Power Walking & Critical Mass

Today was a very busy day; Franklin from the Beida Exchange Program Office met us at the FX hotel in the morning to walk us to the campus. I was comfortably ensconced in the lobby, consuming my exciting breakfast of giant scallion egg crepe pancake and warm soy milk purchased from the breakfast cart across the way. For just 3 Yuan I had a yummy and fulfilling breakfast--way better than the cold, crusty buns the rest of the kids picked up at a local bakery. The ordering process is really fun, you have to push to the front of the line, avoiding being cut, and then quickly order what you want or else they get impatient. I will have to take a photo tomorrow of the crepe maker--he has a round stone and little wood pusher, just like les crepiers francais!

The walk to campus took over 30 minutes. We walked in a group (of course, ugh, I'm so over groups) and had to cross several streets. With the Chinese easy-come-easy-go method of road rules (both vehicular and pedestrian), crossing the road can either be very convenient (as one does not have to wait for a crossing or even a light) or a complete nightmare (as it's completely laissez-faire). Busses, cars, taxis, mopeds, scooters, electric bikes and delivery tractors all compete for space on the road, and don't appear to necessarily observe all traffic signals or rules. Meanwhile, groups of pedestrians congregate at crossing points and eventually reach a critical mass such that they can forge out into the street without fear of being run over. I'm not really sure who decides when the appropriate time for crossing is reached, but the herd mentality takes over and everyone steps out into the void together. Franklin told us that if we always cross the street with a group of Chinese people, we will not get hit. I am 95% convinced this is true.

Our classroom is way over by the eastern gate of campus, whereas our hotel is near the Southwest gate. We did not have our Peking University IDs in the morning, so we had to go the long way around, which took forever. I did at least get to see the Olympic Ping Pong venue (oh, joy). There is also construction for the last bit of the walk, so you have to walk in the bike lane which is used as a two way street for non-vehicular traffic as well as pedestrian. Everyone stared at me, which is par for the course in China, although you can always tell who is a country bumpkin vs. sophisticated city dweller; the bumpkins stare openly and blatantly, whereas the Beijingers make covert little glances. At least no one has run up to me and tried to shout "HELLO! HELLO!" like they did the last time I was in Beijing.

Orientation was pretty standard stuff, the usual about cultural sensitivity and survival. We did at least get our Beijing Daxue student IDs, which are super key--we can use them to access facilities on campus such as the gym or library (although we have to pay an extra 10 yuan in order to get a reading card), and because Beida is so prestigious (the Harvard of China) we can also use them as ID outside of campus, such as for our credit cards or if we get pulled over and questioned by the police. [Just to clarify, there are many names for this school, all of which I use interchangeably: Peking University, Beijing Daxue and Beida.] The T-bird students were surprisingly quiet during the orientation and stupid questions were kept to a minimum--I think it was the jet lag. Lunch was provided, in the form of Subway (the horror!).

I wolfed down my sandwich and went outside into the lovely early spring day (high 60's) to purchase a SIM card for my mobile telephone. The cards are purchased at tobacco/magazine kiosks, inevitably staffed by a somewhat lackadaisical albiet friendly young lady. One asks for a "SIM ka" or "dian hua ka" and is presented with a list of available telephone numbers. The more 8's in the number, the more expensive. The more 4's, the cheaper (the word for four, si, has a phoenitic but not tonal match to the word for death, whereas eight, or ba, is the same as fortune). I shelled out for a number with TWO 8's (the luxury!) plus a 50 yuan credit for the phone. For a total of US$15 I am now a proud China Mobile customer. After returning to the lunch room, I turned around and went back out again with Ben Malki, and bought a second card for him. I felt accomplished in that I was able to speak Chinese well enough to make myself understood.

The afternoon was taken up by "Survival Chinese Class", which was advertised as being for those with zero Chinese skills. I took the opportunity to jet out of there, and went on a quest to find a bike. Beida has a bike shop on campus, which was run by some surly and rather unfriendly young gentlemen who refused to bargain even a little bit on a dusty bike, the only one I could see that would fit my ridiculously long legs (both by US and metric measurements). They wanted 210 Yuan, which I found out later was a decent price, but I don't really want a shiny new bike--I want to hit up the used bike market at Wulikou bridge (or something like that, I will have to check tomorrow) so I can find my beloved used Flying Pigeon brand bike (the Communist state-owned bike). I'd also like to find something with front basket already attached. I've noticed that outside our hotel there is a bike parking lot where you pay 1 yuan or so and then you can park your bike supervised. The other option is to get a foldable bike and bring that up to the room. I think it's more of the Beijing experience to get the clunker and park it outside, however.

I went back to the hotel and checked email, and then walked back to the classroom. All I can say is that it is FAR! I clocked myself, walking pretty darn fast, and it took me exactly 20 minutes to get to the beginning of the construction section, where I ran into the group heading for the group picture. We all stood in line for a while, got the photo and then went into the Shaoyuan building for a yummy welcome banquet. Many delicious northern Chinese foods were offered, including some new melon varieties I hadn't yet tried. Mike Logan and I had fun introducing the foreign students to various wacky vegetables and meats. Nikhil just got in from Mexico, so he was very excited to see Peking Duck, which he called a "Chinese taco."

After the dinner Mike Logan and I hit up the electronics superstore to get him a cell phone (250 yuan) and me a flash drive (160 yuan, not the best price but whatever I needed one). Then I had to sit down and write my stupid critique for Goddard's class tomorrow on Susan Shirk's book China: Fragile Superpower. Pretty much everyone left it 'till the last minute, so we're all ensconced in our hotel rooms cranking away. I finished up around 11pm, so I'm off to the old sensory deprivation chamber for bed. Tomorrow classes start for real... or at least our first class.