BEIJING: First Impressions and Culture Shock

When you are used to travelling, you think you are ready for whatever the next adventure throws at you. And usually, I am. But I have to admit the culture shock in China takes some getting used to.

LANGUAGE BARRIER

Most people in Beijing do not speak even a minimal amount of English. It's an ongoing game of charades, and even that they have a hard time with. For example showing three fingers to explain you want three of something doesn't work. The Chinese have their own idea of numerical sign-language.

FOOD

With the language barrier comes the mystery of every meal you order. Again, most waiters don’t speak a word of English and the menus are only in Chinese so ordering a meal usually consists of pointing at an item and hoping for the best. The difficulty is that the Chinese eat ALL parts of the animal (which from a sustainable point of view is great). On my first day in Beijing, I completely lost my appetite when I found a chicken head in my bowl!

TOILETS

Most toilets in China are Turkish-style (a hole in the ground), colloquially called a squatty-potty. To make matters all the more interesting, many public washrooms have no form of stalls (read: privacy). That’s right, just a whole bunch of holes in a row. You are pretty much rubbing thighs with the person beside you. And the smell... yikes!

PEOPLE

For the most part, the people in Beijing are cold and indifferent to tourists. They aren't very welcoming and definitely won’t go out of their way to help you.  I suppose in a country of 1.4 billion people, a survival-of-the-fittest mentality sets in pretty quickly. However, people from other regions in China, some of whom may never have seen a foreigner before, are very interested in us, especially in taking our picture.

CUSTOMS

So far, there are three cultural practices that I am having troubles getting used to:

• Spitting: the Chinese spit everywhere in public. The action is usually preceded by a grotesque hork.
• Bum-slits: toddlers do not wear diapers. Instead, their pants have a slit in the bum-area so they can simply squat on the sidewalk and do their business. Watch where you step!
• Eating habits: I have never seen such slim people eat so fast or so much! All the power to them. But the slurping and the shoveling of food into the mouth is rather different.

This being said, if every people were the same, what a dull world this would be. In fact, there would be little point in travelling at all! So far, China is an incredible experience, more stories to come!