Saturday, July 19, 2008

One World One Dream

The Story of You, Part 2.

Jay K.


[The local peasants we met on the Great Wall]

Ep.10 One World One Dream

So many stories to tell, I don’t know where to start. I will start with the title of this episode. “One World One Dream, 同一个世界,同一个梦想” is the official slogan of Beijing Olympic 2008. You can see that phrase everywhere here. The whole city is eagerly waiting for Olympic; you can see genuine enthusiasm. I first didn’t like that slogan, because for me that just sounds like an echo of China’s “one China policy”. It sounds too political to me. However, it sounds cool and inspirational; I cannot deny that it is a catchy phrase.

If you turn on TV in China, you will be surprised at two things. First, you will be surprised at that there are many different versions of one channel: CCTV (Chinese government owned TV station). There are CCTV1,2,3,…7, CCTV kids, and so on. Secondly, you will be surprised at the fact that the most TV programs are about upcoming Olympic.

Last weekend as I told you guys, I went to the Great Wall—the icon of China. As you guys know, the Great Wall is really long so that there are many different parts of the Wall. We went to the part near the city called Cheng De. Cheng De is a small city, which has many tourist sites including imperial Summer Palace and Lama Temples. We visited all of them over three days.

On the first day, we visited the imperial Summer Palace, the summer resort for the emperor. It wasn’t as magnificent as I expected, but still very big and beautiful. The lake was very impressive. On the second day, we visited two Buddhist temples. Both were built for Tibetan Buddhists. They were very magnificent and grand. If the Church is the height of Western architecture, the Buddhist Temple is the height of Eastern architecture.








[Go Beijing!]






[This is the biggest wooden Buddha in the wolrd]

It was interesting to see these temples because they were built for Tibetan monks. They represent the good relationship between Tibet and the central government. These temples are not only for tourists sightseeing, but also for the local believers. I had a chance to see actual Buddhists. Some were really serious about their prayers. The temple was full of incense smokes. It was a very hot day, but the blue sky made my pictures gorgeous.










[This temple is an imitation of the famous temple in Tibet]


[my favorite picture from the trip]









[the stars I saw before we left for the Great Wall]



On the last day, we climbed the Great Wall. No explanation is necessary for the Great Wall. If you want to, you can look it up on Wikipedia. One thing, you cannot see the Great Wall from space; that’s a lie. You can check it through Google Earth. Sometimes, I think that my pictures make China look better and nicer than it actually is. These pictures are photoshoped and saturated. However, the Great Wall is an exception. I cannot make it look better; my pictures are rather degenerated imitation of the original.

Let me tell you one thing about the Great Wall: it is higher than you think. The Walls are built on the mountains, so they are pretty high from the ground. And, I am scared of height. Most people hiked the whole section (about 10km), but I didn’t. First, I don’t like hiking. Second, I want to take time to look around and take pictures. Third, I am scared of height, so cannot go fast. These are not excuses; anyway I didn’t finish the whole section with others.









Three other friends and I were taking time and slowly hiking and on the way we met local peasants. There are many local peasants on the Great Wall. They just come out to sell tourist stuff to visitors. We met two who look like a married couple. They were really nice. They helped us to climb the walls and told us stories. They were local peasants and come to the Great Wall every weekend to make extra money. I am proud that I understood most of what they said.

I heard many of these local people are nice to visitors and help them to sell their stuffs. That might be true. I believe that most of them have insincere motives when they help us. However, for me, they are nonetheless nice and warm people. I really felt warm when I talked to them; you might say I was just naïve. To be honest with you guys, I didn’t like China that much before meeting these peasants. I wasn’t sure that I could live here for a year, but after meeting them, I started to like China. Despite of terrible weather and dirty toilet, I think I can survive in China because of these warm Chinese people.









One World One Dream. That might be not true. The world isn’t one, and each one has his or her own dream. However, there is only one mankind. I believe that people are same everywhere. The trip to the Great Wall was tiring but I got something very important from the trip.

This is it for the Great Wall trip. I still believe that my pictures speak better than my writing.
Again, you can see more pictures at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iamadreamer/sets/72157606200516635/. I took more than 300 pictures so cannot show you all in this post.

Ps. I want to talk about things that I bought in China including my cool electronic bike and my daughter in this episode, but I am afraid that it will be too long for one episode.

Fin.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Deadly Mao and the Forbidden City

The Story of You, Part 2.

Jay K.




Ep.9 Deadly Mao and the Forbidden City

Tuesday, July 08, 2008, I am pretty busy with school works; it is really hard to find a time to write this essay, but I try to write this regularly. I really enjoy writing this essay. As I enjoy writing this, I hope you guys enjoy reading it too!


