Greetings from Beer Town, China!

From an email sent to friends and family, dated October 11, 2006, less than two months after my arrival in China.

With one of my many Chinese teachers, on a trip I took to a coastal landmark called Chengshantou with a Chinese tour group. I couldn’t understand the guide’s endless descriptions, which she said through a megaphone, but I did understand her when she spoke directly to me, since she asked very simple questions.

I just got back from an exhilarating trip to Qingdao (which was spelled Tsingtao in an older transliteration system, and that spelling stuck for the beer.) I had a week off for the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival Holidays. I think that traveling alone is the absolute best way to pick up a language. With few English speakers around, I had to strike up conversations in Chinese, at a level that surprised and impressed the locals (and myself.)

Now, when people ask me, “Do you like Bush?” I understand the question, and can respond, “No, I don’t like Bush.” I don’t quite have the vocabulary to give a good reason, but it is a start. It is somewhat of a relief to be in a country where people are not accustomed to asking “why.” More commonly I get asked, “Do you like China?” and “Do you like basketball?” And those are much easier to answer with gestures and a limited vocabulary.

One of my most often-repeated sentences was “Ni shi wo de zhongwen laoshi” (You are my Chinese teacher) even to small children. Everyone laughed when I said this, but I truly believe it. I had half of Shandong province teaching me vocabulary and applauding my Chinese.

Qingdao is a charming and prosperous city, with some German architecture from when Germany colonized the area. The beaches were misty, and sometimes crowded, sometimes pristine. I strolled with a French friend I met in the hostel and we saw seriously 200 couples on the beach, in ill-fitting, rented white dresses and suits, taking cheezy wedding pictures with half-smiles and unnatural poses.

“You may kiss the bride!” Never mind that these photos are often taken several months before the real wedding, and printed as life-sized posters for the entrance to the wedding venue.

Couples waiting for their moment in the spotlight. The Mid-Autumn Festival is supposedly the luckiest time of year to get married, and everyone has the week off.