C'est la vie

达摩问二祖：“汝立雪断臂，当为何事？”祖曰：“某甲心未安，乞师安心。”摩云：“将心来，与汝安。”祖曰：“觅心了不可得。”摩曰：“与汝安心竟。”二祖忽然领悟。

这是一则很久以前读过的禅公案。最近常常想到它，于是顺手记下来。

开心是容易的，安心却是难的。

         Taking a deep breath (fortunately, the air was not so polluted as I had expected), I sent a message to a colleague, who had relocated from New York to our Beijing Office five months earlier than I, “Here I am, at the long last!”  Five minutes later, when I was driving on the airport highway, chatting with a very talkative cab driver and admiring the high-rise buildings now towering above historical sites and transforming Beijing into a world-class metropolis, she replied to me, “Welcome to the Capital!”

         Thus began my life in Beijing.

         Beijing: “Center” of China.  As with many other world capitals, people alternately use “Beijing” to refer to China’s capital city and to refer to the country’s government.  Beijing is the center of political power; the center of intellectual activity; the center of international trade and foreign relations.  Chinese people around the country are reminded every day of Beijing’s leadership, as they are obligated to set their clocks to match those in the capital.  When the time of day is mentioned on the radio in cities as far away as Lanzhou (in the western province of Gansu), announcers always say, “Beijing time is …”  It’s a subtle reminder to China’s citizens that Beijing establishes the tempo to which the rest of the country should march.  When living in Beijing, you feel like everyone else in China is just a little out of step and just a little less mindful of political realities.

         Beijing vs. Shanghai: a Tale of Two Cities.  I’m a Shanghainese and before I relocated from New York to Beijing, my personal experience with the capital city had been limited to a two weeks’ stay at the age of six.  Though closely related to each other as two most important metropolises in China, Beijing and Shanghai differ a lot in culture, dialect, food, weather and many other aspects.  So although I always think of moving back to China as going back home, after two months’ stay in Beijing, I gradually come to the reality that I am still an “outsider” in this northern city. 

While the term of “outsider” (or waidiren in mandarin) is neutrally used in Beijing to refer to people from other parts of China, Shanghainese tend to use this term in a somewhat contemptuous way.  In Shanghai, anyone who is not a Shanghainese is a waidiren and a waidiren virtually means a provincial, which is a subtle implication of Shanghainese’s unjustified sense of superiority and possibly the very reason why waidirens, especially Beijingers, are not that fond of Shanghainese.  However, Beijingers are also biased against Shanghainese.  Beijingers deem Shanghainese as “smart” (or jingming in mandarin), but they scorn Shanghainese for making much ado about only trivialities and being too mindful of personal benefits.  So, when a Shanghainese is socializing with Beijingers, the highest compliment she can expect is “Hey, you are indeed not like a Shanghainese!” 

People of Beijing: Profile of “Beijingers”.  Most people consider Beijingers to be people whose families have lived there for at least two generations.  Beijingers take pride in living in a special place – the capital and political center of China (or, as old Beijingers put it, they lived “at the foot of The Son of Heaven (Chinese people used this term to refer to their emperor in ancient time)”). 

Beijing people can be easily distinguished from other Chinese mandarin speakers by the ubiquitous “rrrrr” of the local dialect.  (This “rrrrr” is like a hard, extended American English “r”, as opposed to the trill “r” of Spanish.)  Beijingers speak like their mouths are full of steaming hot tofu (bean curd).  Even to a mandarin speaker as myself, sometimes this “rrrrr” can cause trouble in communicating with Beijingers.  Once I took a bus to IKEA and asked the driver where to get off, the bus driver, a typical Beijinger, mumbled a stop name very fast and with a lot of “rrrrr”.  I begged his pardon and he repeated that name, but gave up somehow hurt and annoyed after a third try when seeing me remain totally lost.  Fortunately, after twenty minutes, the kind-hearted driver turned to me and shouted, “Here is IKEA! Girl, you should get off now!!”  To my relief and surprise, this time, I did understand!

Beijingers have other distinctive characteristics as well, such as they don’t seem to smile much.  Many Chinese people think that Beijingers are overly concerned with politics and government policies of the day.  Perhaps this is true, but the positive side is that Beijingers are politically savvy; they usually know just how far to bend the rules to get things done without being reprimanded.

Beijingers are generally welcoming hosts who are proud of their capital city and their roles as exemplars of the nation.  A certain confidence radiates throughout the city, as though everyone is thinking, “This is where it all starts in China.”

