November 22, 2010 - Beijing, China

"Many times I've loved

many times been bitten

many ties I've gazed

along the open road..."

~Led Zeppelin, Over the Hills & Far Away, Verse II

On the first evening in China, taking the over-crowded Beijing Ditie (subway), someone brushed up against me, so I quickly moved away.  Four days later, I now realize my debit card was pick-pocketed.  My fault for not returning it to its safe place.  Hopefully no one in China can use it since pin numbers are required everywhere and nobody looks like the name on my card.

This morning all participants in our Confucius Institute visited the official HanBan China headquarters.  It was learned that there are presently over 2,300 HanBan Confucius Institute teachers from 77 different countries studying varying levels of Mandarin and Chinese culture at locations throughout China.  

Chasidy and I have turned to each other at least a dozen times since arrival, started to laugh, and commented that we could write a movie script about this trips moments of strangeness.  This morning was no exception.  A large middle-aged man from Slovenia parked himself next to us and began sharing, in a deep accent, his personal adventures and students travels in New Zealand.  Apparently he has limited exposure to accents, because after correcting him twice that we're not Kiwi's, he continued on, uninterrupted.  Chasidy and I just smiled and nodded.  Having never been to New Zealand, I only know one town.  If asked, I was fully prepared to say we're from Christ Church, just to appease him (and further lighten the impact of the U.S. invasion on this institute).   

In the afternoon solo time was required.  Venturing to the Summer Palace alone, I found my favorite historical and natural setting in Beijing.  The Summer Palace was a place where the imperial families would come to escape the baking head of central Beijing, during the hottest months of the year.  Anyone could easily reside here year-round.  After seeing the palace in fall, I have no desire to visit in the summer.  

Always curious about western values on ancient Chinese culture, a schlep through the Nanluoguxiang Hutong (Centipede Street).  Built during the Yuan Dynasty, the lane is symmetrically straight with neat streets leading to both the East and West, making the layout look like a centipede.  The street now contains traditional craft stores, souvenir shops, along with trendy restaurants, bars, and cafes.  An incredible homemade western-style vegi pizza was found, filling me for both lunch and dinner.

And my final adventure - Harry Potter & the Deathly Hollows, Part I in Mandarin. On this opening weekend in the United States, every theater showing of Harry Potter is sold-out.  In the Xicheng Worker's Movie Theater there are only 13 people to watch the movie in a annoying Mandarin voice-over.  However, in typical China-style, about 45 minutes through the movie the voice-over broke and we were all herded into a massive two-story theater for the original movie showing, in English.