There is one apple store in all of China

So after a brief hiatus of getting settled in, I'm back. I had some computer problems earlier so I had a hard time connecting with the rest of the world. Essentially, my Mac power cord made this wonderful popping sound and stopped working. At first we went to this electronics super mall in the "downtown" area of my district. Though, to use to term downtown is deceiving. Beijing is so big that many locals have yet to see districts (boroughs) other than their own and those adjacent to their own. My current district, haidian district, is one of the largest districts with a population that is about the size of San Francisco and Seattle combined. Anyway, the shocking thing about this electronics super mall really wasn't a mall. It was more like a permanent flea market of bargaining, pushing, shoving, and fighting for a price that you want. There were more than 5 buildings, each at least 8 floors high of various "authorized resellers" (or so they say) of mac, pc, camera, and other electronic products. I went to 5 different "mac" sellers each giving me a different price for a mac charger with a base price of 120 dollars and a max price of 150 dollars.

Some buildings were so filled with people and products that I couldn't see the windows, and even my local friend who was taking me got lost in the building sometimes. Counters and booths arise in this flea market mall without any system of organization. There was no thematic division of products, and even the painted arrows on the ground that was supposed to lead me to exits faded into piles of boxes. This is the part of chinese culture that totally defies my vision of the Chinese etched in my mind from 6th grade history classes.

Before, when I thought chinese, I either thought of Tang Dynasty confucian order or of a photo of the transcontinental railroad workers with their tents all neatly lined up along the edge of the tracks. Beijing has been quite the opposite. Despite the rigidly organized political system, Beijing Culture is still very much like a jungle. One example of this is that Beijing does not really use street addresses. Everyone orients themselves according to major landmarks, labeled communities, or public transportation routes. If i asked a taxi driver to take me to a particular street intersection, I really only have a 20% chance of him actually knowing where to take me. For example, when I was trying to find my bank- i was told to go to the about 50 meters north of the east gate of Tsinghua University. If one does not have local knowledge of the area, then one is pretty much left on the outer fabric of society. It's even harder not knowing chinese. Now, my chinese isn't anywhere near native speaking, but at least I could make it out of that electronics super mall alive. I can only imagine how much harder it would have been for someone who has no chinese experience to try and navigate that bustling modern flea market.

Eventually, i gave up on this mall and tried to find a real mac owned mac store instead of tying to deal with people trying to gouge me on what they just called the "inherent expense" associated with using apple products.


there is one apple store in china. one. and it opened last July.


ONE apple store, in ALL of china.

Luckily, it was in Beijing. But it was also located an hour away in the Sanlitun Area of Beijing in Chaoyang district, the largest district in Beijing adjacent to Haidian. Seeing Sanlitun was like walking into a different China. It was a China filled with expensive Gucci bags, europeans, Americans,  and western architecture.



At any rate. I went to the apple store. They gave me a new charger, and my computer is all better.

The day after was the last day of the Olympics and my roommates told me that they were all going to go to the closing ceremony for the olympics.

So we ate dinner



(Shrimp ball soup, scrambled eggs and tomato, sauteed chinese broccoli, chinese radish salad, corn, and rice.)

and hopped on the train to head to the closing ceremony.



Now. I thought this train was crowded, but this was only the tip of the iceberg. My body was politely pressed against the people next to me as I tried to take a picture. Yet, when this picture was taken, it was a few minutes before rush hour. come rush hour, the train becomes packed solid. There is also no particular etiquette when it comes to sitting on mass public transportation other than push or be pushed. I went to pick up my friend from the airport during rush hour a couple days ago and I ended up using her luggage as a battering ram to push through a mass of people blocking the door as i tried to get off at my stop. XIA CHE (I'm GETTING OFF) - yelled and the people didnt move! They clung to their spaces because they knew if they moved, there was a chance that they wouldn't get back on the train. The subway has by far been the most harrowing part of china so far. People waiting to cross the street in the middle of the street is harrowing as well- but I'll describe that later.

Eventually, we made it to the Tiananmen square stop and left the subway. At first, i was little confused. i thought we were going to the Birds Nest. No no- my roommates told me. "We're going to Tiananmen Square, Birds nest tickets cost 1200 USD. The ceremony at Tiananmen is free."

Tiananmen was astounding. It was a testament to a city that has for the last 1000 years had a population of at least 10 million people. The buildings surrounding the Forbidden City (gu gong) and Tiananmen were monolithic. It was almost as if buildings had to be constructed that big in order to convey a sense of authority over such a large population. Red lanterns lit our pathway to the square and despite the splendor of my surroundings I could only focus on how many people were around me. The streets were full. The busses were full. With the exception of a few pockets of space people were densely piled into this antihill of a city. I can now understand why nationalism and group mentality/ethics is so important to the Chinese people. There are just so many of them that having an individualistic mentality, one that focuses on how special one person is, just doesn't work out. There is ALWAYS somebody out there that could rival you--so everyone might as well identify as part of a strong group. At the same time, wandering in this mob of people also presented the impression that these people didn't really identify as part of a cohesive group. I realize that this was just because I was evaluting China and chinese people based upon general manners, courtesies, and customs that we have in the West. In China- it's okay to push around your fellow chinese to get where you need to go, because they will do the same to you.

After a about 20 minutes of pushing, we made it to the front of the square and - here is what we saw.




With that- I leave you folks. I need to go find a futon.