the never-ending city

every week is an adventure. i thought i would take it easy since i returned from thailand exhausted and with a cold, but beijing decided otherwise! i feel like i could stay here many more months, and still have something to new do, every single day.

on thursday our class took a field trip to the beijing office of the american chamber of commerce. we were hosted by mariel montouri, a 25 year old brazilian woman who grew up all over the world, including connecticut and shanghai. she has now worked at am-cham for 3 months. her intern, maxine, is from davidson university in north carolina. mariel and maxine first gave us the standard speech about what am-cham does, then led a question-answer session all about what it is like to graduate and then come work in china. this was a hugely interesting talk, since many of us have this dream for after graduation, but of course we are intimidated by the prospect of starting from scratch in the crazy chinese business world.

to my delight, mariel emphasized that finding a job in china is (1) easier, and (2) more fun than you might think. as long as you are willing to come to beijing and go through the process in person, it can be done. applying from america is 100% useless. also, you MUST apply through shuren... familiar people or acquaintances. if the person on the other side does not know who you are or wasn't told specifically to look at your resume... no chance. so keep in touch with every single person you meet in china. i'm taking her advice seriously!



on friday, we went as a group to the tailor shop that made our program director's wedding tux, and his wife's gown. when americans come to china, they often get tailored clothing because it is so relatively cheap. for example, my roommate jen got a suit and interchangeable skirt custom made for 850 renminbi... less than 130 usd. i ordered a custom copy of a shanghai tang designed silk qipao (traditional chinese dress) which cost 470 renminbi or 70 usd. jen and i both bargained our items down about 200 renminbi.



on saturday, a few of us went with jada to visit the lama temple (yonghe gong). the temple was built during the qing dynasty as a sign of friendship and respect to tibetan buddhist leaders. jada taught us the proper way to pray with incense at a buddhist temple. the grounds were really nice, but the best part was just being out and about in the pretty fall scenery.




that afternoon, we continued to the confucius temple and "campus" nearby. this is historic epicenter of scholarship in china, where potential civil servants took the confucian-based exams in hopes of attaining positions. during the ming dynasty, the odds of testing at the top level were 1 in 10,000. people think that is stunning, but it seems to me that the situation today is even worse! more and more people have access to education, so the competition literally becomes more fierce every day. pressure begins in elementary school, because elementary school grades and exit tests determine entry into middle school (then middle to high school, then high school to college, then college to career, etc.) i complained about SAT class junior year of high school... but chinese 2nd graders are already in my shoes!

the second picture is from the temple's exhibit on confucius's life. he was basically an ordinary guy... except perfect. and today, 1.4 billion people live by his philosophy. most influential man in the world? maybe it's because i am in the thick of it, i certainly think so.



one more sidenote from this week: in film class we watched "assembly," a 2007 film by feng xiaogang. i highly recommend it to anyone who likes war movies, even though that person will immediately pick up on cinematic elements ripped off from "saving private ryan." nevertheless, it's an amazing movie about a war that the rest of the world doesn't know much about... the chinese civil war, which raged from the end of WWII to 1949. plus, it features an all-star cast from china's contemporary film world. it's easy to find online because the director surrendered the rights... he wants anyone to be able to watch it. just beware: grown men will shed tears watching this film.


andddd finally, i promised more reflection on thailand but i think i will have to do that later. tomorrow i am going to the famous capital museum with faith after chinese class, so i will probably add pictures and comments again soon. maybe i'll get to it then!