2. First Day in China (1)

After a very welcome restful night's sleep, I was ready to take on Beijing in the morning. I was very surprised with what I saw when I walked into the restaurant where breakfast was being served- friendly attendants, delicious food kept in shiny buffet bins, classy tableware, and an egg bar. I don't know if "egg bar" is the official name but I call it that simply because it was a bar where you could order eggs any way you wanted them (they made waffles too). I helped myself to fried rice, noodles, doughnuts, scrambled eggs, and hash browns. They also offered apple, orange, tomato, and mango juice; I got a glass of mango juice because that was the only one I have never tried before. The service was extremely quick- as soon as you got up to get more food, a waitress would be on her way to pick up your plate and dirty utensils. My trip itinerary said each hotel would provide a Western breakfast and the Central Plaza Holiday Inn delivered just that.

Our first stop in Beijing was Tiananmen Square. One thing I found hilarious is that every time our bus stopped at a tourist location at any point during the trip, a hoard of hawkers would rush over and immediately try to sell us things. My first hawker experience in China was at Tiananmen Square. Hats, lighters, Rolexes, postcards, you name it, they probably sold it. I turned most of them down and ended up walking away quickly from the rest. Once we were inside the square, we walked around and saw Chairman Mao's honorary tomb and his actual burial place. There were many other pagoda-like buildings in the square and they looked exactly as they do in Chinese movies and books. That was one of my first culture shock experiences- Chinese things are portrayed in America as having dragons, lions, pointy roofs, green tiles, kanji characters written all over them, etc., but in reality that's what they really look like. It was almost weird to realize that I knew what China looked like without even having been there.

Next up was the Forbidden City. It was a little overwhelming at first because there was just so much to take in. I slowly walked around and took some pictures. This was where I learned about not stepping on the thresholds as you enter a temple or sacred place; it brings bad luck to those who do. Our guide is named George and I personally think he was the best tour guide during the whole trip. His English is choppy but everyone can still understand him and he's always ready to throw humor into his presentations.

My first lunch in China was at a restaurant called Wa Ha Ha. I had soup, corn kernels, eggplant, chicken, tofu, and orange fish. Everything was put onto a Lazy Susan and it reminded me of the big dinner parties my family attends. One thing I was not used to was splitting a liter of cola between 9 or 10 people. Normally in the US there are ten cups and ten sodas on the table; in China there were ten cups and one soda on the table. Everyone ended up with about a third of a can of cola and since I'm not a big soda person, I drained it and went on to drinking tea. Other students were not so fond of tea and it took a while for them to get used to drinking something hot on a really hot day.

Speaking of hot days, we went to China during the hot season so it was hot every day of the trip. Sometimes it was just hot, other times it was just humid, most of the time (especially during and after a rain) it was hot and humid. Even after experiencing St. Louis summers for 16 years I still could not get used to the heat and humidity of China. After lunch I glanced up at the sky and noticed it was cloudy and still hot. Upon further inspection I noticed that it was pollution, not clouds, making the sky gray. This is a common problem with the big cities of China, namely Beijing and Shanghai. The air is thick and smells funny and when you look into the sky you do not see the blinding sun that you see here, but rather a ball of orange, dimly lit through all the pollution.

Another blatant culture shock was the amount of traffic in China. Here in the States, if there are three lanes, you would expect to see 3 lines of cars. In China, if there are 3 lanes, there would be at least 4 or 5 lines of cars. Cars waiting to turn left at a "left turn yield on green" light would not yield at all but pull out into oncoming traffic and force their way onto the intersecting street. I learned quickly that St. Louis is not the only city where red means go and that turn signals are usually for decoration. This was demonstrated safely and efficiently by our bus driver in Beijing. He cut through traffic whenever there was a space and I did not hear any horns or see any fingers. I also learned that crossing a street in China is like playing the game Frogger; you had to run, stop, jump, and then sprint to get across. Pedestrians were not afraid of bikers, bikers were not afraid of cars, and the smallest car was not afraid of the biggest truck or bus. By the end of the trip I learned to cross with the locals; whatever they did, I would do.

After lunch we went to a pearl shop first. The guide led us to a small tank filled with oysters, picked one up, and completely massacred it by jamming a knife in the middle. She worked the knife a bit and cracked open the oyster to reveal small pearls, most the size of a grain of rice. Then she passed it around and I and a few others got to take a pearl. I wiped it off on my shirt and put it in a plastic bag for safekeeping. Then, George gave us free time to shop around for pearl goods. He explained that this was a government-run store and that the prices were set at a low price, no bargaining allowed. At first I didn't want to buy anything because I wasn't too interested. Then I saw my friend Jason looking at necklaces that were relatively well-priced for their size. I calculated the exchange rate in my head and decided that now was the time to get pearl stuff cheaper than I could back in the States. Time was running short so I got some bracelets and headed for the bus.

This is only the first half of my first day in China so I have a lot more to write about Beijing and the trip in general. Stay tuned for my next article!

