Lonely in Beijing

by Liudmila Agliullina (Russia)

Making a local connection China

I'm not a Homestuck, but I'm shy and had never traveled abroad before 2018 when I lived in China for 88 days. A wonderful country where everything was unusual to me. Breathtaking Beijing! Exiting time of everyday achievements! I lived at the museum hotel inside Wanping Castle. That was like a fairy tale. A gloomy one. I worked as an exchange personnel at the Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and expected to become friends with colleagues of my age. But every day at 4.45 p.m. everyone hurried home and I had to find myself being left alone among non-English speaking residents. Сicadas and magpies, two cats on a roof, carps in the museum pond, a spider and a hedgehog were my only company to have a talk with. When two weeks passed I saw him in our office. A handsome guy with dark skin, sharp eyes, and a deep voice. A new trainee. He was a museum guide from Harbin. He couldn’t speak English well but he became my neighbor and I was very lonely. He had to begin to speak English. I was sure. We had the same aims, we both were in Beijing for the first time and I needed him to explore the city and to learn about Chinese people. I asked him to teach me Chinese. I couldn’t make much success but we had a lot of fun. I made him smile and I was happy. We spent many evenings and weekends talking, walking and visiting museums. He called me “peng’you” – a friend. That was the most pleasant word in the world. Becoming friends with a Chinese person was very difficult and really priceless. That was the beginning of another story.