Stuck in the Middle Kingdom with You

"And I'm wondering what it is I should do, It's so hard to keep this smile from my face, Losing control, yeah, I'm all over the place, Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, Here I am, stuck in the middle with you." - Stealers Wheel

China, also referred to as the Middle Kingdom, has long been on my bucket list. I think it first appeared on my radar when I was told as a kid that you can see it from space. There was also this pretty impressive opening scene in Disney's Mulan where Shan Yu and the Huns climb the Great Wall and a brave soldier runs up the tower steps and lights the warning signal... made my 8-year old self gaze in wonder and think, "I MUST GO THERE NOW."

Like in Paris, lovers can attach a lock to symbolise their love on the Great Wall of China. 

After a quick 4-day trip to Beijing, I can safely say I did my 8-year old self proud. If I could travel back in time or access the past by entering an alternate dimension, I'd tell myself how incredible Beijing is... even with the smog. It offers a beautiful blend between its rich cultural history and the vibrant modern metropolis it has become today.

Before my trip, I came with a bucket load of preconceptions formed from various dialogues with Chinese friends, friends who have lived in China, and some who, like me, have never been there. But now having been there, there are some myths about Beijing that I'd like to bust.

1. People are rude.

Wrong. Just SO wrong. Beijing has some of the most helpful and friendly people I have met. Ok sure there was this one incident where my friend and I had a shouting match with two hooligans in the MRT but that was about it.

What really stood out was how people really tried to help you even if they could not speak English. When I was sitting helplessly in a bank trying to change money and they couldn't understand where my passport was from (it's in German), one guy who spoke minimal English translated for me. We also had a nice short chat about Mozart afterwards. Another shining example was when my friend wanted me to reeeaaallly try these amazing baos (buns) and the stall only sold them in a set of 5. We offered to buy one off an elderly couple but they refused to take the money and just gave it to us.

We even ended up taking a picture together. Such happy times.

See how considerate they are?!

2. The food is weird.

Semi-wrong. It also depends on what you classify as weird I guess. Firstly, the food in Beijing is delicious but you can find some really odd things if you look for it. Off Wangfujing Street there's a street market where you can find all sorts of strange food.

There are live scorpions impaled on skewers which they deep-fry and coat in spices before serving. You can also get deep-fried starfish and seahorse skewers if it tickles your fancy. However those weird foods you can identify by looking at them. There are however several stalls that sell buns and other dishes that look quite ordinary but actually use donkey meat. You'd probably have to ask a local what characters to look out for as they usually clearly label them.

Yummy, yummy, yummy, I've got scorpions in my tummy.

3. Beijing is dirty.

It's all relative my friend. The dirtiness of Beijing is something I've heard from a lot of my friends in Singapore, although pretty much any place on Earth except for Switzerland and Japan are filthy in comparison to squeaky clean Singapore.

Personally I don't find it dirty. Perhaps it could be because I only stayed within the first 2 rings of Beijing but from what I saw, I can pick out some neighbourhoods in London that are more dirty.

4. Airpocalypse?

True. A few days prior to my arrival the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) was at around 500. N95 masks sold like hotcakes. The smog was so thick, people began calling it the airpocalypse.

My friend and I were having dinner with a local who told us the average PSI was around 300 at that time of year. Coupled with the dryness in winter, it's an especially uncomfortable period to visit. I would recommend that before you visit you should bring N95 masks and would really advise you to stay in a hotel/hostel with an air purifier or air conditioning. You'll thank me for it later, trust me.

We stayed in the Holiday Inn Express Minzuyuan which didn't have either of those facilities and in spite of wearing masks all day we would wake up the next day sounding like we chain-smoked all evening and then topped it off with whiskey.

Nope. That's not a layer of fog hovering over the city.

5. There tends to be quite a bit of spitting going on.

True. But seriously can you blame them considering the quality of the air? I was all phlegmed up after only 4 days in Beijing.

6. You should know some Chinese.

It is definitely an advantage. I had quite a lot of trouble on my first day communicating but managed to get by with very limited vocabulary and some pointing. The difficulty is getting the tones right when you speak as what you say won't make much sense if you don't get it right.

Beijing is also a great place to learn or practice your Chinese since you have little choice in reverting to English. In any case, Mandarin is a beautiful and melodic language and I'll probably take some lessons in the future.

Why is there a Chinatown in a Chinese city?

All in all, Beijing is nothing less than awesome. The food, the people, the history, the art, the language - an entirely different experience. I am hoping to return to China soon and explore the other cities and see how they compare. But if you haven't been to Beijing yet... go, go GO!