Going to China

I hadn’t told many people I was going to China. It wasn’t a secret I’d been deliberately keeping, it just hadn’t really come up since I got back from the ski trip. My parents knew, a few of my uncles knew, and I’d mentioned it to a handful of friends, but I just hadn’t had a chance to bring it up to that many people.

The week after I found out I was going, I did go to meet with Dr. Reardon again to make sure this would satisfy the International Experience requirement. He confirmed that it would.

“China?” he said after giving me the forms I needed for the credit.

“I’m excited,” I said. “I loved Europe but I was really hoping to go somewhere different. I think Asia is going to be completely different.”

His eyes got wide and his face got enthusiastic. “Oh you’re right about that!” he said. “I can’t say I’m a fan of Asia.”

“Really?” I asked. It seemed to me that the business school should have a great interest in China.

“Nope!” he said. “In my former job we went all over the world. Bangkok was fun but everything else…” his voice trailed off. “Japan and Singpore are too sterile, it’s annoying. Thailand was amazing but is falling apart now. And China lost all of its culture to Westernization.

“I like Europe,” he continued. “Everything is close together. You can drink beer with the Germans in the morning and have wine with the Italians in the evening. Asia is just…too big…too crowded…and really nothing special.”

Interestingly, this seemed to be a consistent theme with the few people I told. Everyone loved my Europe stories and either had their own or planned to venture across the pond someday. But most people seemed to agree with this belief that China was big, crowded, and dirty.

My Dad’s business partner, Bill, and his wife, Joan, have been to China several times, so I told my Dad I wanted to meet with them to talk about it. And as we walked between the two dragon statues, that’s where we were: meeting for traditional, Americanized Chinese food.

Bill and Joan were already at the restaurant when we arrived. As Dad and I sat down, the waiter asked us what we would like to drink. I went with tea and water. Dad got a Diet Coke.

Bill started the conversation telling me about different Chinese work visas. There are some visas that allow workers to come and go from the country. Others are one time entry visas and would mean I’d have to stay in China for the duration. I haven’t decided which I will do, but Bill cautioned me to make sure I got the right visa.

The waiter brought our drinks and asked, “Do you want to start with some appetizers?” We decided we did and ordered a few.

When he was gone, we continued. “Prague was probably fairly familiar,” Bill said. “The Czech’s spoke a different language, but it kind of made sense. And across Europe, roads looked like roads. Restaurants pretty much worked the same way. Food was pretty much the same—basically meat, vegetables, and bread. Subtle things were different, but America was founded by Europeans so a lot of life in Europe was similar to America.”

I agreed with all of that.

He continued, “China is going to be like landing on a foreign planet.”

Bill and Joan shared with me that Shanghai is considered the “little Europe” of China with a lot of German, French, and Italian influence. This is because of its location both on the Yangtze River Delta and its port access on the coast. They told me about an area called The Bund that was an international district where European settlers built banks, making it the foremost financial center of China.

“Can I take your order?” the waiter interrupted again. Bill, Dad, and I all ordered Sesame Chicken while Joan got Cashew Chicken.

“I miss European service,” I said as the waiter left. “It was so much more enjoyable to go out for a meal and enjoy the conversation over there.”

Joan laughed and I think she agreed.

"Like Europe, the service in restaurants is going to be different than here,” Bill said.

“Slower?” I asked, excitedly.

“Yes,” he said a little hesitantly, clearly indicating there was more to the story. “And restaurants will probably serve you some things that you think should be cooked a little more thoroughly to realistically be safe to eat.”

“You’ll get served some crazy stuff,” Joan said.

“Is it going to ruin Chinese food for me?” I asked. “I mean Europe ruined chocolate…and pretty much everything else I ate over there…so I assume China will ruin my favorite Asian dishes.”

“Pretty much,” Joan said, “but a lot of it is different. It’s kind of like comparing Tex-Mex to real Mexican food.”

“It’s all really good,” Bill said. “If you like something, ask the waiter to write down the name of it for you so you can order it again.”

“Do you have to pay for water in China like you do in Europe?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t drink the water in China,” Bill said. “You can go to the store and buy big jugs of it. That’s safe. But I wouldn’t drink the tap water. I take a filter with me, and you could do that too.”

“Fair enough,” I said. “I know in Europe the tap water always tasted a little metallic-y.”

“It’s not so much the metallic-y taste,” Bill said. “It’s the stuff in the water you can’t taste that will hurt you. It doesn't necessarily hurt them, but they are used to drinking it.”

“You also probably want to stay away from leafy vegetables,” Joan added.

“Now in Europe, I couldn’t find spicy to save my life,” I said. “I mean it was all unbelievably flavorful, but nothing was spicy.”

Joan smiled, “You’ll be able to find spicy in China.”

As we were talking our appetizers arrived. We enjoyed all the classics like steamed dumplings and crab cream cheese wantons. My Dad ordered a beef appetizer that came with skewers of beef and pineapple. The waiter brought out a little gas grill to toast the skewers over.

