The Arrival

Ok... this is old, and should have been posted on March 1st, but I didn't have internet. Deal.

What a fucking trip… it took me along time to figure out exactly how long I’ve been traveling for, given the complication of the international date line and my occasional absence of mind. The flight from LAX to Beijing International was roughly 11 hours, but I when I crossed the IDL I jumped ahead a day, so after leaving LAX on Thursday night at 0040, I hopped out of the plane at 0540 Beijing time, or 1140 PST. My internal clock promptly stopped dead, had a stroke and then went into a coma.

Walking through any airport in the wee hours of the morning is like being in a dream. There’s this humongous feat of architecture that is startlingly empty and devoid of life, save the passengers of the plane you’ve landed on. You all stumble off the redeye with your internal clock in a coma and wander aimlessly after one another through brightly lit, yet eerily empty halls towards customs. The sentries there are half-asleep half-robot, and usher you through with little more than a grunt to accompany the thunk of the passport stamp. Then you and your fellow travelers groggily stand around waiting for your luggage to emerge from the depths of the airport before stumbling off towards wherever you may go.

Luckily I slept the entire flight over, and managed to avoid babies – the bane of any airplane-goer’s existence. As the flight was 11 hours, I was awake enough after 9ish hours of sleep to catch the last in-flight movie, which was Kung Fu Panda. Hell yes. Unfortunately, it got cut off right before the final battle because we had to land. Damn. However, I did meet this nice older couple who’s teaching English in Qingdao – they invited me to visit sometime. That really doesn’t make up for missing the final battle.

At Beijing International, I took the rail link to center city and then to the metro station closest to Beijing South Railway Station, where I’d catch the train to Jinan to meet with the people from Aston (the school I’m teaching for). I grabbed a cab to cover that last leg from the station to South. Taking the train In, I was struck by how bland the landscape was. As it was winter, the trees were leaf-less, but there was no undergrowth, no shrubs, no smaller plants, and hardly any firs. The trees along the rail link were clearly cultivated by the government, as they were planted in precise rows following the tracks and alongside the highways, with small moats of dirt around the bases presumably to collect water. Especially around the airport, however, there was hardly anything planted at all. Some low shrubbery decorated the immediate proximity of the terminal, but farther out the fields had been plowed clean and were bare dirt. The effects of pollution were blatant, and although I’ve read and heard of the poor air quality here, experiencing it first hand was literally awesome.

The sunrise was dull and grayed, and the sun rose as a red ember that dissipated into the smog overhead. As I sat in South and looked upwards through the magnificent building’s skylit roof, I could see blue sky, but later as I raced southwards towards Jinan, the sky became gray and visibility actually shrank the further I fell from the capitol. By the time I’d reached Jinan, it was later in the afternoon around 6, and visibility was less than a mile. Buildings rose like monoliths, indistinct through the gloom. When I first left the airport by rail link I immediately felt the difference in air quality. It tasted dusty, like an old attic, and it left a tickle in the back of my throat. When I left the hotel in Jinan to hit up the supermarket for some eats, the smell of rust permeated the air, sprinkled with ash and topped with dust.

The redemption: the food. I ate at the hotel’s small diner, where they served me some amazing concoction that is clearly what Kung Po chicken is spun off of. I’m still not sure what kind of meat-like substance is digesting in my tummy right now, but it was damn good in whatever amazing sauce the chef cooked up, combined with mushrooms and green peppers. With rice, of course.

Second redemption: when I took a shower, a square of mirror directly above the sink at regular-person eye level or chest level for me, didn’t fog up. I have no idea what kind of magic the Chinese put in their bathroom mirrors, but this is sweet. I don’t really use a mirror for much, but still – sweet.

Back to the story: I meet my contact, Annie, the HR officer for Aston in Jinan, at Jinan train station, and we hop in a taxi after struggling to find one that will take us the distance we need to go. Apparently Aston Jinan is quite a hike from center city, and this hotel I’m staying at definitely is. We get to the hotel after some tenacious taxi driving – see below – and a brief interlude of being lost, I check into my room and… somebody had already been put in it. So I got a new room. Then Annie left me with specific directions to get to Aston on Monday and peaced.

Warning: in the words of Mr. Greg Sherman, “Never drive in China.” Please. Just don’t do it. Westerners’ sense of the rules of the road do not apply in China. Here, you can go wherever you want. Lines and lights are merely suggestions. For both pedestrians and drivers. I can’t recall seeing a single officer of the law enforcing any kind of rules of the road, let alone being present. Now, don’t’ get me wrong, the Chinese aren’t bad drivers. They manage very skillfully to not get in accidents, as they have a very good idea of the size of their cars and how to use both the brake and horn. But the disorder is ridiculous! To this moment, I have no idea how I was not in at least sixteen accidents. Somehow the bus, bike, man or other car narrowly avoided hitting or being hit by my taxi. I will never drive here. Ever.

I am now going to bed. I am thoroughly exhausted, and I sorely miss my internal clock. I hope that given sufficient sleep, it emerges from its coma. Luckily I have all day tomorrow to tend to it.

Biggest regret so far: not bringing new books to read. I have a list of fifteen or sixteen books I want to get to in the next few months, but I brought NONE OF THEM. Instead, I have three Chinese language books and a Chinese-English dictionary. At least I’ll be productive in my language learning. Blah.