Some more lessons I've been learning about surviving (and thriving!) in China

Public transportation: the subway is crazy and crowded and involves a lot of pushing, shoving, and having people shoved uncomfortably into your armpits while you hold desperately to the overhead bar so you won't fall over when the subway lurches. Tourist buses are way more expensive, more comfortable, more direct, and faster, but much less interesting. Taxis are a bit of a gamble. The guys standing around waiting at the bus and train station and targetting only foreigners are not always your best bet. They say 50 yuan for the ride, and when a helpful Chinese lady talks to them, they drop the prices to 20 yuan. They refuse to use the meter, the reason probably being that the actual taxi fare is 7.5 yuan if you flag down a taxi going by. Although if you don't have exact change, they keep the extra as a tip. Taxis are pretty fast and comfortable; some even have touchscreen tvs on the backs of the seats. Bike taxis or motorbike taxis are really fun, and super-thrilling if you like the feeling of fearing for your life as you weave in and out of traffic (sometimes the wrong way). However, it is necessary to negotiate a fare ahead of time and really stick to it. Local buses are very inexpensive, and very slow, and usually very full. They are loud, smelly, not always in the best mechanical shape, and they stop anywhere someone wants to get on or off (including in the middle of nowhere, apparently). And that ledge at the back of the bus above the luggage compartment isn't supposed to be a seat. That's why it was the only thing empty. The padding is almost non-existent and the leg room is not quite sufficient for anyone over 5'5". Not the most comfortable for those 3 hour bus rides, but definitely interesting - with bus drivers is where you really see some mad driving, dodging, and navigation skills! Local buses are also usually filled with very friendly and helpful people.

"No Smoking" signs: No smoking on buses or in taxis. But if you open the window and dangle your cigarette out, it doesn't count as smoking IN the vehicle. No smoking in most buildings. But the open doorway is totally okay. Sometimes the signs are just there for decoration, so smoke away.

Soft sleeper trains: Try your best to get bunks in the same compartment as a friendly older Chinese couple who keep force-feeding you chicken feet, pickled cabbage, and other delicacies; scold you for carrying around cold water when you should be drinking hot tea; speak no English but insist on speaking with you almost the entire 30 hours through gestures, mad phrasebook and dictionary wordsearches, charades, and pictionary; teach you Chinese phrases (such as various refusals for smoking, drinking, eating, and general use, the words for beautiful, food names, place names...) and quiz you mercilessly at odd times; invite others in the train car to come sit on the bottom beds and join in the fun until it's a loud, laughing, confusion-filled party complete with young Chinese men who ask if we have boyfriends, ask for our email addresses so they can practice English, and say, "I sink you need man" (and then we practice the refusal phrases we learned).

Asking for help: Ask the amazing staff at your hostel to explain things to you, and to write it out in Chinese so you can show questions or place names to Chinese people. If you need help while out somewhere in China, find a friendly-looking Chinese woman in a store or shop. They are amazing! We have had this a whole bunch of times now, where we stop someone and try - with our gestures, simple English words, simple Chinese words, and our phrasebooks - to ask for help. They try super-hard to try understand what we need (even when they understand and speak only a few words of English), and then go WAY out of their way to find out the information we need and lead us to the place we need to go or else negotiate a good fare and give directions to a taxi driver. We have been so incredibly thankful for the many helpful, friendly, selfless, and gracious people we have met on this trip so far!

Squatty potty etiquette: What does it take to pee in China?

1. If you are under the age of 10, squatty potties are optional. You can just go on the street. If you are a baby, you have a slit in your clothing and your bum sticks out so that it is easier to do your thing.

2. If the Chinese people going in are grimacing and covering their noses, maybe you should find a different bathroom.

3. Do not breathe deeply until well away from the bathroom area.

4. If you can smell the bathrooms before you are able to see them, you should consider finding another washroom. However, maybe you should just suck it up, because you won't find anything better.

