After a day of touring the Summer Palace, I returned to my hostel to drop off my pack and I went in search of dinner at a nearby street with lots of night shops all geared towards western tourist with trinkets and everything for 10 yuan. I spotted a booth with vegetables on skewers and decided to stop and eat. I learned to pick up a basket and load it with anything I wanted and it will be cooked for me. The skewers were .5 yuan each. I was happy and totally looking forward to a real meal for the day full of rich nutrient from such wide variety of fresh vegetables. I requested that it be cooked in water with nothing added.
The then owner asked me to sit. I stood around for awhile and the locals all paid attention to me. I must have showed signs of resistance to sitting on squatting plastic stool over knee high dirty plastic tables. I was too happy to have spotted fresh vegetables that I over looked such details. I noticed how i must have looked uncomfortable when all the local patrons at this food stand had all their eyes on me and indeed I was. All the stools were taken and I really didn’t want to sit with anyone and the locals all took notice of my body language and watched what move I would make attentively. The owner repeatedly asked me to sit down. I finally found a spot and reluctantly sat next to a young man who was lining up his empty beer bottles and ordering more while he puffed away at his cigarette. He looked at me with his inquisitive tired eyes and said, “you’re traveling?” while he handed me his cigarette. I politely refused with my hands and he quickly offered me his beer and ready to order more. I looked at him closely and his fine features, sadden by how grey his face was.
This man Chang, a tour guide was closely looking at me as I was with him when my food arrived. It arrived in a metal plate covered with plastic bag with the hot food poured over it. This was the hygienic service system to avoid washing with water. But one detail was overlooked on health, melted plastic paper mixed in with my food is extra chemical additives I did not order. I looked at my food and wondered what happen to the water part of the water vegetable dish? It was brown looking and had a peculiar smell. During which Chang inquired how I thought of Beijing. He really wanted me to be accustomed to Beijing and like it. It was very important to him, he was proud of his city and his country. I played with my food for a bit and noticed that Chang was concerned that I was not eating my food. He asked,” is something wrong? You don’t like Beijing water cooked food?” I took a bit into the food and it tasted like fermented tofu, bad terrible fermented tofu cooked in water. I felt like a child eating to impress a parent or something. I chewed it slowly trying to decide if I should spit it out or swallow it. I didn’t think spitting was appropriate after both agreeing during our conversation that spitting was a vulgar act that should be removed from Chinese culture. Chang starred at me with deep concern for my welfare. I decided to brave it and swallow it. I must have looked like I was in pain because Chang’s eyebrows were squinted together at this point, his jaws slightly dropped, and his breathe prolonged in inhale. He said Beijing water style cooking are all done this way. I told him I didn’t know, I thought water meant just plain water. He educated me on how water meant nonstirfry and this was universally understood all over China. The food was fine and I continue to try hard to not waste food that I look so forward to but it really tasted,…… difficult to chew and swallow. He had it with watching me try to eat the food this way and told me in a very concerned and protective tone, “if you don’t want to eat it then don’t because you don't have to”. I must have looked really pathetic by this point and so I stopped. It was a relief and I let the guilt of wasting food go.
During our conversation, Chang wondered about how life would have been if he had immigrated to a foreign country like his friends who are now making tons in a flashy career with lots to show for. And now, everyday he returns to this old Hu Tong style neighborhood, run down, and stinky with nothing to show for. During college, he had paperwork all lined up to go, but decided to stay in Beijing with his parents because he was the only child who cold take care of his parents. But I thought to myself, isn’t this true with the rest of Chinese young adults under one child policy. I reminded him how vaste and beautiful China is and how China is possibly the future of all nations. As a tour guide, he has traveled to places that most of his friends won't ever and that family is important and worth investing in.
He told me that his father was assigned to post in Tibet when he was young. His father loved the beauty and the people of Tibet and frequently dreamed of visiting Tibet. Chang recently bought his parents a pair of tickets to Tibet on the new Beijing Lhasa train. They returned just last week complained of how cold it is for their old bodies. That Tibet has changed a lot in the past 30 years. Chang, after a lifetime of hearing his father's stories of Tibet would also like to budget time and money to go to Tibet.
As he continued to unwind from a day of work, he complained of his clients who are filthy rich but ignorant. Chang talked about how little they know of the world and all the people in it. Even basic knowledge required in basic educational system was missing. He wondered how these people even made it possible to acquire all the wealth. He felt the combination of wealth and stupid ignorance in a person should be illegal. We both laughed belly up. In terms of status, his job isn't much but he gets to travel the world and the world also comes to him. That's very unique and no small task.
Chang’s friend Yang showed up to join him after a day of work guiding tourists. I learned 100 yuan per day’s work was industry standard for tour guides in Beijing. They both gave me a load down on China travel and lots of stories from their work. It was great to get some ins and outs from them since I arrived ill prepared without travel guide or a plan. They were a funny bunch and great storytellers. We laughed and laughed and laughed. The stories were funny to laugh at afterwards but I think some stories should remain within circles of tour guide workers, otherwise tourists would all have to think 10 times before stepping onto a guided tour in China.
I also discover they were Buddhist. They knew a lot about Buddhist principles. They all agree that Sutras are impossible to understand and the way is through Chan; think things through, and figure stuff out yourself. They agree that Buddhism is about teaching a person on how to be a good person. Chang feels he is not going to be a Buddha this life time, so he can only respect the Buddha and not really practice Buddhism because to his interpretation, Buddhism is about suffering which is depressing, and he can't get himself to believe in reincarnation, or Earth Store Sutra because that would raise more question than answers he had. His understanding in reincarnation is about being stuck, a victim of the system of reincarnation. He thinks Taoism is the answer because they are about being happy and leaving this world. He also can't stand superficial Buddhist who does all the outside ceremonial things and has no internal basic practice on how to be a person. Chang also dispised the acts of bowing and buring incense at every image one comes across.
I didn't try to say much other than listen. They were working class in the service business, all day long people tell them what to do and how to do it better. All day long they listen to their patrons. I decided to offer the gift of listening. It's amazing enough they are getting scraps of this and that here and there in secret on their own. They don't have easy access to Dharma, or Ven. Hsuan Hua's Dharma, that's a rare thing in the world. They were bright young college educated people. I asked them where they learned Buddhism, they were both uncomfortable with sharing that information. We chatted seriously for 3-4 hours on this subject. During which onlookers repetitively out of fear, cued him in forbidding to discuss religion with me. They had to explain I was already a Buddhist to prove they were not brainwashing me and that I wouldn't report them to anyone either. This last part of the evening made me feel like I was in a particular scene of a movie.
We parted with Chang running down the check list of making sure I had a place to live, that I was safe, happy about the living conditions, and needed nothing. It was only 11:30pm for me but way past his bed time for his early rise of another day of work tomorrow. I really enjoyed this evening of hanging out with locals and the conversations we had. It made it all worth it to stay where I stayed in order to come across this.
