Leonidas Ocampo 2015Morristown, NJ

Tsinghua University清华大学Beijing, China 北京，中国

September 2013-July 2014Political Science and International Affairs Dual Major

The University of New HampshireLee72@unh.edu

A Year in the East

I. How did you become interested in your foreign experience destination? What were some of your influences for choosing that country?

Having been born in Medellin, Colombia and being raised in the United States under a household that was determined to see my Latin roots firmly planted, my thought processes of “culture”, “values” and ways of life in general was destined to be dynamic and more cognizant than those of my peers. I became interested in the world outside of my home and country, wondering what else could lie beyond these continental boundaries. People are unique in appearance, history, character, principles and language among other things, and I was very keen to experience various forms of existence first hand. Maybe being born in a bilingual household makes me more equipped to learn new languages, yet I believe my desire to interact with people from all over the planet is what I credit my decision to choose a nation of complete difference to that of the US and Colombia.

What was your living situation like?  Did you live with a host family? Did you do much traveling within the country?  What places did you visit?

My program provided western styled accommodations in a young and very college oriented sector of the city. As part of my orientation experience at the beginning of each semester, I traveled to various tourist sites of Beijing and Shanghai as well as a northern city of Yinchuan and into the Alxa Desert of Inner Mongolia as part of the larger Gobi Desert. Towards the middle of my first semester I joined an environmental organization called RISE, which allowed me to volunteer in a rural town of Ningxia Province called mahuangshan. During my winter break I also managed to teach English in a small developing city of dingbian in the Shanxi Province for 8 days.

What were the cultural differences you noticed?  Any taboos?  Please share one “prime” anecdote from your foreign experience.

To explain the cultural differences between the US and China would require a dissertation to itself, however one that will always stand out to me is of the infamous “Beijing Belly”. Comparatively the weather in Beijing is near that of NYC, so upon arrival to the city in September it was uncomfortably hot and humid. Naturally that entails wearing comfortable clothing such as a T-shirt and shorts however I noticed the locals were all in long pants and long sleeves or T-shirts and noticeably under duress. To combat this discomfort, men and women would simply lift up their shirt to expose their bellies as a way to cool off and go on about their daily business leaving all foreigners in their path beguiled and bemused.

How has your understanding and knowledge of your host country evolved? Describe the most surprising thing you’ve learned about your host country/culture.

I describe my experience in two parts; my first semester I was a study abroad student while my second felt as if I was a local living my life in Beijing. Being exposed to the rural and urban sides of China allows you to see the dynamic culture of the Chinese, while being able to speak to them in their language really grants you unparalleled and direct understanding of thought processes and rationalizations. A thought provoking realization was the stark division in perception and attitude towards any/all foreigners, which is heavily influenced by their mutual history from the late 19th century to present day, them opening up to western culture and their development as a nation.

Has this experience changed how you view your first major?  Have you developed new awareness or interests?

This experience has allowed me to compare the political structure of the US and China and understand the various freedoms we hold dear and simultaneously are ignorant to everyday. The experience I had in China has cultivated and reinforced my newfound interest of using the world as my canvas and language as my tool to explore and experience all that this world can offer.

II.One thing you tend to hear before going to China is “WOW, China huh? What was that like?” To

tell you the truth I have no one clear way of explaining my thoughts; it’s something that must simply be experienced by the curious mind. When I mentioned I was going to Beijing in particular, people would go nuts and comment on how crowded it must be, how dirty and strange the people must be and just how awful it will be to live in a terribly polluted city of the world. I of course was not considerably worried over how my lungs would fare throughout the next year therefore I paid those comments no mind. If there were one reoccurring issue that peaked my interest during my stay in China, it would definitely be the big problem of polluted cities throughout China.

The way I try and describe the weather in Beijing to those who don’t know about it is by saying it fluctuates in extremes. The weather patterns and seasonal changes themselves can be readily compared to that of New York City, NY. The days without pollution, as I remember, were days with clear skies and a bright sun illuminating the Beijing cityscape. I truly looked forward to those days because it allowed the locals to see Beijing in its proper light; that of a modernized city that is an example of long-standing culture for the world and of success in business, politics and happy lifestyles for those in China. The Air Quality Index (AQI) shows the amount of pollution present in the air and is recommended by US Consulates of China to be checked on a regular basis to prepare accordingly at the start of each day. On some days the AQI would be at a low of 100-150 and it would be partly cloudy with a very light fog. On others it would rise between 200-300 and it would be a dull, partly cloudy day. On the worse of days the index would be well above 300 and the day would resemble dull, gray, and extremely foggy.

