23 May 2018

100 Days in China: Dreams do come true

“When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are.

Anything your heart desires will come to you.

If your heart is in your dreams, no request is too extreme

when you wish upon a star as dreamers do.”

Hitting two birds in one stone? That’s not the right phrase for me. Setting foot on Quanzhou back in December 2017 broke all that negativities that I cannot return to China during my own expected time. It was a plain wishful thinking never in my life I could have predicted. And setting foot now on Beijing broke all that prejudice that I can’t fulfil even one of my travel bucketlist in the nearest future.


First let me just tell you the time I am applying for the renewal of my passport. My first passport expired June of 2015, that’s a year after my college graduation from Jinan University in Guangzhou. I should have renewed it before December 2014 because airlines cannot accept passports that are nearing expiration. But I only renewed it January 2016. Reason: I hesitated. I do not know if I will have the chance to go abroad because I have just started my career back then. The thing that forced me to do it is when one of my younger sisters is set to join Xiamen Summer Tour. She needs to apply for a new passport, so to lessen all the hassle, my mother and I opted to renew ours. I thought back then it will just be a waste of money, aside from getting a “national government ID”, it has no other use for me for the next five years. The day I got my renewed passport just brought disappointment. This does not make any sense, I remembered criticizing myself. But some part of me still managed to remain optimistic that there will be a time that my passport will be of use.

That passport lied stagnant for days, weeks, and months. Stress and burden also went heavier and heavier for days, weeks, and months. Then I started to seek for refuge. I thought of China. I missed all the places I found myself lying on a bench or a boulder, looking at the sky, closing my eyes and enjoying the peace and silence of the night. In Manila, how I admire bystanders doing the same thing I did. But I just can’t find genuine peace even in the most “peaceful” corners of the city. Dreaming of going back to China always comes in every time self-control and inner peace are lost. Will I see Chinese stamps on my passport again? Well, what I got at first were Taiwan stamps May of 2017. Five days in Taiwan, however, did not fill up the emptiness of China in me. I still long for it. I even dreamt of it (see my first post). My heart wanted peace, I wanted freedom. Wish ko lang sana magkatotoo. (I hope it will come true)

Finally I got a Chinese stamp December 2017 and another one March 2018, just eighty days ago. As stated in the first post, during my one hundred days here in Beijing, I am looking forward to be visiting the Great Wall and the Bird’s Nest. I was also earnestly hoping for a snowfall, but I did check the weather forecast before coming to this place, and it just made my snowfall wish hopeless. So I just convinced myself I am not seeing a snowfall at least for now.

Coming to Beijing is the first check I ticked beside the travel wishlist. I thanked God for this unexpected gift of coming back to China and having been set foot on Beijing is already “two birds in one stone.” My two other “Chinese dreams” will now be easy to fulfil because I have more than enough time to visit them (one hundred days, duh). So I was just waiting for the school’s arrangement on which of the Beijing sights we shall be going to and when. The school marked March 31 as the day to visit the Great Wall, which means we have to visit the Bird’s Nest by ourselves and perhaps lay an egg, just kidding.

Yes, it was March. Winter was bound to end. However, the weather was still between sub-zeros to positive single digit degrees Celsius. With this kind of temperature, fool is the one who have come from a tropical nation to say it is not chilly. I wore four clothes on top and two pants to survive. Winds were at times strong enough to blow little children away. No snow, just ice-cold feels. Fortunately we had heaters in our apartments. We all expect this winter wonderland without snow when we got here. Things remained the same until March 17.

Weather forecasts said it will rain in Beijing for the whole day that day. I was set to accompany the other two teachers from the Philippines (clarification: in contrast to the first post, I never knew I won’t be the lone PH representative, but it is really nice to have them here, especially they’re from Xavier School, the brother school of my alma mater, Tiong Se Academy) to buy more clothes to survive this kind of weather. As I was going out of the room, our class president from Thailand told me that it is snowing. I did not hear him very well at first, but he repeated and pointed towards the window. I rushed towards it and saw with my own eyes little drops of white falling from the sky. OH MY GOD! It is indeed snowing!

It was very light at first, it felt like droplets of water solidified in the air and falling slowly towards the ground. Once the little snow drops on your hand, it melts almost immediately. I and my classmates were walking with glee under the snowfall. Well, selfie generation as we are “legitimately” labelled, selfie here, video chat there. Every one of us, whether in proper winter clothes or in PJs were just in awe and obvious disbelief. How could there be a snowfall in the middle of March?

We left the school with the snow getting more and more heavier. We might be enjoying the snow but there’s actually a “consequence”, it went colder. We were waiting for the public transport for more than ten minutes and my body was starting to shake. Thank heavens some colorum vehicles showed up and offered a ride. My co-teachers from the Philippines could not bear the cold, I think, so we agreed to the driver’s price and went to the clothing store. The snow persisted until noontime. By the time we went back the school, there were whites on the plants and trees. That’s when I started to take photos and selfies. More students were at the school grounds to take pictures of the “late winter phenomenon.” I can imagine the foreign students who waited for the entire winter for this but the snow was such a spoiler in the time they expected it to come. I was happy for them, most especially, I was happy for myself, finally I saw legit snow, it came from the sky, not from the hands of my brother who used to get “snow” from the fridge and out of the blue would just throw at me hahaha.

