annieli’s blog

This week we have an exhibition on the East Asian Games in a shopping mall in
Beijing. Although to give out leaflets is not a ‘big’ task like drafting policies, I still expected that I would enjoy it a lot because I believe there’s a thing to learn in every task. It’s also a precious opportunity for us to talk with the locals. The bonus was the sense of satisfaction I got after serving a lady. She was a polite, well-dressed lady, and when she approached I introduced her to places like

Harbour
City and

. Then she said she had been to those shopping malls. She also wanted to buy a camera in Hong Kong, and I introduced her to a small shopping mall in Mongkok with all those 水貨 cameras. To our surprise she had even been to that mall! Then I realized she was no common visitor and I started to talk about places where I myself go shopping most like

and

My comfort zone has been expanding. Actually it’s not that rational but I enjoy it immensely.

Today I went to Lugouqiao and the site of Peking men alone without a map. All I had was the bus route I jotted down from Mapbar. (Well it’s just from my hostel to Lugouqiao and from Lugouqiao to the site of Peking men. I didn’t know how to come back from the latter.)

And the first challenge came- I didn’t know how to get to Lugouqiao from the bus stop. The area was kind of scary- there were no people around except a few men sitting on the side of the road, and I had to cross the highway. In short, what I learned from the little challenge is that never panic. If I had not done that I would have noticed that the bridge was just next to me and there were more than one entrance.

But after this little challenge, my comfort zone (irrationally) expanded. When I then set off for the Peking men site, I did not know where to get off. Worse still, the buses there had NO BUS STOPS, NO BROADCAST AND NO ITINERARY. Without a wee bit of concept of the stop names I could not understand what the ticketing lady on the bus said (and she even had very strong ‘er-hua’ accent). I tried to sit next to her so that at least my presence would remind her of my earlier enquiry but she even pushed me to sit at the back of the bus because it would be a long way before I got off! I got a bit anxious but luckily with the help of another passenger I got off at the right place.

This made me even more braver, or too brave. When I went back to Beijing I had no clue what buses to take, so I asked the receptionist at the Peking men site. Then I hopped onto the first bus without knowing where to transfer to the second bus and again there was no itinerary, no broadcast or bus stops. Eventually I got on the bus going back to Beijing, and after all the unplanned bus taking I decided not to think about where to get off…

Now I feel really high. This may be part of what travelling means to me.

We were off to Nei Mongol for the weekend. The trip was more agreeable than I thought (well forget about the “sanitary facilities”). Something interesting to share:

1) The guide had to allocate seats on the coach…this is not necessary in Hong Kong at all.

2) The hostel in Nei Mongol played Leon’s song at night…in fact they were holding a disco-like party. The government should have given some advice to these little communities- people come to Nei Mongol to enjoy the tranquility, how can you destroy that with mundane city commodities?

3) Nobody in our group followed any rules set by the guide.

That said, I did love the tranquility there. When I were younger I would say life should be this simple. But now I understand that all the problems we have are an inevitable part of exciting city life. You can have one or two days off to places like Nei Mongol, but as I am a city person what I have to learn is not to evade from but to bear with and face all the problems I have back in Hong Kong.

20/7- Why not?

As an intern, the most precious thing you learn you always learn it from your boss. I never thought there would be such bright and unconventional EOs and AOs. I really admire how clear-minded they are; it’s difficult to stay so after working for so many years in the government. Whatever I do in future I have to always bear this in mind.

18/7

With no planned route we went to the Mutianyu Great Wall. An unexpected cab, an unexpected bus, an unexpected quarrel. This is what backpackers do, right? 

Afterwards we talked about our little trip to the Great Wall with the hostel staff. The first thing a girl asked was whether we walked towards the sign ‘忠于毛主席’ (be loyal to Chairman Mao). A fifty-something-year-old man started to get zealous and I was afraid I had offended him. Luckily it got better and it was a precious talk- after so many confused years now I know why people here are so loyal to him. It’s because during his time the wealth gap was small and corruption less prevalent. Well, we never know whom this should be attributed to though.

 17/7

We went all the way to the 6th ring of Beijing to meet Jackie Chen. It sucks- the security guard did not allow us to leave simply because Jackie Chen was answering questions! OMG people literally worshipped him. Even the government officials had to wait for him. Watching his film I thought I saw Chairman Mao socializing kids. I will never forget his affair with 吳旖旎. What a coward. He still does not officially admit that that is his child. I think nothing else, not the film, not his words, is a more genuine reflection of his character.

16/7

We watched the 6th episode of Harry Potter. Perhaps it was because the cinema was in a high-class shopping mall, no phone rang during the whole film. Surprising.

5/7

Today we acted as receptionists at the 1st July celebration held by the Beijing Office. Some people were crazily asking for souvenirs. We even had to provide excuses for them to get more than one set of souvenirs. At one point we were just giving out shopping bags and could not answer questions or refill leaflet stands. I never thought a shopping bag would have such huge promotional effect. There’s really a different way of promoting events here.

The amount of work I got in my office is even less than what I expected. I start to get confused as to what my goals here are, especially when all other interns are just having a get-together-every-night life here. To improve my Putonghua is definitely one, but I am yet to come up with another goal.

—-
We went to 798, a modern art area in Beijing. I felt like I could apply what the owner of Kwai Fung told us- every painting is just like a movie and it is the directing that mainly matters. There was one or two paintings by Korean artists that struck me but then most of the pieces there were wrongly executed. Well the sense of art needs to be cultivated in the whole society, and it may be more difficult in a city with such a history. There were couples taking ‘wedding photos’ in front of warehouses with graffiti, which they might think very loft but I thought it all wrong.
Can Hong Kong do better than Beijing? Judging from the fashion trend in Hong Kong, Hong Kong artists may have a better sense of art, at least of modern art. But can the soil here cultivate creativity? and persistence amidst disapproval and poverty?

HEY
I’m now in Beijing with OK.
Today I went to the 軍事博物館. Chairman Mao’s statues were everywhere. You know there were books for people to leave comments on, and a child wrote that he wanna be a member of the PLA when he grows up. Another guy wrote that ‘civilized people should not use both sides of a piece of paper’. The comment I liked most was ‘the washroom stinks!!’.

hey

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