There Are More Things in Heaven and Earth Than Dreamt of in Your Philosophy... (or) What the Hell is it She Likes About China?!

(A special thanks to Adam Nelson, some of whose phrases I ably stole and reiterated in the case to make my point on China.) 

One of my best friends and I have known each other for almost 21 years now. Growing up, we were inseparable. One of our favorite pastimes was to visit her grandparents, who lived between us, only two or three blocks away from each of us. I remember evenings with her family there - her grandmother would cook spaghetti and invite me to stay for dinner. Gladly I would do so, not thinking that I would ever get older, that things would change.

It had been a long time since I had seen Pap-pap. A few months ago, him looking pretty much the same as ever, I approached him and hugged him, surprised that he seemed to remember me, despite the fact that I was taller, thinner, and my hair was 12 inches shorter.

My friend has been updating me on him since, telling me when he asks about me and the funny things that he says. When my friend reminded him that I had studied abroad in China and was studying China as an academic subject, he frankly asked,

"What the hell is it she likes about China?!"

Thanks, Pap-pap.

Little did he know that I had absolutely no answer for that question.

It's been almost three years now since I returned from Beijing. When I was about to leave, I couldn't wait. I was excited to return home and vowed that, while I might visit, I would never again spend 6 months in China.  I hated it. My expectations were nothing akin to what it was that I truly experienced. I had expected wise men wandering the streets, full of advice for anyone who would listen, middle-aged men sitting on the street playing Chinese chess, temples, Confucianism, and the Great Wall. I had expected to see the nation with the world's strongest maritime fleets in history, that "discovered" America before Columbus, that invented gunpowder, fireworks, paper, and the compass, and whose history dates back over four thousand years.

All these things I found, but not in the way that I had expected. Mere glimpses of this particular past are all that remain, in most cases. Since then, I have worked a full-time job, been in a committed relationship, and am looking forward to graduate school. And now, I can't wait to return to China.

When other students travel to Spain or Germany or Japan and they are faced with the question, "How was (insert name of country here)?" the response I often hear is, "It was awesome!" When I am faced with the question, "How was China?" I often find that I haven't any idea what to say.

Since returning, I have had career crises, identity crises, you name it. As a performer, always having been involved in acting, singing and dancing, seeing China's lack of interest in the arts was particularly difficult for me to bear. There was a period of about a month when I thought I had ruined my life by studying China and wished I had chosen Japan instead, the font of cultural creativity.

In my quest to find just exactly what the hell is was that I liked about China, I started reading many books, watching documentaries, and talking to people about their interest in the country. And I became hooked. I have heard it said that "what you realize, being abroad, are all the things you love and miss when they’re gone. What you realize, coming back, are all the things you’ve left behind." Nothing could be truer.

To this day, I can't tell you what it is that fascinates me about this place. Maybe I never will be able to articulate it. It is a crazy place, unlike anything you've ever seen or experienced - a country caught between tradition and modernization, both of which they simultaneously reject and embrace. A nation still on the birth of what we Westerners deem as "modernization", one leg rooted firmly in the past and one just barely crossing the line into the here and now. It is a country with ideals and theories fraught with contradictions.

Simultaneously, this country is a font of natural beauty not to be found anywhere else on the planet. A typical mountain scene painted in the traditional Chinese style of brush painting leads many people to believe that these natural scenes of astounding beauty are a thing from the past, that existed in another lifetime far removed from today’s day and age. I can tell you they are not. They still exist. You simply have to seek them out. The grandeur will astonish you. 

I can't tell you anything about China. I can't even speak about it.

There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, then dreamt of in your philosophy.

You simply have to see it to believe it.

A Chance Meting on the Great Wall

It’s strange and funny, in a way, how people change when they are outside of their comfort zone, outside of their home country. Studying abroad in Beijing, China did not only teach me about Chinese culture and language, it taught me about people, other Americans and foreigners from all over the world, and how open, accepting and kind they can be. When we meet someone with whom we feel a special connection, we normally make an effort to stay in touch with them, to keep them in our lives, for they offer something that we enjoy and, sometimes, need. However, if you are the sort of person that often travels, you know that many wonderful and memorable encounters with other travelers often results in never seeing each other again. Sad from one standpoint, however, we must still enjoy and remember those moments that we share with them that enrich our lives and teach us about the world, humanity, and ourselves.

