The Life of a Wài Guó Rén (Part 1)
It’s now been a whole season since I left my house by the shores of Loch Duich and entered the fast-moving world of modern China. Living as a wài guó rén (Chinese word for foreigner, literally “outside country person”) has been the strangest and most enriching experience of my life, watching as a completely alien environment slowly and gradually becomes my home. Events otherwise out of the ordinary – such as being taken out for dinner to an acrylic factory, being given acupuncture in a traditional Chinese medicine shop, teaching a class of Chinese primary school kids how to speak Gaelic and ceilidh dance, or reciting ancient Chinese poetry in front of 200 people – have simply become part of ordinary life.
November started off with a day trip to the city of Shijiazhuang with friends from church. This was also my first experience of China’s high-speed railway. Covering a total length of 27,000km, China has a high-speed rail network larger than the rest of the world combined, all of which was built in little more than a decade. The so-called “bullet trains” can reach speeds of up to 350km/h – over twice the speed of most Scotrail trains (and half the price!). Compared with the slow train we took to Shanghai, it was pure luxury, sitting in a spacious seat and watching the smoggy countryside tumble past at one kilometre every 10 seconds.
Bullet trains aside, there are many interesting ways of getting from place to place in China which are different from back home. When walking down a typical street in Tianjin, you’ll likely see several coloured bikes parked along the pavement. These are shared bikes, which anyone can ride using mobile apps like Mobike, Ofo or Alipay. Each bike has a QR code between the handlebars, which you scan with your phone, then the bike will give a small beep and unlock itself. After you have ridden it around the city to your heart’s content, you park it on the pavement and close the lock, ready for the next user.
The bike-sharing system offers a quick, cheap, convenient and fun journey to class every day. It does involve learning to negotiate with the morning traffic though, including cars reversing into the cycle lane, flying buses, impatient motorcyclists, fearless pedestrians and old ladies casually towing scrap furniture across busy intersections.
If your phone has run out of battery or you can’t find a bike with a working chain (as I learned the hard way), another option is to take the metro. Metro stations can be found in each neighbour, and after buying a ticket and going through a small security check, you can board one of five lines running beneath the city. Although the metro may take a bit longer than bike, its cleanness, slickness and efficiency is something to marvel at (compared with my experience of the London Underground at least!).
As well as travelling to-and-fro within Tianjin, we haven’t missed opportunities this month to go further afield. After our mid-term exams we felt we needed a breath of fresh air, so joined a cheap day-tour to Mount Baishi in Hebei province. On the bus journey, we were each asked to stand up with a microphone and introduce ourselves to the group in Chinese. The group leader then asked us to sing a Scottish song, so we got the Chinese passengers on board singing and clapping along to Auld Lang Syne and 500 Miles. At first this was quite a step outside our comfort zone, but it quickly turned into a fun bout of cultural exchange.
As the bus drove further from Tianjin, the landscape steadily grew more mountainous, and after a few hours I saw something in the landscape for the first time in my life, which I wasn’t expecting – the Great Wall. I could make out a few blank stone towers and sections of wall, snaking along the white stone hills as we drove by. Later, I spotted a longer section running along the horizon. I’d thought of the Great Wall as a big tourist attraction, so it struck me to see it in the isolated countryside, next to empty motorways and petrol stations. What surprises me about the Great Wall is that it’s not just one single sight, but almost a deeply ingrained part of the country itself, covering such a large distance and enduring a very long history.
Combien savez-vous à propos de la Grande Muraille de Chine? Voici des petits faits:
- C’est la plus longue muraille au monde
- Sa longueur totale est de 21.196,18 kilomètres
- Elle est vielle de 2.300 ans (environ)
- C’est le travail de plus de six dynasties
- La Muraille s’est construite avec beaucoup de matériaux (du pisé de la terre battue, du bois, des pierres, des briques, des tuiles, de la chaux, etc.)
- En fait, l’œil humain ne peut pas observer la Muraille depuis l’espace (ou depuis la lune).
I was inspired to learn more, and I hope I can visit a more substantial part of the Wall in the near future.
When we reached the foot of the mountain, we bought tickets then boarded a shuttle-bus to take us to the top. To keep the queues moving swiftly, the driver made sure not a second was wasted and sped up the mountain at a thunderous pace, along the narrow, twisting road, cliff edges and blind corners, blaring his horn at other buses speeding down the hill – missing us by inches – all the way to the summit two kilometres above the ground. Some of us were still hyper-ventilating upon arrival.
It was bitterly cold on top of the mountain, but the view could not be beaten – deep valleys, massive pillars of white stone, mind-boggling cliffs, crazy rock formations and vertical drops. I’d never seen mountains before which gave such an incredible sense of height and depth, and sometimes it felt like we were walking through a Chinese scroll painting, the landscape enshrouded in hazy mist.
Spending time high up in the cold air and breath-taking beauty of the mountains was the perfect way to clear our heads from a week of hard study. It was also nice to spend time with the other scholars away from the city and busy student life, to get to know them better and learn how they’re coping with things.
Yet even back in ordinary life and everyday routines, the adventure continues…
À plus!
麦亚伦
Arran
