Andrew Aigner-MuehlerChapter 29...Living the life in Beijing
May 1st 2010 07:11
Everyone who comes to China whether it is to teach or to work in another profession sometime or another will want to work in Beijing, I am no exception. After spending a full year in Chengde, in the province of Hebei, I did just that. At the time, I thought it was a good idea, so I could spend more time travelling and also less time on the train coming into Beijing to explore other cities. What I didn’t know, is that, I was going to get caught up into big city living life. The days of just working 13 lessons a week, only in the afternoons and just four days a week also did not follow me to Beijing, instead weeks of working 7 days a week and most of the days working from 8am to 5pm came to me instead, leaving no time to travel.
In a smaller town, there is not much to do, for me, I had no where to watch English football as the bars did not show the games, and because the town is so small, you tend to explore everything in your first month or so there, and are left with no where else to check out for the first time, and then are left bored, so you are forced to travel on the weekends to see other cities. Also you don’t spend an hour or so getting to work in the mornings and then getting home in the afternoon.
Then in the big cities, there is so much more to see, so you are sought off overwhelmed to know where to start first, and then you get lazy, and not go, because it takes so long to get there either by foot or public transport. Then there are more foreigners so you tend to start hanging out with foreigners more and more whether or not it is at one of many bars.
Don’t get me wrong, I am glad I came to Beijing and experienced living and working in the countries capital, or I would have regretted it later down the track, but if I ever come back to China or if I want to work another year here, I have to say that I will not work in Beijing again. It is just to harder work for the money you earn.
This chapter will be focused on my personal opinion how I experienced things in Beijing, again do not take what I say personally, someone else’s thoughts maybe the total opposite.
Let’s start with the public transport, especially the subway. Yeah it is young, it was just up before the Olympics and they are still expanding it slowly, and it does take time, but I think it was just so much of a rushed job, they did not put any planning into it, to get from one corner to the other, it can take anything from an hour and a half to two hours, as you have to go around the city, and you have to either change twice or three times, and that is where it kills you, because changing lines is very time consuming for example at XiZhiMen subway station to go from number thirteen line to number two line takes you for ever, and I say you would almost walk three to five kilometers from one train to the other. Majority of the stations you would spend anything from 10 to 30 minutes walking from one line to another, and that is if you are a fast walker, and that is also if you don’t get caught in rush hour and you are standing still waiting to get up the stairs or escalator because there is a build up of people. To make things worse with the subway, you think with the biggest populated city in the world the trains would come every minute like in London and New York, but instead they come every 5 to 10 minutes during the day, over a short peak period in the mornings, they may come every 3 minutes. Though I have waiting 15 minutes for the train on number thirteen line.
With the buses, the buses are cheap, but can be very overcrowded in peak period, you will find three buses come at once, and then you will wait 5 to 10 minutes for the next bus, the plus about the buses are they can actually get to your destination the same time as if you went by subway, if they took a direct route and went faster than 40kmph they would actually get to your destination quicker.
The next thing that really kills me while living in Beijing is the people, they are rude and arrogant, even people from outside Beijing will say the same thing, they have no damn respect, they will ride their bikes on the footpath when it is chocker block full of people and will not get off their bikes they will even hit people as they go past, it doesn’t just end with the bikes, the Beijing people just walk in a straight line, they will not move off their line, if you are walking towards them, and you can not move because there are people either side of you, they will just walk straight into you, and then look at you as if it is your fault. As a foreigner, if they walk into you, it is your fault, and they will give you a strange look and say something, if you walk into them, it is your fault and they will go off at you, like there is no tomorrow. I experience this every morning going from SuZhouJie to XiErQi, and it can put you in a bad start to the day. This never happened to me in Chengde once.
With the cost of things, things aren’t that much more expensive than a small city, if anything, just a little bit more, but you will spend more money than a smaller city especially if you are a foreign teacher when you don’t get accommodation with your job in Beijing, so you have to go out and pay for rent and bond and commission for your unit, then you need to pay for electricity, internet, gas and water. To get to anything in Beijing you either have to go by taxi or subway and that will cost you more, in a smaller city, you can get away with walking everywhere.
When it comes to buying groceries, yeah you have the bigger supermarkets that sell western foods, but when it comes to buying your fresh foods like fruit and vegetables and meats etc, you do miss living in a smaller city where it is cheaper and they have better quality and a better selection minus of the chemicals and it is fresh.
