We are all familiar with Bonsai trees, or at least we’ve heard from them before. Many people associate these miniature trees with Japan, and while there is some truth in this, this practice originated in China.

Picture courtesy of Alejandro Cuevas

The Japanese art of bonsai was derived from the Chinese art of Penjing or Penzai. Penzai consists in not only the depiction trees, but also of landscapes in a scaled down version. Around the 6th century, many diplomats and students from Japan visited China and were marveled by the art of penzai. In an effort to bring back these ‘souvenirs’, these diplomats and students started carrying back the trees back to Japan.

There is a main difference, however, between the penzai and bonsai. The penzai has more room for creativeness, meaning that one can scale down different kind of trees and use a variety of shapes and colors for the containers. On the other hand, the bonsai is focused on trees with thicker trunks and more geometric containers with muted colors (a more sophisticated look).

Picture courtesy of Alejandro Cuevas

The gardens we visited, have an extraordinary amount of penzai trees scattered throughout big sections. Each tree is a demonstration of patience, as the care and maintenance involved in each tree is very high; each tree also has a different meaning depending on its style. Finally, penzai also play a big role in aesthetics and zen buddhism.

I am a big fan of miniature landscapes. Therefore, visiting these gardens in Suzhou was an incredible experience. This is how I want my garden to look like when I have the opportunity to own my own house. Until then, I’ll continue keeping the tree on my desk as my sole companion.

We had the opportunity to visit a high school and each of us were paired with a different student so that they could show us around the school. I remember that day very vividly since I got the chance to hear first hand experiences from a student, as well as his opinion on things.

As I said, there were a few things that stuck out the most to me and I will be sharing them with you.

Picture Courtesy of Alejandro Cuevas

The first one arose as we passed in front of an information chart (the kind that you usually see at the university with information about an experiment or project)  that had a picture of President Obama. I asked him what the chart said and what was his opinion on the US. He replied telling me a bit about some of the good economic policies and political decisions that President Obama had put in place (all of that was written in the chart). With this, I continued to ask him about the US. I must say I was very surprised to hear that among his favorite movies were Titanic and Forrest Gump, and that he really enjoyed listening to Bruno Mars and Taylor Swift.

Chinese people have a really good picture of the US. They love the culture and almost everything related to the US. Yet, in the US you would never see an information chart like that about Xi Jinping (China’s President, in case you had to Google that). And if you ask an American student about China in general, you will most likely get a negative response probably including war or communism. Isn’t that crazy?

The second things that stood out most to me that day was his opinion on the Chinese education system. He said that he sometimes felt that teachers in Chinese classrooms can be very authoritarian and old-school. He said that students can’t go against what the teacher says. If a student provides his opinion on a subject that differs with what the teacher is presenting to the class, said student will be shut down and that other students sometimes will outcast him.

Picture Courtesy of Alejandro Cuevas

I put these two stories together especially because they go against each other in a subtle way. The first one defies the typical stereotype we have against China and the second one supports it. Now, which one is true and which one isn’t? It is hard to say for sure, both situations can be interpreted in different ways and different people will form different opinions and that’s okay. Yes, censorship exists to some degree and the education system might also be affected in some way by these ideals. However, the fact that a high school student was telling me about how he felt, his ideas, and his opinions, shows that people are not completely brainwashed either.

Now, what should be done and what shouldn’t is not for me to say, but I certainly admired the insight that was provided to me that day and the opportunity to see different classrooms. It was such a memorable experience. For all these reasons, I was also the one late to the bus that day.

It’s 4pm, you’ve been studying for a while, and you are hungry. In the US, depending on what kind of person you are, you might have a couple of Hershey’s kisses nearby, or maybe some Oreos, Chips Ahoy, Skittles, maybe some gummy treats, or even cereal is also a good option. Our candies are all about sugar: chocolate, cream, caramel, or just plain sugar. We love it, we make it so simple that we couldn’t imagine it otherwise, right?

But, as many things learned in this program (especially about food), the world is a place full of exceptions. Everything that we consider normal may not be even remotely close to the thoughts of people from the other side of the globe. An example of that would be, in this case, China.

We had several opportunities to grab a few snacks while riding the buses and we’d usually also have access to convenience stores close to our hotels. So candies were always near us and we had the opportunity to browse around a little bit and find out more about Chinese tastes.

