In Search of Immortality

Qinhuangdao is largely a tourist city, attracting more than double it's population between May and August. The city takes it's name from the first emperor Qin who is credited with unifying the warring states that now make up modern China. It is from the Shanhaiguan district of Qinhuangdao that he began construction of the Great Wall. Like many great leaders, as he grew older Emperor Qin was deeply afraid of dying. He searched China far and wide for the fabled elixir of life but was unable to find it so he issued a reconnaissance mission overseas from Qinhuangdao. However, his subject Xu Fu along with hundreds of men and women aboard the ship never returned. Legend says that they landed on what is now Japan and decided to settle there oppose to return empty-handed.

Today, Qinhuangdao is a steady city. Although not quite as modern as many of its coastal counterparts, it is rapidly developing fueled by tourist revenues. Bursts of shiny establishments can be seen intermingled with the city's dirtier underbelly. To the East, the outskirts of the city yield summer resorts along its beachy coastline and over-priced establishments to capitalize on the Great Wall and ancient town of Shanhaiguan. Many hotels and "club houses" lay dormant in the cold season and reawaken once the summer begins. The best way to tour is by taking a high-speed "D" train to Qinhuangdao from Beijing and transfering for a short ride on one of the city's buses. TV and English translations can be found on just about every bus but most locals only speak Mandarin with a bold Northern accent that can be trying to even fellow traveling Chinese.

To the West, the city is bordered by the farmlands and industrial parks of Hebei. During the day, vendors pepper the streets selling various local foods such as egg wraps with vegetables and sausage. Laborers may be seen driving around donkeys or vespa-pulled carts with teetering towers of chairs strapped together with flimsy rope. Hutongs or old alleyways snake behind the shadows of brightly-lit hotels and shopping centers. Old people gather in the many parks to do exercises, gossip, or play what seems to be croquet. For the working, the days are a standard length but most residents will return home for as much as 3 hours to eat or catch a nap during the mid-day. The city certainly moves, but at its own pace-- unrushed by anything other than its own purpose.

At First

When I first thought about writing a blog, I considered entitling it The Space in Between because I could not logically explain my thought process for coming to China. Yet with today marking one month of time I've spent at my teaching placement in Qinhuangdao, I realize my experiences have become in fact more real.  My thinking is unmuffled by familiarities. I find everyday to be raw when stripped of modern comforts. Events are basic yet transparent. I find that I blend in much better than I expected and that I have the privilege of being an invisible foreigner; an unbothered observer.

In America I say I am Chinese. In China I say I am American, yet some Chinese people still receive me skeptically as a foreigner. As a culture, the Chinese are communal if not also extremely competitive, nosy, and crafty. These traits have apparently lent themselves to be good survival tactics for a culture that has endured for thousands of years.  Maybe one generation removed does not automatically earn you the title of foreigner, so now I simply say "I am not from these parts".

This will be my fifth time coming to China, but my longest and most independent stay. I wonder about the explorations this will allow and the perspectives I may absorb all the way. This will also be my first time truly living alone and being able to do whatever suits my fancy at work--well maybe not whatever, but unrestricted by curriculum or textbook. I share with the students whatever I think is relevant and might get them talking. I anticipated a challenge in finding common subjects, yet last week The Oscars, pet peeves and taboo subjects all struck a chord. Every person I've met reinforces my growing belief that people all have underlying similarities from a common humanity no matter how different the circumstances. I have traveled halfway across the world to find the last thing I was expecting: common ground.