Adventures From The Third Ring Road And Beyond

Chicken, Burgers, And Words Which Begin With 'H'
Yesterday, I went to the western part of the northern section of the Third Ring Road to meet Ali, a friend of mine from Waterloo. He is currently teaching English at one of the locations of an international chain of schools for teaching English.

I decided to walk to the place at which I was to meet Ali. The walk took me approximately 40 minutes, which is slightly less than the original estimate I made, based on the maps which are available to me.

I arrived two hours before the appointed time, so I decided to scout the area. I found many places at which I could eat, and many others at which I could buy phone cards. I decided to suspend my vegetarianism again in the name of experimentation. I ate China's equivalent of one of KFC's chicken sandwiches, and it was qualitatively no different from any such sandwich I've had in Canada. I won't be trying that again in the near future.

After I ate, I decided to watch some of the local while they were waiting for buses. During that time, I witnessed some interesting social behaviours which made me think of a good plot for a couple of dark comedic sketches involving multilingual dictionaries and two police officers, 'Juicy & Hooch'. Don't ask. If you insist on asking, send me mail. :)

I saw a woman in a pink skirt and jacket asking something of various persons who were walking past the bus stop. I have no idea what she asked them, but she was mostly ignored. I don't think that she was asking for money; at least, I think that she was too well dressed to be considered a panhandler.

Speaking of panhandlers, I have seen many of them on Beijing's streets. I have been counseled by everyone I know who's said anything about it not to give money to any of them, but I have taken a (minor) Buddhist precept to give money when I'm asked. I saw a one-armed man with an erhu, an instrument which requires two hands to play. I saw another woman asking passers-by for water, all of whom refused her. By the time I went to buy some for her, she had disappeared.

One thing I failed to mention in previous posts is the ubiquity of guards who look like boys in their daddies' guard-uniforms. Most of the guards look like they wouldn't be able to stop anyone from doing anything, but I've seen some tough-looking guards with whom I would most definitely not want to tangle.

Anyway, after some time, I decided to go into the building at which I was to meet Ali. In that building, I encountered the first Western-style toilets I've seen since I left Jennie's and George's. The toilet may have been in the Western style, but the absence of toilet paper (and the garbage can into which we should throw said toilet paper) was definitely Eastern-style. I'm glad I brought a roll of my own. :)

Ali and I decided to experiment at McDonald's. I had a Big Mac; it was not appreciably different from Big Macs in either Canada or Japan. The fries were a bit different; I think that they are fried throughout a shorter time here than in Canada. Ali and I also went to an indoor mall, which had some interesting Engrish. One was the name of a Barbie knock-off. Because this is a family-oriented blog, I won't post the name. It starts with an 'H'; if you want to know the full word, please send me an e-mail message.

We also noticed a really cute store-name: White Goatling! It's not really Engrish, but it's really cute, so I took a photo of that, too.

Other Interesting Persons
After I returned to the school, I met two of the other participants in the scholarship programme to which I was accepted, Courtney and Debi, who are from Vancouver and Victoria, respectively. I introduced them to another young Canuck, named Dean, whom I'd met a few days before yesterday. Dean's from Montreal, and he graduated from Concordia's Industrial Engineering programme. This morning, when I went to fetch my results for a Chinese proficiency test which I wrote yesterday morning, I met another Canadian, Cheryl, who's from Toronto and graduated from U of T. I am sure that many of these names will recur in my subsequent posts.


Traffic
I've been forced to revise my outlook on traffic. Traffic on the freeways is like that in L.A., but traffic in the streets is like that only at LAX. The traffic on the streets of L.A. is far better (and more predictable) than traffic on the streets of Beijing. I think that the drivers are able to distinguish foreigners from natives by whether or not they obey the traffic laws.