My thoughts on Beijing after leaving (it was a class assignment that I felt like posting)
The most important thing I learned so far is to be observant because my first impression of a place or a people may be rather skewed. When I first came to Beijing, I saw it, I thought “cool, I am in China” and “the city is so huge” but soon after the novelty of it wore off, I was a bit unhappy with China. It had dirty streets with piles of garbage, the air was polluted and rather disgusting, and I assumed that the people mirrored that a bit in cleanliness and attitude. That started to change a bit when I rode the subway for the first time. It was efficient and incredibly clean. I also made it kind of a game to make eye contact with people and smile. They almost always responded with a smile and a nod. I also did not really notice much in the way of filth on their persons, everyone was clean (and rather trendy) from what I could tell. My perception changed even more when I interacted with the locals. Everyone was patient with the Laowai that did not speak Chinese. They were all very accommodating and kind to us. I had two conversations with random Beijingers. The first time was on the subway going to the bird’s nest when a college student came up to me and asked about my camera. We then chatted for a while about photography, then moved on to just life and future plans. The second time was on the 9th when, at the pearl market, one of the shop girls that we were waiting by decided to chat with us rather than push her wares. She was a college student also, same age as us, and the daughter of a shopkeeper who was helping her mother man the booth. What I saw as a dirty and, honestly, a rather uncivilized or oppressive place turns out to be a place with good food and great people who, despite living in a large city, are not very well off but more than make up for it through their foods and their actions. My first impression of Beijing was true, but it was a shallow observation and was not deserved. The place that I originally wanted to leave ASAP became a place with fantastic memories and leaves me with a desire to return.