5. If it says, "restroom" it doesn't mean toilet. It means a room for resting.

6. Look for toilet paper before entering. It is not ever in the stall, and it is rarely provided. Carry a baggie of TP with you at all times and take out what you need before you enter (so you don't have to put any belongings on any surfaces)

7. Roll up your pant legs. The ground is not exactly spotless.

8. Use the squatty-hole toilets, not the western-style (if there is even a choice). You don't want to sit on those anyways, because people have been squatting above them. If there is a front splash hood, it is a bonus.

9. Choose a stall with a door. If the door latches, all the better. Doors are optional, however. Chinese people don't always require them.

10. Give your bag to a friend to hold outside, or hang it on the hook. If there is no hook (and no friend), find a stall or bathroom with hooks.

11. Make sure nothing precious on you is loose, including things in your pockets. These things tend to fall out. You do NOT want to fish them out of the toilet. You also might not want to keep things that have fallen on the floor, as it isn't usually any cleaner than the toilet.

12. Firmly plant your feet. Grippy shoes are important, as the floor is often slippery.

13. Squat low and do NOT let'er'rip. It splatters.

14. Toilet paper goes in the garbage can provided, not in the toilet. The plumbing is a bit temperamental. Keep this in mind before you automatically throw the TP in the toilet. You might need to fish it out.

15. Flush using your foot. Don't touch anything (especially your feet).

16. Carry antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer at all times. Soap is not usually provided.

17. Walk away quickly before you breathe again, and rejoice that you had a successful (or disastrous but funny) encounter with a squatty potty!

Living on a Chinese hard-seat train

There are classes on Chinese trains:

Soft sleeper: bunk beds that have enough space for you to sit up in, with sliding doors to shut the compartment, which is shared by only 4 people.

Hard sleeper: bunk beds that are crammed close together, so you cannot sit up straight in them, with little privacy.

Soft seat: seats with a bit of leg room and a table in front of you.

Hard seat: seats (still padded) that do not recline at all, crammed together with a whole bunch of different people, babies crying, people talking loudly and walking around, people pushing carts through, yelling as they try sell you things, annoying music playing (and an English voice that intermittently says, "Here is some pleasant music to help you have a relax and chill morning"), squatty potties that empty onto the tracks and are absolutely disgusting (which makes sense since people are trying to squat as the train rocks back and forth), people staring openly at you (probably wondering why the rich foreigners couldn't afford better seats), and no heat as the night outside gets close to freezing and the air rushes in through cracks around the windows.
And yet... people are very interesting. It is very interesting to try carry on a conversation in Chinese (because nobody speaks English), to watch people with all manner of sacks and boxes of things headed back to their villages from the big city, to observe families interacting with each other, to share food (sold by vendors at the railway stations) with your seatmates as you grin and nod because you can't communicate in words, and to figure out how to sleep on a straight up-and-down seat by observing people who have probably done it a hundred times.

My advice: the hard seat is great! It is very interesting and it is amazing what you can handle (even when you are a soft westerner). And it cost us the equivalent of about 25 Canadian dollars. However, if the ride is 13 hours through the night, it might not be the most comfortable. I'd say it's an experience that's great to have once in my life! :)

However, when we arrived in Xi'an, we somehow missed the pick-up service from our hostel, and ended up waiting in the cold for a few hours, being buffeted by huge crowds of people, hungry, tired, and freezing, constantly being harassed by people asking for money or trying to sell us things. And my backpack broke. We were not incredibly thrilled.

We got to the hostel, however (took a bike taxi and then ended up walking pretty far still), and had really long hot showers that were AMAZING and a great little breakfast (complete with free coffee!). We laughed really hard about our ridiculous morning once we felt human again. Today we wandered around the walled city centre of Xi'an, through the Muslim quarter (and a very lively and completely packed street market, which was a very cool experience!). It was quite a different experience from any we've had so far in China! We're looking forward to seeing the Terracotta Warriors and some Emporer's tomb tomorrow, and then biking around the wall of the city the day after before we leave Xi'an for Guilin.

