Stereotypes

In Holland there are a lot of stereotypes about Chinese people. I don’t really want to write about them because some of them might be a bit offending to some of my Chinese readers, and some of the these possible offending stereotypes are true, at least to a certain degree in my opinion. Well, I’m not so long in China yet, so maybe I’ll write about this another time.

Where I do want to write about is the stereotypes Chinese people have about Dutch people, or not really stereotypes about Dutch people, but the things that come to their mind, when I tell them that I’m from Amsterdam. For a lot of Chinese in Wuhu I’ll probably be the first Dutchman they meet, so far I still haven’t met any other Dutch person in Wuhu. I’m still sure that I will, cause Dutch people are everywhere around the world, just like the Chinese. (With a small difference that we don’t open restaurants everywhere.)

So actually this post is just about the (lack of) knowledge Chinese have about my country. Which is actually not so surprising cause I come from a very small country on the planet, and most Dutch people don’t know too much about China either, while China is a very big country. However I wanted to write about this, because on most of my traveling in Europe, and once to the US, people always have the same idea about my country. Especially if I say that I come from Amsterdam… Yep, drugs, weed, red light district and happily enough sometimes they mention great football.

But in China none of these is mentioned. In one month I’ve only spoken to one Chinese guy who mentioned the red light district and that was a tour guide of a big group of western tourist in my hostel in Beijing. In Wuhu however I still haven’t heard it from a Chinese, the other foreigners mentioned it of course. So far the idea most Chinese have about Holland, is a country full of flowers, clumps and windmills. Maybe it’s not so surprising, but for me it’s a bit strange that most Chinese get this idea at school from teachers who most likely never have been in Europe.

I guess it’s a lack of knowledge about my country, or are the Chinese too polite to mention anything which they view as a bad thing, about the place I’m coming from?

Wuhu

Wuhu is a small city according to most Chinese. Outside of China almost nobody has ever heard of it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a lot of Chinese who have never heard of it either. After one week in Wuhu I’m quite sure this city isn’t small, it’s only relatively small if you compare it to Beijing. One of my colleagues said that there lived only 600 000 people in Wuhu, Amsterdam has around 750 000 citizens and is the biggest city of the Netherlands. Just checked Wikipedia however and there they counted over 2 million citizens of Wuhu, I assume my colleague talked about the central area of Wuhu only.

Wuhu is only briefly mentioned in the rough guide and in most tourist guides this place is not even mentioned. It’s about the only city located at the Yangtze river which is not mentioned. The first hour I was guided through the big shopping mall I noticed that a lot more people looked my way when they saw me, than it was the case in Beijing, and I was a bit relieved to see another foreigner (Laowai) walking when we got outside.

Wuhu is located in Anhui province, which is known as an underdeveloped piece of land just next to the “rich” eastern provinces of China. Its only 4 hours by train to Shanghai from here. People from Anhui are known for their migration to the real (even for China) big cities, to work there as cleaners, construction workers, restaurant staff and in all kinds of other unwanted jobs. Although Wuhu is located in the poorest province of Eastern China, it does have a strategic position at the Yangtze river and with a some imagination it could have a bright future ahead of itself. I’m not completely sarcastic about this, because it might be a poor city at the moment (it does have its rich parts of course), but it’s developing like crazy.

From what I've heard and seen Wuhu should be a typical Chinese city. It’s a lot more chaotic than Beijing, traffic seems most of the time without any rules, they haven’t put stopping lights on half of the crossroads. So far I’ve seen three traffic accidents and it’s only my first week here. Half of the buildings here are going to be knocked down next year, and the other half is not even a year old or not even finished. There are young people addicted to online gaming in internet bars, (which are opened 24 hours a day, which was perfect cause here I could watch Ajax since I didn’t had internet at home yesterday) and there are old people who still go shopping in their pyjamas. There are big shopping centers including all the big western fast food restaurants like MacDonald’s, KFC and Pizza hut, the only thing missing is a Starbucks, and in the alley behind the shopping center is a cheap traditional but dirty market.

At this moment I met only three other foreigners, a Japanese a Cuban and a guy from Ghana. These were the other foreign teachers at my school, however one of them is also studying Chinese at the University of Anhui. So I plan on visiting his university today, because I’m thinking of following a Chinese class and because it would be nice to meet some other foreigners. Most people in Wuhu (except those at my school) don’t speak a word of English so it’s kind of essential to improve my Chinese. With that said and with Wuhu being said to be a “typical” Chinese city, Wuhu might be a perfect city to learn Chinese?

Ajax Amsterdam

One week in China, but it feels like I have been here for weeks cause I did and saw too many things to write down on this blog. Yesterday was a great day, Ajax won 2-0 against some team which doesn’t need to be mentioned;) and I was able to watch this very important match in China!

Thanks to my dear friend Lulu in Amsterdam I know a few fellow Ajax-fans in Beijing, and because last Sunday was a very, very important day for Ajax, we were going to watch the match together. The match started at half past 12 in Amsterdam, so with a seven hour time difference it started in Beijing at half past 7. This meant for my Chinese friends that there was plenty enough time to have lunch, karaoke and diner before the match. For Dutch people there would only be time for diner and beers before the match. Ajax really reminds me of home and watching them play in the Amsterdam Arena, which is where I used to work, made me look back at the first week away from home.

