Life in the modern city of Shanghai is full of contradictions. On the one hand, the city is very modern and all the modcons are available for the right price but China is still a developing country and this means that you have a lot of extremes in one place. I just came from the Glamour Bar (an expat hangout on the Bund) for a fundraiser entitled “Beats, shoots, and leaves” which was a very clever fundraiser for Eco Audit, an organization which audits businesses and NGO’s for eco-friendliness. As I looked out at the posh bar (I’ve been hanging out with a lot of Brits lately and consequently have acquired some of their lingo) and onto the beautifully lit Bund and Pearl Tower, I was in a completely different world than what I experience here every day. I was surrounded by other foreigners, listening to a Reggae band, drink in hand and chatting with my girl friends. We could have been Sex in the City Shanghai!
When I am spending time with other expats, I can easily forget that there is this huge dichotomy between the lives of foreigners and that of locals. I see this of course and I do not want to forget that I am living a very priviledged life here. The income of many locals is less than $500/month for a full time worker. So while I appreciate that things can be had for a very good price here, life in the city for most people here is very difficult.
I try to consider that in my day to day activities and if I pay a higher price than a local, I am not automatically upset as some others are. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to get ripped off when I am buying groceries but 10 Yuan to me is much less than for an average Shanghainese person.
This means that things are done differently here than in the states. One general rule of thumb here in China is that if something can be done on bicycle, it will! In the states you have a truck for almost any kind of delivery but here almost everything is delivered by bicycle. Bottled water, fast food, building materials, deliveries of all kinds, you name it! Even recycling materials are picked up on bicycles rigged with carts. It is not uncommon to see many people on one bicycle in addition to some other supplies or luggage and of course the no one wears a helmet. The other day, I had the privilege of having my first motorbike scooter ride. Even though it was only about 2 blocks, we still managed to go the wrong way in traffic, ride on the sidewalk, and go over speed bumps. It was a very Chinese experience.
Another recent experience that gave me a chuckle was having curtains installed. The man arrived on a bicycle with hardware and then asked if I had a ladder. Thankfully, Xiao Chen (a local shop girl who helps me around the house) was helping me that day so she was able to translate for me. Of course I don’t have a ladder since I just moved to China and don’t have a regular need for one! We proceeded to look for something he could stand on to install my curtains. We eventually decided on a small table from my deck which worked though I was nervous because it didn’t look very stable. It worked fine in the end and thankfully no accidents occurred. I should also mention that when he arrived he was wearing a suit! I was telling this story to a friend and he said that he saw a man breaking rocks for work the other day wearing a suit. It is in essence the opposite of the casual American culture. So a man breaking rocks in China will wear a suit but a CEO in America might wear trainers, jeans and an old t-shirt. Go figure!
Okay I am signing off as it is past one in the morning and I leave tomorrow for Tokyo. My next post will likely be about my upcoming trip there. Until next time ; )
One of the things that have struck me in my time in China is how funny some of the English names that students have names which are either chosen by student themselves, their parents or their teachers. Because many Chinese names are difficult to pronounce in English, people studying English are usually given an English name. This can lead to hysterical results when people have names that are unintentionally funny. One of the names I have gotten used to is Apple. I have probably met a dozen Apples since I have moved to China and I have realized that there is certain fondness by the people here for naming people after fruit. There are also an extraordinary number of Jerrys, Tonys, and Toms. I have several classes with multiples of each (keep in mind that classes are usually less than 15 with mixed genders).
Even though I am trying to be culturally sensitive, there are some times when I literally laugh out loud after hearing someone’s name, especially if I just overhear a conversation happening. For example, the other day I overheard my coworker saying, “So I said to Banana,” at which point I couldn’t help but interrupt and ask if I had heard correctly. Sure enough Banana is someone’s name and while Cherry seems like a good choice for a girl, for some reason Banana just makes me laugh!
Here is a small sampling of names I have come across: Egg, Kid, Mushroom, Music, Ferrari, Seven, Denial (pronounced Daniel of course), Rock, and one of my favorites is Funky which led to unfortunate circumstances when she was first learning how to spell and left out the “n”.
So names in China are like most things for me here: funny, unpredictable, and entertaining in unexpected ways.
I took my first overnight trip this past week due to an extra day on my weekend for Tomb Sweeping Holiday. It was so nice to have an extra day and I really needed it after my battle with bronchitis. It was just enough time to make the trip and I am so glad that I went because Hangzhou is lovely and I found the trip rejuvenating and relaxing.
