Mystery in Beijing

I think they WANT us to get lost.

So after a series of endless orientation-ing, we finally had a break with an activity that would be enigmatically called “Mystery in Beijing”.  Some sort of scavenger hunt, I presumed.  Same old stuff, and afterward I can go back to my dorm and collapse into my bed after a another day of exhausting orientation meetings.

So the group met in the activity room for this mystery.  Ai Laoshi, the expatriate and teacher more or less in charge of IES Study Abroad in Beijing, began to explain this event.  We were to pair off, be given a piece of paper with only this written on it:

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(Beijing Military Museum)

We were told to venture out and try to find this location, bring proof of being there (either a picture or a souvenir) and return by 2.30 pm.  Sounds like fun, right?

So we asked the locals if they knew where the museum was, with our broken Chinese.  Steve had two semester on me, so he was the de facto leader of the pair.  

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Take one: Steve asking two local college girls how to get to the museum
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Take two: Steve asking a local college guy how to get to the museum.
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Take three: Steve asks an old lady how to get to the museum
Success!  The grandma happily complies and offers to take us all the way to the museum herself!  I didn’t know Chinese people could be so hospitable!  
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My first bus experience in China.  Despite the increasing number of cars on the road and the heinous rushhour traffic that often results, China has a well developed public transit system.  Taking the bus only costs 1 RMB, about 15 cents.  If you have a public transit card, its even cheap at 0.4 RMB.  What a deal!  
The grandma was really sweet.  She kept on talking to us, and Steve understood a good bit, but I didn’t have a clue, which made me kind of sad.  Especially since I look east Asian, the Chinese locals automatically assume I am either Chinese or can speak it better than the white laowei (foreigner) next to me… but I’m not.  Too much pressure!  Actually, several times so far Chinese people come up to me and spurt out rapidfire Madarin only to be greeted with a dumbfounded 2nd generation Korean mumbling “ting bu dong” (I don’t understand).  But hey, I guess that’s part of the learning process and I’ll get there soon enough.  Classes haven’t even started after all.
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Here we are!
After we arrived at the museum, we thanked the grandma profusely and asked her to have lunch with us.  She said she was busy and hurried away, but not before giving each of us a hug.  Reminds me of my own grandma, in an endearing kind of way.
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The man himself, Mao Zedong.
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The museum itself was pretty cool.  Basically lots of pistols, machine guns, tanks, airplanes, boats, swords, and even a giant missile.  
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I’m on a plane.  Not a functioning one.  I’m not flying.  
After the museum, we realized how screwed we were because we didn’t know which bus we took there, we didn’t know where we were in relation to the University, and between the two of us our combined Chinese skill equaled to 1/10 of a Chinese person.  So… for the sake of time (and also because its painful to relive the memories), I’ll long-story-short this adventure and say we eventually got home after 2-3 hours of wandering around the heart of Beijing.  The end.
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Oh yeah, and I also had my first Chinese McDonalds experience.  Tastes just like home.  Cost: 22 RMB, approx 3.34 USD.  All things considering, slightly on the expensive side in terms of how much one should spend on a meal in China.  Bust still cheaper than a value meal in the States.  
Till next time!  

Location: Military Museum, Beijing, China

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