Vegetarian: Old Word for 'Bad Hunter'

As many of you know, I have been cutting meat out of my diet for the past year and a half now. It's not for any political or ethical reasons; in fact, I have often been known to joke that, if you can catch it, kill it, and eat it, then that's natural selection at work. Rather, it's because I think the amount of meat in a typical American diet is unhealthy, especially given the growing problems with the quality of the meat itself due to the use of chemicals, hormones, etc. I had originally only planned to eat less meat, and become as 'oftenarian', as I told my friends, but I found that I felt better when I ate less of it, so the times I did imbibe became less and less frequent. Now, I've still been known to scarf down a Chick-fil-a sandwich on occasion, I still have no problem cooking meat for other people, and I would never try to convince a carnivore to make the same decision (I think everyone's bodies are different and therefore need different things), but I stick mostly to fish (preferably wild), dairy, and eggs nowadays.

That's all fine and well in the Western world, but in China, that decision makes me the strangest of exceptions rather than the rule. Eating meat, especially pork, has a long and illustrious history in Chinese culture. Traditionally, eating meat was a status symbol, since most Chinese people were peasants that subsisted mostly on grains and other produce and could only afford meat on the most special occasions. The word for 'pork' is actually the same word for 'meat' in the wider sense, and in today's China, it's in pretty much every dish, whether in chunks, strips, or ground into the sauce. China now produces 1/3 of the world's meat, and is the largest producer of pork. Interesting tidbit: of the pork farms in China, over 60% are single family farms with less than 5 animals. Other interesting tidbit: the population of pigs in China is twice the population of the United States.

So, I think I've proven the point that meat is important in China, but not to me. Needless to say, I was not surprised when, after I'd been picked up from the airport, driven to my apartment, dropped my stuff off, and dragged my exhausted and jetlagged body to the company cafeteria to eat my lunch, the chef placed three dishes down in front of me: fatty pork (which is like chunks of stir-fried bacon), thinly-sliced strips of beef, and a cabbage dish with pork chunks in it. Not wanting to be rude, I picked the pork out of the cabbage and ate that with the rice he'd also given me, and then I steeled myself to go have the inevitably awkward conversation with him. After I'd explained in Mandarin that I don't eat meat, watching his face get slowly more suspicious and confused, I waited for his response. He seemed genuinely concerned when he replied softly, 'But then...what DO you eat?'

After I assured him that eggs, fish, vegetables, grains, fruit, tofu, and pretty much everything besides meat were totally cool with me, he seemed reassured. And after I'd spent my first afternoon unpacking and buying necessities like water and clothes hangers, I came back to the cafeteria for dinner and was treated to this lovely sight:

Since that first day, everyone at the cafeteria has been amazingly helpful and accommodating, although I do occasionally have to answer questions like, 'Well, what about spinach? Do you eat spinach? Or green beans? Or tofu?' As if these things may somehow fall under my definition of 'meat', and therefore be off-limits.

I should probably also explain my living situation, to make this all make more sense. You see, the company I'm working for, the Continental Hope Group, provided me with an apartment for the summer. And a nice, large apartment at that! I have a living room, two bedrooms (although it is unclear why I need both), a bathroom, and a dining room...and a "kitchen". I use the quotation marks because the kitchen is literally a room with a sink, cabinets, and the place where a stove and oven once were. When they'd originally told me I could eat at the company cafeteria, I found it superfluous, since I love to cook, but once I saw the equipment (or lack thereof), I realized the cafeteria would be a necessity, not a luxury.

So over the weekend, I ate at the cafeteria, settled into my apartment, walked around the area to explore and find necessities like the nearest ATM, and counted down the hours until I would start work on Monday. You see, last weekend is probably the most alone I have ever been, in the truest sense of the word. I've traveled a lot, don't get me wrong, but I've always had my family, a school group, a study abroad program, or at least one other student or friend with me. But in Chengdu, until I started work, I didn't know a single soul, and I had an apartment to myself...which I have also never had. It was hard, honestly. I was worried that I wouldn't meet people, wouldn't like the ones I worked with, and then I'd have eight weeks just watching the clock until it was time for my friend Cate to come from Taiwan and travel with me. And to me, being extroverted almost to a fault, this was a scary thought.

Of course, that was not the case. I started work on Monday, and found that my coworkers are a friendly group, many close to my age, and some who even speak some English and want to practice with me. I'm working with the real estate division of Continental Hope Group, specifically with the team that is developing a luxury project called Atlantis that is close to Chengdu. I'm supposed to help them with their English outreach and advertising, plan some events for Westerners in Chengdu to get acquainted with the development, and help them look over proposals for different real estate investments in Europe and the Americas.

My first week went well, but it was an adjustment getting used to the pace of the corporate world outside of the US once again. I often say (only half in jest) that efficiency is an American concept, and it's true. When I worked in India, it took me a few weeks to figure out that tardiness was expected, tea breaks were often, and lunch breaks were long. In China, it is somewhat the same. People in my office tend to work from exactly 830 am to exactly 530 pm, and I've noticed that playing on phones and making personal calls is completely acceptable. Probably the weirdest thing I've seen so far is that it seems perfectly normal for coworkers to take short (and even medium-length) naps at the desks after lunch! A normal day for me in my first week involved sitting in on a meeting or two, taking a trip to see one of the projects or hotels the company owns in the area, and then reading a brochure or book about the company and its operations. Naturally, that didn't ever take me the whole day, so I was sure to bring books and articles to read for myself to stay busy the rest of the time.

