The End of a Fulfilling Experience
Michael Wang | September 22, 2008
Michael Wang poses in front of a man-made lake in the Old Summer Palace.
As cliché as it may sound, my summer in Beijing flew by in the blink of an eye, drawing to an abrupt close far before I was ready for it to end. I was surprised to find myself culturally shocked when I first got back, my eyes a bit uneasy to discover the roads so unoccupied, the street signs all in English and the air so arid in California. In two-month’s time I had experienced so much, yet I can’t help but feel that there is still so much more left for me to see in Beijing. It is my hope that I’ll have the opportunity to venture back there in the near future.
Unknowingly, although expectedly, I have acquired a number of life habits unique to Beijing. For instance, I’ve adopted a habit of eating early. In Beijing, lunch may start as early as 11 a.m. and dinner as early as 5:30 p.m. Now that I’m back in the U.S., having lunch at noon and dinner at 7 p.m. feels rather off-schedule for me. I’ve also noticed a stark contrast is between the means of transportation in China and America. I can’t seem to get to many places without a car in America, whereas a car is typically not needed to get to most places in Beijing. The subway and bus systems there are comprehensive enough that one can rely on them as primary means of transportation.
Some ruins of the Old Summer Palace.
Since my last article, I have visited a few more cultural sites, the two most prominent landmarks being the Old Summer Palace and Beihai Park. Out of all the places I visited, I find the Old Summer Palace to be one of my favorites. Although its palatial structures were burned down by European forces during the Second Opium War in the mid 1850s, the ruins surrounded by lush greenery, combined with majestic man-made lakes overlaid by legions of water lilies, make for a scenic park today.
Calligraphy writing is a hobby among many elderly Chinese, which is evident in many of Beijing’s parks. In some of these public areas, old men who spend their afternoons writing Chinese scriptures on the ground for recreation are themselves a tourist attraction. What fascinates me is that such beautiful pieces of artwork can result from instruments as ordinary as a wet sponge and a PVC pipe. At Beihai Park, an old man was kind enough to lend us his water calligraphy brush to practice writing a few characters on the ground. We gladly seized the opportunity to have a try; it requires quite a bit of skill to do well, I must say!
Through my internship experience, I not only gained more familiarity with various computer applications, but also acquired a much richer understanding of Chinese culture and society. I also became significantly more fluent in Mandarin. Although I did not participate in a Chinese-language program during my time in Beijing, I feel that simply being immersed in a culturally rich environment and being unafraid to engage in conversation with local residents gave me ample opportunities to enhance my Mandarin conversational skills. In all regards, this was well-worth it for me; I honestly couldn’t have asked for a more fulfilling summer experience.
In Beihai Park, Wang practices his Chinese character writing skills by using a water calligraphy brush.
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Elderly men often practice the art of water calligraphy in Chinese public parks.
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Michael Wang studies in Beijing, China's capital . |
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