Long Walk back to Beijing Genebank

by 'Mantsebeng Maepe (Lesotho)

I didn't expect to find China

8.10! The alarm bells rang within my entire body. How had I overslept in an unfamiliar country, unknown language even? Worse still, today, our team was supposed to go through the gates at 9am, presenting the innovation we had come up with. Without spending further time analysing the situation, I began my 2minute shower and hurriedly dressed myself and went to the reception. The bus had left at 8am, with all the participants. Asking for assistance at the hotel reception would be useless as I didn’t speak Mandarin, and my phone did not have google translate. Holy crap, I cursed under my breath. My only option was to walk to the venue, Beijing Genebank on my own. It seemed easy, as only last night at 11pm, we had decided to walk back to the hotel by foot with my group mates; a Danish, Bangladeshi and Japanese. You are going to let the team down, let the team down. This kept ringing in my mind like a drum. I stepped out of the hotel, with a determined stride in my step. It had been a straightforward journey and should take 20 minutes if I was slow. My WIFI connection disconnected as soon as I stepped outside the fresh air, and with no local network, I was officially on my own. I was in Shenzhen, on a fellowship that had only begun 3 days ago. I passed an older Chinese woman, who was adoringly pushing a stroller. Was that baby hers? I wondered, absentmindedly. In Lesotho, most mums were super young, it was strange to see someone who would be considered a grandmother, be a mum to the baby. Then, I remembered the one child policy that China used to have, maybe she had only decided to have a second child after the ban had been lifted off. As I was walking, I noticed the stares from my fellow Chinese. Some would openly stare and smile, it was probably not every day that you saw a small-faced, petite, dreadlocked African girl walking on the streets of Shenzhen. I found it strange that China was not at all what I had envisioned in my mind. My vision of China only stemmed from Jet Li and Jackie Chan movies. I had imagined overcrowded streets, busy bustling adults rushing to work and a lot of shoves to and fro. Instead it was a serene, sunny and calm morning filled with Shenzheners who were running their different errands. I was passed by several electric buses, like an intrigued child from Lesotho, I stared unashamedly at everything around me. The high rise buildings all around, the way of commuting, the buildings were all such novelty to me. I did not notice that an hour had elapsed until a large bus with a time on the front came in display. 9.37! I had been walking for an entire hour. I began to panic, I was lost! I tried to ask a security guy by a huge white building that looked a little like the white house. “ni hao, do you know where BGI is? Bei-ji-ng Ge-ne-ba-nk,” I said, slowly, as if by saying them slowly he would understand. He muttered a few Chinese words I did not understand. After several conversation attempts with other locals, futile attempts of showing me the map written in Mandarin, I gave up and decided to start the long walk back to the hotel. I passed by the police station and McDonalds. At the sight and smell of the so familiar KFC, my stomach did a backflip, and I stopped to get some food. I could only point to the menu, as the waiters did not understand English. Five minutes later, I had a huge grin on my face, having stuffed my stomach with wings and twisters. I watched curiously at a young couple sharing an ice-cream with love-filled eyes and grins. The relief and excitement on the receptionists’ faces as I entered the hotel lobby could not be put into words. I had a secret sheepish smile on my face, knowing I had been on an adventure.