“Letter from China” by PNG students

Note: This is the first article for a new column on Sunday Chronicle, "Letter from China". This column will cover PNG students life experience in China. I am writing the article below by way of introduction but future articles will be covered by the students, while I embark on my current "Asia Pacific Perspective: China +" column. I hope that the new column will enrich Papua New Guineans about the new China today. I would like to hear your comments and suggestions. Send them to m_yakai@hotmail.com.
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By Mathew Yakai in Beijing


Ni hao (hello) and greetings from Beijing. I am typing this letter from the 25th floor of Global Trade Center (GTC) in the Capital Beijing, China. This is a 28 story building.

It is summer and the temperature is around 30 in Beijing, extremely hot for me because my previous city, Changchun, which is not far from Russia was cold since I arrived there in September 2007. For me, at least Beijing is hot. Probably, I will get use to it after a week.

I left Changchun, the capital of Jilin province on Friday 5, 2009 for Beijing for an internship with Ramu NiCo Management (MCC) Limited, the company managing the Ramu Nickel-Cobalt Project in Ramu, Madang Province.

Hang on! Let me introduce Letter from China to you first. This is a personal initiative I have taken and discussed my idea with Sunday Chronicle management if such can be introduced.

The good publisher and Managing Director, Wesley Raminai accepted my idea that this column is a need for PNG readers.

I discussed that this column will cover articles, commentaries, letters and personal experiences and encounters by PNG students studying in Great China.

For those who have not been to China can not imagine how the people, the cities, the history, food and village lives are like in this vast land of 5000 years history

The recent anti-Asian sentiment in PNG in May 11 provoked my thought to open this column so that personal experiences of PNG students in China can be shared with the vast population to build common understanding.

Those keen readers of this paper will know that I have the column, “Asia Pacific Perspective: China +” which looks at how PNG can learn from China’s experience in this century. You are assured that my commentary is maintained.

I discussed with Wesley for this column and am thankful that Wesley and his management team have considered my proposal.

The ambition of this column, and any other columns on this paper are directly in line with Sunday Chronicle’s aim at encouraging developmental journalism. Chronicle is taking a major step in educating the people and the government in terms of information for the country’s development.

Negative news stories are not the priority of this newspaper, a new trend in PNGs’ media industry.

So from next week on, you will see different bylines from PNG students here in China. Most are going through some interesting experiences that they will share with you.

By way of introduction, I decided to start off with my brief experience in Beijing. As said earlier, I left Changchun, my host city for almost 20 months for Beijing on Friday 5.

D24 is my train from Changchun to Beijing which cost me 244 Yuan (K95.80) for a six hours trip. This is the fastest train in China one can take. The normal train would take 10 to 12 hours and believe me, this is back aching because if you only take a seat and not a bed, you will stress out.

I left at 7:13am and arrived in Beijing at 1:30pm. At the Beijing train station, Nick (Zuo Jianglong) who works with Ramu NiCo office in Beijing was waiting for me. Nick told me that he just returned from Madang visiting the Ramu Project.

We took a cab straight to Beijing Jian Ke Hotel where I produced my passport and checked in. If you are in China, it is important you have your passport where ever you go. There is nothing fussy about this but it’s to assist you incase you need help.

My hotel room is on the ground floor with two beds, a TV set, room telephone, hot and cold shower, jug, cloth drawer and daily room services. This is good enough.

The hotel is about ten minutes walk to the office, Beijing Global Trade Centre (GTC) where I typed this commentary. It is located at an ideal place, surrounded by several restaurants and shops within walking distance.

Those who have been to Beijing would know that GTC is located at Third Ring Road East in Dongchen District. The 25th floor is where Ramu NiCo Management (MCC) Limited office is located.

GTC is located to the south of the Olympic Games area, and it is only 3.2 km from the main venue for the 2008 Summer Olympics, 1.5 km from the Andingmen Bridge station of the subway line 2, 600 meters from the Hepingxi Bridge station of the subway line 5, and only minutes away from the Guangximen station of subway line 13.