[Gongan (police) laughing]

As I promised in the last episode, I will share my experience of meeting this country’s founding father; dead Mao. Last weekend, I and my friends went to Tiananmen. I don’t know I am allowed to talk about “Tiananmen” in my blog. I assume that you guys all know about that place. If you don’t know, you can google it or youtube it—I cannot youtube that here though, because it is also censored by the Party. Tiananmen is at the center of the city and is also the entrance to the Forbidden City.

In the Square, there is the Monument and the Memorial Hall for Chairman Mao. I quote the pamphlet, “Chairman Mao Memorial Hall is the most important memorial hall of the Party and the state. The greatest Chinese leader of the 20th century, Mao Zedong, is laid to rest in this magnificent edifice…” So, supposedly dead Mao’s actual body is laid in the Hall. No camera and bag are allowed to enter this building, and there is a long line of people wishing to the dead body. You can buy flowers in front of the Hall and give to Mao showing your respect for him.



[The Monument and in front little children are guarding the Monument]


[This is the Memorial Hall for Chairman Mao, and the long line of visitors]




[Little Maos]

To be honest, I was pretty excited to see him. I mean, it’s Mao’s actual body! It’s like you can see G. Washington’s actual body. As I was waiting in the line, strange feelings arose in my heart. I don’t know how to describe it. It was a little creepy to see the dead body, I guess. But it wasn’t only that, something else bothered me. I guess I was bothered by the fact that one person’s mere dead body attracts so many people. Will I be like Mao? What will happen after I die? Such a foolish question occupied my head.

I haven’t talked about his actual appearance. You can see him only for few seconds; actually you just pass by him. My other friends said that it really looks like a fake; in other words, it just looks like a wax. I agree so. However, that doesn’t really matter. What matters what Chinese people think of that dead body. If they believe that’s real, it’s real. Mao’s influence in China is not as big as it was, however I think he still represents this country and will continue to shape the future of the nation. After all, he is the founder of red China.



[Me and Mao; Excited to take a picture with Mao, I proudly closed my eyes]

The Forbidden City was the imperial palace of Ming and Qing dynasty. It is the huge palace—you cannot imagine how big it is until you see it. I’ve been to that place when I was 14 yrs old. Then I was shocked how big it is comparing to the royal palace in Korea. I was mad, and am still mad at the fact that this country is so huge. It is unfair. This nation has a natural capacity to become a super state. Nonetheless, there are always naturally small people and naturally big people; I guess nations are just like that. As a naturally small person, there is something that you inherently cannot do, but in many areas small people can be better than bigger ones. Each person has different roles in the society.

China is a big country and is rapidly developing. So many new buildings are being built in the city, construction is in everywhere. There are lots of gigantic and marvelous new buildings which make you realize how big this country is; for example, you can look at the Olympic stadiums. I don’t have pictures of them now, but I will upload them later. No kidding, I think if China wants, it can build another Great Wall today.

















It’s been almost two weeks in China. During the first few days, I complained a lot about everything in China—I still do. I always compared China with the States or Korea and complained about it. But I realized that is not a good thing to do. I try not to do it now. I used to do that when I first went to the States too. I compared everything in the States to that of Korea and got mad at everything that is different from its counterpart in Korea. For example, I got really mad that getting internet service in the U.S. is so slow and difficult. In Korea, it’s really easy, you just need to call them and they come and install everything for you. In the States, you have to go through installation by yourself and call the company thousand times. But I slowly got used to the differences. I guess I am going to do the same thing here.


It’s been two weeks and I think it is a good time to talk about my objectives in China. Actually, before talking about that, I will talk about the objectives I had when I first went to the States. As I told you guys earlier, I did not want to leave my country and live in America. I didn’t have any choice, so I have to live there. When I first came to the States, I knew that I would live there at least several years. Although I didn’t want to live there, I wanted to utilize my opportunity that most of my friends did not have. I couldn’t deny that studying in America was a fine opportunity.


I set two goals for myself. The first goal was to learn the language and the country. I wanted to learn English and experience the larger world. The second goal was to remember my own country. I was afraid that I would forget my own country. Looking back last four years, I think I did pretty good job of achieving these two goals. I know that I still need to improve English though.



What should I achieve in China? I guess the first goal is also to learn Chinese and this country. I think that is the easiest and also the hardest thing to achieve. The second goal is however different from which I had four years ago. The second goal is to learn myself and discover my own future. After one year in China, I need to encounter my 4th, the last year in college. I am not sure about what I am going to with my future.


Many different thoughts are floating around. What should I do after I graduate? I want to work for Korean government; that sounds simple, but it is not that simple thing. There are thousands and thousands of different governmental departments. Do I want to work for a nameless department in government and become a nameless official? I want to take the diplomat test and become a diplomat of Korea. That test is really hard, how should I prepare for it?If I want to work in Korea, I need to do military service. In order to make two years of military service beneficial to my career, I want to be an interpreter officer in which I also need to take a test to be an interpreter officer. So many tests and so many paths! Do I want to live an extraordinary life? Can I? So many questions and so many doubts!


