A Native Foreigner’s Impression of China:

In the summer of 2005, I traveled back to China for the first time after nine years. The notion of returning home was both a wonderful and frightening feeling. I was born in Fujian, China and was raised there until I reached the age of eight years old. My trip to China, in my eyes, was my rightful claim back to home; yet, when I actually set foot on the cement ground of Beijing, I felt more like a foreign tourist than a native-born Chinese. The real China did not resemble the China generated by my own thoughts that I’ve taken from the memory lane and images gathered from the media.

      The month-long trip was a blur- a collision of failed expectations and unexpected surprises. What I remembered most clearly, to be honest, was the food and atmosphere of the environment. The first stop was Beijing. There I was amazed by the amount of people cramped together in the city. Similar to New York, people moved in rapid paces. This seems true to the Chinese saying that describes the multitude of people in China, “ren shan ren hai”, which literally translates to “people mountain people ocean.”

Our tour guide took my family and I to see a martial arts show performed by monks. Later, we were settled in a private room in a restaurant, where we were served over seven dishes of food and two different soups. I noticed that there were little or no seafood served. Instead, several dishes of meats and vegetables were served, which seemed surprisingly different from my typical meals at home. This was because Beijing was no where near the coast; thus, seafood can be rather expensive. The next day we went to taste the famous Beijing Duck, which is sliced pieces of a crispy duck served with Chinese bread and sauce. The great thing about dining in China is that you can always ask for the accommodations of a private room that typically includes a television set as well. This allows for more privacy and little interruptions for those who truly want to concentrate on their meals.

Of course, one cannot visit Beijing without walking the pebbled trail of the Great Wall of China. I had the highest expectation for this walk; but when we finally got to the Great Wall, I was surprised by its run-down system being that it was known as a tourist attraction. We decided to take the pulley train up to Great Wall, but the pulleys stopped working as we were caught by the rain. Then the most frightening part occurred when the teenagers that were working there started manually pulling us towards the Great Wall. The nights were spent wandering on the streets of Chang-On Jia, enjoying the slight breeze and night life of Beijing. After shopping aimlessly for bargain sales, we finally took a cab back to our hotel, which was wonderfully and elegantly designed. What surprised me was that, despite the modernity and advancement of our hotel, we were not allowed to drink tap water directly from the sink. This was not a rare case and the same situation reoccurred in Xi’an.

       Our next stop, Xi’an, was not quite as sophisticated as Beijing. In fact, there was a quaint, homely feeling to that city. Our tour guide took us to see a traditional dance show. We were served a variety of dumplings for dinner on the Chinese restaurant menu. In fact, my favorite part of the meal was the soup, which was comprised of tiny Chinese dumplings that are about half an inch long. The next day, we went to see the famous Terracotta Soldiers from the Qin Dynasty. Walking underneath the blazing sun, I was sweating furiously. However, I most certainly enjoyed the walk and was proud of my ancestry that created these masterpieces. When we left, I was sad to leave such a cultural center but was excited to aboard the plane set in the direction for my hometown.

      Our third and last stop was Fujian, China. I had envisioned it as a broken-down village with little electricity and out-door bathrooms. I found that I actually preferred Fujian over Beijing, perhaps I am a little biased being that I was born there. Unlike Beijing or Xi’an, Fujian is not infiltrated by tourists. It is quiet and full of little shops. Teenagers, both boys and girls alike, had perm hair, which we joked as the “ka-boom” hairstyle.”  Whenever people compare American teenagers with Chinese teenagers, people typically conjure the generalization that Americans are wild and rebellious while Chinese are tamed and conforming. The truth is that the rebellious teenage culture exists across all cultures; I saw few differences between myself and the Chinese teenagers that I’ve met. The most notable barriers were probably language and difference style in dressing. Where as Americans like myself prefer the earthier colors, Chinese teenagers wore outfits in bright purple, red, and yellow.

      What truly caused me to fall in love with my hometown was the food. Located near the coast, Fujian is abundant in seafood on almost every single Chinese restaurant menu. Both dinner and lunch would last over two hours long as old family friends, relatives, and my family gather together for old time’s sake. Although I have literally fallen asleep on the dining table during dinner and lunch time after experiencing food coma, I, nevertheless, anticipated going out to different Chinese restaurants for different meals of the day. The cost for Chinese food was very little- for the equivalent of four dollars, one can purchase enough food to feed four people. Truth to be told, I love the Chinese food and the environment so much that I extended my stay in Fujian.

      If I had to pick a trait out of the seven sins, I probably most easily succumb to “gluttony” as one can notice from the occurring theme of food in this article. Two summers ago, I traveled to China as a foreign native.  Now, I long to return to China again to taste the delicious dishes of my native home.   The dishes offered by Chinese restaurants in the United States vary greatly.  As I peruse through tons of Chinese take-outmenus, I cannot find a dish that would completely satisfied my taste for authentic Chinese cuisine.