Wandering Secrets

Since our arrival in Xi’An, China, I have been desperately looking for something to write about. As you probably know by now, I want to show you places where tourists don’t go, places that only locals know of.

Not that there is nothing to say about Xi’an, but lately I’ve been feeling… confused about what I think of this city. Frankly I’ve been working a lot and it doesn’t help adding to the “good part” of the city.

Working in China, for those who want to try it, is more than an experience, it’s a lifetime event. Working here means being 100% dedicated to your job, not that you work like crazy the whole day, but you need to be constantly available to your company and your boss at any time, even during your day off. I can’t complain about my working conditions because even though sometimes I work so many hours I physically can’t take it anymore, I still think that I could get worse and, let’s face it, I love my job.

So where is the problem?

Well, talking as a westerner, it is quite difficult to make Chinese friends. I have talked to many people everywhere I’ve been and I have really nice Chinese colleagues, but in the three months I’ve been here, I still have no one to go out for a drink with. Chinese people in this part of the country are –I think- very friendly and curious. They are always happy to have a chat with a “foreigner”, always happy to offer you a beer and a cigarette (if you are a man). But that doesn’t mean you will go out with them at any other time or that you will meet them again. And I think for someone like me, who thinks that travels are made according to the people you meet, is difficult to live and to handle. Also, as I am re-reading this post, I come to realize that there are no gatherings in China. People do not go out in bars with a bunch of friends, they don’t hang out in parks, sitting on the grass. I’ve never seen groups of teenagers like we can see in Europe or in America just hanging out. People on the street go out for a reason, and to that I can add the strange fact that there are no benches on the street! Only in touristic places…

So, living in China: yes or no?

Here are some pros and cons:

Pros:

1- Friendly and curious people (careful though, VERY FEW people speak  English in this area!) Believe it or not, Xi’An and its 8 million inhabitants is actually the countryside. Life here is easy to handle, time is different. People do not run everywhere, cars drive quite slowly (although awfully bad) people are never nervous, at least not in working situations. And that feels good, really good.

2- The food! Always and every day, I know that the food is going to be one of my best memories of my stay in China. Although not as surprising and exotic as I thought it would be, the dishes here are delicious: meat, noodles, vegetables…  the hardest part is choosing your restaurant!

3- The historical sites and the mountains. Okay, I’m not being completely honest with you because I haven’t had time to try much of these marvellous sites that are just at my reach (believe me, it’s not because I am unwilling). But still, I like that when I have holidays I will be able to go see the terracotta army and the beautiful mountains just outside the city.

Sadly, I can’t think of anything else for now, but I know I will.

The cons:

1- THE AIR. Everyday I wish someone had told me that the air was SO BAD! Pollution hits every single day, when in Europe the average in polluted places is at 30, here the minimum is at 90, the average at 100. If you like fresh air, animals and nature, this city is your last choice. When it rains it rains dust and in the parks that have lakes (i.e: stagnant water), the fish are dead; like floating dead. And apparently winter is worse because heating is still coal…

2- Many people assume that foreigner = stupid person. Oh, and also, outside china = America. There is no other country, no other languages. Every one  in the western world speaks English and some minorities speak “small languages” (like French or Spanish).

3- The incredible dirt that is everywhere. I don’t know about the rest of China, but this city is disgustingly dirty. There’s dust, pollution dust, and the fact that nothing gets cleaned anywhere, especially not the toilets. Every day I wake up with a slight layer of dust in my bed and on the floor. Every day I try to clean the house, in vain. Every day, people spit and blow their nose on the street, without a tissue. Every day you walk on something strange, and walk faster when it sticks to your shoes. Everywhere is absolutely dirty, but you get used to it. Used to people throwing everything on the street, spitting, peeing, throwing up… once you get used to that, the problem comes when you need to clean yourself and the house from some virus, rats or bedbugs…

4- The internet! The “Great firewall” as they call it, is for us, poor westerners addicted to youtube and google, very hard to live with… The connection, the research, the websites… everything is different and annoyingly slow. Even trying to get a picture for ” pasta” or “angry smiley”, you’ll come up with everything and anything except what you expect. Of course if you do your research in Chinese you increase your chances to find what you want, but then…

The list of pros and cons could go and go… which is why I haven’t been able to write up until now. Because I’ve realised that I was experiencing culture shock. The famous culture shock that everyone talks about, and that no one describes. Culture shock that makes you hate and love the place you’re living in. This freaking culture shock that some days makes you shout at these Chinese persons who take a picture of you in the street just because you’re a foreigner. That culture shock that, some other days, makes you smile at these people for whom you are the touristic attraction of the day.

Culture shock.

My enemy, the one thing I thought I would never “get”. It hits you when and where you don’t expect it. But I am happy that I get to spend a whole year living here because I know that I would leave China with a bitter taste if I had left sooner. I am happy because I know that living in China makes me be a better person, more tolerant, more patient (so much more!) and more open-minded. That’s what comes out when I think about my life in China. A bittersweet taste, difficult to define, sometimes difficult to live but that still makes a traveler’s life what it is: adventure, exotic, unknown and, still and always, the better life.