Author Archives: klh5645

Celebrity Status

As a foreigner, and especially as a white American, everywhere I went in China, I truly felt like a celebrity. Walking down the streets was like walking down a runway. I felt like I was being followed by the paparazzi when I was doing something as simple as eating a meal and someone would take my picture. Additionally, any time we took a group picture, at least 10 other Chinese people would take a picture of our group photo.

I had heard before leaving for China that people would want to take my picture, but I never thought it would happen as often as it did. I was completely shocked by it at first, but as the trip went on, I embraced my newfound psuedo-fame it and would smile, wave, or pose for anyone trying to take my picture.

As Americans, it’s hard for us to imagine living in a country with such little diversity. One of our tour guides told us that almost 92% of the population is the Han Chinese. Thus, it is no surprise that so many people took pictures of us; most of them have probably never seen Americans or even white people before.

Overall, it was fun feeling like a celebrity for a while, and I’d be lying if I said I’m not a little sad to be an average citizen again at home.

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High School Highlight

When I was anticipating this trip, I was definitely most excited to see some of China’s most famous landmarks like the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and the Terra-Cotta soldiers. Seeing all of those places was even better than I imagined, but what I did not anticipate was how much I would love seeing everyday places and meeting everyday people. That being said, one of my favorite parts of the trip was visiting the high school in Dalian.

The day we went to visit the high school, I was very tired. I fell asleep on the bus ride there, and I was in no mood to be awake, let alone to be social when we got there. However, as soon as I stepped into the building, my mood completely changed. All of the students were so happy and excited that we were there, and they were so friendly and welcoming; I couldn’t help but smile and be friendly back to them.

The girl that I met that day first introduced herself to me with her Chinese name, and I could not pronounce it, so she told me her American name was Fortune. She chose that name because she liked that it meant good luck. She gave me her favorite book, which was a book a poems written in Chinese. I was the first American she ever met, and she kept telling me how glad she was to meet me. She had never been outside of China before, but she said that she hoped to travel to America sometime after college.

As I walked around the high school with Fortune, I learned a lot about the Chinese education system and the culture that I did not know before. Fortune told me that she started school around 7:30 am every day and didn’t finish until 8 or 9 pm. I was even more surprised to find out that she went to school on Saturdays until 4 pm. She lived at school during the week and only got to see her family on Saturday night and Sunday even though they don’t live that far away. When I was in high school, I complained about going to school from 7:30-2:30 5 days a week, and Fortune didn’t complain or even seem to mind at all.

Not only did I learn a lot from Fortune, but I think she learned a lot from me. She asked me a lot of questions about what my high school was like and about what I did for fun. I told her I liked to play sports in high school, and she told me that girls didn’t really play sports there. For fun she said she liked to play piano and another instrument that she didn’t know how to say in English and to hang out with her friends.

In the end, I realized that Chinese high school students are really not that different from American students. Though they spend more time in class, they still like to have fun, hang out with friends on the weekend, and look forward to summer break. Going to the high school and meeting Fortune was a really great experience that I’ll never forget.IMG_9549

A Wall Greater Than I Expected

Call me naïve, but prior to going to China, I thought that the Great Wall was going to be relatively flat. Of course I figured there would be some stairs here and there, but for the most part I figured it’d be a smooth, relaxing walk. I was pretty surprised, to say the least, when we arrived there and I saw a series of winding staircases going straight up a mountain. I quickly mentally prepared myself for what would be one of the most intense “leg days” of my life.

As I began climbing the steepest staircase I’ve ever climbed, I thought to myself, “Hey, this isn’t so bad.” About 7 staircases later in the excruciating heat, my thoughts weren’t so positive. My legs were tired, I was out of breath, and I was sweating more than I ever have in my life. Nonetheless, I pushed on until I finally made it to the top, and I’m so glad I did.

The view from the top was absolutely breath taking. Seeing the wall stretch on miles away really put into perspective how big and how great it really was. I couldn’t help but be in awe of how thousands of years ago people were able to build this incredible 13,000 mile-long structure with such little technology. It is a prime example that with hard work and determination, anything is possible.

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Pots > Squats

IMG_9457 I am, as a white girl would say, very #blessed, and I know that there are many things in life that I take for granted. However, I never would’ve thought that one of those things would be a public toilet until I went to China and experienced the squatter.

The squatter is essentially a hole in the ground used for going to the bathroom. In order to use it, you must literally squat all the way down to the dirty floor and hold that position for the extent of your defecation, all the while hoping you don’t lose your balance and fall in and/or walk out of the stall with wet shorts.

The Chinese people prefer having squatters because they feel that they’re more sanitary and prevent the spread of germs. I understand their reasoning, and although I still loathe the squatters, they are a part of the culture, and at the very least they were interesting to experience. Throughout my experience with squatters during the month I spent in China, I’ve learned many techniques and tips for dealing with them:

  1. “Preventative Peeing”: always go to the bathroom before you leave for the day. Hotels will always have Western toilets; so take advantage of them when you can!
  2. Always carry a pack of tissues or extra toilet paper with you. Often times, the squatters don’t have any toilet paper, and if you don’t have any with you, you might find yourself in an unfortunate situation.
  3. Condition yourself before you go to China, and don’t skip leg day! Be sure to get in some squats, lunges, and quality leg workouts to lessen the strain when you have to use the bathroom.
  4. Last, but not least, always carry hand sanitizer with you. Chances are, the bathroom won’t have soap, and you won’t want to leave the squatter without cleaning your hands.

Traffic in China

IMG_9266Before going to China, I had heard about how bad the traffic was there. People had told me that traffic lights were considered optional, speed limits were nonexistent, and driving on the right side of the road was not mandatory. When I went to China, not only did I discover that all of those things were true, but that it was actually worse than I had imagined. Cars, scooters, and bikes all share the road, and any one of them had the right-away over pedestrians making an attempt to cross the street like a real-life game of Frogger. Horns are honked constantly, warning the other nearby vehicles in the bumper-to-bumper traffic that they’re about to get cut off. Cars came inches away from hitting our bus, taxi rides felt like amusement park rides, and everywhere we went, we saw cars casually parked on sidewalks. I remember our tour guide saying that the most popular kind of jam in China is a traffic jam.

In America, there’s a stereotype that Chinese people are terrible drivers, and you’d think that after what I saw and experienced, this stereotype would be reinforced in my mind. However, my experiences with traffic in China actually had the opposite effect: I now think Chinese people are incredible drivers. Maybe they seem bad in the United States because they aren’t used to all of our traffic laws, but in China, they are great drivers. I would not last 5 minutes driving there. The traffic jams are usually caused by the overpopulation in many of the cities, and with so many people, Chinese drivers must do whatever it takes (i.e. run red lights, drive on the wrong side of the road, etc.) to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. They drive recklessly, but the do it well. To my surprise, I did not see one car accident the entire time we were in China. Thus, after this experience, I have a newfound respect for Chinese drivers.