Beijing Day 1

June 22, 2024

Okay. I finally have good enough WIFI and I’m not too tired. I will catch up on the earlier dates when I can but today was so good I can’t help but write while it’s fresh.

So this morning was actually quite sad. It started off with saying bye to my mom’s side of the family who I had been with for the last week or so. They dropped me off at the train station and there I began my solo journey around China WOOOWOWOOWOOW!!! I am SO excited, you have no idea.

Anyways, today was pretty seamless. I took the train from Anqing (my mother’s city) all the way to Beijing Nan Zhan (the north train station in Beijing). It was about a 7 hour train ride and it went pretty quickly I won’t even lie.

Once I arrived I waited for a taxi and was on my way to the hostel. I was very excited to book this particular hostel. Now you may be wondering, how can a hostel be so good? It’s only Beijing. And that was my thinking as well… at first. The reason why this hostel is so cool is because it is in the countryside of Beijing, right next to the Great Wall. I can see it from the courtyard in fact. When I was thinking of going to Beijing, I never even thought of going into the countryside. I’m not even going to lie, this might just be me being stupid, but I didn’t even know Beijing HAD a countryside. When I think of Beijing I think of tall office buildings, night markets, shopping malls, and the Forbidden City. My vision was very city-esque. Picking this hostel was a gamble as being in the countryside means a 2-3 hour drive from the city center, and I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into other than what was shown in the pictures. Anyways, once I found a taxi, him and I set off for this place on a 2 hour and 30 min drive together.

It was a blast. He and I talked pretty much for the whole time, IN CHINESE. I’m not even trying to overhype this experience but it was very neat and I think this was my first ever full on conversation in Chinese with a stranger. I learned so much including what it was like to live in Beijing, stuff about politics as well as how to navigate having conversations in Chinese. For example, the most important thing that I learned is to accept the fact that I am not going to understand 100% of the conversation. In fact, at times, I might only understand 20%, or even 10%. But that doesn’t even matter. Take the small parts of what you understand and then just go with it. At first, this was very hard for me. I feel like I am a person that needs to do everything right all the time, and that includes wanting to understand all of a conversation. Another important thing that I have learned to do (actually I don’t know if this is good or not), but in the event where I mostly understand someone, but not fully, I will take what they told me, reword it, and then ask “Is your meaning ….” To be honest I don’t know if this is annoying or not to do, but I did this several times this conversation and it was really beneficial because it showed I was listening to what he was saying and at least trying to understand him.

Long story short, we talked about where he was from, what it was like to live in Beijing versus the country, what it was like in the US, what politics are like, what the environment is like, Chinese history and old dynasties, etc. It was pretty loaded but also funnily enough it was everything my Chinese class at WashU had covered haha.

The taxi ended up costing like 600 RMB, which is just short of 100 USD, but I felt super bad because the guy had to drive 2 hours away from the city, so I gave him an extra 300 RMB for the trip back. I’m hesitant to include this because I don’t want my dad to scold me, but he was a genuine guy and I felt bad for inconveniencing him so it was honestly my pleasure.

Once I got to the hostel, the lady welcomed me with open arms. She even showed me a map of different routes I could take to the Great Wall. I will do that tomorrow. She was also kind enough to cook me a delicious noodle dinner. This place is great. There are 9 cats, and I’ve already made friends with one. It’s very calm and peaceful and I can’t wait to explore more. OH and I forgot to mention, I have a whole room to myself.

My apologies if some of my paragraphs don’t make sense. I’m tired but I wanted to write this. Goodnight!

P.S. As I was writing this there are two other foreigners in the opposite room. One from Iran and one from Ireland. Both Mechanical Engineers (how cool) here before a conference in Beijing. Cool guys. Seem chill.