Aug 27 2008
Life in China
Taking a cold shower in the middle of winter in an apartment with no heat takes some getting used to.
That is true of many things in rural China. At first you wonder how people do it, but soon you realize that having water of any temperature is sufficient.
I moved to Benxi, China in January of 2003. Having graduated from college with a B.A. in English, I was going nowhere fast without a clue as to what I wanted to do with my life.
A friend had studied in Beijing and suggested teaching ESL in China. I couldn’t believe that hadn’t occurred to me sooner. It would give me the chance to live somewhere outside the U.S., far away from home, and I could also find out if being a teacher was my calling.
Getting to Benxi was a long journey. I flew from Green Bay to Detroit, Detroit to Tokyo and Tokyo to Shenyang. From Shenyang it was about a 45-minute cab ride to Benxi. I arrived late at night and immediately suspected that moving there was the biggest mistake of my life.
That first night was excruciating. I did not get a single minute’s worth of sleep. I was paralyzed with fear, suddenly realizing just how far away from home I really was. I did not know anyone or speak the language. Sitting on my tiny bed in my apartment I thought, this is exactly what happens when someone does not think before they act.
The next day was an entirely different story. I met the Westerners I would be working with at a private school that taught English to people of all ages. There were a few Canadians, a guy from New Zealand and a couple Americans. Their ages ranged from late teens to early 50s.
What is most striking about living in rural China is the vast difference between what we would consider ordinary daily life here and what constitutes ordinary daily life there. I had been embarrassingly ignorant of the true poverty afflicting a majority of the country.
The lack of hot water and heat applied to all residences and buildings there, not just my living quarters. With a climate similar to a Midwestern city, Benxi is brutally cold in January and February. The school I worked in was not heated. The teachers and students wore winter coats, hats and gloves and did their best to ignore the fact that they were freezing.
Pollution in China is infinitely worse than pollution here. On the sunniest day you could not see more than a few feet in front of you. The air was thick with smog, causing breathing to feel like eating dirt. At the end of the day your clothes would be filthy from it.
They eat anything and everything in China, including dogs. Skinny and dirty canines roamed all over the city, fortunate if they could find some garbage to dine on. Driving around town, you would see dogs chained up outside restaurants, waiting to be killed and cooked.
Poverty is everywhere. On my first day in Benxi I saw numerous homeless people (including children) using the street as a toilet. On some days beggars seemed to outnumber everyone else.
Despite bearing witness to all this, China was a remarkable place to live. Nothing will make you appreciate life here like living there for three months. The people work long days seven days a week (there is no concept of weekend) without complaining. The hospitality is second to none. They are fascinated by Westerners and want to hear as many stories about America as you will share with them.
I returned here with a renewed sense of gratitude. More than five years later, when I start to complain about something trivial like lukewarm water in the shower, I remind myself what it was like to live in Benxi. I remember how quickly I adapted to taking cold showers in a cold apartment, knowing that thousands in the same city would not be showering at all.
Considering there was no toilet paper in public restrooms in Benxi, Charmin is something I will never take for granted.
