Communist Pandas

I’ve finally made it to Qingdao. It was a pretty short flight from Beijing and I cannot believe how beautiful everything is here. You can read about China and look at pictures, but like with anything else, you have to go to it to really experience it.

Getting to Beijing Airport was a lot easier than getting to the hotel. We found out that there was a free shuttle to (hopefully from, since I’ll be staying at this hotel again, person in my room or not) the airport. Weaving in and out of traffic, we made it to the airport in no time, and all I can say is that I won’t be changing my major anytime soon because the airport is GIGANTIC and I need a reason to come see it. This place has space everywhere, every single store imaginable, and even a children’s playground that sells communist pandas!

After walking back and forth between the AirChina check in gates because we couldn’t figure out how to get our tickets, my travel companions and I went to airport security. I’ve never felt safer in an airport. Every check point has at least five guards. I could probably take five by myself, but if wave after wave came after me, I’m not so sure*. They were also incredibly thorough checking everything, going so far as to run my iPod touch through twice**.

After we made it into the terminal, we spent time looking at all the different stores and sat down to our first true China meal. We also managed to slam head first into the language barrier. I don’t know if I legitimately thought the workers would speak English, but I’ve never been more intimidated. Not having the ability to communicate is a very profound and alienating feeling, but I should probably get used to it…

The plane ride was definitely different, but also strangely familiar. Here are some of the things I learned:

1.       No matter what the language, the love between a parent and child is very genuine. I was seated next to a father and son and it was so cute to watch. The made sure the kid was strapped in, had some sort of entertainment, and got him a juice box when the cart came by.

2.       No matter what the language, nobody  cares about the safety video. Everyone stayed just as engrossed in their newspapers and books as any other flight and I heard a collective “thank goodness” sigh when it was over***.

3.       No what the language (or airline), air travel sucks. The seats were just as cramped (maybe even smaller) and I resented first class just as much.

4.       No matter what the language, all flight attendants are from Stepford.

5.       No matter what the language, children on planes are annoying. Imagine all the squirming and screaming a kid does in America in a plane, now imagine it in Chinese…

Disembarking and baggage claim was very quick and we met our teacher before being whisked off to the college in a taxi. Looking out the windows, I can already tell that this city is beautiful and that I will probably die in a horrible traffic accident.

First, the beauty. It is pretty foggy now, but everything is landscaped and there are a lot of western looking building complexes. This is where the sailing events were held during the Beijing Olympics and they did a lot of work to clean up the city. I’m in the new part of the city, so I’ll have to check out the old part in a few days.

Next, horrible traffic accident. There are no rules here on the streets of China. People run across the freeway and cars just fly in between one another. For at least five minutes, our cab driver drove on the line. Not in any type of lane, just cruising along at 90 miles an hour over the line, no big deal. A few times we even tried to fight some semis. People complain in America about how people don’t know how to drive. No, people know how to drive, they just don’t drive the way we want them to. Here, people literally don’t know how to drive****.

Happily, after almost two and half days and seeing nothing but 1/16 of the population of China, I again saw some familiar American faces sitting on the steps of our dorm. This place certainly isn’t the Waldorf-Astoria, but it is actually a step up from the dorms at my college. I think my dorm is in the old part of campus, so the buildings are pretty austere. The dorm is co-ed, and my floor is (from what I can tell) mostly Indian or Pakistani. It’s very cool and weird to hear Chinese here, some Urdu there, English off to the side, and Russian from up the hall. Luckily, the rooms have bathrooms and “showers” and the beds aren’t terrible. Either way, I’m done traveling for a bit and that’s all I can hope for. *****.

Trying to figure out how to work the shower,

Mr. Mockler

*I would have taken a picture, but I was afraid that they were going to come after me if I tried.

**List of things that other friends were to make it through America with, but not China: Bottle of cologne, bottle of contact solution, and adult-size SCISSORS!!!!

List of things that made it through America and China: A pen knife. WTF, TSA and Chinese TSA? 

*** Fun Fact: AirChina also shows the safety video in sign language.

**** A friend who came in from Shanghai told me that they saw someone literally just sitting in the middle of rush hour traffic, parked in the middle of the lane, smoking a cigarette. THIS PLACE IS RIDICULOUS!!!

*****0’s and 5’s, 0’s and 5’s, I sure do love me some 0’s and 5’s