This Sunday was not only a really great day because Ajax won one of the most important matches of the season, but for me personally as well. Because I gained a lot of insight in the sometimes big differences between the Dutch and Chinese culture. Food is one of the most important things in live for most Chinese people, and that’s why I have to write about Chinese food for the second time in a row. Yesterday it was the first time I’ve eaten at a round table in a private room, in a restaurant. We were already in the restaurant at 12 o’clock Beijing time to eat hotpot with beef, various vegetables, of which some I really didn’t know before and still don’t know an English name for, some snacks and some beers. Dining in a private room is something which is highly unusual for Dutch people, just like eating hotpot so I’ll explain it shortly. Hotpot, consists of a pot of boiling water or soup in this case (a hot pot) and in this pot of boiling soup you can put beef and vegetables, after a while its ready to eat and then there is sauce to dip it in. All together it seems a bit like Gourmet and with some chicken wings and other various snacks, which barely look like spring roles in Holland, is a very good and tasty lunch.

Karaoke or ktv is a bit different than it’s in Holland. In China this is very popular, more popular than football and they take this a lot more serious as well, they actually want to make a good performance. This made me a bit embarrassed cause I’m a really bad singer and have only done karaoke two times before yesterday, while almost all the Chinese could sing really good. Happily enough karaoke was also in a private room and so I was not the subject of the laughter for a big group Chinese people, only a small group:).

Yesterday I experienced a lot of Chinese hospitality and it made me feel a bit guilty in some way. Because in Amsterdam and most western cultures, but especially in the Dutch culture (going Dutch) everyone pays for his own expenses. If you go to a bar you’ll give beers to your friends but you know they will give you beer back in return so you still pay your own share in the end. But in China if you are a foreigner and you are seen as a guest you are not allowed to pay anything at all… Which is nice, but this is quite a big cultural difference and for me the first real culture shock I experience. Cause to be honest I’d rather pay for my own food… (some people reading this will not believe this, but it’s true)

Finally watching the match through internet in Beijing instead of in Amsterdam wasn’t that much of a difference as I thought it would be. In China there are the same emotions to a football match as they’re in Amsterdam, although I admit that I felt a slight feeling of homesickness, cause after all I could have been in the stadium if I wanted to be there. But on the other hand it didn’t really bother me cause I was quite happy and relieved that Ajax managed to win the match.

Oh one last newsflash as things are looking now I’ll probably move to Hefei in the province of Anhui on Friday. So let’s see how that works out… Can’t say that I can’t wait to go, but well the offer seems good so I should try it at least.

First impressions

My first real post at my blog about my first impressions of Beijing. To be honest it feels kind of unreal to be here, I feel a bit like walking in a movie set and somewhere expect to walk out of it very soon. This metaphor doesn’t make any sense at all since I have never been on a movie set in my life. However it does describe my feelings for this new world and it’s not completely rubbish to think that those charming hutong streets will only belong to movies in ten or twenty years. Happily enough at this moment the hostel I stay in, is located just at the border of one of those hutongs. I won’t be too romantic about it, and I know that the CCP has a few good reasons to break down most of the hutongs, (The citizens of those lovely neighborhoods have a really small home and have to go to a public toilet and shower, which is a bit outdated, even in China.) but these hutongs are the best part of China I have seen so far. Although the Olympic area with the Birds nest was very impressive as well.

Those first few days made me think back to those first days in London when I started my time as an exchange student there. In some way it’s the same experience I guess, a completely new situation, new people, big city etc. Well the similarity with London kind of stops with my experience for going abroad for a longer time, although both London and Beijing are extremely big cities, and both cities have hosted the Olympics (just like Amsterdam!), and both the English and the Chinese drink beer with less than 4% alcohol, but then tend to drink an awful lot of it. Apart from that the difference between London and Beijing is just as big as the difference between Beijing and Amsterdam. Anyway so far I have a very good time, I like to order breakfast in the charming hutong (which in 10 years will probably not exist anymore) in Chinese which is just good enough for some really basic communications and because this are my first days here there are just too many things to see.

Last but not least a nice anecdote. When I stood in the elevator in the hostel the first day, a Chinese guy asked me “Are you from the Netherlands?” Which is really surprising cause so far most Chinese think I’m France, German, Russian, American or English, basically they just name all the big foreign countries they know of. I can’t lie about a slight feeling of pride by being recognized as a Dutch person, although it sounded a bit gay when he said he could see it because of my eyes.

Another memorable thing is the amazing amount of fireworks they fired on Monday, the first full day that I was in Beijing. This is probably one of the reasons why the new CCTV building was burned down. I haven’t seen the fire and I will never see the building… Happily enough the CCTV tower from Remco Koolhaas survived the fire so I will take a look there sometime, before there is another fire.

Finally the last thing which is absolutely fantastic is the food, it’s extremely varied, it’s cheap and so far I have only eaten delicious! So that’s it for now, my first impression about this new city is in a small summary: very chaotic, fascinating and exciting.