Feature

Live from China

Dr Salehuddin Ahmed

IN my last write up in the Star Campus, I promised that once I was in China, I would write about life in China and keep the readers informed about this fabulous country. We, my wife and I, reached Beijing on November 29, 2009 after spending two enjoyable days with my Bangladeshi student-friends at the Yunnan University, Kunming. In fact we celebrated Eid with them and we had lunch and dinner together. It was our first Eid in China.

I started work on the 1st. of December, 09, as the Chief Technical Advisor (CTA), Poverty Reduction, at the International Poverty Reduction Centre in China www.iprcc.org.cn IPRCC is a Chinese government Institution, set up in 2005. My wife is also doing a part-time job here as an English Editor. In China, there are great opportunities for people knowing good English.

If you remember, in my write up before, I mentioned that I would be coming to China to further learn Chinese language, but then I got this job offer and decided to take it. This would serve two purposes, one learning Chinese and also work in my profession. That is why we are in Beijing now, going to spend at least a year (if not more) here.

Now that we have spent more than a month in Beijing and slowly settling down, we thought it would be interesting to share about life in Beijing and China. As you may know, Beijing is a very big city, very spread out with population of about 17 million. There are many high rise buildings all over. The most fascinating part of Beijing is, it has very wide roads. We were astonished to see 8-lane roads in the centre of the city. Even though Beijing is such an old city, it is amazing how the city planners in those days could think of such wide roads.

Beijing Airport is another huge establishment. There are several modes of transport from there to the City, taxis, subway, buses and of course special rent a car services. The fares from airport to city are, Taxi 70 Yuan, Airport Express Train 25 Yuan per person and Bus 16 yuan per person.

For the first few days we were finding our ways around. In China, it is very difficult to move around if you do not know Chinese. However you will find that youngsters will know little English, but would not use them so easily. So it was good that I learned Chinese for about a year in Bangladesh for a year and this is becoming very helpful. So we walked around, learned how to ride Beijing Subway system. Beijing Subway system is really very effective and efficient. The Subway network is quite extensive. The fare is fixed for any distance. It is only 2 Yuan per person, which is approx Tk.20. So we went to famous places like the Tian An Men Square. It is a very big square where the Great People's Hall and the tomb of Mao Tse Dong, Forbiden City are located.

The Beijing Taxi (green and yellow coloured) service is also very efficient. You will always find a taxi on the road. Just show your hand, a taxi will stop. Taxi fares are quite reasonable. For 4 to 5 kilometer journey we pay about 15 Yuan. Unlike Dhaka, taxi drivers will never refuse to go anywhere, whether short or long distance. When you reach a destination, an automatic receipt comes out of a small machine on the dashboard, which will have the taxi number, fare, date, time, distance, telephone numbers of the taxi company etc. printed on it. You should always take the receipt before you get down. There are reasons, e.g., if the taxi driver misbehaves or wants extra fare or you forget something in the taxi, you can call the company and register your complaints and get redress. One thing very interesting in China, there is no concept of tips. Taxi drivers or restaurant service people will never take any tips, just pay the exact amount or they will return changes. Taxi drivers, bus drivers conductors and subway staff are very courteous to foreigners. In general they say Ni Hao (hello) when they meet. If you say Ni Hao first, they would definitely response with a smile.

There are also numerous buses plying on the streets of Beijing, another efficient mode of transport. While I am in the office, my wife discovers Beijing on Subway and buses. On weekends, we together go places on different transports. Today for example we took a bus and went to do some shopping for our home. Beijing is full of shopping malls. These are really big malls, comparable to the American ones. There are many Boshundhora Cities in Beijing. So today we discovered that there is a big Wal Mart not very far from our rented apartment. So we bought some household and food items from there. Now we know how to ride Beijing Buses, another very efficient transport. Again bus fares are fixed, only 1 Yuan for any distance. If you have a card it is less. We bought computerized cards. You can insert money in the cards and these cards are valid on Subway and Buses. Everything is automated here. You just touch the card on the machine as you enter, the necessary fare will be automatically deducted and the machine will say how much money is left in your card. When it goes low, there are machines to recharge your card. Of course there are also systems to buy tickets from the counter in the Subway or the conductor in the buses.

I will stop here today and will write again in the future on other aspects of Beijing and China. Hope readers of Star Campus will enjoy my stories from China. Today I wrote mainly on the transport system in Beijing. I will think about what I could write next. There are so many experiences we are gathering in our new life in a new country among new people. In general we are finding it really enjoyable. I am sure more interesting experiences await us in the future. If readers have comments or inquiries, please write to me in my email below. I will try to address those in my next instalment, of course if Star Campus would accept my write ups. A belated Happy New Year to you all.

Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed
(Ex Pro-VC, BRACU)
Email: sahmed46@gmail.com
Beijing/January 10, 2010