Post the Fourteenth: Robots (Dandong 4 of 5)

Continued from Part III...

Downtown Dandong

Part IV: The City of Dandong

Just like any other city in China, Dandong is a bustling metropolis (see TOO MANY PEOPLE) full of chain stores and small shops alike. The thing about Dandong is while it is much less internationalized and developed than Harbin it still manages to be somewhat cleaner and friendlier. Even two weeks later, I'm still not sure why.

View of downtown Dandong from the Korean War Museum.

A view of the mountains from the Korean War Museum.

After the museum, we went to Dandong''s pedestrian street (apparently every major city in China has to have one area where people can walk around and shop for overpriced goods) to look around. It was sort of a poorer imitation of Beijing's Wangfujing or Harbin's Zhongyang Dajie, though just as lively. The typical banks and foreign stories were there, as well as cheaper Chinese imitations of said foreign stores. The street is home to one of the best bubble tea stands in China. For four kuai (about 60 cents), you could get one of 50+ flavors of milk tea with tapoica pearls. DELICIOUS.

Length-shot of Buxing Jie, Dandong's pedestrian street.

Another shot of Buxing Jie.

Yes, it's totally normal to wear one's jeans on one's head.

Even superheroes weren't spared by the economic recession.

Zhen Ai, or Real Love, is a nightclub in Dandong. The only reason that it's cool is due to the fact that it has a spring-loaded dance floor.

For dinner on Friday, we decided to check out the Pyongyang North Korean Friendship Restaurant in Dandong. The establishment was built by the North Korea government as a diplomatic bridge between China and North Korea. The restaurant itself is run by a team of North Korean androids waitresses and a lone North Korean director computer programmer manager. It's a bit odd since there aren't any windows, only half the tables are ever full and the place is unnervingly clean (compared to the dirt and grit outside on the street).  The waitresses are all naturally slim and gorgeous (North Korea obviously doesn't have any malnourished ugly people) and most of them can't speak Chinese.

They can't speak Chinese.

Each waitress, who is probably the daughter of some North Korean political big-shot, gets to come to China to work in the restaurant for a maximum of two years. Prior to coming to China, the women do not receive any Mandarin lessons. I'll tell you right now that trying to communicate to someone in a language that neither of you speak is one of the most frustrating things ever.

Anyways, back to the story...

When our (obviously American) party of six strolled into the restaurant, we were immediately greeted by a non-smiling young woman who led us to a table (with four seats) and left us to pull up two more chairs. Another young woman (also emotionless) stepped forward with a menu and stood by silently while we pursued about 20 pages of overpriced Korean fair. Besides dog meat, we had no idea what to get so I turned to the woman and asked her, in Chinese, to recommend a few dishes. She just looked back at me. I asked again. She sort of shook her head and pointed at the menu. "But which things are good?" "Ummmmm..." We went back and forth in this manner for some time, and eventually ended up pointing at the most tasty looking pictures. Our waitress said nothing at all, though she semi-pursed her lips when we ordered the dog meat. While the food was okay, the fengshui was a bit creepy so we quickly paid our bill (I had to ask about three times since she didn't understand me) and went down the street to an open-air barbecue restaurant for dumplings and meat kebabs.

Entrance to the China-North Korea Friendship Restaurant. Notice the blinds are closed.

The presentation seemed almost half-hearted. It's not like it's the only flagship outlet of North Korean cuisine and culture or anything.

Some kimchi, some Korean beef, and some dog meat. Stringy and plain, do not eat.

The restaurant was definitely a weird experience and left me with a lot of questions. Do the waitresses ever go out? What do they think of their Chinese customers? Of their American customers? What happens when they go home to the DPRK? After living for two years in China were there are loud advertisements, cell-phones, and South Korean pop music, do they want to go back?

End Part IV...

Post the Fifth: The Fast and the Famished

Memorial to the people who built the southern bank of Songhua River in 1957 to stop flooding once and for all.

Time is flying here in Harbin. I've been a bit busier than I expected due to Chinese homework, restaurant exploring, and attempts at choreographing, though none of these can compare to yesterday's triumph in convincing the laundry machine that it likes me and should cooperate and wash my clothes and not instead try to eat all of my coins. Anyways, more thoughts!

• On Saturday the 25th, CET organized a scavenger hunt for the students so we could explore around campus and in the heart of Harbin. We were asked to find/purchase/take pictures with people/items including (but not limited to) St. Sofia Church, a Chinese Walmart employee, a non-Harbin Chinese friend, and a shrink-wrapped chicken foot (bonus points for each group member that took a bite). The hunt took three and a half hours and we were super tired after all of it but it was a great introduction to the heart of Harbin. The German chocolate prize also helped.

