(吃一堑，长一智) A fall into the pit, A gain in your wit

吃一堑，长一智. This is a Chinese saying that roughly translates to “a fall into the pit, a gain in your wit.” Now I haven’t heard anyone use this phrase in my time in China, but I felt it summarized my journey in Shenzhen thus far. To me, each new experience is like entering the unknown. You might as well have fallen into a pit.

To be clear however, in the 21st century, there’s not really such a thing as the real unknown anymore. A quick Google (or Baidu) search can tell you the basics about anything. Coming in, I knew that in Shenzhen the city folk speak Chinese (Mandarin), that the city is one of the largest and densest in the world with a (mostly foreign) population of 15 million, and that Shenzhen is only 1 degree above the equator and thus very hot.

This was all I knew before coming here. However, this basically told me nothing. It was only after arriving that I really learned what these things meant in terms of experiencing the city. For example, although this city has a large population of 15 million, it’s been surprisingly hard to find someone who speaks English in the streets. These people exist for sure, they’ve just be rare to find. Much to my amusement, this has made many simple things difficult. Like knowing which bus stop to get off at, or even ordering one large packet of fries from McDonalds. (On my first day in Shenzhen, I tried to order a one set of fries, only to be given 5 sets of fries. Apparently the english word for one sounds a lot like the chinese word for five -wan ).

Despite the obvious language barrier, it’s surprisingly easy to move about the city. A sentiment many of my co-interns share is that it feels very western while still feeling like China. It’s both familiar and foreign. If I knew exactly where I was going all the time, walking about the city could feel as if I walking about New York City.

However, you only need to look up to know this is not New York. Even with Central Park, NYC could never be as green as Shenzhen. Everywhere I look, I see the stereotypical Chinese Skyscrapers surrounded by gorgeous Chinese countryside green. I should also add that the city is huge. Last Saturday, we spent 3 hours venturing ‘out of the city’ to Dapeng Fortress only to still be in Shenzhen. I never could have imagined such a large urban city looking so much like a jungle. Let me add that the constant humid heat only help reinforce that jungle image. Everyone in Shenzhen is constantly covered in a thin layer of sweat, although I will admit that the weather is still strangely bearable.

I’ve been in Shenzhen for almost a week already, but I can already tell that I’ve gained a lot of wit. To summarize how I feel about Shenzhen, I’ll use some of that Mandarin I’ve been gratefully learning in CRCC Asia classes. “Wo shi mei gui ren, dan wo xihuan Zhong guo.” I am American, but I like China. It’s basic but you get the point.

Shenzhen, I’m looking forward to more.

The post (吃一堑，长一智) A fall into the pit, A gain in your wit appeared first on CRCC Asia.