Back in China: Dalian
My last week in Toronto was quite hectic, with finishing up a thesis, grading 80 exams, moving out of my apartment and temporarily suspending my life in Toronto. I watched some great movies on the plane over, although it was a long trip, and it made me think again that people who fly across the ocean twice a month are probably to be pitied rather than admired.
China
It was a great feeling being back in China after so long. I lived here for a total of one and a half years, but apart from a few days in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, I haven’t been back properly since 2004. Luckily, I have more or less kept up with my Chinese through Chinese friends, living near Chinatown in Toronto, and copious amounts of soap operas.
I spent half a day in Beijing, meeting up with a friend who had gotten me a train ticket, and having my first meals in China - although since these were close to the train station, they were more up-scale than I am used to. Delicious though. Also realized, when I tried to explain to my friend about OpenCourseWare and Creative Commons licenses in Chinese, that I lack some relevant vocabulary.
I took the train to Dalian over night, and loved being back on a Chinese train. Their train system is amazing, ferrying millions of people every day with unwavering efficiency and professionality. I slept well on my upper berth, after some conversation with the people in my car. It was the first reminder of Chinese dialects - most of my friends in Toronto speak Mandarin as their second language, because they come from other regions in China, and thus their Mandarin is very standardized and easy to understand. But in Northern China, where “Mandarin” is spoken, you get all kinds of versions. Kind of like learning Oxford English, and then going to Texas. I understand it, but certainly have to pay a lot more attention. Fun though.
Dalian
I have never used CouchSurfing or Hospitality Club in China before, indeed, last time I lived here, they didn’t exist. It has proven to be a wonderful way of connecting to people where I have travelled - for example in Indonesia. In Dalian, I knew that I did not want to stay at the official conference hotel, because it was so expensive (and also), and I was planning to just find something close to the train station, a zhaodaisuo that was cheap. However, I wasn’t sure how easy this would be (in some Chinese cities it’s very difficult, in others you need to know where to go), so I tried contacting some CouchSurfers in Dalian before I left, and got an overwhelming response. I was slated to live with one of them, and looking forward to it. However, when I finally found the conference hotel, it turned out that it was far away from downtown, and it would take a lot of time to travel to my host - especially since some of the public transport doesn’t run after 8PM. Luckily, I found a very nice and clean hotel for 60RM close to the conference hotel.
And it’s on a beautiful street - with a lively market during daytime, and a great shaokao (Chinese bbq) in the evening. Different vegetables (and meats - but not for me) on a stick, pick the ones you want, they sprinkle them with crazy spices and bbq them for you - you eat them on ridiculously low chairs, drinking local beer (3 RBM/half a liter). I love this way of eating, and had missed it a lot since 2004. There was also a tiny printshop next to my hotel, and I had them print up 100 business cards for me, with Chinese and English text, for 20 RMB.
Quick reactions to China?
Well, I love being back! love walking the busy streets, buying a local newspaper, sitting down for a morning meal of “fried oily ones” (youtiao) and hot sweet soymilk on the street at 5:30 in the morning, while all the workers are on their way to work. I love taking buses, streetcars, figuring out where to go, talking to everyone (a half an hour conversation with a three-wheel driver from the station, about Russians in Dalian, food prices and the Olympics).
Internet cafes are still as cheap as they were, also sadly as dark and smoke-filled. Just now, a guy sat down right next to me and began playing online Chinese chess, and smoking like a furnace. Usually they only have Internet Explorer, which is a pain, but this time I actually downloaded Firefox and installed it. There seems to be a lot more blocked pages now than last time I was in China, but maybe my surfing pattern is different. Quite a few of the blog posts linked to from my Google Reader are blocked (not about China - probably the whole blog provider is blocked), as well as several foreign news organizations. Of course, Wikipedia (luckily, I have a few language versions offline). I also had some problems with Gmail in Internet Explorer, which were resolved when I went through google.com/ig, however it seems to be OK in Firefox.
Tomorrow I leave for Wuhan for a few days, then Chongqing, and finally Guozhuang for a few weeks.
Stian
