Upon arrival to Beijing Int. I was greeted by an enormous hall with the highest ceiling I have ever seen in an airport, I walked with the stream of people towards what looked like Metro gates, as I stood rummaging around for a mint and taking in the grandeur of it all, I received the first of many strange looks to come. The largest herd of people had passed through to the immigration check point and I started walking towards the gates. A Chinese lady in a red vest with shiny horizontal strips started pointing at me and together with rigorous hand motions shouted something like “Nà yīgè shì bù yǔnxǔ de..” ha.. what.. ? I looked stupidly at her and muttered something like Wǒ bù míngbái (I don’t understand). She went from a mundane monotone look to a surprised and then incredulous one when she realised I did not speak the language. We then managed to communicate using crude sign language that the trolley I was using had to be left behind. I continued towards the immigration check with slightly sweaty hands and to my surprise the woman behind the glass panel basically looks at me while I stare into a webcam-like camera, stamps a few times in my passport and OFF I go! I am officially in China.
Just to give you an idea of how big the airport alone was... I travelled for about 15 minutes in a metro like vehicle from immigration to the baggage claim section and the ceilings got no lower. Whoosh into the airport express towards the Dongzhimen stop. I get out and by this time it is 18.00 something. In the open air outside the station I look around me and am surprised to see how clean it is, the streets are wide and busy with traffic, the pavements filled with street hawkers and local people and all of it is up to par with Rotterdam standards of cleanliness, I guess I just expected Beijing to look smell and feel more like Malaysia than Holland. A big difference however is when I cannot help but observe the people and in particular the women, who are dressed with a distinct trashy flair.. I am talking white strappy stiletto heels studded with rhinestones, orange flashy handbag, diva glasses and short short shorts, how grand!! Observing style is the last thing that my mind should be on and I bludgeon on forwards with three heavy bags, description and map in hand I stare around at foreign characters, which are incomprehensible to western eyes... and I’m like.. shite.. I should have taken chinese lessons before coming.
As I am staring around a police officier taps me on the shoulder and I show him my destination, he tries to explain the route to me but it seems as though he does not know it himself, finally he motions for me to follow him and as we walk we communicate with wholeheartedly broken languages, I assume he is doing a good deed and setting an example as a police officer but as we continue I realise he enjoys talking to me, I find out he is over 30, divorced and has a kid of 15 years old who loves to play ping pong. By now we are half an hour further and according to him almost there. Note: I booked a place to stay for 5 days at an airbnb in a Hutong area in the city centre, Hutong can be translated to lane or alley, in comparison you could say it has a slightly Venetian feel to it, small narrow streets, no lights, people everywhere (see picture above). We walk from the ‘big city’ into the Hutong area and there is an immediate apparent change, the people seem to be more interested in their surroundings and there is a village-esque feel to the area. We walk from street to street and he asks around for further directions because none of us have Baidu or Google maps, at this point I don’t even think he completely understands the address (it is written in alphabets and I later figured out that some locals cannot read Pin Yin). So we stumble into what looks like a hostel and I’m thinking, crap this guy thinks I’m looking for a place to stay despite my efforts of explaining Wǒ de péngyǒu.. (My friend), the three young locals immediately jump to their phones as he rattles on in Chinese about my destination and we all end up staring at a screen with characters. We are in the right place, it looks to be a 5 minute walk from here! Yes. Since walking up a bridge he has taken my bag from me and refuses to let me carry it. “I am man” he said with a cheeky grin but when he takes it over I hear him say “woah.. heavy ah”
A girl from the hostel walks with us and points us in the general direction, we thank her, walk walk walk…look around and it seems we are here, by now it is dark and I am goddamn tired after trying to sleep next to two Russian mob bosses on the plane. We enter ‘Oriental Innovation Plaza’ and after looking around a guy offers to let us use the Wifi in his office, I turn to my companion and try and explain that I will be ok, he can go now but he seems to be persistent in making sure I get to my destination, in what seems to be a genuine way. We use the elevator to go upstairs and are greeted by six young guys who immediately grab two stools and cups of water to drink for us. I use their wifi to contact Jonas (airbnb host) and he chuckles when he hears where I am, “come out to the street and I’ll pick you up there”. I announce that I am leaving and three of the six accompany us downstairs, I see a tall blond lanky figure walk up towards us and sigh a sign of relief, he greets all of us and I turn to the police officer who has been so kind to escort me all the way here.. do I .. owe him money now? .. He does not incline any such notion and is grinning from ear to ear, he and Jonas hold small talk on the subject of our journey and we end up sharing WeChat (comparable to WhatsApp) contact info, I thank the guy and he hops away as I follow Jonas back to his apartment.
After dropping my stuff we immediately walk towards a restaurant he knows, two minutes from where he lives. When we walk in I am amazed at how beautifully simple it looks, closer to what we know as Japanese aesthetics than to the food stalls I am used to seeing in Malaysia. The restaurant consists of two floors and we are told to go upstairs by an elderly Chinese Mamma who looks inquisitively at me, The space is small but cosy with a sloping roof made out of bamboo, the benches are of a dark hardwood and look crafted, everything is small, local-looking and very clean!!! Jonas orders rice with sautéed potato slices, sweet cold yam and Almond dessert cream jelly, as expected Chinese food is awesome. We talk about the differences between specifically Dutch and German culture compared to Chinese and come to the conclusion that The Chinese may seem indifferent with an ‘every man for himself’ attitude when in a mass however once some kind of personal connection has been established, they completely open up and are very gracious and kind, take the police officer for example, he asked us to join him for dinner where he would have probably insisted on paying for the bill. This might all be part of Guǎngxī (networking for personal gain) but for now it feels like a warm welcome.
Oh and crime is nearly non-existent here as there is surveillance everywhere and especially in the Hutongs since people have a tight knit community.. So don’t worry parents :)
滿滿的愛