Why China?

Study Abroad in Beijing China


I arrived on January 13th at 北京教育学院(Beijing Jiaoyu Xueyuan), or Beijing Institute of Education to take part in the CET Chinese Language program. The BIE campus is located on the Northwest 2nd ring road, in 西直门 (XiZhiMen), right near the Beijing Zoo.
zoo
The west side of the city has much less Western establishments and much fewer foreigners. Our smaller neighborhood is Chinese only, we are surrounded by huge clothing markets. Our street itself is quite traditional, with smaller-than-dorm-room size shops lining the street, as well as another very inexpensive clothing market.

Beijing is really a great example of problems of urbanization. Everywhere in the city, literally everywhere except the nicest areas of the East side, you can find a brand new large sky scraper that neighbors a shanty-town. Many of these shanty-villages have been destroyed, and a lot of them are up for destruction, to make room for another building that the ex-residents of that land would have no hope to afford living in. Furthermore, even though it has the tall buildings, its not a completed city yet, not by far. The roads are 50% under construction, the subway system is very basic (in a 2008 it will be much better, however). Furthermore, the tap water is not drinkable and the sewer system can't handle toilet paper. The city is also very dirty, both polluted and trashed, and much of it smells bad (due to the aforementioned sewer issues). Pollution is horrible, Beijing is often cited as the most polluted city in the world. Often, the smog levels look exactly like what a New-England fog would look like, just yellow. You can see your headlights, and street lights have the haze around them, and after two blocks the buildings are hard to see. All in all, its got a long way to go!

Thats the rough part, though. The many good parts make up for a lot of that. For instance, it is very inexpensive to live here. Food (Chinese food that is) is very cheap, and so are clothing and day-to-day items. You could live quite well on 15 US dollars a week, and many people in China do live with that sort of salary. The city is also safer than most, and violent crime is very low for urban standards. That does not mean theft isn't high, pick-pockets are common and petty-theft occurs daily, so a watchful eye must always be kept. The people are great, though. Most are very welcoming to foreigners and impressed that you can speak, however little, mandarin.

There are countless amazing things to see, both historic and modern. The surrounding neighborhood has been great, too. Many of us have become friends with the shopkeepers next to school and the waiting staff at some restaurants that we frequent. Moreover, every day is an adventure, every trip can become a great story.