I never really considered the smog of Beijing to be so much of a problem prior to my trip, but as you go about your life in Beijing you realize just how bad it can get. On the more dreary days, it really was a risk to go out without a facemask that would protect your body from the toxic elements within the air. Sometimes on very polluted days, if you are in a cab, you may not be able to see 100 feet down the road, which can be a very unsettling experience.

The issue of pollution in Beijing is one of many different factors. One reason is it comes as a result of poor public policy within Beijing to stop or decrease the amount of contributors to pollution. The amount of personal vehicles alone in Beijing is a top contributor, even when there is a system in place to limit the amount of drivers on the road on any given day. The impressive public transportation system, in specific the metro, does assist the amount of pollutants released each day however there needs to be a more stringent policy to combat pollution. China’s massive industrialization and development over the past half century has certainly contributed to environmental degradation and air pollution in China. Although agricultural development and industrialization across the board has propelled China into a “super power” category of the world, it has come with a serious cost to its environment.

As a person who has lived in Beijing and experienced what it has to offer, I hold this issue very dear because of the implications it has on its citizens and the image it conveys to the world. During my stay I met people from all across the world and made friends with some incredible people with similar mentalities and aspirations to me. To lose this kind of cultural hub of the world would be devastating to people who desire to learn about different cultures and to the world in general. China’s role in this world has become very influential and within the coming years it will see even more growth and development. Beijing being a cultural and historical hub of China has a lot to offer and environmental degradation shouldn’t be a factor inhibiting its exposure to the world. Addressing the environmental issues of China as a whole is a daunting task however one that needs to be started, and where better than targeting the heart of a nation.

III. Why is Beijing so Polluted?IV. Bibliography

Scholarly sources:

Jin-Feng, Wang, et al. "Estimation of Citywide Air Pollution in Beijing." Plos ONE 8, no. 1 (January 2013): 1-6. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed January 19, 2015).

Xiping Xu, Baoluo Li and Huying Huang “Air Pollution and Unscheduled Hospital Outpatient and Emergency Room Visits” Environmental Health Perspectives Vol. 103, No. 3 (Mar., 1995), pp. 286-289

Haidong Kan, Bingheng Chen and Chuanjie Hong “Health Impact of Outdoor Air Pollution in China: Current Knowledge and Future Research Needs” Environmental Health Perspectives Vol. 117, No. 5 (May, 2009), p. A187

Arvesen, Anders, Jingru Liu, and Edgar G. Hertwich. 2010. "Energy Cost of Living and Associated Pollution for Beijing Residents." Journal of Industrial Ecology 14 (6): 890-901. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111j.1530-9290.2010.00271.x. http://search.proquest.com/docview/853227744?accountid=14612.

Zimmermann, Tim and and others. 1996. "China Takes a Deep Breath: After Decades of Breakneck Economic Growth, Beijing Confronts an Environmental Disaster." U.S.News and World Report 121: 36-39. http://search.proquest.com/docview/59730500?accountid=14612.

Chen, Gang. 2013. "China's Increasing Environmental Awareness and its Broad Implications." East Asian Policy 5 (3): 49-56. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1463054214?accountid=14612. (Not currently available, inquire later)

MacBean, Alasdair. 2007. "China's Environment: Problems and Policies." The World Economy 30 (2): 292-307. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9701.2007.00883.x. http://search.proquest.com/docview/58743872?accountid=14612.

Richman, Barbara T. 1994. Air Pollution in the World's Megacities. http://search.proquest.com/professional/docview/62821516?accountid=14612.

Data Sources:Yang, Yang, et al. "The Association between Ambient Air Pollution and Daily Mortality in

Beijing after the 2008 Olympics: A Time Series Study." Plos ONE 8, no. 10 (October 2013): 1-7. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed January 19, 2015).

Wang, Lei, Linyu Xu, and Huimin Song. 2011. "Environmental Performance Evaluation of Beijing's Energy use Planning." Energy Policy 39 (6): 3483-3495. http://search.proquest.com/docview/875713945?accountid=14612.

MacBean, Alasdair. 2007. "China's Environment: Problems and Policies." The World Economy 30 (2): 292-307. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9701.2007.00883.x. http://search.proquest.com/docview/58743872?accountid=14612.

Chen, Yuan, Kuang Cen, Norra S, Schleicher N, and Yang Yu. 2010. "Study on Pollution Characteristics of PM (Sub 2.5) in the Aerosol, Tracing and Tracking Atmospheric Particulates in Beijing City." Xiandai Dizhi = Geoscience 24 (2): 345-354. http://search.proquest.com/professional/docview/1400629530?accountid=14612. (Not currently available, inquire later)

Wu, Dan, Yuan Xu, and Shiqiu Zhang. "Will joint regional air pollution control be more cost-effective? An empirical study of China's Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region." Journal Of Environmental Management 149, (February 2015): 27-36. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed January 19, 2015).