Eric's Beijing Diary

Just got back from a faculty retreat.  The Software College took us all to a small resort in the countryside northeast of Beijing.  We left yesterday at 10 am and got to the resort a couple hours later.  We sat down to a very delicious meal, and then had about an hour before our 2:30 meeting.  I took a nap because I figured the meeting would be long.  It was.  Four hours.  One of the professors who had studied in Belgium for four or five years and spoke pretty good English, gave Michael (my roommate) and I a running commentary.

Michael just joined the faculty of the Software College.  He was a software engineer with Boeing, until he quit working about five years ago.  Since that time, he has spent his days and months and years hiking and biking in various parts of the world.   He hiked the Appalachian Trail.  Last fall he completed a hike of the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada.  So he has walked across America from south to north twice.  And he bicycle toured around Japan fourteen times.  He is the only person I have ever met who told me that it is cheap to live in Japan.  He pitched his tent  with the homeless people in the middle of Tokyo.  Michael says he always liked staying with Japanese homeless people, because they swept the ground around their cardboard dwellings, and generally kept everything really neat.  But now he has decided to make use of his degree in computer science and teach Java and ASP.  

Last night, after our meeting, we had a big dinner and then went outside for a campfire complete with Karaoke.   Karaoke is wildly popular in China, but at a campfire?  Hmmm a very interesting twist.   Pretty much the same thing I saw in May when I went on Linda and Ida's camp out. 

This morning, we went hiking in the hills behind the resort.   It was a very foggy day, but the ravine we hiked was really pretty.   After our hike we got in the bus, and headed toward a well known Buddhist temple.   We stopped at a fish fry area where we stuck some poles in the water and brought up several fish.   For some reason I didn't have much luck.   I remember doing this once in Nojiri when I was a kid.  The incident sticks in my mind, because I broke a pole that time, and because the fried fish we caught was so delicious.  But in China, I have really been spoiled.  In China, eating fresh fish is not a rare luxury.  It is the norm.  I remember once when I was working in a fish processing plant in Alaska, and I bought some fresh halibut from the plant and took it home.  I will never forget how well that fish tasted.   Ever since that incident, I have never been able to be impressed with halibut in a restaurant, because it is always frozen.  I don't know why, but it just isn't the same.   But here in China, they don't give you fish that has been thawed out and warmed over.  The fish is always fresh.   They usually show you the fish before they kill it.

Anyway, enough about fried fish.   Oh, by the way, the seasoning they used on that fried fish was incredible.  Made me sneeze, but it was delicious.   I wish I could tell you what it was, but I have no idea.   If I always waited until I knew what something was before I ate it, I would be a hungry man in China. 

After lunch we visited a Buddhist temple.  As we entered the first temple area, there was a large Buddha, and some people were kneeling in front of it.   I was struck by their devotion and reverence, but even more so because of the ridiculous appearance of this Buddha.  He was sitting in a reclining position, holding his fat belly with a stupid grin on his face.  I can't picture myself praying to such a ridiculous looking figure without laughing.   I think these Buddha's must be viewed as a good luck charm or something.  Can't imagine anyone really takes them seriously.  As we were leaving the temple area, one of the computer science professors asked me if I believed in the objects of worship we had seen.  I said, "No.  I am a Christian.  I worship  God."  I then told her about the church I went to, and my belief that the church should be open to everyone.  One of the other professors then told me that Chinese people don't have any god, so they are looking for something to worship.  He then said he thought that God and Buddha were pretty much the same.  He's right about the first part, of course, but not about the second.   But it's interesting...China is positioning itself as a pluralistic society.  The government seems to be interested in providing for each religion, but also in making sure that no one religion becomes too dominant.