Here's My Beijing Gratitude List. What's Yours?

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Happy November! I have a tradition: Each year from Nov 1 until American Thanksgiving (the last Thursday of the month), I try and find 500 things I am grateful for. My rules for this ritual are simple. It must be written down and no censoring myself. The things I’m grateful for can be sacred or profane, deeply meaningful or downright silly, but they must be honest. The first 100 items or so are usually pretty simple and easy to think up. Family, health, and all the usual important things. But after that, if I go back and compare old lists there tends to be some interesting additions or deletions. In many ways, these lists become a snapshot of a specific time and place in my life.

This year I suspect writing the list will be a little harder, so many things feel like they have been lost or put on hold. But that is exactly why this ritual is so important. Despite the unusual circumstances many of us find ourselves in, we have so much to be grateful for and much of that is due to the place we currently call home. With your permission, I would like to kick off my yearly gratitude list by sharing a few things I am grateful for about life in the ‘Jing.

• Jing expats: I have been a part of a lot of communities in my life but there is something special about the foreigners here. Kind, smart, curious people with so much to teach me about the world. How many times have we all posted a problem on WeChat and had 50 virtual strangers private message us with offers of help and support? That’s amazing and rare.

• The kindness of strangers: Yes, we each have stories of someone who tried to take advantage of our language barrier or the fact we didn’t know the rules. But more often I have had kind locals see me struggling and step in to help. They don’t have to, and I’m grateful

• The daily real-life Mario Kart Adventure that is riding your bike along the 3rd ring road during rush hour.

• The incredible way the Gingko leaves turn that brilliant gold color.

• An afternoon of Mahjong and prosecco with friends.

• The first sunrise I ever saw over the Great Wall.

• The fact that if you need something (literally anything) and you ask your friend group where to find it someone is going to say “Oh! I’ve got a guy for that!”

• My Ayi!

• The nightly line dance and dragon kite show outside my apartment.

• That moment on top of the Emperor Hotel overlooking an illuminated Beijing when it sunk in I was about to have the adventure of a lifetime.

Your turn. Share what’s on your Beijing gratitude list in the comments.

Images: Pexels

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