Hangzhou is a beautiful city just 112 miles southwest from Shanghai which is just an hour and a half journey by train. This trip included many firsts for me: first overnight trip in China, first time on a Chinese train, first stay in a hostel, and first nature oriented activity for me here. Thankfully I was not disappointed!
Hangzhou is small by Chinese city standards at only 6.4 million (according to Wikipedia anyway) and it is notable for its beauty and for the fact that it was the one-time capital of China during the Song dynasty. Hangzhou is on the Yangtze River Delta and is famous for its scenic lake which is surrounded by a park and gardens. Prior to being a lake, it was a lagoon that connected with the Yangtze River. Overlooking the lake are some beautiful hiking trails as well and landmarks. The first day we were there, the weather was sunny and beautiful so we wandered on the trails and then went to the lake and hired a boat. It was so perfect because the weather was warm and we were able to see the sunset on the water. It was one of those days that just felt so incredible and I wanted to capture that feeling I had and remember it. There were also funny moments like when the boat driver answered his cell phone and proceeded to carry out a conversation with someone while we watched the sun set. Everyone has a cell phone or two here, it is amazing!
We went to Hangzhou at the perfect time of year when it wasn’t cold and wasn’t hot and the trees were blooming. When we stepped off the boat, I saw that someone had made a laurel wreath out of weeping willow branches so we added flowers to our hair and took photos of ourselves wearing it. I felt a bit like I was in a magical wonderland. In the distance, someone was playing an Erhu, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument.
After the sun had set but it was still light, something amazing happened. All the bats came out! I have lived in Colorado for most of my life which has lots of bats but I have never had a bat fly so close to me. They were everywhere and they flew so close that you could almost touch them. I was fascinated by this because I had assumed they were birds until the driver of the shuttle we were on at the time mentioned the bats and sure enough I looked around and they were everywhere!
All in all it was an amazing day which we finished off by going to have some pizza which is incidentally very popular here and then calling it an early night at the hostel. The hostel had an adorable golden retriever dog and we were greeted by him upon our return. There was also a resident Siamese cat couple which looked like they were about to have kittens. So cute!
The next morning it was raining so we took the opportunity to go to the nearby shopping district and explore the shops. There are so many inexpensive and fun things to buy in China. I bought lots of jewelry and a beautiful blue and green beaded dress which was hand beaded and cost me less than $8. I also had street food which was really fun, cheap, and tasty. I had pineapple rice which is served in half of a pineapple which has been hollowed out and serves as a bowl. It was pretty and tasty! We also went to a donut shop and later to a coffee shop and read and relaxed which felt wonderful after the hectic pace of teaching and Shanghai in general. Even though Hangzhou is not far from Shanghai it feels like a whole world away in terms of the feel of the city. I do love Shanghai but I think that Hangzhou provides a nice retreat when you need something more relaxed. That night we went to a new bar and restaurant where I had an excellent hamburger and “Mragrita” as it was spelled on the menu. Thankfully it was a Margarita as I expected. I took a gamble and had an alcoholic beverage and luckily this place was honest and there was nothing to make me ill in the drink.
We caught a train home the next day but not before we went to a Viennese style waffle and pancake house called the Flying Pancake. I had an amazing ham and cheese waffle sandwich! I know it sounds like we ate a lot of Western food but I eat Chinese food most of the time so it was nice to have some comfort food.
The best part about this trip is that it cost me less than $150 for shopping, round trip train fare, the hostel, and eating out. We ate very well and I bought a lot of stuff so it is easy to live like a king on a pauper’s salary (by western standards anyway).
I’ve only been back a few days but I am already thinking about my next trip!
One of the things I have learned since I have been to China is that there are good fakes and bad fakes. By that I mean there are things that are faked here that I appreciate and those that I really wish were original. A good reproduction designer handbag, shoe, or clothing item at a fraction of the price of the designer version can be amazing! Certainly there are many of those kinds of things for sale in China however what I was not prepared for were the great variety of products and items that are reproduced, sometimes with truly terrible consequences.
One of the harmless example are fake eggs – much like cartoned egg substitute in the states, here they sell fake eggs that are in the shell and actually look and taste like real eggs but aren’t. Who knows, I may even have purchased some without realizing it. I find this funny and a bit quirky as eggs are not expensive here and abundantly available!
