北京对外国人的包容性

Ceng Jin Min is a student from South Korea who has been studying in China for four years. Although he speaks fluent Mandarin, he still has some problems with reading Chinese menu.

"Chinese menus in restaurants have been giving us a hard time. There's no way for us to infer from the Chinese name of a dish what kind of ingredients it has when there's no picture to refer to. That's why we dare not order anything."

Being unable to read menus is not the most frustrating of Ceng's problems. He says some of his Korean friends who are also studying in Beijing must seek his help with finding a pharmacy and getting appropriate medicine when they are sick.

Differences in culture and living habits have led to conflicts between Koreans and their Chinese neighbors. Yin Haiquan is a Chinese resident of the Wangjing community.

"There are all kinds of opportunities for recreation around Wangjing, and Korean people, especially youngsters, don't come home until early morning, so the community doesn't quiet down until then."

Yin Haiquan is not the only one who is complaining. Many Koreans place their shoes outside under their apartment doors along with empty takeaway food containers. Their Chinese neighbors find this extremely annoying because it is unsanitary and takes up public space.

Cang is a journalist from the newspaper "Korea Central Daily News." He has lived in the Wangjing area for more than five years. He says all the conflicts between neighbors are caused by minor things concerning cultural differences. He believes that such conflicts are unavoidable when people from one country encounter those from another, let alone live together in the same area. Cang says as long as people drop their guards and try to get to know each other, they will develop respect for their differences. 

A year ago, the community office also set up a public service center to provide assistance to the area's foreign residents.
Korean student Ceng Jin Min says guides who speak Korean can be now be found in Wangjing, and there are even restaurants that serve Korean food.

He says all these changes have made it better for Koreans living in Wangjing to integrate into their community. But he still would like to see more Chinese and Koreans interacting with each other in the future.

For CRI, I'm Wang Wei.