Our victorious group outside of St. Sofia Cathedral, downtown Harbin. One should note that there are many duplicates of this photo circulating in China as at least three Chinese people stopped to take pictures of the foreigners in their midst.

Two teammates striking a tango pose with 羊肉串, otherwise known as roasted-lamb-on-a-stick.

Shrink-wrapped chicken foot! You know you want it!!

• The food here is amazing. The cafeterias on campus are known throughout China for serving some of the best college food. The restaurants in the area all specialize in different cooking styles and have had years of experience to perfect their dishes. In addition to being delicious, food here is also SO CHEAP. Meals cost around $5 a day (yeah, be jealous). My only issue with food in China is that I don't know what anything is called so lunch and dinner often consists of me pointing at various food items and hoping they blend well together and/or asking random and bewildered strangers to tell me their favorite foods.

I eat lunch at the Special Flavored Food Gallery (Chinese name: 黑店, black market) everyday. I promise I haven't caught salmonella.

• In addition to meals, fruit here is spectacular. Everyday after dinner a couple of friends and I visit the fruit man to buy yutao (or YOO TOWRRRR according to the fruit man that sells peaches, watermelons, and other unidentifiables out of his blue pick-up truck). Unclear how these yutao peaches will affect my health. On one hand, the peaches are undoubtedly covered in pesticides to keep them from being eaten by the monster bugs that exist in this province. Those probably aren't good for me - the peaches should be washed. On the other hand, does cleansing them in Chinese water make them better...or worse
• Every summer from early June to late August Harbin features a beer festival where people gather outside (every day) to meet their friends (every day) and drink beer (every day) and eat roasted things on a stick (every day). These 啤酒园, or beer gardens, are social hubs at night where people can relax after a hard day's work. They are also great places to eat different types of once-alive-but-are-now-dead-and-tasty animals. I'll just go ahead and venture that eating a whole quail (head to foot) is quite delicious, if a bit crunchy.

More photos!

Just some European-style buildings in downtown Harbin.

Boats on the Songhua River. People swim here sometimes too.

I will take these blue skies over Beijing's toxic fumes any day.

Anyway, I must get ready for class. I've not one but two 听写's (tingxie, literally listen-write) quizzes tomorrow! 哎呀!受不了!!

魏德

Post the Fourth: Tingbudong

"我发誓为了在CET哈尔滨项目中提高我的中文水平从现在开始到这学期结束我只讲汉语，同时我也会帮助我的同学遵守这个誓言."
~ CET Harbin Language Pledge

So it begins. The language pledge. What were once lively conversations have since become crippled exchanges between groups of CET students looking at each other over their mountains of homework. Slowly, a conversation (in Chinese!) will begin, developing promisingly as those involved gradually become more invested and more confident in their language abilities, people excited now that they are able to amply express themselves and their opinions, the conversation increasingly fluent as words begin to flow quickly and without bounds...until someone utters the lethal "tīngbudǒng" (听不懂, I auditorily don't understand you) and suddenly silence descends.

From now on I am only allowed to speak English to my American family. Outside of that, this blog will be my only English outlet for the summer. FDJGKDFGOSFFFJDKGS.

Some things:

• I met my Chinese roommate! His name is Zhang Chiye and he is a second year electrical engineering (see AWESOME) student at the university. At first I was afraid that conversation might be awkward (given my language ineptitude), but things are actually great. His background story is a little sad since he, like so many Chinese people, was forced into his major due to the 高考 (massive life-determining college entrance exam that makes the SATs look like a game of go-fish) but he's somehow managed to not be bitter about it. In fact, he's hilarious.

The pillow doesn't really do him justice but it is a good representation of his sense of humor.

• Who do I need to talk to about the weather? Harbin is essentially in Russia, yet it is still very hot here (though nights are cool). Unclear how anything gets done during the day in Chinese universities when there isn't any air conditioning and one has just had a large bowl of 榨菜肉丝炒饭, otherwise known as hot-pickled-mustard-tuber (don't laugh) meat fried rice.

Doesn't that look delicious?

