“Ladies and gentlemen; we are beginning our final descent into Beijing Capital International Airport…”
A hint of anxiety creeps into my consciousness: “China for an entire year? How will we communicate? Where will we buy groceries? Will I be questioned about the amount of over-the-counter medications and prescription drugs jammed into my cabin duffel bag? Will customs question my passport photo (at Gill’s insistence, I had shaved off the beard and now looked nothing like my official photo)?
These were just a few of the questions I’m thinking about as I glance out the window and catch a glimpse of the capital’s suburbs appearing eerily through the pale blue-yellow smog. Gill, my wife, in the next seat, is oblivious to my concerns; she’s focused on her TV screen.
A solid jolt of the Air Canada Boeing 777 touching down 10 minutes later brings a sense of relief – the 12-hour endurance contest is over.
Processing through Beijing Customs and Immigration is a breeze; a perfunctory glance at my passport photo and visa, a few computer strokes and the officer stamps my document. After a short subway ride to Terminal B, Gill and I are reunited with our luggage.
Once through the sliding glass doors we emerge into a sea of humanity held behind a waist-high barrier. Dozens of people are holding up name cards. Anxiously. I scan the crowd looking for one that reads ‘Gillian/Ron England’ … and there it is! Nervous breakdown avoided.
The Assistant Director of Canada Langfang Secondary School, Echo, and her husband, escort us out to the parking garage and the school van. Upon exiting the terminal, we’re hit by a blast of the hottest, most humid air I have ever experienced. My cell phone temperature app reads 39 degrees Celsius with 91 per cent humidity. This is like living in a sauna.
Within minutes we’re loaded and off to Langfang. “I can finally relax,” I think. Little did I know…
It’s been almost a month since Gill and I arrived in Langfang, China. We have learned that living abroad is going to be not only exciting and rewarding but difficult and exasperating. A friend several months ago asked if I would be keeping a diary or making posts on Facebook. My response was an emphatic “no” to both ideas.
I explained: “I’m probably not disciplined enough to make a daily entry in a diary. As for Facebook… I’ve managed just fine all these years without it. I’ll use my cell phone for texting messages and photos.”
“Well, what about writing a series for the newspaper?” he suggested.
“No,” I replied in a rather sarcastic tone: “I’m a retired teacher, not a journalist or travel writer!”
Fast forward to the present. I have dutifully completed my diary each day, now have an account on Facebook, and to relate our experiences to a wider audience, have decided to work on a series of articles for the Quesnel Cariboo Observer.
Why the change of heart, you ask? To begin with, I realized I could not depend on my memory to recall all the details of everyday living. As well, texting and sending photos back to Canada is very expensive with my cell plan on China Unicom (although I can phone back to Canada for mere pennies per minute). Gill was very reluctant to allow me to post on her Facebook account: “I never know what is going to come out of your mouth!”
I soon tired of the Facebook censor peering over my shoulder as I sat at the keyboard. But the most important reason: this retiree just has too much time on his hands.
Gill and I are not experts on China by any means. Our previous trips only scratched the surface when it came to understanding Chinese culture. But we are experts on what we see and what we do. The intent of this series is to give the reader a factual, hopefully balanced, account of our experiences living for a year in the Middle Kingdom.
Gill and I are guests in the People’s Republic of China, and the published articles will be shared with Chinese teachers and administrators at Canada Langfang Secondary School. Opinions, evaluations, and judgments will be left to you, the reader.
Ever since I read John Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley in the late 1960s, I’ve had the travel bug. Like Steinbeck, I’ve always wanted to be someplace else; to be, in his words, “a travel bum.” But a brood of five children in quick succession served to clip my wings for awhile.
Nevertheless, Gill and I did use the summer holiday breaks from school to drive across Canada many times to visit parents in Newfoundland and Southern Ontario. True to form, I would research the trip to death; drive this many kilometres on this day, stay at this campground or hotel, catch the ferry to Newfoundland on that day… Usually by day two or three, the plan was out the window. Unlike Gill, I hadn’t learned to go with the flow. Looking back on the countless hours I had spent reading travel guides and expat blogs on living in China, I realized, again, I had totally forgotten the wise words of Steinbeck written over 50 years ago:
“When I was young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured greater age would calm my fever and now that I am 58 perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked…When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, the road away from here seems broad and straight, the victim must first find in himself a good and sufficient reason for going… Next he must plan his trip in time and space, choose a direction and a destination. And last he must implement the journey. How to go, what to take, how long to stay…
Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all the plans, safeguards … are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” (Travels With Charley).
