Safe arrival in China

I arrived in Beijing yesterday around 2pm after about 20 hours spent either in a plane or airport. I slept for half of the 13 hour flight from Washington D.C. to Beijing with the aid of some diphenhydramine hydrochloride (benadryl), with the rest of my time spent eating and reading Our Inner Ape by Frans De Waal. Our Inner Ape is one of the most interesting books I’ve read. It is about bonobos and our similarities to them. I must thank my friend Shannon for the book, which she got for me as a going-away gift.

Warning: I’m about to complain.

My internet connection here is terribly inadequate and feels like I’m back on dial up. I must say that I expected better from one of China’s best universities. Packets are dropping constantly, and it often takes several requests before a web page loads. My hopes of using Skype instead of expensive international phone service have been crushed due to the bad internet connection. The content filtering bothers me very much. I am an avid reader of wikipedia, and not being able to get information on whatever I want whenever I want it is a feeling that I’m not used to and, I must say, one I’m not fond of. One thing that I have noticed is the selective filtering of news websites. The American news networks like CNN and MSNBC are freely available while the BBC News is blocked. That should tell you something about the quality and content of American news media.

We have been told not to drink the water in Beijing, including the water flowing into our dorms. I find it very unsettling that I’m bathing in water that is too contaminated to consume. The university was kind enough to provided all of us with an electric kettle so we can boil water to kill the various microbes in the water, but that doesn’t do anything about any heavy metals like lead or mercury that might be present. I got some bottled water from the small market on campus which I’ve been drinking and using to brush my teeth.

The beds are terrible. They consist of a piece of wood with a couple of layers of cotton padding placed on top. I suppose they could be worse, but they could certainly be better.

But its not all bad, I swear! On to the good things!

I bought a few apples from the market which taste great. Everything is really cheap. I bought those three apples for about 75 US cents. I also bought some 茉莉花茶 (jasmine tea) which is a mix of green tea and jasmine flowers. It cost 14 块 which is about $2 US. It has a very floral taste and aroma.

The cafeteria is very big; so far I have explored the first and second floors. I’m not sure what I’ve been eating, but it has all been pretty good. For breakfast today I had some sort of dumpling that I think was filled with a sweet soybean paste (miso?) and one of the apples I mentioned above. I’m ordering mostly by pointing since I don’t know the words for most foods. It has been quite the experience so far!

Our dorms don’t have air conditioning until June 1st due to power restrictions I guess. This isn’t so bad because the weather has been great so far. I think the high today is 25C (77F).

I’ve taken a few photos: my dorm, my bed (also linked above), and the view from my dorm. More will follow, but uploading them takes a very long time over this connection.