Chillin' in Beijing

Rachel and I have spent the last 4.5 days in Beijing, and it has been a great experience, filled with new and interesting things to do and observe. We arrived here on the bullet train from Shanghai. This train is super-fast, going 290-308 km/hr the entire way here. It only took 5 hours, and the ride is incredibly smooth. We could place our water on the ledge beside us, and the water would barely even ripple.

When we arrived, we took the subway towards Tiananmen Square (and were incredibly glad that we before we came we bought an English-language map of Beijing that included a subway map). The subway was completely packed, with people rushing for the doors the moment the train opened, and we were carrying all our stuff, completely loaded down, taking up the space of about 3 people each. We didn't even fit onto one of the trains, and had to wait for the next one.

When we got to the area we were going for, we got out of the subway and looked around. We couldn't see very far, because the smog was so thick. We got out our map and started walking towards where it said our hostel was. Unfortunately, we didn't use the compass to make sure we were heading the right direction, and we walked for about half an hour in the wrong direction. We then met an Australian couple who were in a similar situation, and were just booking it along. They took a good look at our map to see where they wanted to go, and said, "Well, we'll just crack on then!" Rachel and I thought that was a funny phrase and have been using it ever since! We ended up figuring out the direction, and walking through some smaller streets to get there, which was way more interesting than the main thoroughfares anyways. We kept walking... and walking... and walking.... Our feet hurt like crazy, our shoulders and backs were sweaty and sore, and our heads hurt from breathing the smog while trying to walk quickly carrying a donkey-load of stuff. We began to question whether we really needed to bring along all our gear. :)

We were accosted by a man with a bike cart, offering to drive us different places. We showed him the Chinese characters for our hostel's address, and he nodded. Rachel was a little hesitant about getting in the guy's bike cart, but I thought that even if he brought us to the wrong place, it would be an interesting experience, and a chance to rest our feet. So he started the little motor on his bike, and cruised down the street with us behind him, cringing as he dodged cars, pedestrians, and other bike carts. He dropped us off right in front of our hostel, and we were incredibly glad. He totally overcharged us for the ride (which we have since figured out requires some good bartering ahead of time), but we were so glad not to have to walk and get lost with all our stuff, that we just paid him and went to our hostel.

Our hostel is in one of Beijing's hutongs, which are these little windy, narrow-streeted courtyard type of houses. There are stairs, balconies, courtyards, and tiny alleyways all over throughout the hostel, and it is quite nice, in a great location. The staff is great and try their best to help with everything, including helping us write questions out in Chinese so that we can do things like book train tickets.

The evening we got here, we went for a walk in the neighbourhood, and everyone was out, just walking around or in little shops, talking and laughing and visiting. It was great! We watched what a lot of the locals seemed to be eating, and tried a few things. My favourite so far is this yogurt drink that comes in an earthenware jar, with paper across the top tightened by an elastic. You pop a straw into it and drink it in front of the shop, so that you can return the jar when you have finished. It costs the equivalent of $0.48 Canadian, which is a little expensive for food, but it is so worth it as a treat! I also wanted to try this snack that many people had, skewered hawthorn berries covered with honey, so I approached a guy with a cart selling them, and gestured that I wanted one. He offered me two, and I had a really hard time making it clear that I only wanted one, and I wasn't going to pay more than 2 yuan for it. We kept going back and forth, trying to communicate with gestures, and as we did, a whole crowd of people gathered, laughing and shouting at the man, and pointing at me. It was a huge, noisy, hilarious gong show. Finally a girl who spoke English asked me what exactly I wanted, and translated it to the guy, and he sold me the skewer, as everyone laughed. The girl introduced us to an older lady with her, and said, "This is my auntie. It is her first time in Beijing. She wants take picture with you." We agreed, and the girl took a picture of us together - actually about 5 pictures, and about 7 other people took pictures as well. Then some random guys tried to get in the pictures, and I shooed them away, and everyone laughed a lot. We laughed a lot too, and were glad to have provided some entertainment to the Chinese tourists visiting Tiananmen Square!

