Day Four: Daxing

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Off the top, a programming note: Truman email is not working very well on the servers here. That means if you want to talk to Mark, you can email him at [e-mail]

Today was definitely a day of marked contrasts, because we went exploring the area around the compound, including both the alleyways of rural Daxing around the compound and the very urban area of downtown Daxing. The one constant was that at every turn we were helped out my our new Chinese friends.

The day began with the opening ceremonies for the tournament, featuring speeches from past winners, academics from Chinese institutions, and the VP of the Casio corporation, which sponsors the event. The whole tone was somewhat somber, as the government declared this the first of three national days of mourning for the victims of the earthquake. We watched a slide show of the recovery efforts that was really sad, although it was an interesting juxtaposition to have the theme song to ConAir playing in the background during the video. On a much lighter note, I sat next to Mercury, one of the debaters in the competition, and we had a very nice conversation about debate theory. That new friendship would turn out to be very helpful later.

After the opening ceremony, the debaters had to attend training lectures, but we were off the hook until lunch, so we decided to wander off the compound without a guide and see what the alleys across the street were like. It was definitely a very different place than our experience of Beijing. The alleys are very narrow, lined with houses and storefronts, but each seems to have a larger courtyard on the inside. In the streets, vendors were selling a variety of food, including one woman who was butchering meet on a table by the road. We definitely didn’t want to chance it, but it was an interesting slice of life.





The guys made fun of me a lot, but I took a bunch of pictures of the dogs that run around all over the place here. Some version of Pekinese seems to dominate, and they are very cute. You can’t deny that this little guy is adorable.



Our education on shopping also continued. One of our motivations for heading into the alleys was to purchase a case of bottled water, since the price in the hotel shop is pretty high. We found a good deal (22RMB for 24, which comes out to something like 14 cents apiece), but Girouard decided to negotiate like he does everywhere else. That didn’t quite fly, so we paid the asking price.

At lunch in the compound, we ran into Susie, who is Cecily’s former debate partner. They are definitely a matched set, and two of the most accommodating people we’ve met. She volunteered to take us into downtown Daxing, which we eagerly took her up on. Prior to that, we had only seen very rural roads leading from Beijing to the compound and really had no idea of the scope of the downtown area. There are two shopping malls, which are actually more like what we would consider gigantic department stores flanked by a series of storefronts. The one that we went into was six stories tall and had a basement. When I say that mall had everything, that includes large bottles of wine with ginseng, lizards, and snakes preserved in them.





We took a walking tour of the district and Susie showed us some of her favorite shops. We visited a store that only sells special combs made from fragrant wood that condition hair as you use them, and we also saw one of the outlets for copied DVDs that we always hear so much about in the US. It was especially interesting for me since one of my first debate advocacies on my novice year in high school dealt with curtailing intellectual property rights violations in China. I had no idea that whole stores were dedicated to the stuff.





I had been searching for tea to bring home with me, because the tea is so much better here than in the states, but Susie didn’t seem to think getting it in the tea shop at the mall was the best idea, so she took us to a very nice small store dedicated to tea, and helped us navigate the huge number of varieties to select ones that we wanted. Some of the tea was super expensive, going for 1500 RMB for 500 grams. I settled for a very nice oolong at 180 RMB. We closed out that portion of the day by popping into the large McDonald’s to grab cheeseburgers and cokes just so we could say we did that in China. Yay imperialism, I guess?

We returned to the compound just in time to change and shower for the formal opening banquet. We sat in the back so that we could meet new people. In this picture are our new friends (left to right) Jessy, Shem, and Pendy. This trip is definitely taxing my ability to remember names, with all the great people we are meeting. You should have seen the table once the food really started coming. The waitresses were piling dishes on the edges of others - it was incredible.



After supper, we headed back to the market across the street for more supplies. As we were headed out the door, we ran into Lynn from Willamette and she insinuated that if we were to track down a watermelon (Daxing is famous for them), that might not be the worst thing that could happen. So we made it our mission. It could have been a very challenging exchange, negotiating with a farmer for a watermelon from the back of his cart without an interpreter, but Mercury showed up just then and helped us pick one out and buy it - check us out with our trophy.



We had another demonstration debate in the evening, but retired to our favorite restaurant hangout across the street from the compound again. The proprietors remembered us from last night and were super friendly. By this point, our numbers had swelled considerably, and we were probably pushing 15 people, so sitting by the roadside was terrific. Cecily and Susan were running the show for us, selecting dishes to try.



One of those dishes I can only describe as the best potato chips ever. They are very crispy, fresh-fried chips with hot peppers that just blow your mind and are the perfect complement to quarter Tsingtao.



Girouard was up to his usual antics again, and this picture shows him in a heated discussion about politics and debate in the US with Nicholas. I think he may be the only one I’ve ever seen whip out a pen and start diagramming things on a napkin during an evening of beverages and fun. Nicholas and his partner Jessy seemed to enjoy it and Mark eventually got into a discussion about history with them. Appropriately, my deepest conversation with them involved explaining the merits of Adam Sandler films.





On a final note, here is one of the more interesting amenities of the hotel. They change the carpets in the elevators out every night at midnight. This may be the elevator equivalent of days-of-the-week underwear, but it is great for those of us who are disoriented and can’t keep track of what day it is.



All in all, this was a more laid-back, less power-tourist day, but nonetheless educational and engaging, and our friend list keeps getting longer. We are all going to have sweet facebook friends after this.

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