My First Trip to Beijing

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Going to Beijing after spending a week out in the sticks was quite a breath of fresh air. Not literally of course, as Beijing has some of the worst air quality in the world.

Once a month, the school has agreed to have a driver bring me to and pick me up from Beijing. Getting to Beijing by car was easy, but not exactly fast. The ride takes just under 3 hours. Of course, I thought we would make it there in about 1hour, as the driver the school provided went a casual 160kph. However, we hit some traffic once we approached civilization, and we had to slow down to more appropriate speeds. I have since looked up how to say “slow down,” in Chinese. I appreciate getting to Beijing quicker, but I also appreciate getting there alive.

The company I work for has English programs at many different schools, and so when I come to Beijing I get to stay in the teacher’s apartment building at a university where my company is located. I’ve been told that I can come and use the apartment any time that I want (I have my own key). The apartment is a standard two bedroom, so I have a roommate when I come up. I feel kind of bad for my roommate because this is her second year teaching here and she requested to keep her single apartment. However, she’s the only other girl working at this school, so she’s the only person they could have me room with. Luckily, she seems to be ok with the situation, and I’ll only be up here on the weekends, if at all. She’s also really nice, and knows Beijing really well.

There are 6 foreign teachers total here, and they all live in the same building. It was so incredibly wonderful to be able to talk to other people and joke around. It can be really draining having to talk slowly, loudly, and carefully every time you want to say something or ask a question. In fact, being here this weekend has made me pretty jealous of this Beijing bunch – being in the capital city, surrounded by people to talk to, and the level of the Chinese staff’s English is astronomically better than those at my school.

That’s one thing coming to Beijing cleared up for me – based on the English levels of the people at my school who are supposed to be able to speak English (the two people who are in charge of foreign teachers), I thought China was much worse than Korea. The two women I work with can communicate and understand most basic exchanges, but they are nowhere near fluent or conversational. However, all the staff in Beijing speak great English and are easy to communicate with. I’ve been told that I can use the director here as my contact, so that my questions, concerns, etc. are actually understood and addressed in an understandable way.

All the other teachers had also arrived very recently, so everyone was keen to go out and do things together. Friday night, the group went out for some delicious street barbeque and then downtown. The downtown scene was very similar to Korea, with people milling around inside and outside of the bars. Saturday it rained so hard that my roommate and I decided to forgo our planned shopping trip and just hang-out. Apparently it doesn’t rain often in Beijing, but when it rains, it pours.

Interestingly, one of the foreign teachers in Beijing was teaching in Tangshan City last year. And yes, he was actually located in the city, working for a different company. He told me there were about 20 ex-pats in Tangshan city. He said he could help me get in touch with them, as well as give me some tips on places to go in Tangshan. So, maybe if I decide to stick around my school for a weekend, I can head up to Tangshan City to hangout. But that seems unlikely.

All in all, it was a great weekend. I really like what I saw of Beijing so far and I’m already planning to come up pretty much every weekend.

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Comments

[muriel]

I was there last October, what a city. Boy...those street stands are something to see. We had a M.D. from Vancouver with us and he had lived there so he brought us (6 passengers) to eat in one of those small rest.that he knew. I was staying at The Regent 5* worth while to go in and see the wonderful arrangments of flowers or have tea in the lobby.

[EmilieWS]

Yeah, I remember you visited Beijing on your world tour! Where did you go to see Pandas? I didn't get too see too much of the city this time - I want to save all the really touristy stuff for when my Mom is there.