From the office, I look across and see the Water Cube and Birds Nest, the two iconic buildings of 2008 Summer Olympic which is now attracting thousands of domestic and overseas tourists daily.

GTC is surrounded by more than 30 bus routes. The nearest bus station, Anzhenqiaodong is just on the right hand side of my desk. So you can imagine how convenient it is in Beijing.

I started my internship on Monday June 8. Being the only Papua New Guinean working amongst the Chinese staff is very challenging but exciting. By the way, I lived in China for more then a year and I am used to Chinese manners now.

Even I am not familiar with them, I found the Chinese people some of the helpful people on earth apart from my previous encounters with Japanese, Koreans, Indonesians, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders etc.

Liu Cheng known as Shirley handed me a card that will serve me for the rest of my internship. I will use this card to clock in and out, to open the electric glass door, for the lift, and importantly the meals for three a day.

A sum of 500 RMB (K196.30) was installed in the card. So I can use the card to pay for the meals at Tower A, Tower B or Tower C/D. The meals and accommodation, even my transport from Changchun to Beijing was paid for by Ramu NiCo.

Nick, who is an active young man with the Corporate Section of Ramu NiCo Office suggested on Monday 8 that Tower C/D which house the Golden Tripod Atpic serves delicious meals at cheap price.

Every lunch we would go there with two other beautiful young ladies Alice (Li Shuang) and Magret (Zhao Miao). Alice, Magret and Nick work under the Corporate Office which I am attached to.

So every lunch, we would go there. I am also frequenting the same restaurant for breakfast and dinner because the food is fresh and yummy.

On Monday 8 we were having lunch when Nick was talking about bettlenut in PNG. He was in Madang so he knew what he was saying. I frankly told him that it is one of the traditional nuts that is chewed by people of various ages.

Nick was surprised that a young boy at the age of 10 or 11 can chew. Nick was also surprised that men in PNG walk around with bush knife. He may have seen that in Ramu.

He was adamant that it was part of PNG culture but I had to explain that our ancestors never produced bush knife and what they carry around was introduced by the westerners.

He jokingly said that he wanted to buy one and bring to China. He even said that he asked a police mobile guarding the mine to hand over his rifle so he could play with it like a toy.

Nick is a person to talk with especially when you are tired after work, or when you want to have a good lunch with jokes.

Alice and Magret are two beautiful and well educated Chinese girls. Magret, Nick and Alice are all the brains behind the publicity work of the Ramu NiCo.

They produce the Ramu Nickel Updater, the Company’s newsletter and also manage the website http://www.ramunico.com/index_en.php which updates the interested readers and stakeholders the latest on Ramu Project.

They speak very good English. If you see a copy of the Updater then it will depict their level of English. I am amazed!

On Tuesday 9, Nick came to me with the sample copy of the Updater Volume 7 and found most of the articles very interesting. Especially the article on Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare’s visit to Beijing and Ramu NiCo Office. Sir Michael made his commitment towards the Ramu Project.

All of them have been very helpful during my first week internship. They made me feel at home amongst the whole Chinese staff. Well, I can confidently say that it has always been part of Chinese culture where they are around to help.

Never thought that one day I would do my internship on the 25th floor of Beijing Global Trade Center in Beijing.

After the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in USA, Beijing Global Trade Center can rightfully take its stand today. When I look down from the 25th floor, human beings and vehicles on the ground are like ants.

When I look across, I can see the iconic Water Cube and Birds Nest vividly. When I look up, the sky is unlimited.

As long as there is no limitation, GTC can grow as tall as she can. My mind is boggling and am amazed of the things going on here right now, even while typing this commentary.

But despite all these economic booms or glooms, I find out that Alice, Nick and Magret are very helpful in my daily work.

Despite their colors and ethnicity, I realize, and they do too, that we are all human being. We are born under the same sun, the rain nourished us, and the dusk shelters us.

We realize that as long as we live today and work on the 25th floor of GTC, we must be happy as human beings despite our ethnicity and nationality.

Note: Starting next week, PNG students in China will write about their experiences. For comments or inquiries, email m_yakai@hotmail.com or phone 15116988560