Qi Cha

The Reach Out Beijing trip is coming to an end, which means I have been in Beijing for almost two weeks now. Our group has been staying at a hostel called Peking Downtown Backpackers. It’s a nice place with an internet room equipped with wireless, common room where you can watch their DVDs, and best of all – warm breakfast every morning. The people who run the place are all very friendly and even provide umbrellas free of charge when it rains! We’re situated in a great location, about ten minutes from Houhai (a touristy location with a huge lake of sorts in the middle), good food, and a supermarket. I found out I really love Sichuan food. And I learned of a “new” spicy called “ma la,” a short of numbing spicy.

I explored area with David Demres (PiB Light Fellow) the first day we arrived. We walked into a little shop along Houhai admiring their quaint tea sets until we reached the back of the shop. And guess what we found?? My 115 peeps, you’re all gonna be excited. A guy making tea! “Zhongguo ren he cha yijing you hen chang de lishi le. He cha dui shenti hen hao…” You know you know it. :P Everything was exactly as Zhou Laoshi had described. The guy first cleansed the teacups by picking them up with an englarged tweezer-like utensil and then dropped them into a larger cup that was filled with hot water. Next he made and poured out the first pot of tea. We were allowed to try the second pot. And whenever you didn’t want to finish what was in your cup, you’d pour it out on top of the frog that's on the corner of the table.


My favorite teas are jasmine tea and green tea.

As for Reach Out, my days have been pretty full for the past two weeks. Reach Out trips are comprised of two components – community service and learning. For our community service component we visited a migrant school and taught English, PE, and art at two after school community centers for migrant children.

The kids are adorable. This week we have been visiting various NGOs, businesses, universities in China and learning about the role they play in China’s development.

This is before meeting with Beida studesnts. We were wandering around their campus that resembled a park. Beauuutiful campus.


After being in China for almost two weeks, I realized there are three things I'll need time to get used to…
1. The air – It actually is as polluted as people say, and it’s amazing to see the blue sky once in awhile.
2. Smoking in restaurants – Nearly all restaurants in Beijing allow smoking. I’m not a fan.
3. People expect me to speak Chinese – People seem disappointed or surprised and think it’s really funny when they realize I don’t know how to speak Mandarin fluently. “Aren’t you Chinese?” So I often have to explain… in Mandarin of course… Yes, I am Chinese. But I was born and raised in America, and my parents are from Guangdong so I grew up learning Cantonese. I like to play a game now, and try to see how long I can go on speaking without people realizing I’m still learning the language. People also sometimes eye me suspiciously, then point and say, “You look Chinese.”

I leave Beijing this Saturday for Guangdong to visit my grandparents and my mom's best friend from her childhood. It'll be comforting to be somewhere where I can understand fully what people are saying! xP