questionable for not allowing students to totally follow their interests, both by having quotas for a major and by only weighing the gaokao during the college process (thereby discouraging students' participation in extracurricular activities and in non-gaokao-related classes). However despite its problems, it is certainly an efficient strategy for China. With such a huge population and a comparably small network of high-level learning institutions, this method is a simple way to single out traditionally "smart" people and get the highest scoring students into the best institutions. Major quotas also ensure that each job sector always have educated people willing to work in it. (My yuban explained it to me this way: if students could choose here, everyone would take economics because making money is socially the most important thing.) There are of course plenty of negatives to the method, but in general its outcomes seems to fit with and perpetuate the current pattern of efficiency and rapid progress in China.

Well thats all I really can think to say about this now. Always willing to talk though...