Beijing Culture Shock; Nine Things Westerners Aren't Used To

 

 Being in Beijing is naturally a bit of a culture shock, especially when you've lived in Britain for most of your life and all the countries you've wandered to have been primarily Western countries. One of the reasons I decided to travel and work in Beijing is to fully experience an Asian country, something that I knew would be an entirely different world. Coming from a country that's arguably overly polite - we apologise and say thank you every second word, we queue no matter where we are and we're hell bent on everything being fair - being somewhere that has all of these mannerisms turned on their head is an interesting experience to say the least.

1. Smog

 Although the smog is supposed to be a massive issue it isn't something that really bothered me until after a week in when I got the flu. When you're ill you become hyper aware of the pollution you breathe in and a simple windy day can spell disaster for your lungs. It's not uncommon for Beijing to have such bad pollution that school in cancelled. There was once a time it was so bad for an entire month. Its scary to think of what you're breathing in on a daily basis.

2. People spit everywhere 

All the time. Maybe they're perpetually ill, maybe they just can't swallow well, who bloody knows. You'll find the street splattered with the contents of various peoples mouths. You'll also find yourself subconsciously rating various peoples hacking up and spitting from one to ten.

3. You will be stared at

You will be treated differently, and in some cases you'll like it. The least fun part is living in Beijing for a little while and still having people blatantly stare at you, even the slow up and down check out. Its interesting at first but gets old very fast. Even if you're covered head to toe with everything but your eyes covered they'll spot you a mile off. The plus side to this is a kind of disgusting western privilege type of deal you get. Go into certain clubs and they'll usher you in for free, give you their best seats and provide you free alcohol for the rest of the night. It gets to the point where you could throw up in the club and they'll leave you there without fighting to get you out.

Fun fact: Throwing up in front of your friends in China is deemed a sign of respect, that you're comfortable enough to present the contents of your stomach to them. So never feel embarrassed, let it all go!

4. Cigarettes and alcohol are /unfortunately/ extremely cheap

You can get a twenty pack of good-ish cigarettes for as low as 70p. Whereas a 12 crate of beer, big bottles too, would be £3.50. Painful. Trying to keep your body in check is one of the biggest challenges of living in Beijing. However the subway, my God, it's insanely cheap. You could travel from one end of Beijing to the other end, or make as many transfers as you want in one ride, and never pay over 70p. Take that London.

5. The toilets! 

I managed to completely overlook this little difference before I landed in China, and then low and behold I had the biggest shock going to the bathroom in the airport. All the toilets here are squat toilets. It took me a solid week and more than one drunken mishap until I could comfortably use one without embarrassing myself. Not to mention that some people leave their doors flying wide open as they take a dump. A bit of a shock to say the least. Some places do have western toilets, such as restaurants and tourist spots but there's usually only one and its instantly a commodity if you're travelling as a group.

6. Beijing has some... interesting smells

It's hands down the smelliest city I've been to. Walk past a manhole cover and hunny it ain't covered properly because that stuff reeks. Mix it with the smell of stray dogs, pollution and amazing street food and your nose is downright confused. 

7. Almost everything is out of date

Biscuits, noodles, chocolate, beer. It's not even small local Chinese stores, Walmart stocks itself up with out of date Pringles and milk dating all the way back to 2016. The other weird thing is that its standard practice. You just have to find the things you're willing to eat out of date. Oreos are usually a fairly safe option, however out of date milk I'd stay well clear of, even if it does look alright. It took me a week of drinking relentlessly until I was told the beer is years out of date. Strangely enough I think it genuinely tastes better. Chinese beer as a rule is lighter but

8. You can't drink the tap water

 Unless you particularly want to be ill for whatever reason. In Beijing you have two options; either boil tap water or order large bottles of purified drinking water. The latter is usually the best option.

9. The traffic is ridiculous

Scooters, bikes and motorbikes have complete free reign with where they can go. Don't be deceived that just because you're on the pavement that you're not going to be almost ran over every two seconds. The roads themselves are bad enough with huge crossings and solid 3 minute waits for the green light but it seems you have to have your wits about you every second you're outside.There's also an urban legend that if someone runs you over they have to pay for your medical bills for the rest of your life. So horrifically enough if you do get hit you'll probably be reversed into again just to finish the job. Good luck.

A few more peculiarities:
So many dogs wear clothes, especially the teeny ones. No that isn't a rat in a sparkly pink leotard, it's just your neighbors pug.
The subway plays some fucked up macabre 'security' warnings on repeat. You'll see cartoon people bleeding out on the floor and being burnt alive all in the name of safety with intermittent episodes of Shaun the Sheep and Chinese propaganda.