I want to discover my future while I stay here for a year. I want to define my inner self. I might be too busy with learning Chinese and acculturating to Chinese life, but I will try my best achieving my second objective in this yearlong journey.




ps. In the next episode, I will talk about my experience of meeting local peasants on the Great Wall and lotta pictures of great places! However, it will take a while to upload the next episode, because I need to edit more than 450 pictures. I just got back from the Great Wall trip.

Monday, July 7, 2008

The First Letter from China

The Story of You, Part 2.
Jay K.



Ep.8 The First Letter from China

I had a hard time naming this episode 8, because I have so many different thoughts to write in this episode. I will start with the blocked blog issue. So as you guys know I used w*rdpre*ss blog before and I didn’t know that it was the main blog that was blocked by Chinese government. The Great Firewall of China actually exists. I was really shocked and annoyed at this fact, but I guess I have to accept that this is c*mmunist country. I don’t know when this blog will get blocked.


Big Brother’s watching me! I am sure my room is also wiretapped somehow (pretty positive about it). So no more f word (freed*m), p word (pr*test), d word (dem*cracy) and other words in my blog. I cannot write about them; I am not kidding guys. It is really interesting that I am actually living in a country where the freed*m of speech is bluntly restricted. I hope I can keep using this blog and doesn’t get caught.



[My tourguide in front]

[bicycle cab drivers]




I will now move to the second topic. I took the placement exam on Monday and it was pretty hard. I was placed at the level 5; the lowest level is 3 and the highest is 11. I was a bit embarrassed and humiliated by my score although I pretended I wasn’t. I took two years of Chinese. Although I wasn’t the best student in the class, I never got a single B in my Chinese classes. Some girls who also studied Chinese for 2 years got into higher level.

I don’t think that the test was accurate; however I accept the fact that my Chinese isn’t as good as others who took 2 years of Chinese. The placement exam reminded me of the time when I first came to America. I was enrolled as a sophomore in high school. I took classes but didn’t get credits for them because it was the almost end of the academic year. Three out of six classes were English classes. They were called ELD class (English Language Development) also as known as ESL. It was for students whose native language is not English.

Even in that ELD class, every one’s English ability was different. Some were better than others. I remember that before the class starts students freely hang out and talk to each other, but when the class starts, most of students sit in the middle of the classroom and open their books while other students sit in the corner and turn on their computers. I was one of them who were using the computers to learn English. On the computer screen, it shows a picture of an apple and asks what it is. To be honest with you guys, that was humiliating to me. I really wanted to sit in the middle of the classroom and study with other friends. I finished that ridiculous computer program in three days and I moved to the middle of the classroom.


[tea]





Today, someone asked me of the secret of learning the language fast. I think there are many of them, but one is humiliation. It is humiliating when you can’t speak the language, which everyone else can speak. My goal is to become a level 11 student at the end of this summer or become better than them. Also, my final goal is to take a regular college-level class at Peking University. I will do it, because I don’t want to be embarrassed.

(Two days after I wrote this part, I decided to move to level 9)

I will move to my last topic. Today, we went to sightseeing to the Houhai area also known as Old Beijing. It was the first city tour since I got here. It was really interesting and fascinating to walk around the small alleys in Beijing. We also went to the price Gong’s magnificent garden. I took lots of pictures. Nonetheless, I am not trying to talk about the today’s tour nor the beauty of the city. At the end of the tour, we took boat on the Shisha Lake. In the small boat, a local guy rowed the boat and a lady played Chinese traditional guitar. It was really nice to relax on the boat listening to the beautiful music.

[The guy who was rowing our boat; he is really strong]
I thought that it would be nice if everyone can ride on this boat and listen to this music, but on my second thought, if everyone rides on this boat, who will play the music and row the boat? Someone has to row and play the music for others. Who wants to do that? Why not everyone can enjoy this life? Is it because we have so many people and so many people are different? Then if there are only two or three people on earth, will they be happy? Is there a way to satisfy everyone? I was thinking about these things and before I come up with an answer, the boat returned to the starting point. I hope I can find the answer at the end of this journey.

I need to stop here although I have more things to say, because I have my first class tomorrow at 8am. It will be the starting point to become a level 11 student and to find the answer to my questions. Talk to you guys soon.
In the next episode, I will talk about meeting the “dead” Mao and the Forbidden City.

[Beautiful Chinese lady]


[We watched traditional Chinese show at Laoshe Tea House]





more pictures can be found at my flickr account,