Saturday we went to Tiananmen Square, which is huge, ugly, and completely filled with people from all over China, many of whom have apparently never seen foreigners before and are constantly asking (through broken English or more commonly Chinese with gestures) if they could take photos with us. You have to go through security to get into the square, and there are police and soldiers everywhere. We also went into the Memorial Hall, where Chairman Mao's preserved body is on display. It was interesting as a glimpse into how many Chinese view their government and history. The sense of awe, almost like a pilgrimage, was evident in many of their faces and gestures. The smog, however, was so bad that we could barely see 500 metres in front of us, and we had to walk slowly so that we wouldn't be completely gasping for breath. We saw a guy wearing a full-out gas mask.

On Sunday, it was a rainy, freezing, blustery day. We made our way to Haidian church, which is one of the registered Chinese churches. It was an English service, but most people there were Chinese. It was really neat, singing our hearts out (most songs were familar) and listening to a simple, Biblical exposition of Ruth's story of leaving her family and people to follow Naomi and Naomi's God. We met afterwards with a family from Calgary who is now there leading a Bible study, and they also introduced us to some Chinese believers, who we got to talk with. We had lunch together with them, and it was an amazing, encouraging experience. There were other small groups in the public cafeteria where we were, their Bibles open in front of them, conducting Bible studies openly. One Chinese lady we talked with had chosen the English name, "Faith" years ago, long before she became a Christian.We heard from a Chinese believer that the unofficial estimate is that one in every 10 Chinese is a Christian, and that people are hungry for the gospel and for Biblical teaching and training. The government does not interfere in terms of doctrine; they are more concerned about political instability that is caused by large groups meeting together without government monitoring. But families will often put enormous pressure on Christians to turn away from faith. It was really interesting and encouraging to have these conversations with Chinese believers and expatriate believers living in China, to discuss what God is doing here and how his hand is evident. It was definitely the highlight so far of our time in China!

Monday, we visited the imperial palace museum (more commonly called the Forbidden City) and the Summer Palace. The Imperial Palace was in the centre of Beijing and is full of buildings, parks, and temples. The Summer Palace is in the far north of Beijing. It is where the Imperial families would go for the summer months, and has many absolutely breathtaking walks over hills and beside a huge lake. Both places were absolutely gorgeous, though also saddening in some ways. We could see how absolute power (in any country) leads to excess and the abuse of power and wealth.

Tuesday (today) we took a bus to the Great Wall. It is incredibly massive! It was a beautiful fall day, a little chilly out but sunny, and there was barely any smog at all so we could see the blue sky. The Wall winds up and down over rugged mountains, and the leaves of the trees covering them have all changed to orange, red, and yellow with the cooler weather, making for a breath-taking sight. Another thing that takes your breath is the climbing. When they say that you "climb" the Great Wall, they are not kidding one bit. You are walking up and down mountain ranges, basically, and there are different-sized, narrow stone steps everywhere, constantly going up and down. It was a really neat experience! (One more thing checked off my "to do before I die" list!)

Tomorrow we head out to Xi'an, which is roughly a 13 hour train ride from Beijing. When we went to book the train tickets, there were only hard seat tickets left (basically the peasant seating) so it will probably be a long, stinky, noisy, uncomfortable, people-filled, ridiculous experience. I think it'll be a really interesting adventure and make for some interesting stories! :) We're both pretty ready to be out of cities and into the more rural areas of China, doing some bike rides and exploring, and practicing our Chinese phrases some more.

