Beijingers

So I arrived in Beijing on Saturday night, and moved into my homestay near the Gulou Drum Tower. I live in a hutong, one of the old alleyways that predates the CCP, most likely from the Qing (1644-1911) or Ming (1400? - 1644... China's blocked Wikipedia so these dates are from memory) Dynasties. The hutong is called Baochao hutong, it's a rough and tumble, down-to-earth, unrestored hutong that's bustling with life. I like the feel of it, the vendors, the haphazardly constructed houses (as opposed to the neatly-laid out quadrangles that package tours bring you to), the bathhouse down the street, the public toilets and lack of indoor plumbing. There's no courtyard; which is fine. I'm really lucky to have gotten a Hutong homestay. Only three other kids on the program got a hutong, including my new roommate, Seth. It's strange the way they set it up. They tried to make it so that Chinese-speaking students like myself were put in homes where the host families couldn't speak English, although that doesn't seem to be the prevailing theme-- my host brother speaks English very well and my host mother is not so bad herself. Other students, who don't speak any Chinese, are paired with families that don't speak any English.

Last night I met up with Prof. Angle and several Wesleyan people-- mostly recently graudated alumni-- for an informal Wesleyan-in-Beijing dinner. It was lots of fun and it felt great to be with others familiar with both Wesleyan and this city that we've all taken in, for some reason or another. I found out that one of them, Jesse, lives in a Hutong just one street over from mine-- and he often takes baths in the bathhouse in "my" hutong. A pretty interesting guy, he travelled overland from France where he had been at a winery for a couple months, going through Turkey and the "Stans" all the way to Beijing.

Well, that about raps it up for my first Beijing entry. I'm happy here and I'm glad to be back. Even though I'm not much of a city person and Beijing is not even my favorite city, I realized I've become sentimental and nostalgic about this city. It's strange, too, because the past three times I've been in Beijing I was here in the summer. Now, Beijing seems to have acquired a much quieter, quainter personality. I don't know whether it's the weather which makes people want to stay inside, or the increasing urbanization which pushes people off the streets and into hi-rises, or what. And the pollution seems a lot less serious. Again, I don't know whether it's simply seasonal or (hopefully) a point in a larger trend towards better air. Construction cranes are everywhere and buildings have sprung up. A Wal-Mart is now open near my old university. Beijing is changing, changing.