China in A Foreigner's Eyes一个外国人眼中的中国

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Foreigners in China

About the Author
Name: Nicholas Alexander Reay
Hometown: Cape Town, South Africa
Location: Shanghai, China

As an English teacher, I have lived many places like Brazil, Japan, Turkey, and Sweden. But none of these countries compare to China.

      作为一个英语老师，我在巴西、日本、土耳其、瑞典等许多地方居住过。不过这些国家都无法与中国相比较。

I have been living in China for six months now and I love the people and the customs. I would like to tell you about one of my first impressions (1) of this GREat, and at times, daunting (2) country.

      我已经在中国住了半年了，我喜欢这里的人民和风俗。我想告诉大家我对这个伟大的、有时又令人畏惧的国家的第一印象。

I went to Beijing with my friend Mark. Mark is a punk (3) from England. Everyone looked at him because of his appearance (piercing and tattoos).

      我与朋友马克一起来到北京。马克是个来自英格兰的鬅客乐迷。因为他的打扮，每个人对向他侧目(穿洞、纹身)。

After a short stay in Beijing, we went to Xi’an, a beautiful and historical city with many tourist sights. One of these is a mountain called Hua Shan.

      在北京住了一小段时间，我们又前往西安，一个美丽又古老的城市，旅游景点众多。其中一处便是华山。

Mark and I decided to go to this mountain alone. We were tired of (4) all the “special tours” offered to laowai. They were in fact far more expensive because they were for laowai! Mark and I don’t speak Chinese but we were confident (5) that we would be okay.

      马克和我决定单独游华山。我们厌倦了所有那些为老外准备的“特别游”。它们实际上非常昂贵，就因为是为老外准备的！我和马克都不会说中文，但是我们相信一切会顺利的。

the bus took about two and a half hours from Xi’an before finally leaving us at a small village at the foot (6) of the GREat mountain. After we got off the bus, we sat in a rather dirty room with many excited older people. We didn’t know what to do. Then out of nowhere (7), two young Chinese people appeared. To our blind luck (8), they spoke a little English. They told us that this was a tour group going up the mountain by cable car (9), not by foot. We wanted to walk. So, we joined this young couple.

      我们从西安出发，乘坐了两个半钟头的汽车才到达这座名山脚下的一个小村庄。下车后，我们和很多兴奋的上了年纪的人一起坐在一个很脏的房间里。我们不知道该怎么办。接着不知从什么地方忽然冒出来两个年轻的中国人。很幸运，他们能说一点英语。他们告诉我们这里是一个旅游团，他们准备乘缆车上山，而不是徒步。我们想爬山。所以我们加入了这两个年轻人。

For the next 48 hours we enjoyed the hospitality (10) of these young Chinese students. We only communicated (11) basic things but the warmth of friendship was there. My friend and I were a little nervous at first. We thought that these students wanted us to pay for everything, but that was not true. In fact, they saved us 600RMB! This is what the hotel manager wanted us to pay to sleep in a room because we were foreigners! Our younger friends were embarrassed by this blatant rip-off (12) and told the manager that we would only pay 25RMB each for the night, which we did.

       接下去的48小时，我们一直享受着这些年轻中国学生的友好、好客。我们只作了一些简单基本的交流，不过友谊的温暖确实存在。我的朋友和我一开始有些紧张。我们以为这些学生会让我们承担所有开销，但是他们并没有。事实上，他们为我们节约了600块人民币！那是一个旅店老板让我们付的住宿费，就因为我们是外国人！我们的朋友让这种明目张胆的敲诈弄得很尴尬，他们告诉老板我们只会按每人每夜25元的标准付费。我们也的确是这样做的。

Going up the mountain, local people stopped us many times. Mark was stopped several times for photos. Chinese people also stopped us to practice their English. This was a refreshing (13) change from the usual “Hello, Hello!” It was nice to talk to these people. They showed real interest in what we had to say.

       上山途中，当地人多次拦住我们。马克被拦下好几次与人合影。还有一些中国人拦住我们练习英语。从通常的“你好”“我好”中，这一变化可谓令人精神一振。与他们交谈很愉快。他们对于我们要说的话很感兴趣。

Many Foreigners in China worry that Chinese people only see them as walking dollar signs (14), and in some places this is true. However, not everyone is like this. It was wonderful and rewarding (15) to meet these two genuine (16) people. I like to look at them as representatives of the new China.

      许多在中国的外国人担心中国人只把他们当作“冤大头”。在有些地方确实如此。然而，并不是每个人都像这样的。能遇见这两个真诚的学生真好，对我们非常有帮助。我愿意把他们看作新中国的代表人物。

In the West, we do not stare (17) at people as Chinese people do here. Westerners also do not shout out, “laowai!” when we see a foreigner. But we also do not often help foreign people, at least not without being asked. This is a strange paradox. In the West, we are more open but we are also more conservative. So I ask the question: why are laowai treated like this in China? And is it changing?

      在西方，我们不像中国人这样瞪着眼看人。西方人看见外国人时也不会大叫“老外！”不过我们也不常帮助外国人，至少在没有被请求的情况下。这是个奇怪的矛盾。在西方，我们更开放，但同时也更保守。所以我提了这样一个问题：为什么老外在中国受到如此待遇？这一状况是不是正在改变呢？

Word Key
1.impression noun 印象
2.daunting adjective 使人畏缩的
3.punk noun鬅客(20世纪70年代晚期的一场年轻人的运动，以摇滚乐、身体打洞、反传统的发型、装扮和服装为特点)
4.tired of verb phrase 厌倦的，厌烦的
5.confident adjective 自信的，确信的
6.foot (of mountain) noun 底部
7.out of nowhere phrase 从不知道的地方，从不受注意的地方
8.blind luck noun luck 幸运
9.cable car noun 缆车
10.hospitality noun 好客，盛情
11.communicated (to communicate) verb 沟通，交流
12.blatant rip-off adjective + noun 明目张胆的欺诈
13.refreshing adjective 提神的，凉爽的
14.walking dollar sign phrase 活动支票簿，“冤大头”
15.rewarding adjective 报答的，值得的，有益的
16.genuine adjective 真诚的，诚实的；真实的，真正的
17.stare verb 凝视，盯着看

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