中國的第一天 (1)

作者：岳群
翻譯：時報編譯組

經過昨晚的好睡，體力恢復，可以去「看北京了，」，當我一早走進旅館餐廳時，眼前的景象可是嚇了我一跳，早餐已準備好了，──親切的服務員，亮晶晶的自助餐檯，美味的食物，高級餐具，還有「蛋吧」(EGG BAR)，我不知道「蛋吧」是不是個正式的名稱，我這樣形容它是因為在「蛋吧」你可以點各式各樣不同做法的蛋，(他們也提供美式鬆餅)。我的早餐包括炒飯、麵、甜餅、炒蛋、和小芋餅，在眾多選擇的飲料如蘋果汁、桔子汁、番茄汁、芒果汁中，我選擇了從未喝過的芒果汁。餐廳的服務又快又好，祗要你一起身去取食物，桌面立刻就被清乾淨，在我們的行程表中註明，我們下榻的旅館都會提供西式早餐，北京中環假日大旅館做到了。

在北京，我們參觀的第一站是天安門廣場，在整個旅程中，祗要我們的遊覽車一停，立刻就會有一大群小販湧上前來賣東西。祗要你想的到的東西(從帽子、打火機、勞力士表、風景明信片等)大概都有的賣，如果不想買就得快步走開。進了廣場，我們四處參觀，參觀了毛主席紀念館、也看了許多像塔一樣的建築，就如在中國電影裡和書裡看到的一模一樣，這是我第一次感受到文化的衝擊。在美國，中國的印象已被定型為龍、獅，有棱有角的屋檐、綠瓦、和寫在上面的漢字等，但是現在看到的中國的確是這個樣子，不到中國而能知道中國的樣子，我感到有些奇怪。

接下去我們到了紫禁城，紫禁城很大，我漫步四週照些相片，在這裡我學到進入寺廟時不可以踏在進門的門檻上，這樣會帶來惡運。我們的導遊Geroge很不錯，雖然他的英文不是那麼好，但大家都聽得懂，他不時會在導覽時穿插一些笑話。

我在中國的第一頓午餐是在一家名叫「娃哈哈」的餐廳(沒錯，就是叫娃哈哈Wa Ha Ha餐廳)，菜色有湯、玉米、茄子、雞肉、豆腐和魚，菜就放在轉盤上，(這讓我想起在聖路易時上中國餐廳吃飯的情形)，有一點不習慣的是飲料，一桌九到十人卻祗有一瓶可樂，在美國，10個人就會有10個杯子和10罐可樂，在中國，我們有10個杯子但祗有一瓶大瓶的可樂，結果分下來，每個人祗可分到約一罐可樂的三分之一份量，好在我不是很喜歡可樂，當我喝完可樂後就改喝茶，其他的同學並不是那麼喜歡喝茶，要他們習慣在大熱天喝熱茶，是不太可能的。

談到天氣熱，我們到中國時是大熱天，天天都熱，不但熱，還有濕氣，大多數的午後(尤其是下雨時和下雨後)不但熱還濕，雖然我有16年聖路易夏天的經驗，但是還是不習慣中國的熱天和潮濕。午餐後我抬頭一望，注意到天空有雲層，可還是熱氣逼人，等再仔細觀察，才發現那不是雲，而是空氣污染所致，使得天空變得灰灰的，這是在中國大陸像北京、上海等大城市共通的問題。
空氣很濃，不好聞，當你看天空時，看不到像在聖路易的刺眼大太陽，而是看到一個像橘子的大球，隔著空氣污染透出朦朧的光線。

另一個也算是文化衝擊的就是交通，在美國，三線道的路上，你只會看到三排車子；在中國，如果是三線道，那你至少可以看到4或5排車子，如果是「左轉讓」的綠燈，車子可不會讓，而是一直逼近前面的車道然後趁隙左轉。我很快就明瞭了，聖路易不是見紅就加油(註：聖路易紅雀棒球隊隊色是紅色的聖路易人為紅色紅雀隊加油，而不是看到紅燈還加油往前衝)，左右轉方向燈是
裝飾用的唯一城市。在北京，遊覽車司機展現了交通安全法則和行車效率，一路上開車祗要有空隙就往前鑽，沒出過任何差錯。同樣的，在中國過馬路就像玩青蛙跳遊戲，你得用跑、停、跳、衝刺等方式過馬路；在當地，行人不怕腳踏車，腳踏車不怕汽車，汽車不怕大卡車和公交車。這趟旅遊下來，後幾天，我已能入境隨俗的和當地人一樣敏捷地過馬路，他們怎麼做，我也怎麼做。

午餐後，我們轉到一家珍珠店參觀，店員帶我們到一個滿是牡蠣的大水箱處，拿起一個牡蠣用小刀將它從中間打開，然後在牡蠣內翻出一個像米粒大小的珍珠傳給我們看，我和幾位同學有機會照樣做，我拿出了一粒小珍珠在衣服上擦乾淨，小心翼翼的用塑膠袋裝起來，導遊George告訴我們，這裡是國營商店訂價低，不可以講價。起初，我對珍珠沒什麼興趣，但是看到奕傑(Jason)想買項鏈而且價錢也不錯，腦子裡換算一下幣值，比在美國買可是便宜，我就買了些珍珠手鏈，這時，時間過得很快，又得上車了。

以上是我在中國第一天的上半天而已，我還有很多有關北京的記述，下次再敘。