The Great Wall
*lights fire defiantly*
"Now all of China knows you're here."
*snaps flag pole and holds Chinese flag in fire*
*evil sneer*
"Perfect."
Twenty cool points if you can name this movie. Anyone who knows me decently well could probably guess the title anyway, without having seen the movie. But if you haven't seen it, you really should. I promise.***
Anyway, to business: the Great Wall!
.
.
.
... I didn't go.
I know, lame, right? Well, I'm sick. .. I seem to have cought China's worst cold, and so I stayed in bed and slept until the maid came at 8am to clean the room. Seriously, 8am? But hey, I'm really not complaining... having people who come to clean the bathroom (and even make the bed as long as you're not in it) is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. So I awoke to the sonorous sound of *bang bang bang* "Ni hao, fu wu yuan! Ke yi jin ma?" (Hello, housekeeping! Can I come in?) "Ni hao, ke yi," I muttered back, and the door flew open, showering me with unwanted light. "Ni mei chu qu ma?" she asked congenially (You didn't go out [like everyone else]?), oblivious to my obvious desire to stop speaking Chinese and return to sleep. "Mei you; wo sheng bing le," I told her as politely as I could and flopped back onto my pillow, trying unsuccessfully to zone out for a little while longer.
Despite this rather sudden awakening, I had a very nice day on my own, did a little shopping at the grocery store and post office for school supplies, snacks, and a much-needed alarm clock. I found my way into some residential areas immediately outside the university, and while the photographs I took on my stroll (to buy a battery for the alarm clock, which I of course neglected to do on my first trip out) are attempts to capture small bits of beauty, I was just absolutely blown away by the poverty, decrepitude, misery, yet incredible industry of the people and neigborhoods I saw. I could have taken so many more pictures... of half-naked men sprawled under tarps at the side of the highway, sleeping on a floor strewn with filthy bits of clothing, food remnants, old shoes, bits of rubber, crumpled up papers, and a few stray dogs; of crude stone hovels only half-standing, strung with cloth and tarp to keep out the elements; or of the suspicious-looking woman who stared at me as she ushered her tiny, bla
ck-eyed son back inside the open doorway... of the rows upon rows of rusty-windowed apartments, windows stuffed with newspaper and old cloth to keep the rain out, a few potted plants nobly trying to lighten the view; of the three bald men with blackened teeth playing cards beside and overturned disintegrating truck; of the woman fanning her sleeping child as she half-heartedly tried to interest the passers-by in the few fake jade pendants and old books she had strewn haphazardly on a blanket at the edge of the sidewalk... or maybe of the dusty-looking old man I encountered in a neighborhood just outside the university gates, running with a limping gait down the street toward a locked iron fence, clutching a filthy plastic back in one hand as he hurried down the street. As I saw him, I couldn't help but smile a little at the absurdity of the situation, and he smiled back. Twice after he passed me he turned his grimy face back to grin at me, a little bigger each time. Perhaps I looked to him as laughable as he looked to me, and indeed, I could hardly have looked more out of place... a clean, well-dressed, tall* blonde strolling down this 
dusty street past apartments I obviously would never call home, white i-pod wires trailing discreetly from my ears as I listened to Monday's dialogue and vocabulary to prepare for class next week. He grinned one last time before nimbly scaling the spiked iron fence -- so quickly I hardly saw how he did it -- dropping to the other side at the feet of one of the ubiquitous green-uniformed Public Security Bureau officers standing grimly at attention in front of the locked gate, and jogging in his limping, ungainly way off into the humidity of Beijing, into the jostling crowd and the caucaphony of vehicles and Mandarin.**I finally managed to locate a battery (and an ice-cream bar) but was unable to locate Beiyu. After a while the traffic was getting more intense and the humidity less tolerable, so I hailed a taxi just so I wouldn't have to figure out how to get back, as I was becoming increasingly confused (as well as thirsty from the ice cream). 10 kuai, a couple of minutes, and a nice conversation with the taxi driver later, I hopped out at the gates of BLCU and hurried back up to my room to plug in my alarm clock and study while I waited for all the Great-Wall-ers to come back from their adventure. Fun times, huh? Tomorrow I don't know what I'll be up do, but I'm sure I'll feel a little bit more like going out for real and less like lying in bed with a box of tissues and a bottle of kiwi juice.
* Okay, we're talking relative to Chinese people here. I am taller than a lot of men here, no joke. Seriously!
**Note to Mom, Dad, Kevin, and various other concerned parties: I did this walking in the light of midday, armed with a knife, only through crowded areas, etc. I don't do dangerous walking here at all. So no worrying allowed, okay?
***P.S. The movie is Mulan. If you haven't seen it, go rent it! Now! ...What are you waiting for?
posted by Kelly @ 7:04 下午
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