This adventure in the home of 1.4 billion people has its roots in the five spring break trips to China we organized for high school students from School District 28 over the past 10 years.
Shanghai was always our home base, but on two trips we included Beijing and several cities to the south. Our host schools in China provided accommodation, all meals and transportation, and the services of a translator.
We loved the friendly welcome and of course the variety of authentic Chinese food. During this period we were also “homestay” parents for Chinese and Korean students enrolled in the SD28 International Program.
Gill had quite casually mentioned several times that she wouldn’t mind spending a year teaching in China after she retired.
This spring, Cyril Tobin, a former administrator with SD28, convinced Gill to apply for a principalship at a British Columbia Offshore School as she was retiring in June. Cyril had two contracts with B.C. Offshore Schools, one of which was Langfang. By the end of February a contract was signed; Gill would be the principal of Canada Langfang Secondary School in Langfang (just south of Beijing). After several frustrating months of endless document filing, we received our permits from the Education Ministry in Beijing and finally our visas from the Chinese Consulate in Vancouver. On Saturday, Aug. 18, AC029 departed YVR for Beijing and we were on our way.
The B.C Global Education Program makes it possible for schools in other countries to offer the B.C. curriculum to international students. Very specific standards must be met for schools to be certified; they must employ B.C. certified teachers and have adequate facilities. At present, there are 34 such schools in China.
Langfang, located 70 km south of Beijing, has a population approaching five million. Its economy emphasizes computer technology and general manufacturing.
Canada Langfang Secondary School, owned and operated by Beijing Kezhi Times International Consulting Company, is housed inside the walled campus of China Petroleum Bureau Middle School which has a student body of about 4,400. The enrolment of the B.C. school is 135 students in grades 10 to 12 and a teaching staff of seven. Staff, including spouses, are provided with Premium Economy roundtrip airfare from city of origin to Beijing, a furnished apartment on campus, free utilities and medical insurance along with very competitive salaries. Subsidized meals are provided daily in the cafeteria; four entrees average $1 CDN.
Little did I know my relaxing time would be limited to the time it took to leave Beijing Capital Airport and merge onto the freeway south.
The 70-km trip south to Langfang took nearly two and a half hours. It can best be described as a roller derby without the collisions. Very quickly, I realized why tourists are not allowed to drive in China. Speed limits are totally ignored; unlike Canada, police do not patrol major highways. Occasionally speeders will receive a ticket in the mail, courtesy of the many photo radar cameras on the freeways. Vehicles constantly dart in and out of lanes without signalling, driving is permitted on the shoulder and tailgating while laying on the horn appears to be a national pastime.
Once inside the Langfang city limits, the chaotic traffic situation is worse; U-turns are allowed anywhere, turning left at a light is frequent if the way is clear, crosswalks mean nothing and if you are impatient and in a big hurry you can drive on the sidewalk. And then add in thousands of bicycles, ebikes and three-wheeled contraptions of all kinds, which simply go where they please, when they please. Sound like a recipe for disaster? Skilled drivers and a good bit of luck combine to make the situation work. Amazingly enough, we have yet to see a fender-bender, let alone a collision.
Once inside the campus we were shown to our apartment; furnished, but just! Spartan and functional would best describe it. Our luggage had barely touched the floor when we were asked to go to dinner with Susan, the director of the International Program.
Several hours later we returned to our assigned apartment on campus, through trial and error deciphered the Chinese characters on the air conditioner remote, and collapsed into bed. Exhaustion had caught up to us. We had been on the go for 32 hours since leaving Vancouver.
We have had a very busy three weeks. Gill has been tending to her school duties (which included coercing me into teaching Chemistry 11 and Physics 12 as the new teacher from South Africa was still waiting for his visa). Through trial and error we have found restaurants to our liking (including Pizza Hut), learned how to give directions to a taxi driver (Google Translate and hand gestures), and with great trepidation have managed to navigate through the somewhat organized chaos that is Walmart.
We have failed, however, to decipher food package labelling. The camera translate function on Google Translate has failed miserably in this regard. All the research in the world doesn’t prepare you for these practicalities. The unfamiliar culture, high population density, and the language barrier remain challenges, but an adventure at the same time. All cultures have their quirks, and if you are going to live in their country, you simply have to live with the good, the bad, and the ugly. Go with the flow; let the trip take you!
In the next episode: surviving Walmart, a day in the life of a Chinese student (Quesnel Junior and Correlieu students will be shocked) and a most unusual medical exam.
