BEIJING - At 4:20 a.m. this morning, hundreds, if not thousands of college students across America woke up in the middle of the night, went out to a nearby quad, grassy field or wooded area and smoked some marijuana. At the exact same time of Beijing, I was sweating over a puzzle map of China, desperate trying to figure out where to place Jiangsu Province.
It wasn't until two hours later, over a perfect munchies snack of french fries, a milkshake and onion rings that I realized I'd missed the magic moment.
You might think no one in China would really care about 4/20, and I suppose for the vast majority of the 1.4 billion people here that's true. Easter came and went without anyone noticing. But with oodles of American students around, people have at least been talking about the holiday for quite some time.
First we had to explain the holiday. Apparently people from England, Korea, and Kazakhstan don't celebrate 4/20. It's easy to describe what you do on 4/20 -- smoke -- but why it's done is more illusive. Is it because 420 is the police code for marijuana use? Celebrating Hitler's birthday? Because some people in California in the 1970s got out of class at 4:20 in the afternoon? No one here seems to sure, and since Wikipedia is blocked in China the argument can't be settled. Needless to say, the Americans were able to get the basic idea of the holiday across.
Then there's the problem of actually celebrating. Drug use in China isn't encouraged. Being found with a relatively small amount can lead to a bullet in the back of the head, although a more realistic outcome would be instant deportation. Nevertheless, it seemed every expat I ran into had heard about a way to score some.
The least connected were headed to Sanlitun, the main embassy and expat region, where they could purchase a little from Africans on the street who crawl from bar to bar asking tourists if they want "something special." Other people had moved up to the level "of knowing someone." One friend said he knew a guy who grew plants in his apartment. Apparently he was a novice though, because the plants were all male and contained very little usable product. Other people had even more advanced contacts, connections with the Hong Kong drug trade or some other dangerous acquaintances.
I might have been in class for 4:20 on 4/20, but I made it downtown later in the day. The sweet smoke was definitely in the air at Sanlitun, in bars and on the street. An American holiday was making inroads in the land of the dragon, one puff at a time.