Bill began explaining to me a little of the language. Like Europe, most Chinese students start learning English in school at age 5. Presumably, most people under 30 will be able to speak some basic English.

“There was an attempt in 1956 to try an convert Mandarin Chinese to a more phonetic language called Pinyin. It’s not all of the same letters, but the spelling looks more familiar to English,” Bill explained. “That said, you’ll find that a lot of Chinese are illiterate in both Chinese and English.”

They went on to talk about taking some phrase cards with them on one of the trips (something they recommended I do) so that they could give directions to taxi drivers. “We handed the driver the card, and he handed it back,” Bill said. “He then took out his phone and called his daughter who spoke English to translate for us. He couldn’t read the card even though it was written in Chinese.”

As our main dishes arrived, we started talking about the city.

“Shanghai is going to make every city you’ve ever been in feel like a small town,” Bill said. “It is absolutely incredible.” As I’ve done some research, I found that Shanghai is actually the most populous city in the world (approximately 18 million people…compared to New York with 8 million.)

“You will have people literally this far from your face almost all the time,” Bill said holding his hand just inches from his nose.

We continued to talk, discussing the fact that lines do not exist and that a lot of shopping involves haggling for the price. Bill’s advice was to walk away if I ever didn’t agree on the price and that most merchants will chase you down and take what you offer.

“You can pretty much go to China naked,” Bill said. “I mean everything you own was made there, so you can buy it all over there, and it is all cheaper over there. Cell phones, clothes, you name it.” Although he did advise me that some "name brand products" being sold in China are not actually name brand.

Travel safety and communication was also very different. Since the internet is controlled by the government, websites like Facebook are illegal and unavailable. All international news is also censured. In order to get onto any familiar websites (including Skype) I am going to need a VPN or two. Bill also gave me a few tips I can use in place of Skype while abroad. 

“You have to make sure to go to Beijing while you are there,” Bill said.

“I want to,” I said. “And I want to see the wall.”

“You can see the Wall in Beijing,” Bill said.

“What about the Terra Cotta Warrirors?” I asked. “Where are they?”

“They are in a city called Xi-an,” Bill said. “And they are one of the dumbest tourist attractions.”

I laughed.

“They aren’t that bad,” Joan said.

“What are they?” My Dad asked.

“A farmer found a life size replica of a soldier in his field made out of terra cotta,” I explained. “They dug it up and found hundreds of soldiers, all guarding the tomb of the first emporer of China.”

“He was an unknown emporer,” Bill said, “before they found his tomb. Now what they’ve done is built this big, white dome over the dig site, and tourists file past on a little plank looking down into the site. Outside, they’ve basically turned it into a historical Disneyland with all sorts of museums, shops, displays and stuff. You can wait in line to get an autograph from the farmer…but the farmer is dead…they are on their third farmer.”

“Of course you want to go to Hong Kong too,” Bill said.

“Yes I do,” I said.

“The smog is really bad in Hong Kong,” Joan said. “It’s bad in Shanghai but worse in Hong Kong.”

“There is a famous pier,” Bill said, “where tourists all go to take pictures with the skyline of Hong Kong in the background. The smog has gotten so bad, that the Chinese government has put up a mural of the skyline on the pier so that tourists can still go there to take pictures in front of the painting.”

We laughed. “But Hong Kong is incredible,” Bill said. “There is a lot of influence from the Germans, French, the Nederlands, all of that in Shanghai, but Hong Kong—being a British protectorate for so long—has a lot of British influence.”

“But Hong Kong is it’s own country, right?” I asked.

“Mostly,” Bill said. “When the British gave it up, the plan was that it would become part of China. The Chinese government squeezes a little tighter ever year. And a lot of Chinese go to Hong Kong to have their babies, because then the children have automatic dual citizenship.”

“I am just so unbelievably excited,” I told them. “It surprises me; the professor that does all the international business was saying he wouldn’t go to China because it has lost its culture to Westernization.”

“You don’t go to China for the culture,” Bill said. “You go for the opportunity. You are going to be amazed at how the Chinese have solved problems differently. The industries they’ve created, the jobs they’ve developed…they truly are a capitalist society.”

“I thought they were a planned economy?” I said.

Bill and Joan both smiled. “If someone is planning an economy, don’t you think they understand capitalism pretty well?”

I chuckled a little. “That does make sense.”

“In Europe,” Bill said, “a lot of the stereotypes are true. In China, nothing you’ve heard before is true.”

As we boxed up our leftovers and ate our fortune cookies Bill and Joan shared a few more travel tips and stories. I couldn’t believe how excited I was. I mean finding out I’d been placed in China was awesome! Talking about it now made it real!

Driving home, it felt like I was in Europe all over again. As soon as I got in the house, I booted up my laptop and started jotting down notes from our conversation. Even the next day, it was all I could think about. When I got home that night, I was delighted to see that my new passport had come.

And then it hit me…I’m going on an adventure… again!