There are also a lot of fake cosmetics for sale here and indeed it is really hard to find the real thing! Fake Mac, fake Chanel, fake OPI, fake Smashbox, I have seen almost every brand and while it looks appealing I would not trust it. The only place to buy cosmetics here as far as I am concerned is Sephora though it is quite pricey; a good mascara here can cost you $40-50 or more. One thing I miss is real perfume! It can be purchased here at Sephora but will cost you 50% more than the same bottle in the states.
Of course there are also lots of reproduced CD’s and DVD’s for purchase though many of the local shops and booths selling such items have been recently raided as the city gears up for the expo and is trying to present a cleaner image to the world. The other day I walked into a DVD store and there was almost nothing on the walls as probably 95% of their stock had been confiscated as it was illegally reproduced, copyrighted material.
Overall I have been pretty lucky with purchases though the other day I did purchase a shirt which shrank about 6 inches in length after I washed it. Since I am past my belly-shirt wearing phase, it has now been relegated to a sleep shirt.
The scariest fake thing here that I have come across is fake liquor. I have gotten ill a few times from drinking just a couple of drinks, certainly not enough to give me a hangover in the states. I am by no means a heavy drinker and have only gotten sick once in my life from drinking before I came to China. Here, liquor is frequently either really poor quality or it is doctored with something to recreate the effects of alcohol. One of my friends told me of going to a high end bar in town and of losing consciousness after having one drink there with her husband. He took her to the hospital and the staff there said that the drink likely had the date rape drug added to it. I have taken to drinking bottled drinks like beer or wine and making sure that I see them open the bottle. Thankfully Tsingtao beer is available at almost any bar or restaurant and is reasonably priced and safe.
As with many things, there is a good side and a bad side to ease of access to fake or reproduction items in China. I have learned that the price tag does not necessarily indicate the real deal either. So as I live here, I am slowly learning what to look for and how to be careful so that I can enjoy the good aspects and minimize the bad.
I will finish off with a comment about the photo I included at the top of the posting. While it is beautiful, it is of course a fake ; )
Things are not done on a small scale in Shanghai so I should not have been surprised at the immense size and scale of the Shanghai aquarium but I was! This aquarium is definitely impressive and is on the list of things I would recommend checking out if you come to town.
There is a large assortment of under the sea creepy crawlies on display many of which I have seen in books or on television but never in real life and I have to say that it is much more impressive to see these creatures live. In addition to fish they have two large tanks with an above ground observation area for seals and penguins so you can see both land and see animals swim and play. I could spend several minutes watching the seals swim upside down as they playfully catch your eye and interact with you. I tried to take photos of both the penguins and seals but they swam so fast that they were just blurs on my screen.
Other unusual creatures included electric eels in special tank with an electricity meter attached so that when they are giving off electricity; you see the gage on the meter go up. It was both fascinating and creepy at the same time. Another strange and scary-looking creature on display was the knife shark, has a long knife-like protrusion from its nose. I saw a variety of beautiful and dangerous jellyfish, which looked so deceptively peaceful floating in their contained tanks.
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A multitude of exotic bottom of the sea dwellers could also be seen such as the diaphanous or spiny scorpion fish. In another tank I had to look closely to find the fish because I thought there were only rocks and plants in it until I realized one of the rocks was a stonefish. I also loved the seahorses and leafy sea dragons that flit about and are beautiful in a sort of alien way.
The aquarium also boasts the longest indoor shark tank in the world and it was impressive. The attendees travel through the middle of the tank on a moving walkway and it is the last impression you have of the exhibit before you are transported to the immense gift shop. Unfortunately for me, my camera battery died just before we entered the shark tank so I can’t post any of those photos. Pooh! Oh well I’ll just have to go back which is fine with me.
In China there are good days and what many expats have coined “China days” which means days that you really feel the challenges of living in China. I feel lucky that I have had mostly good days and not very many China days. There are so many funny experiences you have when you are in a place that is culturally, geographically, and linguistically foreign. Simple things or tasks can turn into hilarious, or frustrating depending on your outlook, experiences that bring to mind the famous line from Wizard of Oz, “Toto, I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.”
While I am making great efforts to learn Mandarin, I can still only speak a handful of words and can tell a taxi how to get me home or turn left, turn right, go straight, etc. but I cannot read any characters aside from the one for yuan the currency because I have seen it so many times. So basically I go through my daily activities not having any idea what anything around me says which can be quite funny. Luckily people here are helpful and it is amazing what you can accomplish with gestures and pointing, and calculators to talk about prices. But there are moments when you really feel the language barrier. I’ll give examples to illustrate.
