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| A view of Beijing on a clear-ish day |
Our 'team' is currently in transition! John has made the move to our
new home in sunny Madrid, Spain! And Kara is now just weeks behind- tying
up some loose ends and finishing her employment in (the wintery) Beijing.
After exploring Turkey last month and immersing ourselves into the
amazing European influences -yes we mean the food, we are excited to head to
and make our next move to Spain.
In Madrid, John will be a student studying at one of Europe's top
business schools and Kara will most likely find herself immersed in the wine (ah hem
culture).
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| Eating Beijing noodles and dumplings |
So at this time we prepare ourselves to say goodbye to China. This past year has been
amazing and with the impending departure we had the chance to truly reflect on
our experiences and send love to those who have helped us on our way. We hope
that everyone gets the opportunity to visit China sometime in his or her life.
It is truly a remarkable and different place to the west. In brevity, so cold,
so hot, so old. Never have we seen so much weirdness, atrocities, passion and
friendliness all in a day. We will miss China and our lives in China. Someone asked us the other day
what we will miss the most and it sounds odd but we will miss being Westerners. In
Beijing foreigners tend to mostly stick to common districts (typically around the
embassy's) and with a ratio of 1:200 in a city of 25mil+ we are a rare breed.
It sounds vain but in China westerners are prized for their pale complexions,
light hair and big eyes. People stare, but they stare out of curiosity so it's a fleeting look or a quick smartphone photo. You are addressed as
'beautiful or pretty girl or handsome man' and people will remark 你是漂亮 (ni
hao piaoliang) even if your face its puffy and red after climbing stairs on the
mountainside for the last 40 minutes. It gives you a sense of confidence and
you feel proud to be different. Living in China and not speaking Chinese is of
course not without its challenges but this was part of the fun for us. There is
some joy in being able to switch off everyone when out walking or sitting down to
eat, living in ignorance of signs, local news and the bombardment of
communication/propaganda can be somewhat relaxing. When you’re ready you can
flick it back on.
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| Peking Opera |
We probably won't miss the oily food, aside from the dumplings
(favorite being 莲藕和鸡蛋 which
is lotus root and egg) and certainly not the air pollution which on some days
is so bad that you can't see the building 100metres in front of you. Nor will we
miss the smoking and the foul spitting. We've seen things that can't be unseen, but when we reflect it's all those things that make China different too- and in a weird way.. we will miss it.
We will miss the safety of China. China is an extremely safe
country. Lastly we will miss the convenience China offers. Dinner sets you back
not even 10mins and NZ$1.50- where can you eat cooked food so cheaply?
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| Summer dinner atmosphere |
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| A special Baozi |
Until then, tot siens,
John and Kara
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