Trevor Gustavson: Trevor in China

Right now I am living my life in a much different manner than I had been for the past month in Guangzhou. Right now I am traveling with my parents, currently in a 5 star hotel in Shanghai. And, right now, I have come to the realization that it is soon coming to an end, and that I will soon be making my way back to my previous – yet still new – life. 

China has been a shock to my system. I came here dragging with me no expectations, because apart from what people had told me, or what I had seen on T.V or in movies, I had no experience with the country. I figured building up expectations would be unreasonable, because surely they would be shattered. However, this unfamiliarity was also admittedly one of the key reasons I chose China. I could have made the more comfortable choice and gone to Europe – somewhere I am familiar with – but I needed a challenge. Well, challenge accepted. My journey here started in Hong Kong, where a family friend opened her home and provided me with a soft landing. What is important to note is that Hong Kong didn’t expose me to what Mainland China is like at all. Truthfully, Hong Kong is a lot like Vancouver, just on a much more grand scale. Signs throughout the city are translated in English, there is a great deal of English speakers, and to my surprise as a white skinned red haired Canadian, I didn’t really stick out as much as I thought I would. Quickly I learned that Hong Kong has an abundance of expatriates, at approximately 300,000 I wasn’t the proverbial ‘sore thumb’ that I almost wished I were. But without fail, my arrival in Mainland China changed all that.

The train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou is not a far journey, and at just over 2 hours it is quite remarkable how much an environment can change. Thinking back on it, there was a distinct point on that expedition where you suddenly knew you had crossed over. After about 45 minutes the train slowed, almost to the point that you either thought you were nearing a train station or that there may have been something wrong with the locomotive. Looking out the window at the signs and buildings I passed there was inclusion of English, and for the most part things looked new and kempt. The train reached its slowest speed, but maintained, and to any traveler this is a relief, because there is nothing worse than being halted mid journey. A bridge came into view, it wasn’t big, but just large enough to cross a river about 30 feet wide. On the far side of the bridge a concrete tower stood. This tower wasn’t large, but you could tell it served a purpose, both to me mentally, and to the land physically. This tower represented the boarder into China. There were no signs or flags, but its not as if I needed them to know I had arrived at the border. There was something about it, passing that tower; you could just feel that you were now in Mainland China. To solidify the feeling, there was also the fact that my phone plan from Hong Kong stopped working. Not to waste space, buildings instantly appeared after the boarder. The architecture and construction was different, and the presence of English was wiped away. 

I was very grateful to have had some time in Hong Kong to overcome jetlag and get my bearings, because making the trip and having to prepare my dorm room all in one go would have been a large undertaking. I have lived in a dorm room before, and I know I said I didn’t carry any expectations with me, but coming from a developed country there is a preconceived notion that your living conditions will be both clean and safe. Jinan certainly hits the mark with safety, in fact my entire time so far in this country I have not felt uneasy about any situation or place that I have been in. So kudos to China for that. Though what did catch me off guard was the fact that I would have to clean my dorm room upon arrival. I don’t mean clean in the sense of giving it a quick sweep, I mean CLEAN. I put my bag down, and headed to the store for supplies. I got back and pulled out my speakers, cracked a beer, and got to it. It was evident that no one had cleaned the room in the time between my arrival and the previous inhabitants departure. There was some left over garbage, an impressive amount of dust, and a lot of mold (you quickly learn that humidity is not your friend). The process took about 2 hours, and by the end of it I was really mad, simply because I arrived before my roommate. Truthfully the whole situation was laughable, and at that point I didn’t know about the coming madness that is Jinan’s organizational structure. It took me 3 days to get Internet, 2 weeks to get a student card, and I still haven’t paid my accommodation fees (at this point I’m just waiting for someone to come and ask for the money). It’s hard to describe the working order here. Nothing seems to be a simple task. Getting a straight answer from an individual is not as easy as you would think. Instead you are directed from one person to another, in hopes that your next conversation will give you the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer you so desire.

