Hi! Let’s start at the very beginning: boarding the plane. All I took to China was one checked bag and a carry-on, so after dropping my luggage at the United Airlines counter, I headed through security and then to my gate. Here’s the last picture I took on American soil. Can you tell how terrified I am, or no?
I will admit that I cried for most of my flight to San Francisco, mourning the loss of English and its comfortability to me. Once I made it to Beijing, it would be crunch time. I was able to relax for my flight from San Francisco to Beijing, though — I did have 14 hours to get a grip. I enjoyed a whole row to myself and watched three movies.
The highlight of the flight was without a doubt the food. Our first meal was a vegetarian noodle stir fry with a roll, a salad, and mini chocolate chip cookies. For dinner we ate a pesto chicken and mozzarella sandwich and then for breakfast mini pancakes with a croissant. Unrelated, but I also loved my in-flight blanket. I will be keeping that thing forever!
Arriving in Beijing
Immediately after deplaning, security guards led everyone to a fingerprinting station, which was entirely in Chinese. After scanning my fingerprints, I headed to immigration, where I waited for about one hour, scanned my fingerprints again, and got through without issue. I kept wondering whether I’d be able to answer coherently if asked further questions about my reasons for travelling to China, but the immigration officer did not say one word to me. She simply stamped my passport and opened the gate.
After retrieving my luggage at baggage claim, I wandered around for at least 20 minutes before finding customs (conveniently located, but not noticed by me, across from my baggage carousel) and walking straight through. I was the first person from my program to arrive and mostly zoned out while waiting for other students to board the bus. At that point I had been awake with high anxiety for over 24 hours and was utterly exhausted.
Unsurprisingly, I conked out for the entire hour-long bus ride to campus. When I woke up, I blearily made my way to check-in, where I received my room card and paid for a meal card, a few daily internet passes, and water card. Tap water in Beijing isn’t safe to drink, and filtered water stations around campus aren’t free! They are pretty cheap, though — I paid about $7 for a card that should last me half of the semester. A small price to pay to avoid E. coli.
Day Two Tasks
My two major tasks to tackle after a full night’s sleep were 1) figuring out my phone situation, and 2) opening a Chinese bank account. Although my roommate Xiao Dan (pronounced she-ow dawn) was present every step of the way, neither went as expected.
I am borrowing a Chinese phone from my program administrators because my American phone lacks a physical SIM card, which I knew beforehand would be necessary. However, when I went to buy a new (Chinese) SIM card, the phone company assigned me a recycled phone number, so when I downloaded the main messaging app used in China and attempted to make an account, it wouldn’t let me. Long story short, I need to carry around both my American and Chinese phones for the duration of my program. I’ll use my American phone for most functions including texting, internet searching, translation, and mobile pay, whereas I will only use my Chinese phone to call first responders in case of an emergency. Oh, and the Chinese equivalent of Google Maps, which works much better on my Huawei phone.
Bank account creation would have been much easier, except for the fact that the bank did not permit on-site cash withdrawals. That meant that to withdraw money from my American bank account and deposit it into my Chinese bank account, I had to walk 30 minutes to an ATM for withdrawal, 30 minutes back to the bank for depositing, and repeat that process once more due to hourly withdrawal limits at the ATM.
With all this walking, my roommate and I decided to stop and buy some water from a machine that dispensed boiling hot water and filtered cold water. Here I experienced my first miscommunication: Xiao Dan kept pointing to the hot water spout and saying “boiled” as I reached for the cold water. I took this to mean that only the hot water spout had purified water, so I filled my whole bottle with water so hot I couldn’t hold it. Later she clarified that she thought I was reaching for the hot water, and she wanted to make sure that I knew boiling hot water would be dispensed (less preferably since it was a hot day and we were covered in sweat). Needless to say, I haven’t made that mistake again.
On the bright side, I am now the proud owner of both a Chinese phone number and a Chinese bank account, and I’ve found a deeper appreciation for cold water.
That about sums up my first two days in China: some highs, some lows, and a lot of new experiences. More to come on that front, for sure — thanks for sticking around for the adventure. 🙂
很想你们，
婉婷
4 responses to “Day One: Getting to China”
I loved your first post! I feel like I am experiencing it with you. ❤️❤️❤️
Glad you made it safely and are learning the Chinese ropes! Especially how to obtain the much needed COLD water!!😂 I look forward to hearing more about your adventures in China land!! Go get ‘em Naomi!! Love you!♥️
Love your blog Naomi! What an adventure you are having! I’m glad you are the eel…probably never would have tried it had you known..but what a lesson to us all about being open to new experiences.
Umm..I meant ate the eel. Oops, I guess I need to work on my English