Andrew Aigner-Muehlerchapter 25... Life in Beijing
November 15th 2009 05:50
Making the move from Chengde to Beijing was supposed to bring me more time to travel; instead it has brought me no time to travel. But, living in one of the worlds most populated cities is a must.
Compared to the smaller towns outside Beijing, it is hard for a foreigner who has came to China to experience the Chinese culture, and to experience the real China.
I have now lived solely in Beijing for almost three months; it feels like that I am living in a western society. There are so many expats here. I am spending the money like there is no tomorrow, even though I am on slightly more money than in Chengde minus all off the benefits. The spending off money comes from mixing it with other expats on the weekends, and trying to lead your normal life you do, if you were back home.
Compared to the smaller towns, it is much harder to mix with the locals. A Beijing person just does not want to talk to us. They are afraid of or intimidated by us. Maybe that comes from there being too many foreigners in Beijing and they see so many of us. In the smaller towns, they want to talk to us, try out their English, they come up to us, and they will sit with us in a restaurant. In Beijing, if a restaurant has no empty tables to sit at, and there are only two or maybe just one of them, they will not sit with a foreigner who is sitting by themselves. The same thing happens on a bus or on the subway in Beijing, only the ones who really want a seat to sit down on will sit next to a foreigner. It is like we hadn’t had a shower for months on end.
You get told when you live in a smaller town that in Beijing everyone knows English, they want to learn English, and so you do not need to learn Chinese, which is far from the case. I think the people outside of Beijing are more willing to help those who need help to buy something, in Beijing, if they see a foreigner having trouble in buying or asking for something because they know little or no Chinese, the local Beijing person will laugh at you and say something in Chinese to their work colleague, to make you feel bad.
If I would have known what I know now from living in Beijing, I think I would have found another school in another town outside of the bigger cities, and just came into Beijing on the weekends or once a month. Yeah, if you like to socialize and live it up on the weekends, then Beijing is the place to be. You will have no trouble in meeting other foreigners to hang out with. But, at the end of the day the reason why you are here, is too experience China, and to travel China, and living in Beijing, you can not do that. I spoke to a few expats who were living in Beijing while I was still living in Chengde, and they were telling me, they hadn’t done any travelling, and I wondered why? Now, I know why. In Beijing, most people have a full time job, which in China is around 25 hours, and then they end up doing other tuition jobs either on the evenings and maybe on the weekends, and then come Friday and Saturday nights, they let their hair down by going out with their friends, and then there is no time to travel, while if you work in a smaller town, you work half the hours, you have half of your days free, you don’t spend a lot of the time travelling to work, so because you are kind of relaxed during the week from not working hard, come the weekend, you just want to leave your town to explore somewhere new. In Beijing, I know as a teacher working 25 lessons and being at the school most of the day 5 days a week, planning 4 lessons a week for those students, you are so heavily drained, come the weekend, you just want to relax and let your hair down, you just don’t want to hop on a train and go somewhere. Yeah, the money is slightly better in Beijing, though you are working much more, so it ain’t really better and you may not get the benefits like you do if you work outside of Beijing either. So, if you are coming to China to experience the life and the culture and you want to teach conversational English, you are best to teach English in a town or a city that is not Beijing or Shanghai
Compared to the smaller towns outside Beijing, it is hard for a foreigner who has came to China to experience the Chinese culture, and to experience the real China.
I have now lived solely in Beijing for almost three months; it feels like that I am living in a western society. There are so many expats here. I am spending the money like there is no tomorrow, even though I am on slightly more money than in Chengde minus all off the benefits. The spending off money comes from mixing it with other expats on the weekends, and trying to lead your normal life you do, if you were back home.
Compared to the smaller towns, it is much harder to mix with the locals. A Beijing person just does not want to talk to us. They are afraid of or intimidated by us. Maybe that comes from there being too many foreigners in Beijing and they see so many of us. In the smaller towns, they want to talk to us, try out their English, they come up to us, and they will sit with us in a restaurant. In Beijing, if a restaurant has no empty tables to sit at, and there are only two or maybe just one of them, they will not sit with a foreigner who is sitting by themselves. The same thing happens on a bus or on the subway in Beijing, only the ones who really want a seat to sit down on will sit next to a foreigner. It is like we hadn’t had a shower for months on end.
You get told when you live in a smaller town that in Beijing everyone knows English, they want to learn English, and so you do not need to learn Chinese, which is far from the case. I think the people outside of Beijing are more willing to help those who need help to buy something, in Beijing, if they see a foreigner having trouble in buying or asking for something because they know little or no Chinese, the local Beijing person will laugh at you and say something in Chinese to their work colleague, to make you feel bad.
If I would have known what I know now from living in Beijing, I think I would have found another school in another town outside of the bigger cities, and just came into Beijing on the weekends or once a month. Yeah, if you like to socialize and live it up on the weekends, then Beijing is the place to be. You will have no trouble in meeting other foreigners to hang out with. But, at the end of the day the reason why you are here, is too experience China, and to travel China, and living in Beijing, you can not do that. I spoke to a few expats who were living in Beijing while I was still living in Chengde, and they were telling me, they hadn’t done any travelling, and I wondered why? Now, I know why. In Beijing, most people have a full time job, which in China is around 25 hours, and then they end up doing other tuition jobs either on the evenings and maybe on the weekends, and then come Friday and Saturday nights, they let their hair down by going out with their friends, and then there is no time to travel, while if you work in a smaller town, you work half the hours, you have half of your days free, you don’t spend a lot of the time travelling to work, so because you are kind of relaxed during the week from not working hard, come the weekend, you just want to leave your town to explore somewhere new. In Beijing, I know as a teacher working 25 lessons and being at the school most of the day 5 days a week, planning 4 lessons a week for those students, you are so heavily drained, come the weekend, you just want to relax and let your hair down, you just don’t want to hop on a train and go somewhere. Yeah, the money is slightly better in Beijing, though you are working much more, so it ain’t really better and you may not get the benefits like you do if you work outside of Beijing either. So, if you are coming to China to experience the life and the culture and you want to teach conversational English, you are best to teach English in a town or a city that is not Beijing or Shanghai
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