Something that all Vancouverites should feel blessed about is both the availability of foods from across the world and the quality of it. Something I have learned in the past while traveling is that that is not always the case, and I’m sure you’ve already come to the conclusion that Guangzhou fits that bill. There are the multinational names that you would recognize, such as McDonalds, KFC, and Pizza Hut, but it isn’t exactly feel good food so to speak. I’m relatively certain that I have eaten more rice and noodles in the past month than I have in the past year, and I hadn’t eaten breakfast since I left Hong Kong, mostly because I don’t particularly enjoy variations of rice and noodles in the morning – which is what is available. For these reasons I am truly enjoying my time with my parents right now, because westernized breakfast buffets are a beautiful thing. It’s amazing how much you can miss scrambled eggs. Growing up in my family the importance of good food has always been stressed. Whether it is trying something new, or learning how to cook it, it is something that I have always been surrounded by. Traveling has always been as much about trying the most interesting restaurants in foreign cities as it has been about seeing the sights. This is why I think the change in my diet has been the hardest adjustment for me. Its not that I don’t like Chinese food, its that the food that is available to me on a regular basis is generally covered with more than enough sauce, or deep fried. I’ve started to long for a clean and healthy meal, or the aforementioned ‘feel good food.’

As a reader by this point you are probably thinking that this guy must regret his decision, but you are wrong. I wont sugarcoat it, yes there have been hardships, and the need for a fair bit of adjustment, but I have already done some really amazing things, and learned more than I thought I could in such a short period of time. Before leaving on this journey a goal of mine was to visit a manufacturing facility. I wanted to see how it runs over here, and the process the product goes through before reaching its final destination.  

  

It turns out that one of my new friends here is an accountant for a manufacturing company. He took me to the warehouse and walked me through the process, as well as told me about working regulations, shipping, fabric procurement, use of excess stock, and also about how these people live their lives. Were you aware that manufacturing companies are required to feed their employees two meals a day? Or that they have to provide dormitories for the employees? I wasn’t. Previously I also wouldn’t have thought that they are required to provide the work force with insurance (simply because it’s China), but it turns out that they are. However, to my surprise, many employees opt out of this insurance for extra cash. After learning this, it was unfortunate to see some men who run fabric through cutting machines missing fingers, because the chances are they previously decided to take the cash in lieu of medical coverage, as most of them do. 
 

Along with completing a goal of mine for this trip, my first month has also consisted of many new and amazing experiences, including: gaining a better understanding of the Chinese culture and how they interact with media (of importance being a marketing major), become very good at getting things by pointing and using exaggerated hand gestures, learned a new Chinese drinking game and became a minor celebrity at a local bar, watched the sunrise over the rice terraces in Longji and the sunset over the mountains in Yangshuo, eaten food that I could not identify (and probably didn’t want to) as well as from places that really should have made me sick, become much better at bargaining and now believe that you should never pay full price for something, made friends from countries that I didn’t know existed and also ones that are close to home, been in temples and palaces and managed to talk my way into a private entrance of one, walked on the Great Wall, seen the terracotta warriors, went to a club that had a shark tank in it and a bar 99 stories up, nearly got in a car accident and then actually got in a bus accident, all while I play a game of frogger with my life every time I cross a street. 

I knew that China was not going to be the easy choice, but as a result I believe that the experience I will gain here could not match that of a country where I feel completely at ease. To quote my favourite childhood comic, Calvin and Hobbes “change is invigorating! If you don’t accept new challenges, you become complacent and lazy! Your life atrophies!” I couldn’t agree with this any more. While I am here I am accepting of this change and taking from it all I can, and as of right now I look forward to the coming months and the trips that they include. I know that this time will pass by all too quickly so I’m pushing myself to make the most out of everyday. 

Trevor is a third year Bachelor of Business Administration student studying abroad at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China.