Taylor Whittred

University of New South Wales, Australia
Exchange to Peking University, China

Beijing is a city that keeps drawing me back. My first lengthy trip to Beijing was in 2001, when I went to Beijing Number Four High School for two months. During that time, bikes were still the dominant mode of transport, buses ran mostly on overhead wires, and the subway had just two lines. I spent another two months in Beijing in 2006, and came back for this exchange in September 2009.

The thing that amazes me most about China is the rapid pace of change. Every time I go back there is something new about the place. Hosting the Olympics clearly sped up this process. Bikes are still everywhere, but they don’t come in the same numbers they used to. Buses are more common these days, and the wires are generally gone. The subway now has eight lines and continues to expand.

I got to know this subway well, as I lived over an hour away from both the centre of town and school. In that respect I guess I wasn’t entirely nostalgic about the loss of bikes. Living on the outskirts of Beijing was my attempt at immersing myself, and it provided me with some challenging but amazing experiences.

The community I lived in was called Tiantongyuan, one of China’s first and largest low-cost housing projects. Needless to say, I stood out in the area, but the people were generally welcoming and interested in meeting a foreigner who spoke Chinese. The local restaurateurs, shopkeepers and gym staff all knew me by name and loved to chat. In fact the ‘chuar’ restaurant knew me so well that all I had to do was call up and say “nihao” and they instantly knew my order and address!

As for unique experiences, China also has plenty of those. I remember one day one flatmate asked me if I wanted to go out for dinner. I was keen, so we (my three flatmates and I) all hopped in the car, and he drove us to this large strip of restaurants. Right, this is it, I thought, got out and started making my way to the bright lights. “Where are you going?” he asked me, “It’s over here”. He was standing next to a man with a pushbike and trailer. In the trailer was half a dozen eskis and on the back of the trailer a little charcoal grill. The street next to him had a couple of fold out seats and two tables, but all of them were not even the size of a child’s play set. Despite the perhaps ‘dodgy’ setting, it was to be one of the best meals I had in China, and certainly one of the cheapest. If there is one thing not to miss in China, it’s street food. The cooks are the friendliest, and the food is the cheapest and tastiest.

Of course every student has their ups and downs. Living so far away meant that I had to spend over an hour making my way to school each day. I rode my bike or caught a bus to the subway station, took the subway for the next half hour (often standing), and then caught another bus to get to Peking University 5 days a week. This also meant that I had to get up for university at 6:30am at least 3 days a week. Unfortunately, Beijing can get a little cold in winter, down past negative 10. I remember making my way to university in the dark one winter morning for an 8 am exam. It was negative 14 degrees out, snowing and windy. As I stood there waiting for the bus for the next 20 minutes, I thought to myself, what on earth possessed you to do this, but when I got back to Australia in the middle of winter, I was thankful for the fortitude my time in Beijing had imbued me with, and I had a new appreciation for Australia’s weather.

What I have taken away from my trip is that there is only so much you can read in a book or a journal or find out about on a tour in China. It is a complicated place, with contradictions, multiple layers and a different way of looking at things. The only way to get to know China is to embrace the culture, immerse yourself and live there for as long as possible. That is why I am so thankful for my time there, and for the contribution of the Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Awards in helping facilitate that. I like to think that I gained a true appreciation and deeper understanding of the country from living there. Certainly it taught me a lot about myself, about patience, socioeconomic diversity and minority culture. But I know that there will always be more to learn, and I look forward to going back and discovering what that is.

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