The snow activity subsided few minutes past one in the afternoon. All of us were talking about it, in every social media we know, the feels still remained until the next few days. It was really fun to be in the snow, but I wished I could have another chance of experiencing it. Some of my classmates remarked that they are not expecting anymore, once is enough. But I knew there might be another chance, especially after reading the comment of Ate Jan (my churchmate in Manila) that she had experienced snow in Hunan (which is way south of Beijing) in the month of April, I kept my hopes high. Well I thought to myself, with or without second chance, I am satisfied. I have just hit the third bird in one stone.

The “snow thoughts” were set aside for the moment as we prepare to visit the Bird’s Nest and conquer the Great Wall. It was the next two Saturdays after the snow event. March 24, I, together with my classmates, a.k.a. new found friends/cohorts in shenanigans toured the Beihai Park (the ancient park west of the Forbidden City) and witnessed the beauty of the night with the Bird’s Nest illuminating the scene. All of the people coming to see the Beijing Olympic stadium all had joyous faces, but I had another reason to smile upon seeing the Bird’s Nest: it is the fulfilment of my dreams, of my family’s dreams. Earlier that day, two of my sisters just graduated with flying colors, one from elementary and the other one from senior high school. Seeing the Bird’s Nest coinciding with my sisters’ graduation is a remarkable moment. It was just my twenty-third day on Beijing, but it felt everything is sulit (worth it). Take note that I haven’t set foot on the Great Wall yet at that time. But the best is yet to come!

With the Great Wall still left on my Beijing wishlist, it felt good to be finally the excluded in the list of the “fei hao han” with literal meaning of “not a true hero.” Mao Zedong once written that “A man who has not been to the Great Wall is not a true hero” to emphasize its historical significance among the Chinese people. Some Chinese colleagues at my school sometimes refer to this saying whenever they learned that with my four years of studies in China, I however haven’t been on the Great Wall. Okay… I sometimes feel bad about it, but I always reply saying, there will always be a chance. And that chance came on March 31. Though it is Black Saturday, we are in an atheist nation so Black Saturday is just a normal day for them.

We went to the Juyongguan section of the Wall, because the famous Badaling section is teeming with tourists and it won’t be fun if we go there. Inside the bus, we all looked outside of the window every time we passed by a mountain to see portions of the Great Wall. After several minutes, we got excited upon seeing the Wall sitting on a hill, but the fun actually started when we start climbing the Wall. Oh boy it was not as easy as you think! While it seemed okay when you look from afar, but the terrain is steep and the distance between steps are high. Some of my schoolmates did not make it to the top of the hill due to exhaustion. I am stout so I had to make stopovers so that I can continue climbing. There were some interruptions due to selfies and groupies. Finally after an hour, I’ve reached the top! True enough, the Juyongguan section of the wall is fun because tourists are few, no other people bothering you with words like “can you be a little faster?” “oh what a slowpoke” “excuse me, you’re blocking my view”. In fact, I had a section of the wall all by myself; well it was only for several minutes until lots of elderly people, retirees I guess, climbed up to reach the top.

So in just one month:

I’ve set foot on Beijing;

I’ve experienced snow;

I’ve visited the Bird’s Nest;

I’ve been to the Great Wall.

So “two birds” even “four birds in one stone” is not appropriate anymore. It was like I have hit the jackpot.

But there was another thing that made my complete wishlist more complete.

April 4. We were all prepared to have a good night sleep and completely disregard the “fake” weather forecast of a snowfall because it will be holiday the next day (the Pure Brightness Fesitival, or the “All Souls Day” of the Chinese). I was literally on my bed when my Indonesian roommate suddenly said “it is snowing”. I looked outside my window and EVERYTHING IS WHITE! I changed back to my winter attire and knocked on the doors of my classmates and they were also thrilled to see the HEAVY snowfall and the whiteness of the surroundings. We were all shouting like children as we step on the snow. On the school grounds, almost all of the students, if not all, were there, some extending their arms towards the air feeling the snow dropping on them, some danced in the snow, some attempted to make a snowman, some threw snowballs at each other (I ridiculed people bringing umbrellas but that’s when it becomes useful). I remembered when I told my students if there’s snow, I would lie down and wade. I did, but for a short time only, I never knew it will be real bone-piercing when you do it, now I know hahaha. I roamed around the school and whenever I take pictures, I can only say that coming here to Beijing is everything but a surprise.

One of my students messaged me on Facebook. He wished he could experience the same feeling I had with the snow falling around. I told him, just believe like I did. But I forgot to tell him that before believing, we have to dream first, because it is the first step. I am 25. But I still do not stop from dreaming and believing. I am not afraid to tell everyone that I still dream and wish for something to happen. So do not suppress your mind to dream and believe. Dreaming is free, it does not have an age limit. Don’t tell other people that dreaming is “only for kids”. Maybe for some people, dreaming is their only way to convince themselves there is still hope in life. If you know a friend whose dreams have come true, don’t forget to congratulate them. Be happy for them. If you had yours coming to reality, for sure they will be happy for you also.

(To be continued…)

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