Ready, Set...Marry?? Part II

Marriage. I don't think I've given the topic of marriage much serious thought as I have this past year. Granted, this is perhaps at least in part due the fact that more and more people I know from high school and college are getting engaged/ married and the age gap between those I know who are engaged/married has become increasing smaller, or in some cases, non-existent.

Taikang Lu, Shanghai

Not to mention that I've recently celebrated another birthday (hello, 23) and while I'm still very young, I have to admit it doesn't sound nearly as young as when you say you're 20/21/22.

But mostly, I think the real reason why this subject has really pestering me lately is largely due to the environment around me. As I mentioned in the blog post before this, "Ready, Set..Marry?" China has quite the obsession with young people getting married, particularly before the age of 30.

Even in the classroom setting, this mentality has wormed itself into the curriculum. I remember last semester, the topic of marriage was often used in examples explaining grammatical structures and concepts. For instance, when explaining the term 连 (lián), which grammatically is used similarly to the word "even" or "already," our teacher used the example of "她连45岁没有结婚, " （tā lián 45 suì hái méi jiéhūn） which translates to "She is 45 years old and still hasn't married."

Another time, while trying to explain the grammatical usage of the word 才(cái), which is roughly used similarly to the word "finally" in English, our text book stated, "她35岁才结婚" (tā 35 suì cái jiéhūn.), which translates to "She finally married at 35 years old." Why the teachers and the textbooks couldn't come up with different examples using time or meals or anything else is beyond me.

Qingdao

The first stop on my winter break travels was Qingdao, which is located on the southern most tip of the Shandong peninsula in northeast China. Leslie & I took the overnight train from Beijing to Qingdao and stayed in a hostel near the center of the old town. We had booked ourselves into a shared four person dorm; however since it was low season, we ended up having the entire room to ourselves the entire time we were there.

Now for background on Qingdao:

From 1897 to 1922, Qingdao was a German and Japanese concession city and as a result, much of Qingdao's old architecture still retains a German flair. In 1919, protesters in Qingdao headed the May 4th Movement against imperialism in China, with particular regards to the Japanese presence in Qingdao after the end of WWI. More recently, Qingdao hosted the sailing portion of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and it remains a popular summertime destination because of it's many beaches.

Some thoughts on my time in Qingdao:

• Qingdao is definitely a summertime city. Many things when Leslie & I were there were closed. Some of them might have been closed down early in anticipation of the Spring Festival/Chinese New Year, but I suspect some of them only do business during the summer catering to tourists. Plus, many of Qingdao's attractions revolve around the beach, which isn't a very hospital able place to visit when mercury is hoovering at freezing every day. 


• Qingdao is a hilly city. You know you've been in Beijing, which is a very flat city, for too long when your legs are sore after spending a day walking around Qingdao, even though the hills aren't really that steep.


• If you only stay in the older portion of Qingdao, it seems like a very small town. It's not until I took the bus out to the newer, more recently developed areas that I remembered that it's actually a city with a population of 8.1 million people.


• Despite claiming to be a big tourist destination, I don't think Qingdao sees many non-Chinese/ non-Asian tourists, which is ironic considering Qingdao used to be a German concession city and hosted a portion of the 2008 Olympics. Where ever we went, people were gawking at Leslie. I think we could count on one hand how many other Westerners we saw during our three days there. When we were at the Qingdao airport waiting for our flight to Hangzhou, a young Chinese woman actually exclaimed very loudly, "There's a foreigner here!" I don't think she expected me to be able to understand what she said.


• At least in the older part of the city, Qingdao has really maintained a German feel in their buildings. While some of the buildings were probably built when Qingdao was still a German concession, I suspect at least some of them were built later to mimic the more European styles of architecture.


• In the newer parts of Qingdao, it's obvious that Qingdao is still very much a city in transition. As we walked around the city, Leslie & I saw entire city blocks that were fenced off in anticipation of being demolished and rebuilt. There also a lot of signs for the metro system they're currently building.


• Things in Qingdao get started much later than in Beijing. Leslie & I arrived on the overnight train from Beijing at 8 AM. Coming from Beijing, we didn't think we'd have a problem checking in at our hostel and finding food. But we were wrong. Luckily though, we were able to call the hostel staff and wake someone up to let us check into the hostel. We soon figured out that morning that things in Qingdao didn't really seem to get moving until around 10 AM.

Now for the pictures I know you've all been waiting for...

The Protestant Church

May 4th Monument

St. Michael's Cathedral

  

Zhanqiao Pier

Fragrant Hills

The week before last, after midterms were over, I went to Fragrant Hills Park (香山公园) with some friends. This park on the outskirts of Beijing is a popular destination in the fall for many people since it's a great place to see the fall colors.

Unfortunately for us though, the strong winds of the week before had blown most of the leaves off the trees. Nevertheless, it was nice to be out of the city and walking amongst trees instead of buildings for a change.

Since many of the pictures I took of things didn't turn out particularly well this time, here are some pictures of people. For those of you who've been complaining that there are no pictures of me on this blog...here you go. Click to enlarge the image, if you must.

Emilia & I

(Left-right) Me, Stephanie, Christine,
Emilia & Irene

(Left-right, top-bottom) Beichuan, Emilia, Paul, Yandi, Irene,
Christine, me, Arvin

(Left-right) Yandi, Arvin, Beichuan

(Left to right) Emilia, Paul, me, Christine & Irene

(Left-right) Arvin, Beihcuan, Yandi, Paul, me, Christine,
Emilia, Stephanie & Irene

Special Thanks to Yandi Santosa for many of these photos. 

Disclaimer: If I spelled your name wrong in the captions, I'm sincerely sorry. Let me know and I'll make the necessary changes.