While studying abroad in Beijing, China, a few friends of mine and I did a 4-hour hike from the Simatai portion to the JingShanLing section (well, it was supposed to take 4 hours according to various web sites and people, but I don't know ANYONE who could do that hike in 4 hours!). The Simatai section was constructed in the 1500s under the supervision of Qi Jiguang, a famous general in the Ming Dynasty, and is the only part of the Great Wall that still had the original appearance of the Ming Dynasty. However, a major restoration project began on the Simatai portion of the wall in 2010 and is expected to take 2 years.

 

Somehow, someone in our group managed to find information on the transportation from Beijing to Miyun by bus. So we took the bus. After about an hour, the bus dropped us off in a tiny parking lot where, upon getting off, we were rushed by three or for older Chinese men who all offered to take us to the Great Wall for the cheapest price. Our group had five or six people, so naturally the minivan seemed the most logical – but way too expensive. After playing two drivers off of each other for the lowest price, all six of us crammed into a tiny, two-door Honda and off we went, for another hour ride to the Great Wall.

Carrying large camping packs on our back, we climbed portions of the wall that were almost vertical in their scale.  I've never used all four limbs to walk up stairs before, but this is one place where the faint-of-heart or slightly-out-of-shape better just take the cable car. Two of the members of our group were over six feet tall. Me being barely 5’4”, I had an incredibly difficult time keeping up with these men who had camped all over the United States and Europe and who routinely made incredible acts of insane physical exertion part of their daily life. Needless to say, I had to stop and break several times to catch my breath and was usually at the back of the group – which didn’t bother me because I was busy taking pictures.

 

This is all that was left of one of the guard towers we passed through.. ---->

We hiked for several hours and finally set up camp that evening. A heavy mist set in, covering the mountains and the wall, which we watched as we ate fruit and dried goods and pitched our tents. The sun began to set, and what little light from the setting sun and the rising moon that might have been was drowned in the damp, Chinese mist of the warm evening. The realization hit me that I should probably head to the “washroom” before bedtime, or else risk waking up in the middle of the night with no flash light, which I stupidly neglected to bring. As it was already getting dark, I set out immediately to find an appropriate place off of the wall (there are no Port-A-Potties). At the next guard tower, about a five-minute walk away, I heard lots of commotion, so I headed on over to check out the scene. A group of about fifteen people, in the process of unrolling their sleeping bags, was sitting around with flashlights and munching on some food. Upon seeing me, they introduced themselves – they were a group of young people, about my age, that were on a mission trip in China and had decided to camp on the Great Wall for a night, just like us. They were a wonderful group, welcoming and hospitable, and I enjoyed the half hour to forty minutes I spent in their presence. Finally, when it was so dark that I could barely see, I said my goodbyes and stood up to cautiously trek back to my guard tower where we had set up camp. 

“Hey, don’t you have a flashlight or something?”

“No,” I replied, “but I’ve walked this stretch of the wall several times today looking for a good camping spot, so I think I’ll be okay. I know where all the bad spots are.”

“If you’re going back to your guard tower, you really should have a flashlight. It’s too dangerous to wander around in the dark here.” And this young man to whom I was speaking pulled a tiny, silver LED flashlight from his bag and handed it to me.

“Are you sure? Don’t you need it?”

“No, I brought extra!”

I thanked him and headed off on my way. When I awoke the next morning, promptly at 4:30, they had already packed their things and were heading off in the opposite direction. I would never forget our meeting of crazy, random happenstance that took place that evening, nor how kind they were. Two ships passing in the darkness…their positive attitude, outlook on life, their generosity and their willingness to allow me to share in their experiences has forever left a great impression on me. Even in the simplest of ways, human beings  leave lasting impressions, to part on their separate ways and never be seen again. I find this, all at once, confounding and strangely wonderful.

By 5:30 my friends and I were packed, the sun was high in the sky, and we ate breakfast.  We set out around 6:30, finished the rest of our hike around 9:00 a.m. when I snapped what was to become my favorite picture of the wall, just as we climbed off – a silhouette of the Great Wall extending for miles, shrouded in mist.

After six months in China, I could not wait to return home. Now, after reflecting on my time abroad, I cannot wait to return to China and all of the things I left behind there.

The tiny, silver flashlight still sits on my bookshelf to this day.