Food Poisoning, Tear Gas, and New Friends

by Jonathan Van Dyck (Canada)

A leap into the unknown China

In September 2018 I moved to China to teach English for a year. I didn't know anyone there, didn't speak Mandarin, and had never lived on my own before. I had a panic attack in the plane bathroom and was almost not allowed into the country upon landing because my fingers wouldn't scan. And this was just the beginning. I lived in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, which is right across the border from Hong Kong. Because I taught adults and not children, I was able to befriend my students, which was my best decision. They showed me all the best places to shop, eat, and hangout (and not get ripped off as a foreigner). I was told before I arrived by my recruiter that most people experience food poisoning in China at least once in their first year, and they were not lying. But what I hadn't thought of was that I would be experiencing this food poisoning with squatty potties... This is a much more unpleasant experience than using a regular toilet while being sick, I can assure you. Especially when you are in a small town, by yourself, and it's freezing cold. This was in an ancient water town called Zhujiajiao, outside of Shanghai, in December. It was around zero degrees Celsius, and this "bathroom" had no doors or stalls inside. So the wind was blowing, and locals could see my doing my business... Despite this experience I continued eating street food in China, and I guess I got lucky as I didn't get food poisoning again, even after eating fried blood and sheep tongues on the streets of Lanzhou, and duck heads in Hangzhou. As I mentioned earlier, I was living directly next to Hong Kong, so I spent quite a bit of time there, and really fell in love with it. The infamous protests started while I was there, and started getting violent around the last time I was visiting. I do photography for fun, so I was taking pictures of some of the protests happening (peaceful at the time), when all of a sudden things took a bit a turn for the worse. I saw around me everyone was putting gas masks on, and I didn't have one. Then I saw the riot police marching towards us. At the same time I also noticed for the first time that I matched the protesters who were all wearing black (y usual colour choice). The riot police fired on us and I can now say that tear gas hurts like a mother! Thankfully among the protestors there were good samaritans with water bottles flushing peoples eyes out, and a nice young woman did the same for me before we ran as a group from the police to safety. My last story is from a day spent with an 18 year old student who was straight out of high school. He knew I did photography as well, so he took me and a friend "rooftopping." This involved sneaking into a 58 story bank (the second tallest building in the city), getting onto the roof, climbing the metal girders, and sitting on the edge of the building with our feet dangling. A hell of an experience I must say! And nothing gets the blood pumping like running from a security guard that has been notified of "3 individuals on the roof." I got some amazing shots and the adrenaline rush of a lifetime! I am still in contact with this student, who now studies in England, and still climbs where he shouldn't.