• Yesterday we had lunch with our 1-on-1 professors who will help us with our 8-week long research project. Mine is Sui laoshi, a 50-something preventive medicine (预防医学) researcher-type person who focuses on "top priority easily transmittable diseases" like TB, H1N1, and AIDS (艾滋病 in case you were curious). She is another victim of the 高考, as well as conservative parents who apparently didn't think civil engineering/architecture, which are very desirable majors, was very becoming for a young Chinese woman. So now she tries to protect unsuspecting villagers from contracting AIDS. The amount of knowledge inside her head is almost frightening; this woman can tell you something about almost any aspect of the Chinese health-care system from preventive medicine to medical distribution to health insurance policy differences between regions of China. Tomorrow is our first legitimate class so I'm planning on reading (thanks, Wikipedia/Google) about the health situation in China for preparation.
• Outside of the 1-on-1 topic, I have three other classes: 1-on-2 drill class, composition, and business Chinese. The 1-on-2 consists of two students and one teacher; the students recite dialogues and discuss topics while the teacher leads the discussion and mercilessly corrects pronunciation and tone mistakes (huáshèngdùn...huáshèngdùn...huáshèngdùn...). Composition class is focused on written Chinese, which differs from spoken Mandarin in both grammar and vocabulary; students study a variety of styles and imitate them to learn how the Chinese put down thoughts and feelings on paper. Business Chinese is exactly what is sounds like. I'm not sure why I'm taking this last class as I studied economics for three semesters at Yale and have hated them all, both individually and together as a whole, though the chapters on medical insurance and environment look pretty good. Vocabulary words like "welfare and remuneration" (福利待遇) and "focused strategic management" (专营主业战略管理) aren't helping. Whatever, no pain, no gain.

Hopefully classes will become less hectic and we students will be able to do something other than homework. For now, thunderstorm! Update to hopefully come later this week!

魏德

Post the Third: Harbin!!!

"Harbin (simplified Chinese: 哈尔滨) is the capital and largest city in Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China, lying on the southern bank of the Songhua River...Harbin is originally a Manchu word meaning 'a place for drying fishing nets.'"
~ Wikipedia, keyword: Harbin

After arriving in Harbin via soft-sleeper train (see LUXURIOUS), I immediately noticed three things:

• BLUE SKIES: Harbin, unlike other major Chinese cities, hasn't yet managed to choke itself in layers of smog. As a result, the sky is still visible. Success. 

City roundabout, downtown Harbin

• Kendeji/肯德基: Upon exiting the train station, there are two KFC's approximately 200 yards from each other. We are far from Beijing, but not that far. I do want to know what's on the menu.

KFC, downtown Harbin. Notice it resides in a government-protected traditional style Russian building (it's the building, not the KFC, that's protected). I am unsure how I feel about this.

• Russian style buildings and "Russian style buildings": As the city was originally built by Russians, Harbin to this day boasts Russian-inspired architecture as well as other European styles that followed European settlers into the city. Some of the buildings date back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries and are masterpieces of classical Russian building styles with brightly colored walls and domes. Other buildings date back about three or four years and are masterpieces of the Chinese ability to include tradition on even the most characterless modern buildings. In large cities like Beijing and Shanghai, it's not uncommon to see huge skyscrapers made entirely out of glass and steel with a traditional Chinese roof on top - it's almost as though these monoliths are wearing Chinese "hats." In Harbin, though, the original European influences still seem to dominate.

Most yellow buildings like the one pictured above have are traditional Russian/European style. The building in the background is wearing a hat!

The CET program has kept us busy for the past couple days since classes start on Monday. So far we've poked around the campus and surrounding area, toured the more central downtown area, taken placement exams (oral and written), and struggled with varying degrees of success to triumph over jet-lag. Tonight we officially meet our Chinese roommates (SO EXCITED!!!) and enjoy one last night of being able to converse freely amongst ourselves before the language pledge starts tomorrow afternoon and nobody is able to say anything to anyone. 哎呀.

Thoughts so far:

• The feeling here in this city is unique. It's a super-huge metropolis but there are local alleyways and restaurants that people go to time after time. Hoards of modern skyscrapers form an impressive skyline while small parks still draw hundreds of Chinese people for taijiquan in the morning and dancing late at night. Development is well underway (new subway lines, new businesses, etc), yet the city still isn't international. It's authentically Chinese. It's slightly uncomfortable and weird and I like it. Frankly, it's an adventure.
• Adventures aside, Harbin NEEDS to get some traffic lights ASAP. I used to think Beijing traffic was bad. There are literally NO rules here. If there is a flat surface, a car will drive on it. If it has people on it, those people can be made flat.
• Dongbei food is goooood. Dongbei coffee is not.
• Harbin people appear rather unfriendly. They actually love to talk to foreigners. They really want to know why I've come all the way from my 美国 (USA) to a city like Harbin. They don't even care that I keep butchering their mother tongue.

All in all, Harbin has come pretty far from its fishing net past.

Oh, you know, just some pro-subway propaganda.

Signing off,
魏德