I recently was contacted by a friend of a friend who will be moving to China. They are very overwhelmed about what to expect and how to prepare. I'm including my reply here because I thought it was a pretty good run down for anyone else thinking about living in CHINA:) Oh and there were a couple Beijing specific questions. Enjoy!
"EXCITING!!! Take a deep breath. Does the program coordinate living arrangements for you and help you get setup? Cause that can get a bit overwhelming. Along with not being able to communicate effectively. Do either of you guys speak mandarin? If not I would recommend a little practice on pinyin. I was very surprised by how much English/pinyin there is (instead of characters) but they do pronounce things a bit differently. Which will be helpful to learn when telling cab drivers where to take you.
We lived in Nanjing for 5 months before we came to Beijing and we love it! I think Lars sent Ian a list of things we've done or hope to do here. My recommendations would be The Forbidden City/Tiananmen Square, The Great Wall, Summer Palace/Zhongshan Park, Nanluoguxiang Hutong, Pearl/Silk/Yashou Shopping Markets (depends on what kind of experience you want:) As for places to eat...Are you guys up to date on all your shots? Even if you are you might want to take it easy the first few weeks, meaning not a lot, if any, street food and be picky about restaurants. You may want to try and eat 50% American, 50% Chinese to get your system used to the food. I guess laduzi (diarrhea) is part of the experience but still not fun so take it slow.
As of right now Lars and I are very available. Lars' internship ended a week ago and our apartment lease is through July so until Lars finds a job we're both just chillin':)
As for 'any other advice' in general you need to be prepared for ATTENTION. Unless you are living in a big enough city that has their own expat community and you plan to never leave said community you will attract lots of attention in the form of stares. Everyone and their grandmother will stare at you as you pass them on the sidewalks. Some even stop dead in their tracks to watch you walk by. It is definitely a little unnerving at first but you learn to ignore it. I do want to make you aware that even though EVERYONE stares *nobody will get physical with you. Before I came I heard all kinds of stories of foreigners (especially blondes) getting harassed. I've never had anyone grab my hair and I have a lot of hair. Yes, people may yell things at you like, "HELLO" or "PRETTY LADY".
*Okay, honestly I have had two instances of chinese males touching me. One was a handicapped boy on the subway who gave me a hug and the other was an old man who grabbed my hand when I wouldn't stop to talk to him. In each instance I found the phrase, Bu hao (pronounced "boo how") to be of use. It means "not good." The old guy left me alone directly when I yelled it in his face. (I was already in a "not gonna take anyone's crap" kind of mood:) I think the kid thought I was flirting but other people on the subway started yelling at him for me. That's the thing, weird things can happen but I've never felt in danger. There are just so many people around at all times that nobody is gonna try anything really dangerous. Of course you shouldn't go out for a stroll all alone at night through dark alleys either. That's just common sense:)
Other advice would be to bring sturdy clothing. Apparently you are going to want to bring light clothes because it's gonna get HOT outside (and you are outside a lot more than usual) and air conditioning is rare but what I mean is that you will most likely have a washer but dryers are extremely rare. You will be hanging your clothes to dry and wrinkles are easy to come by. You of course can purchase most conveniences like an iron but I've really tried to live simply. The apartments don't usually have much extra space. And what are you gonna do with all the stuff you've purchased when you leave?
Anywho, if you can't live without things like tampons, deodorant, floss and any other name brand specific products, you need to bring as much as you think you'll need for your stay with you. Yes, you can have family ship things to you but you may run into heavy taxes on health and beauty products. But it you NEED to have something questionable shipped, if your family writes "GIFT" on the label customs may let it alone...MAYBE.
I have really loved my time here in China and I think it's because I've tried to live simply and just go with the flow. It's going to be different and there will be good differences (like how cheap food is: $15 bucks for a weeks worth of groceries which is about 100 RMB) and bad differences (the overall lack of cleanliness: pollution, dirty streets, children going to the bathroom on the sidewalk).
One of the main reasons why I wanted to come to China was to really understand how blessed I am to be an American citizen. I will never complain about America again!
Well, I hope I've helped. If you think of anything else let me know.
Spring Shurilla"