Because it was the week of the biannual sales meeting, all of the company bigwigs were in town, so I was also treated to my first Chinese business dinner. With twelve of my coworkers (most of them the higher-up executives), we went to a traditional Sichuanese hotpot restaurant, which is sort of like a Chinese version of fondue, but much more intense. The center of every table has a large pot over a flame, filled with a salty soup and also a broth made with chili oil, and you cook the different items all together and then fish them out and eat them individually. Once again, my pescatarianism was brought up, as people were concerned I wouldn't eat food cooked in the same pot as meat. Once I assured them this was the case, they were then worried that it would be too spicy for me. Sichuan is the second-spiciest regional cuisine in China, and uses a special type of pepper that is what they call a 'mala', or tingling spice. I do indeed love spicy food, but the Sichuanese are rather proud of their singular spice, so people always seem impressed when I can actually handle the heat.

The rest of my week at work went by quickly, the high point being a trip to see the site of the Atlantis development, which is probably one of the most opulent developments I've ever seen (for a preview, check out the Chinese website here: http://www.dlatlantis.com/). Before I knew it, it was Friday, and I had a long weekend ahead!

On Friday night, I went with two of my coworkers to explore a bit of downtown Chengdu. We took the subway into the city (I live about 10 km outside of the center), and emerged in the bustling central shopping district. After walking around and admiring the large buildings, beautiful shopping malls, and general chaos that is a Chinese city, we went to eat dinner in a food court of a type that has become popular here. When you enter the court, you put a certain amount of money on a plastic card (looks like a hotel room key), and then you can gather various dishes from the different stalls. There were all sorts of foods, and I had sushi, shrimp dumplings, and fried rice, along with some deliciously fresh mango juice. We also made what I always call a 'pilgrimage' to Carrefour, which is a French chain that is pretty much the only grocery store that stocks Western foods from recognizable brands. Now, I love Chinese food, don't get me wrong. But anyone who has lived overseas knows that there are days when you want something familiar, so I overpaid significantly to buy a jar of peanut butter and a jar of Nutella to keep at my apartment for just those days. By this time it was getting late and my residual jetlag was starting up, so we headed home soon after. Here are my two favorite shots from the experience:

I was up early again in the morning, this time for a sightseeing adventure outside of the city. One of Joe's best friends is from Chengdu, and his father had offered to take me and one of his son's friends to see two famous sites that are within driving distance from Chengdu. First up was Wenchuan, which was the epicenter of the 8.0 magnitude earthquake that rocked Sichuan Province in 2008. The town has now been mostly rebuilt by the government to accommodate tourists that want to come and see the remains of the wreckage, as well as to commemorate those lost in the quake.

 The most heartbreaking part of the town is the memorial that was built on the site of the town school, which was severely damaged in the quake, killing several students and teachers. The wreckage remains as a monument, with the Chinese flag flying over it and the clock commemorating the exact time of the earthquake on May 12. Beside it is a plaque that talks about what happened in the school and the quake in general, and dedicates the monument to those Chinese people who died that day and in the aftermath.

It was a sobering visit, and I have to admit that I was somewhat relieved when we left and headed on to our next stop, which was much less somber. Sichuan province is home to a UNESCO World Heritage site at the Dujiangye Water Project, which is an irrigation system that was designed and built 2,000 years ago and is still functional today. It has become a large tourist attract and museum, and has funny little details like the (vaguely creepy) pandas that walk around to take pictures with visitors that can only happen in China. For the record, the pose was the panda's idea!

 Although the project itself is a bit complicated, here's a diagram...suffice it to say that it simultaneously regulates water levels, prevents flooding, diverts water for irrigation, and filters sediments from the soil. Pretty impressive, huh? 

 By the time we'd walked around the extensive project, we were all hungry, so we went to another type of Sichuan restaurant, which specializes in baking meats and fish with veggies and (you guessed it!) Sichuan peppers. I ate far too much and we stayed out far too late, but it was a lovely evening with Mr. Chen, Florence (pictured), and her boyfriend.

Sunday was once again an early wakeup call, because I was going to a Chinese church! The government has relaxed its stance on Christianity in recent years, and so some legal churches have sprung up, despite the still-extensive paperwork that is required to begin one. One of the mothers from the church came and picked me up, and it wasn't until we got to the service that I realized I had no idea how to say the most basic religious words in Mandarin. God, Jesus, Spirit, Scripture, soul...these are not things that are taught in classes or even used in most Chinese conversations! Given that I was the only foreigner there and the entire service was in Mandarin, it was a bit of a struggle to figure out what was going on, but I definitely enjoyed it. I even recognized some of the songs, which were mostly English hymns that had been translated.

After church, I went with several girls around my age and Mrs. Huang (the woman who'd introduced me to the church) to lunch at a famous Sichuan hotpot restaurant. I wasn't particularly hungry due to the huge volume of food I'd consumed the night before, but I dug in so as not to be rude. After lunch, we also went to a prayer meeting at the house of one of the churches' members, and everyone wanted to take pictures with me, so here's the best one:

Once the meeting was over, Mrs. Huang drove me to meet another friend, Tian, for dinner in one of the oldest parts of Chengdu. It has been renovated to look as it may have hundreds of years ago. By that time, I was so exhausted that all I wanted to do was go home and fall into bed, so after dinner, that's exactly what we did.

So there you have it, my first week in China! Told you I'd do better this summer, so keep checking for more updates :)