The gravity of the situation slowly seeped into my mindgrapes a little earlier today. I've made a pretty big move... to say the least. I've been feeling pretty good about it though, if not slightly anxious. Nyesmind's readership is by no means out of this world, but it's been growing to the point wherein a little background may be in order. For those readers who do not know me personally, I have recently made the decision to move from my comfortable surroundings in an upscale South Florida neighborhood to an obscure city in China toward the end of learning to speak Mandarin. It should be noted that save a few key phrases I currently do not at all. You see, my chosen field of study is international affairs. State universities will generally hand these degrees out without the qualifications which might make them meaningful to employers such as the UN, State Department or Freedomhouse. For the graduate programs I'm looking at though, this isn't the case. They want to see proficiency in a foreign language, a great idea and work experience abroad. The latter is going to be quite a trick given China's less than enthusiastic stance on civil society, but one foot in front of the other.
The move was prefaced with a two week trip to Hong Kong. I figured, the difference between doing nothing in West Palm Beach and doing nothing in Hong Kong was a matter of languishing or gaining a degree of insight into the country I'd like to study. That leg of the trip was kind of a mixed bag. Attempting to travel on the cheap in one of the world's more expensive cities was difficult. I've slept in the backseat of my car on long roadtrips, I've shivered throughout the night in a tent in the Rockies due to a lack of heavy blankets, I've stayed in a $25 motel room in the middle of nowhere in Texas. This hostel was the most godforsaken lodgings to date. That may be the subject for a different blog, but let's just leave it at each day was capped by coming back to sleep in a tiny closet that smelled of pakistani food and the occasional hint of urine. Then on the last two days of the trip my cell phone was stolen. My Google phone had become a limb. With cheap tourist attractions running thin, no gps and being thoroughly demoralized I succumbed decided to hibernate for the remaining two days. After gracious amounts of Valerian extract, Melatonin and Ambien for the following 48 hours I awoke to navigate the rails of Hong Kong and get to the airport. Dalian has treated me better.
Granted it's only been about 24 hours, but this seems like somewhere I'll be able to call home for a little while. I genuinely like Chinese people. Some are dicks, but for the most part it's a pretty friendly culture. Hong Kong was Miami-esque in that it was too international/transient in a weird way. Tsim Sha Tsui didn't even feel like China. When you get that many people who are fresh off the boat from different regions of the country and the world a serious disconnect between the one's mentality and society develops. Yet here, people seem welcoming. While Dalian is a city of 6 million, that's pretty small by Chinese standards and it has the vibe of a small city. Venturing out into the streets doesn't have that grinding effect on the soul like Hong Kong or Shanghai. It's not refreshing like Tallahassee or DC either but hey, you can't win them all.
Since my camera is south of Shenzhen, let me try to describe it a little bit for you. As Hong Kong was built up by the British, Dalian was by the Russians. So start by imagining a small city in the far east of Russia. The streets are wide and subject to occasional gusts of cold, dusty wind. The cold isn't a regular cold, it's biting. Filling the streets are Volkswagen taxis from the 1980s, the owners of which have fought a valiant battle against street corrosion and bitter frosts. Traffic is a life and death battle against those meddlesome pedestrians (crosswalks mean nothing), but nobody seems angry about it and you rarely hear people honking their horns. As in Beijing or other Chinese cities the pollution obscures magnificent glass buildings of green and silver and gold, just not quite as badly and not quite as magnificent. What's really nice though is that on this template of Russian architecture and the instant dilapidation of hard scrabble Chinese industry, local officials have done their best to create what's deemed the most livable city in China. Dalian is replete with public parks and ponds. People take their sweater clad dogs for leisurely strolls around half frozen lakes. There are statues filling large roundabouts and all of the old buildings are kept clean. A walk will take you through neighborhoods with distinctly different flavors but all share the same welcoming homeliness. I'd be surprised if they don't exist but I've yet to see those grimy, soulless, spindly, high rise condos so endemic to Chinese cities. This place is something I never could have accurately pictured, but now can't get it out of my head. Of course the vibe is only one part of some. Tomorrow I get a glimpse of my school, and within a week or so start seeing apartments. Hopefully the most liveable city in China remains that way during these next few formative weeks!
The move was prefaced with a two week trip to Hong Kong. I figured, the difference between doing nothing in West Palm Beach and doing nothing in Hong Kong was a matter of languishing or gaining a degree of insight into the country I'd like to study. That leg of the trip was kind of a mixed bag. Attempting to travel on the cheap in one of the world's more expensive cities was difficult. I've slept in the backseat of my car on long roadtrips, I've shivered throughout the night in a tent in the Rockies due to a lack of heavy blankets, I've stayed in a $25 motel room in the middle of nowhere in Texas. This hostel was the most godforsaken lodgings to date. That may be the subject for a different blog, but let's just leave it at each day was capped by coming back to sleep in a tiny closet that smelled of pakistani food and the occasional hint of urine. Then on the last two days of the trip my cell phone was stolen. My Google phone had become a limb. With cheap tourist attractions running thin, no gps and being thoroughly demoralized I succumbed decided to hibernate for the remaining two days. After gracious amounts of Valerian extract, Melatonin and Ambien for the following 48 hours I awoke to navigate the rails of Hong Kong and get to the airport. Dalian has treated me better.
Granted it's only been about 24 hours, but this seems like somewhere I'll be able to call home for a little while. I genuinely like Chinese people. Some are dicks, but for the most part it's a pretty friendly culture. Hong Kong was Miami-esque in that it was too international/transient in a weird way. Tsim Sha Tsui didn't even feel like China. When you get that many people who are fresh off the boat from different regions of the country and the world a serious disconnect between the one's mentality and society develops. Yet here, people seem welcoming. While Dalian is a city of 6 million, that's pretty small by Chinese standards and it has the vibe of a small city. Venturing out into the streets doesn't have that grinding effect on the soul like Hong Kong or Shanghai. It's not refreshing like Tallahassee or DC either but hey, you can't win them all.
Since my camera is south of Shenzhen, let me try to describe it a little bit for you. As Hong Kong was built up by the British, Dalian was by the Russians. So start by imagining a small city in the far east of Russia. The streets are wide and subject to occasional gusts of cold, dusty wind. The cold isn't a regular cold, it's biting. Filling the streets are Volkswagen taxis from the 1980s, the owners of which have fought a valiant battle against street corrosion and bitter frosts. Traffic is a life and death battle against those meddlesome pedestrians (crosswalks mean nothing), but nobody seems angry about it and you rarely hear people honking their horns. As in Beijing or other Chinese cities the pollution obscures magnificent glass buildings of green and silver and gold, just not quite as badly and not quite as magnificent. What's really nice though is that on this template of Russian architecture and the instant dilapidation of hard scrabble Chinese industry, local officials have done their best to create what's deemed the most livable city in China. Dalian is replete with public parks and ponds. People take their sweater clad dogs for leisurely strolls around half frozen lakes. There are statues filling large roundabouts and all of the old buildings are kept clean. A walk will take you through neighborhoods with distinctly different flavors but all share the same welcoming homeliness. I'd be surprised if they don't exist but I've yet to see those grimy, soulless, spindly, high rise condos so endemic to Chinese cities. This place is something I never could have accurately pictured, but now can't get it out of my head. Of course the vibe is only one part of some. Tomorrow I get a glimpse of my school, and within a week or so start seeing apartments. Hopefully the most liveable city in China remains that way during these next few formative weeks!
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