Shanghai

First of all, let me try to describe to you what it is like to be in a taxi driving through Shanghai. After you flag down the driver, and show him/her the directions (written in Chinese characters), he pulls out into traffic. This involves a lot of honking - both from the taxi driver and the people already on the road, and possibly a couple of bikes/ motorbikes dodging around the taxi, coming within a couple of inches. This is where it gets crazy. I have tried to find some method to the madness, and I think it may be starting to make sense. Here is what I have figured out.
Shanghai rules of the road (as far as I can tell)
1. The lines are only rough starting points. Merging is a continual process - merging back and forth into different lanes, possibly sharing the lane with half another vehicle beside you, and honking when they come close to nicking your vehicels. When lanes end, drivers may want to start to think about merging. However, they may not want to merge quite yet, and instead wait until the car is basically scraping the wall beside them. You may even find it necessary to drive in the opposite lane, against the opposing traffic.
2. Pedestrians do not have the right of way. You will have to dodge cars, trucks, motorbikes, and bicycles to cross a street. They will not slow down. If there is a green pedestrian crossing signal, you are less likely to have to battle cars and trucks for road space, though you will still need to manoever around bikes and motorbikes.
3. Don't make eye contact. If you acknowledge that you have seen the other car/truck/bus/bike/moped/pedestrian, you show your weakness. They will then definitely go first.
4. Honking is necessary and just basically a lot of fun. If someone is starting to drift towards your lane, your driver honks. If your driver wants to go somewhere and there is someone already there, he honks. Then the other car honks back. If there is a bike or motorcycle beside the car, the driver honks. When the driver is trying to turn and about 50 bicycles and motorcycles and mopeds are going straight through the intersection, he honks as he dodges them.
5. Seatbelts in taxis are not compulsory. In fact, most don't have seatbelts. Hang on.
6. Helmets and safety clothing are not required, but a poncho is. People are biking wearing sandals, and ripping through on their motorcycles/ mopeds/ bikes without helmets, sometimes with children perched on their laps. They also all have these fun ponchos that go over the front of the moped; when it rains, everyone looks the same.
7. Don't stick cameras, hands, arms, or any limbs out the windows. They may be detached, squashed or otherwise maimed by the vehicles beside you or whizzing past you.
8. Sidewalks are not safe. Watch out for cars, motorcycles, and bikes. The good news is that the city planners have taken this into account. Therefore, there are speed bumps on the sidewalks.
9. Don't hit anyone. We saw only one accident in Shanghai, where one guy pointed to the fender hanging off his moped as he yelled and gestured at another guy. There were about 4 policemen standing around them. We just kept walking...
Other highlights of our time in Shanghai:
-Being met by my friend Kelly, who did everything she could to ensure that we would be safe and comfortable, including setting us up with a Chinese cell phone (complete with random Chinese text messages that I keep getting), helping us book rooms and tickets, writing out necessary words in Chinese characters, and together with her husband taking us out for some authentic (and VERY delicious) Chinese food.
-Looking at the map, and deciding that we could walk to the tourist area of Shanghai... it didn't look that far. After walking for about 4km and not recognizing anything on our map, we hailed a taxi and showed the driver the Chinese characters for where we wanted to go. Turns out we read the map totally wrong, and were a good 25 minute drive away. Oops.
-Getting to the area we wanted to be, and trying to figure out why the map was completely backwards to the way the river actually curved, checking the compass again to make sure we were facing the right way. And then, I realized that north was the red arrow, not the black one. Oops.
-Walking along the river and being accosted by Chinese guys asking to take pictures with us.
-Wandering through narrow alleys, full of laundry hanging across to dry, people sitting on their steps chatting, things stored against the walls,and tiny hole-in-the-wall kitchens selling noodle soups.
-Finding memorable things to get our bearings: "Oh, that's where the little boy was taking a pee by the bikes", "isn't that the sketchy alley?", "There's the Apple store where everyone was lined up to get the iPhone4", "I know where we are - that's the chicken feet store!"
-Going up to the top of the World Financial Centre (it's REALLY high!) and seeing all of Shanghai beneath our feet (through glass...so freaky!)
-Learning to say, "You're welcome" in Chinese (after asking about 5 different people how to say it and then promptly forgetting it), walking down the street saying it to each other to practice, and using it whenever we could.
-Teaching a Chinese lady to say, "teeth-th-th-th-th" instead of "teesh" by sticking my tongue out. We both were laughing a lot.
-Eating mystery food at a little place on the side of the road, where a lot of Chinese people were eating. It tasted good, though. :) And not getting sick - even better!