If I could offer any advice to anyone who wants to come to Chine to teach especially, they should go to a smaller city or town and experience the real China, it is way better money, it may not look as much, but you wont spend as much and you will get a better package, and as well as less working hours, so you can travel more on your days off. Then if you still feel like, that you want to work in a big city like Beijing, and then do it, because once you start a contract here, you will have no time to yourself; you will just work more and get tied down into big city life.
The biggest plus with the smaller towns is that the people are much friendlier and hospitable.
Then in the big cities, there is so much more to see, so you are sought off overwhelmed to know where to start first, and then you get lazy, and not go, because it takes so long to get there either by foot or public transport. Then there are more foreigners so you tend to start hanging out with foreigners more and more whether or not it is at one of many bars.
Don’t get me wrong, I am glad I came to Beijing and experienced living and working in the countries capital, or I would have regretted it later down the track, but if I ever come back to China or if I want to work another year here, I have to say that I will not work in Beijing again. It is just to harder work for the money you earn.
Let’s start with the public transport, especially the subway. Yeah it is young, it was just up before the Olympics and they are still expanding it slowly, and it does take time, but I think it was just so much of a rushed job, they did not put any planning into it, to get from one corner to the other, it can take anything from an hour and a half to two hours, as you have to go around the city, and you have to either change twice or three times, and that is where it kills you, because changing lines is very time consuming for example at XiZhiMen subway station to go from number thirteen line to number two line takes you for ever, and I say you would almost walk three to five kilometers from one train to the other. Majority of the stations you would spend anything from 10 to 30 minutes walking from one line to another, and that is if you are a fast walker, and that is also if you don’t get caught in rush hour and you are standing still waiting to get up the stairs or escalator because there is a build up of people. To make things worse with the subway, you think with the biggest populated city in the world the trains would come every minute like in London and New York, but instead they come every 5 to 10 minutes during the day, over a short peak period in the mornings, they may come every 3 minutes. Though I have waiting 15 minutes for the train on number thirteen line.
With the buses, the buses are cheap, but can be very overcrowded in peak period, you will find three buses come at once, and then you will wait 5 to 10 minutes for the next bus, the plus about the buses are they can actually get to your destination the same time as if you went by subway, if they took a direct route and went faster than 40kmph they would actually get to your destination quicker.
The next thing that really kills me while living in Beijing is the people, they are rude and arrogant, even people from outside Beijing will say the same thing, they have no damn respect, they will ride their bikes on the footpath when it is chocker block full of people and will not get off their bikes they will even hit people as they go past, it doesn’t just end with the bikes, the Beijing people just walk in a straight line, they will not move off their line, if you are walking towards them, and you can not move because there are people either side of you, they will just walk straight into you, and then look at you as if it is your fault. As a foreigner, if they walk into you, it is your fault, and they will give you a strange look and say something, if you walk into them, it is your fault and they will go off at you, like there is no tomorrow. I experience this every morning going from SuZhouJie to XiErQi, and it can put you in a bad start to the day. This never happened to me in Chengde once.
With the cost of things, things aren’t that much more expensive than a small city, if anything, just a little bit more, but you will spend more money than a smaller city especially if you are a foreign teacher when you don’t get accommodation with your job in Beijing, so you have to go out and pay for rent and bond and commission for your unit, then you need to pay for electricity, internet, gas and water. To get to anything in Beijing you either have to go by taxi or subway and that will cost you more, in a smaller city, you can get away with walking everywhere.
When it comes to buying groceries, yeah you have the bigger supermarkets that sell western foods, but when it comes to buying your fresh foods like fruit and vegetables and meats etc, you do miss living in a smaller city where it is cheaper and they have better quality and a better selection minus of the chemicals and it is fresh.
If I could offer any advice to anyone who wants to come to Chine to teach especially, they should go to a smaller city or town and experience the real China, it is way better money, it may not look as much, but you wont spend as much and you will get a better package, and as well as less working hours, so you can travel more on your days off. Then if you still feel like, that you want to work in a big city like Beijing, and then do it, because once you start a contract here, you will have no time to yourself; you will just work more and get tied down into big city life.
The biggest plus with the smaller towns is that the people are much friendlier and hospitable.
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