Getting Around Beijing: Transportations.  The layout of the subway system in Beijing is much simpler than that in New York City.  The old line or “loop line” follows the Second Ring Road (which follows the old city inner wall) around the city.  A second line, completed much later, follows Chang An Avenue (the longest and broadest avenue in China, and “Chang An” means “Lasting Peace”).  Though the trains are not air-conditioned and always crowded, you should in no way be intimidated by the prospect of riding the ditie (subway), for during rush hours, it is truly one of the best ways to get around the city and avoid slow-moving traffic (Beijing’s traffic jams are notorious in China).  The most interesting thing about Beijing Metro is that they still use paper tickets, which you can never see in New York, Hong Kong or Shanghai:  Pay your fare of a few yuan (usually less than five dimes) at the ticket window.  In return, you will receive a tiny paper subway ticket.  Hand the ticket to one of the ticket-takers at the top of the stairs leading to the trains.  Sometimes they rip the tickets in half and return the stubs, and other times they keep both pieces.

Taking a cab in Beijing is cheap.  A thirty minutes’ ride costs you only 40 yuan (about 5 dollars).  If the cab driver happens to be in a good mood and knows the roads well and the traffic is relatively light, going around the city by taxi can be a convenient and pleasant way.  However, sometimes dealing with cab drivers can be a frustrating fact of life for outsiders and Beijingers alike, especially when business is slow.  Occasionally cab drivers act as though their riders owe them more than the metered fare for a trip from one point to another.  A friend told me that once when she got into a cab in the official taxi line outside of the airport building, the cab driver was so unhappy about the short ride (the fare was around 70 yuan) that he kept complaining and cursing all the way from the airport to my friend’s place.  Though I myself have never met any dishonest cab drivers so far, I do hear about taxi driver scams such as taking unsuspecting passengers on circuitous routes to their destinations and rigging the meter so that it records more miles or time than actually is the case.  However, the taxi business in Beijing is improving a lot these days – at least my personal impression is quite positive.  Once I left the office building late in the evening and asked a cab driver, who had been waiting in the taxi line for over 40 minutes, whether he would be willing to drive me home, which was only a less than ten minutes’ ride.  The driver hesitated for a second, then smiled and nodded, “Sure. It’s so cold outside and you are so polite a young lady. How can I say no?”  Well, that made my day.

Dining Out in Beijing: Paradise for a Chinese Food Lover.  After I returned home from New York, many friends in Shanghai could not understand why I would be happy to work in Beijing - “You know, Beijingers eat nothing but preserved white cabbages in winter!  How can a food lover like you survive there?”  Well, that is a complete misconception and a good example of how biased Shanghainese could be against Beijingers.  In fact, it turns out that the widespread availability of great food is one of the most pleasurable aspects of living in Beijing these days.

There are restaurants spreading in every corner of the city serving foods from Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan, Canton, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Guizhou, Taiwan, etc.  Generally, you can enjoy all kinds of high quality Chinese cuisine in Beijing at very reasonable and affordable prices.  For example, winter is the best season in Beijing for hot pots and roasted ducks (the most famous traditional food in Beijing) and the average cost for a quite decent dinner with friends is only 50 to 150 yuan (7 to 20 dollars) per person.  If you are not that conscious and wary of the standards of refrigeration, food preparation and cleanliness, you may also want to try some local open-air food stalls for extremely casual dining, and a budget of one dollar per person can be more than enough!

Of course, there are quite a number of very expensive restaurants in Beijing as well.  For example, the most costly hot pot place that I’ve ever been to is located in a beautiful Qing Dynasty garden near the Forbidden City and it costs about a hundred bucks per person.  Another extravagant dining experience was at a restaurant serving all kinds of food made of hairy crabs (late October and early November is the best season to enjoy Chinese hairy crabs).  I went there with two friends and the three of us were led into a royally decorated room and sat at a huge round table, served by three waitresses.  The food was great and followed by an even greater bill.  Though it was a friend’s treat and I didn’t get a chance to look at the bill, I believe we spent over 150 bucks per person there.  If you are fond of spicy food, there is a newly opened very fancy and famous Sichuan restaurant on the fourth floor of our office building called South Beauty (qiaojiangnan).  The decoration was designed by a famous Parisian artist and the oil paintings which are tastefully hanging on the ceiling are all originals imported from Paris.  Every private restroom there is tastefully furnished, and even with a sofa beside the toilet!

To Shop or Not to Shop, That Is The Question.   Sadly enough, although you can find almost everything you need in Beijing, there is still a long way for the city to make itself a shopping paradise. 

