Tiananmen Sq.

Tiananmen Square is the huge, open square in the middle of Beijing. It's mostly just empty, open space, with the Mao Shrine (which we skipped) and a war memorial in the middle. There is a gate at one end, and the Forbidden City is on the other end. I didn't find the square very interesting. In fact, the most interesting thing about the square to me is the long line of Chinese waiting to enter the Mao Shrine for a glimpse of his body in the morning or the huge crowd waiting for the Chinese flag to be lowered.



The best quote on Tiananmen Square in Lonely Planet:

Bicycles cannot be ridden across Tiananmen Square (apparently tanks are OK), but you can walk the bike.
There is also a gate (Qianmen) at the edge of Tiananmen square, which you can go upstairs to get a good view of the line to see Mao.

No news, good news?

Today I met Zhong again.

He is a really nice man. As a many Chinese people he really wants to make
you feel comfortable in his country. He really wants to help. He could not
contact his friend, the one I should interview.

I will visit him again tomorrow.

Apart from that I like Beijing. I got used to some smell, to some dirt on
the street, to the chaotic traffic, to high temperatures, humidity (these
last two they are really look like NY and Barcelona).... Once you get used
to these circumstances you can begin to like Beijing... A different culture
a different world...

Contacts.

First contacts....

One of the objectives here was interviewing Math teachers and sit in their classes. When I was writing the project I luckily contacted a Math teacher. Lily (many chinese people has an english name) agreed to be interviewed and to introduce me some other teachers and she said there was no problem for me to attend to her classes. She disappered. I have been emailing her since I knew for sure that I was going to China and one day she stopped writing me.

I do not know where she is. If something happened.

Being that the actual situation, these days I go around trying to contact people that or are teachers or can know anyone that works as teacher.



Today walking near Darshamla Street a touristic street full of shops I met a man that spoke a little english. After few minutes I asked him what is he doing. He works in a hospital repairing electronic devices. His wife is a bus driver. When I asked if he would know any math teacher to be interviewed he answered that a good friend of him works as a teacher and it seems that I will be able to interview him. I have to call Zhong (the man I met) in two days he will let me know.

Comunication is very difficult. I will need a translator for my interviews. Some young people speak a bit of english. People older than 30 normally speak nothing. At the moment my chinese is not more than " Xie xie " (Thank you), " Nihao " (Hello), "Tsai tie" (good bye).



Taking a bus is a good experience. I am not doing it a lot at the moment because I mainly use my bike but as the you cannot comunicate a lot before getting in you really need to be sure is the one you want because once you are inside you will not be able to know if you are in the correct direction unless you have next to you somebody young that speaks english.... the bus will be totally packed and looking outside you will not know where you are because the organization of the streets is not the one we are used.

In two days I will know if I have my first interviews... I am crossing my fingers.

First days in China

Firsts days in China, in Beijing.

Today is my second day in China. Yesterday, just after landing, first thing I did: take a cab and go to the city center. Second thing: Buy a bike.

I love biking; it is part of my live. Here in Beijing there is plenty of people using their bikes, plenty.

I love it. They do have a city prepared for biker and many people commute by bike. It is clean, healthy and for short distances much faster than buses or underground.



When I leave I will sell my bike again to the person that sold it to me or just give it to somebody as a present probably I will give it to somebody.

I am staying in a Hotel just few blocks away from the Forbidden City. I will be staying there for few days, two or three and then I will move to somewhere else. I feel like staying in different places in the city in order to get to know it better.

In general the places I have seen are a bit dirty. Sometimes the smell is a bit bad. There is a lot of pollution. I wanted to go running but I think I will suffer from asthma here. Anyway at least I will try.

Food is fine. Last night I met a couple of Art students and I went with them to have dinner. The place was nice and cheap. I like all kinds of food but I don‚t know how is going to be eating Chinese food for a month....

Leaving

Today I leave....

China is watiting for me.

I don't how these firsts days are going to be....

I am excited, after one year in NY I just spent two weeks home and I have my backpack ready again. First I go to Amsterdam few hours there and then fly to Beijing.

I don't know where I will sleep, where I will go... just that I have one month in front of me and I will enjoy a lot.

Time to go.