Dear Friends and Family,
I'm sorry for the delay in publishing this update. We took a short holiday and were out of Internet range for several days. A lot has happened over the last week and a half!
Joe and I successfully registered at our university. We also successfully acquired our Chinese resident cards, which required us to pass HIV, syphilis, tuberculosis, and blood pressure tests, an EKG (heart) and chest x-ray and medical examination. It took about 2 weeks to get our resident cards in total, and the whole process was surprisingly professional, comfortable and efficient.
Last week, we had the chance to visit a few good museums. We visited the Sackler Museum of Art and Ethnology at Beijing University and saw some old bones, ceramics and tools. We visited the Military Museum, which has lots of tanks and airplanes. My favorite display featured neat spy guns - guns in pens, really tiny guns, a gun attached to a glove. One section honored non-military heroes; great scientists, family planning workers and honored teachers - but one statue, bigger than the rest, honored a fellow who was "Outstanding Salesman in 1987". Another section honored special foreigners, like Dr. Norman Bethune, who had two statues.
Later in the week, as part of the final celebrations of the Spring Festival we attended a concert in the Forbidden City Park. It was a full orchestra of traditional Chinese instruments and mostly they played traditional music. The music was wonderful, sometimes haunting and not really too alien for our Western ears. Joe took a great sound clip. (They did one bad Western piece - a too-sweet rendition of "I'd rather be a hammer than a nail" which made me want to use a hammer to drive a nail into my ears).
Over the last few weeks, we also finalized our new apartment. I found it on a Beijing website advertised as furnished, but when we arrived to see it, we discovered it was brand new and not yet finished or furnished. Although we liked it a lot, we didn't take it at first viewing. I had lined up a realtor to take us to see a few more places the next day and wanted to shop around. However, after our realtor trip the next day, we were turned off of the alternative apartments and disgusted with the realtor. She first took us to a dirty ugly exorbitantly priced dump - a scam to prepare us for the apartments later in our itinerary, which were not especially appropriate. (She must think foreigners are so stupid.) So, we decided that we liked the apartment we'd seen privately the day before and called that night to take it.
The landlord speaks no English but he has a bilingual tenant from England who kindly helped us with the negotiation. We agreed on the final rental amount, the deposit (two months' rent) and a few fees - the full upfront payment, including the first month's rent, would be over $2,000. Beijing is still largely a casual cash economy; few stores use credit cards and no one takes checks. Leases and deposit escrow accounts don't exist yet. The landlord seems kind and honest, but we had not yet seen the apartment finished and furnished, and $2000 is a lot of money. We felt uneasy. As foreigners, we feel like easy targets. So how does one handle this?
At first we provided $350 of the deposit, he agreed to provide a hand written receipt and take the apartment off of the market. The landlord said he needed the balance of our deposit to furnish the apartment. This did not feel good. After some discussion and explanation, the landlord, understanding our worries, invited us to go with him to buy the furniture. He would borrow the money. This would allow us to see what furniture was selected (and even participate). Also, we would see him make a financial commitment of his own, and it would help build trust. We would pay the balance of the deposit later after feeling comfortable that the apartment would be appropriately furnished.
Our furniture shopping expedition was last Friday and it was highly enjoyable! I had no idea what to expect - would we go to a market for cheap, used furniture, to IKEA or to an expensive boutique? The landlord took us to three nice stores - not exactly boutiques but good furniture stores. He already had in mind the pieces that he wanted to buy and most were on sale, but his taste was pretty good and he was very thorough in judging quality. I intervened in a few instances but he was open to alternatives within reason. He bought 2 beds and mattresses, 2 wardrobes, 2 desks, a dining room table and 6 chairs, a sofa and 2 matching chairs, a coffee table, a TV table, TV, fridge, microwave, and washer. He paid for all of this with a large bundle of cash. So, today, we paid our landlord the balance of our deposit and we move into the apartment on Sunday. I think it worked out well. I'm looking forward to shopping for the small things that make an apartment homey.
Immediately after our shopping experience last Friday, we went directly to Beijing airport, where we flew to Chengdu for a four-day holiday. It was a magical, wonderful, fascinating four days, but I have written up this trip separately, since so much happened. I'll send it along to you shortly.
Next week we begin orientation for our school and settle into our new apartment. We have some social plans with people we've met in Beijing, we need to buy bikes and sign up at the fitness facility. Life is going to become oddly normal soon.
Chinglish example of the day - a wrapper from a Chinese Ice Cream Bar says:
"While closing your eyes, let ice cream slips with water-mouthing moment. Feeling of silky touch as some cozy jazz..."
As always, we hope this edition of our travelogue finds you all well and healthy. We think of all of you often and look forward to your phone calls and emails.
Love,
- Kim (and Joe)
