Baumgart: Chinese Travelogue

THERE’S something about China that just makes you walk.

During peak hours, you can see a blur of people brisk walking to different buildings without even missing a step. And while some bump onto (really hard, may I add) you and each other, nothing seems to stop them.

Walking is a way of life. Here’s their secret of being so skinny.

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With no PUJs to take you around from point A to point B, you are left with no other choice but to walk. And by walking, I mean the kind of walking where you walk several blocks before you reach your destination.

Our dormitory is located at the outskirts of our university campus, and with our campus being the size of Mars, it takes me about 30 minutes each day to make it to our classroom—on foot.

Since there are no shuttle cars to bring you to the campus either, walking or riding a bicycle are the only options students have in getting around. And while in the Philippines we are used to the traffic jams during rush hour, here we just see a steady stream of bicycles and students brisk walking to their classrooms.

An intense feeling of determination hangs in the air while walking, and people here will literally mow you over if you stand in their path. Really. I nearly got hit by a bicycle, twice. And it’s not really spectacular to be run over by a rusty bike.

Though I’m still contemplating on whether or not to buy a bike, walking around has become pretty entertaining for me. While I never enjoyed it back home in Cebu, mainly because of the heat and the horrible sidewalks, here, walking is a necessity.

Apparently walking is a big thing here. Despite women wearing killer heels, babies walking around with their butts exposed during winter (I am not making this up. Their butt cheeks are pink because of the cold. Pink butt cheeks are definitely cute, but the kids are literally freezing their butts off. Pants bottoms of babies are removed just to make things more convenient for them to go potty. I am digressing, I know), and old people hobbling around with their canes. Everybody is walking.

It took a while for me to get used to it, especially with the cold wind beating against your face and the two layers of tights constricting the blood flow in your legs. But now things are getting better around here.

While traveling by bus and the metro in China is incredibly reliable (am looking forward to seeing all of that in Cebu one day) especially with everything working like clockwork, we have come to the habit of walking around more.

Walking saves us a lot of money. That, and it spares us from the hassle of trying to talk to bus drivers and getting lost in the middle of nowhere.