There is a small mall a couple of blocks from my apartment that has a grocery store, as well as clothing stores, shoe stores, a restaurant and a tea shop. One day on my way to the grocery store I thought, I’ll buy some tea! That sounds like a good idea. I had about an hour before I had to head back home to get ready for class that evening. I pointed to some tea and the shop girl sweetly said to me in English, “tea”. I nodded in understanding that yes, I knew it was tea and I did want to buy it. But instead of packaging it up for me she proceeded to brew the tea and serve me an elaborate tea ceremony. Oops! It was very nice actually and it allowed me to take some time and slow down and enjoy the flavor of the tea. Then the shop girl and I had a funny two language conversation where she said something in Mandarin and I responded in English and we went back and forth for awhile while we sipped our tea. I don’t have any idea what she was saying and I don’t think that she knew what I was saying either but in the end it didn’t matter too much. After about 25 minutes I really did have to go and I asked how much I owed. She was very sweet and did not charge me for the tea. She and the other girls were so surprised to see me and maybe they sensed that I had not realized what I was “buying”. I left chuckling to myself but glad that it had happened anyway.
Another funny thing I have realized is that certain things I thought were universal are really not universal. When asking how much something was, I repeatedly had people use their hands in what looked like a hang loose surfer sign with pinky and thumb extended and all the other fingers closed. It has taken me awhile to figure out that this means seven here. After the number five, the Chinese gestures for numbers differ from ours. Who knew? Thankfully almost all vendors here have calculators that you can use for bartering purposes.
I am also getting used to seeing the little kids in pants that split up the middle (no zipper or anything just open) who stop and pee wherever they are. Forget diapers – who needs them when you can just squat wherever you are and go? Ah well, less waste in the landfills right? For this and other reasons, you basically just don’t touch or set anything on the ground.
Another huge difference here is people’s relationship to food and animals. Chicken feet is a popular dish and the other day at a little mini grocery, I saw pre-packaged chicken feet for easy snacking. Forget slim jims – this is more natural and fiber filled snack ; ) This actually reminds me of another funny experience! I woke up one morning to the sound of roosters crowing and they sounded really close! Now keep in mind that I live in the middle of a very large apartment complex with maybe 30-40, 12-story apartment buildings. It is not rural by any means. I was quite cranky because I was still trying to sleep. I work evenings sometimes until 9 pm and so I go to bed late and get up late as well. I finally decided to get up and shower but the crowing continued. When I left my apartment I had a laugh because there were two roosters on my next-door neighbors’ ground level patio. I thought to myself – I hope that doesn’t last long and by the next morning they were gone. So either they were dinner or they were given to someone else but I have a feeling it was probably the former.
When these kinds of things happen happen, unless I am cranky or tired, I usually just laugh to or at myself and the situation because that is the best thing to do. Still I do find it surprising that after having been here two months I still feel like sometimes I have no idea what I am doing. I wonder when I go back home though if I will have gotten so used to the differences here that it will feel strange in the good ole USA? Hmm, we will see.
For those who want to know I am getting much better from my bout with bronchitis and am using some of the time to catch up on some experiences I had before I got sick also and before I had internet installed at home.
The last day of the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year celebration I got an invitation from my friend Tracey to go to Yu Yuan Gardens, a southern style garden in the older part of the city. I hadn’t had much time to explore Shanghai so I said yes and met up with a couple of other friends. Not having any idea what to expect I was pleased to discover some of the first classic buildings I have seen in Shanghai. The outskirts of the “gardens” are filled with a bizarre mix of vendors, jewelry and crystal shops mixed with antique stores, stores hawking imitation Picassos, and multiple shops selling statues of Buddha’s and fu dogs. My favorite store was the 10 things for 10 yuan store; forget dollar stores, these things are 7/$1!
Because this was the last day of the Chinese New Year, the place was packed. As a result of this they had instituted a fee to go into the center where the festive displays were. This meant that it was considerably less crowded inside the gates, which was nice. Inside the gates were more shops including take-away restaurants, some higher end shops selling silk and jade as well as many shops selling toys and touristy tchotchky’s, and yes even Starbucks. Inside the center of the grounds there is indeed a very small garden surrounded by a canal of water – I guess you could describe it as a moat that was filled with Chinese New Year decorations.