So what’s a quick snack that I can grab?

You can get a chicken’s foot.

Picture Credit: Alejandro Cuevas

You’d pass on that? Oh, how about some…

Spicy tofu sticks! With just a couple of crabs to complement the taste.

Picture Credit: Alejandro Cuevas

Please note that the spicy tofu writes 126 Celsius. If that is not too bad for you, you might wanna give it a shot. No? How about the spicy crabs next to it? More appetizing?

As shown above, Chinese candies/snacks can be quite wild. I have no power to judge them for what they like and what they don’t. However, please take a moment to appreciate this wide breach between two country’s eating habits! If you gave a bag like that to somebody in the US, they will alt least be freaking out because of what they see alone in these pictures.

But again, the important part is to learn how drastically different can two countries be. It is not about who makes more money, or who gets more credit. In order to thrive in multicultural settings, the first step is to recognize that we all have our differences. They might not make me a better or worse man in my standards, but they do just that, they make you different

Over the past years, there has been an increasing number of explicit regulations and rules everywhere you go in the US. In order to avoid lawsuits and other legal problems, people are forced to put in place several regulations that can cover the spectrum of legal issues that might arrive as an erroneous (yet plausible) use of a particular service that they are offering.

For example when you go to an amusement park nowadays and you find your way to the bumper cars, you find that there are so many rules for the ride. “Go in circles”, “frontal collisions prohibited”, etc. Where’s the fun?! You have just ruined what used to be a great ride.

But in China, where regulations are not as strict and everything is much more laidback, this is not a problem.

We went to a little boardwalk carnival in Dalian, and we got the chance to play with some Chinese bumper cars. Around 10 minutes of “do whatever you want and just enjoy yourself” for 10RMB (~U$1.25). We just went crashing and bouncing all over the place. Some of the hits were pretty hard, and you felt the impact shaking your whole body. Yet, they are still bumper cars, and were created for this exact purpose.

Picture Credit: Alejandro Cuevas

That being said, the overall park had some pretty neat rides. It was quite an amusement park for a boardwalk, and the fees as mentioned before were extremely low compared to the US.

Apart from having a great time at the amusement park and trying cool rides I had a very big realization while I was there. It might sound silly, but before coming to China I never thought about Chinese people going to amusement parks or having fun rides like those. As I watched parents riding around with their children, groups of friends meeting up or go-karts, etc., I realized that as in any other part of the world everybody was simply trying to have a good time and enjoy their time with family and friends. They, as anybody else, have a similar pursuit of happiness–and the ability to do so.

Picture Credit: Alejandro Cuevas

When we visited the Great Wall, I found out that the wall (as well, as this blog post) has a certain degree of cheesiness. Along the slabs of stone and metal railings, couples from all over the world have found a way to leave a token of love in the historic wall: love locks.

You might have heard/seen love locks before. They are present in many different countries– especially those with high affluence of tourists. The tradition of lovers putting love locks began in the famous Parisian bridge, Le Pont des Arts. Couples would go to Le Pont Des Arts, engrave a lock with their names/initials, lock it, and throw the key to the river. This act symbolized a lock that would never be open, and thus, a love that would never falter.

This practice became so widespread (and profitable for local vendors) that it is not uncommon to now find these locks everywhere. Consequently, they became almost cliché and meaningless.

Therefore, the first time I saw these locks at the wall I thought “Oh well, another monument victim of a plagiarized tradition.” Turns out that I was wrong.

Picture Credit: Alejandro Cuevas

In fact, I learned that Chinese people regard the Great Wall as a symbol of eternity. For them, the wall has been there for so many years already (and expected to be there for many years more) that they believe that when couples attach a lock to the wall, their love (as well as the lock) is bound to stay there eternally.

I found the explanation to be oddly satisfying and intriguing. I never heard that story before and I was very surprised to find that a wall built to keep enemies now has a love twist to it.

It is perhaps only a well-crafted deception to again milk love-drunk tourists. However, it still makes a cool story and if you have a significant other back home, buy a lock (they will engrave it at the place you buy it) or bring one, snap a picture of it and send it to that special person back home. I’m sure they will appreciate the treat.