Make Way For Liberty

So I've decided I'm going to attempt three posts per week. I'm going to try to make them short, sweet and full of goodness for you to fill your brains with.

As you could've guessed, we made it to a 4th of July barbecue. It was put on by the American Chamber of Commerce and can best be described at an oasis of Western-ism in the middle of, well, a bunch of lakes of Western-ism.

One thing I have come to enjoy about this city is that if you are really missing home, it's not that hard to find, more or less, exactly what you're looking for, and sometimes it's even better.

What was I missing most? (Aside from my family and friends...well at least most of you!):Pizza, ranch dressing, ESPN, driving a car and cheap domestic beer. I know I know, proud staples of American-ism. So what did I do about it?

Well there are literally pizza places every other block or so, but have you ever had pizza with ketchup as the sauce? Welcome to Chinese pizza. Maybe the Pizza Hut will have real pizza...nope, it's a nice sit-down Italian restaurant with pizza resembling pita bread with cheese melted on top of it. But a little Swedish-run gem we found tucked into the side of two of our favorite night clubs has made all (okay two) of my wildest dreams come true: real pizza and caeser-like dressing that they call ranch that I close my eyes and eat and imagine as if I were in the frat with a Little Caeser's Hot'n'Ready, pure bliss.

So what about actual sports? The world cup has been a blast, but the amount of soccer (not football), volleyball, badminton and ping-pong I've seen is disturbing. Well, this wonderful thing called the internet (we'll nick name him Al G) knows exactly what I need, and Al G is always there to deliver. Sure, sometimes Al G is censored and youtube is nowhere to be found, but there are simple ways around this and, so long as you aren't being a pesky organizer, you're free to go about your sports watching business. I even enjoy watching baseball over here, so long as I get to here the "duh duh duh, duh duh duh" of sportscenter every once in a while.

Driving a car? Well that one goes along with the cheap domestic beer discovery. Major round-abouts in the city have sobriety checkpoints, even though it seems you need to be drunk to possibly navigate the way people drive here. But head to the local 沃尔玛 (Woerma...Wal-Mart!!) and pick up a three-pack of 600 mL 百威 (Budweiser, duh) and find the nearest go-kart track; Not only is drinking and go-karting allowed, it's encouraged as there is a bar built into the racing facility (told you, something cooler than America).

People might wonder why you'd want to travel to China just to find all of its Western comforts. This post is meant to show you that if you really miss home, this can be a home too. Chinese people feel towards their 老外 (laowai; lit. revered outsider. The colloquial term for a foreigner) that Chinese culture is rich with tradition and history. But they also welcome every person from everywhere and many many cultures represent themselves in many ways and places all over modern Beijing. Chinese hospitality towards foreigners, and especially Westerners, is unmatched; violent crimes against foreigners in China are virtually unheard of, and with over 70 million people expected to visit Shanghai over the course of the World Expo, "Eastern Hospitality" might be a term we start hearing more often.