The way to spend a life

I had expected that when the school year started and I wasn't back teaching, I would find it strange, like something was missing. However, to my surprise, when the school year started and I was still working at Kayben Farms, it did not seem strange or disconcerting at all. I was completely certain that I am doing exactly what God has led me to do. As much as I enjoy my students and fellow staff, and as much as I love teaching itself, I felt completely satisfied in where I am, not knowing exactly where God is leading me or what he is doing in me, but trusting that it is going to be amazing!
Working at Kayben was great, getting to work with my hands and stay with a wonderful family from my church. At the beginning of October, I started out on my wanderings. In the past two and a half weeks, I've been in Lacombe and Langley, visiting my sisters Lisa and Wendy; in Escondido, California, visiting my friends Norman and Rosanna and checking out some classes at Westminster Seminary; Bozeman, Montana, for the wedding of friends Monique and Barry; and Lynden, Washington, catching up with good friends from church. It has been cool to see God starting to show me a lot about who he is and how I fit into what he is doing in the world already now.
When I was visiting in Escondido, I got to meet some really great people that attend the seminary. I was talking with Bob, who has a strong sense of calling toward overseas missions, and asked him where that came from. He talked about how God changed his priorities when he became a Christian, leading him to question what to do with his life now that he was living for God. He heard from a couple of missionaries, and was struck by their stories, and thought, "That's the way to spend a life!"
The reason I tell about this particular conversation is that it brought together a lot of things that God has been teaching me. I have been learning bits about who God is and what he is doing, and who I am, but it hadn't been making a lot of sense how it all fits together. I have been seeing how huge and beyond our comprehension God is, and how the entire universe is created for his glory, and how giving him glory is such a meaningful, rich, full existence. I have been realizing how much the relativism and idolatry in western culture has crept into my Christianity, and seeing that God's truth is such a beautiful, loving thing to share. I have felt the weight of my own sin and all-pervasive unworthiness, and the overwhelming wonder of what Jesus Christ has done for me. I have sensed a subtle shift in my attitude and priorities, where I want nothing in life other than to live full out for God's glory, and invite others to see him for who he is. I have been experiencing how - in all my weakness, lack of trust, and inability to be good enough - God's grace in Christ is so powerful, and his peace grounds and secures me. I have been learning to let go of some of my own self-reliance and the fear that comes with that - the fear of being inadequate or messing up - because Christ's love becomes bigger in my perspective, crowding out my fear. I feel sorrow for those who are not right with God through Christ, and feel a stirring to share the gospel out of love rather than duty.
So, I continue to learn and to listen for God's voice and see him more clearly through Christ. I am excited to see how he continues to make the pieces fall together, making it more clear how I get to be part of what he is doing. For now, I am starting to feel more of a nudging from God, maybe towards long-term cross-cultural missions, though I am still waiting for him to lead me wherever he wants me. All I know for now is that when I read Isaiah 6, I see it more clearly, because I am seeing it played out in my own life. Isaiah is completely undone by a glimpse of the all-comsuming glory of the holy God, realizing his utter inadequacy and how even the best of him is unclean. I'm starting to get why he responds to God's incomprehensible grace in forgiving and in inviting him into the work God is doing, how he can't do anything but cry out, "Here I am! Send me!".
And the more I look at it, the more I think, "That's the way to spend a life!