 It is true that a considerable number of top brands have already found their way in Beijing.  However, due to the 20% customs duties imposed on luxuries, the prices are not as attractive as which you can find in Hong Kong or New York.  Despite the high prices, people’s consumption capability for top brands in Beijing is quite impressive and astonishing, when taking into account their moderate average earning abilities.  The younger generation is much more brand conscious than their parents, and to a lot of Chinese new riches, owning something from L.V. or Gucci or other top brands is a way to evidence their financial strength and social status, which may well explain why in Beijing the more logo the design is, the more popular the merchandise could be. 

But the biggest challenge for shoppers in Beijing is the notion of service, or rather, the lack thereof.  Taking a 180-degree turn from the lackadaisical attitude that you might have encountered two decades ago in Beijing, the shop assistants now are just too eager to impress their customers.  When I was shopping at China World Trade Center, one of the best shopping malls in Beijing, it became rather annoying when, upon my first step into every store, all shop assistants were immediately chorusing, “Welcome to …!”  And then one of those girls would closely follow my steps and, upon my first touch on a garment, she would always say the following, loud and proud, “You can try it, if you like it!”  Hmm, of course I know I can try it, without her reminding me of that.  But after hearing it over twenty times in less than two hours, it nearly drove me crazy and deprived me of all interest in shopping.  Well, well, let’s try to think from the brighter side: it may save me from being a shopaholic anyway…

You may ask about the famous “Silk Market” (xiushuijie), which is a “must go” shopping place for foreign tourists in Beijing.  Just as Century 21 is located next to One Liberty Plaza, Silk Market, the largest market for feigned top brand commodities in Beijing, sits right opposite to our Beijing office building.  While Century 21 is one of my beloved and most haunted places in New York City (especially for its European designers’ shoes and garments), I just have no positive feelings for Silk Market, though it is one of the hottest and most international spots in the capital. 

To a first time shopper, it may seem amazing that they are selling a large variety of first tier brand names there, including the so called Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Prada, MaxMara, Gucci, Tod’s, Lacoste, Coach, Polo of Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfilger, Nike, Addidas, Puma, etc.  However, after a closer look, you will have to admit that all are coarsely made and there is no design but a fake logo on every piece of merchandize.  It is forgivable to sell something lacking in taste and elegance, but it is definitely unforgivable to print a shining “D&G” on an ugly T-shirt and proudly call it “Dolce & Gabbana”.   Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the fineness of a well-made top brand piece and thus am biased in this regard.  However, it is only my humble wish that we could show some basic respect to a well established brand name, which can be ignored, but should never be insulted.

Time Out: Nightlife in Beijing.  Nightlife was unknown to many Beijingers 20 years ago, and the term wasn't even used at that time. But nowadays it becomes very common, especially for the younger generation, to go out in the evenings and spend their time at cinemas, theatres, nightclubs, song and dance halls, Karaoke clubs, restaurants or bars. However, when compared with people in southern China such as Hong Kong and Shanghai, Beijing people are still more conservative. Most of them, married people in particular, like to stay at home watching TV or chatting with friends, which is why the streets are quite deserted after nine o'clock at night, when most of the shops are closed.

Don't despair.  There are still many spots for evening recreation in Beijing. Now the city has witnessed a mushrooming of foreign theme pubs, bars, cafes and disco clubs.  There are three primary areas in which foreigners as well as young Chinese tend to congregate.  One is near the Worker’s Stadium, one is around Houhai Lake, and the third is on the east side of the Third Ring Road.

 Suzie Wong at the west gate of Chaoyang Park is the most frequented nightclub by myself and my friends.  Their themed parties on some special occasions are trendy and worth going and it is the best people-watching spot in Beijing.  The club usually charges a 50 to 150 yuan cover, depending on whether there is any special event on that particular night. 

Babyface Club and Angel Club at the west gate of the Worker’s Stadium are also two very hot spots for nightlife in Beijing.  The drinks are usually 35 to 60 yuan per glass.

If you are not used to noisy music or crowded space and prefer to enjoy some quiet jazz and blues, Central at Carry Center Hotel or Aria at Traders Hotel in China World Trade Center are both safe choices for a relaxing night.

 Women Lawyers in Beijing.  Now, let’s talk a little about our Beijing office.  Don’t let this article mislead you to think that we do nothing serious but have fun here.  We are hard working women lawyers and have been spending long hours in our office every day (sometimes even longer than in New York office due to the time differences that we need to accommodate).  Our office occupies one fourth of the 23^rd floor in Twin Towers’ west building.  Though pretty tiny when compared with our New York office, the office is finely decorated and every lawyer’s room has huge windows with great views of Chang An Avenue.  The only problem with our Beijing office is that we are quite gender imbalanced – all of the four associates working here are women.  Maybe we should consider hiring a cute guy receptionist in 2007? (Well, don’t worry.  I was just kidding.  Up till now, our office is just too small to need a receptionist…)