This was a touristy place and there were some westerners but the majority of tourists were Chinese from other parts of the country. I have gotten used to being stared at and getting a lot of attention from Shanghainese people but most of the attention is not so overt. Well this day I got a taste of what it might be like to go somewhere with no o expat community. I had purchased and was eating a soup dumpling; a Shanghainese specialty dumpling with very thin pasta shell filled with hot and steaming soup that you sip carefully with a straw. I do like these dumplings and was eating that and taking in the sites with my friends who were American and British. There were some Chinese tourists there with cameras snapping shots of the sites and then two of them turned around and started taking pictures of me. This started a trend and before I knew it, I was surrounded by a large group of people taking multiple photos of me, eating my dumpling. I was wearing a hat that day and my friend Tracey said, “show them what they want to see darling!” and she pulled of my hat. Well that really got them going and they took even more photos. Heck they could have been taking video for all I know because this lasted a good 5 – 7 minutes! I felt a little bit like an animal might feel at a zoo or a celebrity when dealing with paparazzi. I had a real appreciation of how weird it was to have people take photos you doing whatever it is that you happened to be doing at that time. In my case, I was just eating a soup dumpling. To my relief, the crowd did eventually dissipate and the calm returned.
My friends and I meandered for a bit longer, taking in all of the red lanterns which were strung all around the grounds. This was the last day of the festival that they would be lit and there were thousands of them. They were beautiful and I am glad that I got to see so many of them in this unique setting of old mixed with new.
There is one thing that that people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and socio economic class have in common – we all get sick. It is a unifying human experience. Regardless of whether you are old or young, rich or poor, black or white, at some point in your life, you have been ill and likely you have seen a doctor or healer.
That said, I can now add going to a Chinese hospital to my list of foreign experiences. I knew coming to China that it was probably going to be physically challenging because of the pollution, my particular sensitivity to air quality and multiple allergies. Other challenging aspects for me here are that I work with kids which means I am exposed to a lot of viruses, and the fact most Chinese people do not cover their mouths when coughing , sneezing etc. So it isn’t too surprising that after being here just over a month, I came down with the crud. At first I thought I was having bad allergies as it has been rainy and extra humid but I quickly realized that it was not when I developed what my mom called my hacking cough. After being sick on my two days off I went into work and asked if one of the local staff could accompany me to the doctor.
We went to a local clinic where they took my temperature first thing. Because of swine flu fears if you have a fever you must go to the hospital rather than a local clinic. Then I paid a small registration fee and waited to see a doctor. The doctor examined me, asked me questions (through the translator), listened to my lungs, and then shipped me off to get an x-ray and blood work. I was surprised to get an x-ray so quickly; I don’t think I’ve ever gotten an x-ray for a cough before! The x-ray and high white blood cell count in my blood indicated bronchitis so I was given antibiotics and told to rest and sent home.
Unfortunately for me my adventure did not end there. My cough dragged on so that I could not sleep at night and 3 days later I went to a local hospital. Again I had a translator from my school accompany me and I saw the doctor, got blood work, and then was given a different antibiotic. Unfortunately all the cough syrup had codeine in it which I am allergic to so I was out of luck there. I must admit that going to a local Chinese hospital is certainly an eye opening experience and certainly I did feel like I stuck out like a sore thumb (pardon the analogy). Everyone stared at me (something I have gotten used to) and I am sure everyone was surprised to see me, a lao wai 老外or foreigner, at their hospital. The hospital was filled with people that were sick and some who the local staff person told me were migrant workers with laboring injuries. I certainly felt lucky to just be suffering from a cough – all of my limbs were intact and I was not in danger.
Two days later and without signs of improvement, I decided to go to the International ward of a different hospital so that I wouldn’t need a translator. I went in the evening which meant that it was quiet there and I was examined again given the same diagnosis, Bronchitis. This time I was at least given cough syrup I could take and told to come back in 2-3 days if I wasn’t improving. This international ward was western in feel with plush office chairs and a heated waiting room and everyone there spoke English. It was the polar opposite experience of the local hospital that I had gone two a few days earlier which was crowded, featured no heating in the waiting area, had plastic chairs and poor lighting. Of course there is a cost difference but I decided that it was worth it for me to be able to communicate with the doctor and not have to wait for a translator to go with me.
After two more days, I was a little better but still quite sick so I went back to the international ward where I went through the whole rigmarole again but this time they decided to give me an IV with antibiotics. Also my blood work showed that in additional to a bronchial infection (and now a sinus infection); I had a virus as well. Fun times! So I am hoping this concludes my visits to the doctor for a long time. I am slowly getting better but it feels like baby steps instead of the giant leaps that I want to take. I will be patient and resist the urge to overdo it. I have never been good at taking it easy!
Hopefully the next time I write, this particular chapter of my adventure will be over.
