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Happy New Year! February 18 is the first day of the Chinese Year. It is a huge holiday here and a lot of people take extra vacation days to travel and visit friends and family. Friday, February 16 was especially quiet at work because all my Chinese colleagues had taken vacation days.

I had to travel to Shanghai on Tuesday February 13 for business. Normally I would take the train from Suzhou to Shanghai. Being so near to the Chinese New Year, all of the train tickets were sold out and I needed to take the bus. Even if I could get train tickets, my Chinese colleagues strongly advised me to not take the train because the trains and the train stations would be extremely crowded. I have taken the bus from Suzhou to Shanghai before, so this was not a problem for me. I can now tell the taxi driver that I need to go to the North Bus Station – “Qi Che Bei Zhan”. I can buy my own bus ticket at the train station – “Shanghai”. I can get my own tickets at the subway station to get to my company’s office – “Liu Jia Zui”. And I can even say these things with the correct tones. I’m a long way off from conversational Mandarin, but at least I can get around a little easier without having to carry a taxi book all the time.

The Shanghai trip went well, but I didn’t have to take the bus or the train back. I drove a car back. (One of my colleagues has a car and he is taking a vacation to Phillipines and he needed somebody to drive his car back to Suzhou from Shanghai. I also get free use of a car for about a week.) My first time driving in China and I needed to drive through the central business district in Shanghai. Fortunately, I had to work until about 8:30pm. Fortunately, I say, because the traffic starts to die down around 7:00pm. Besides, I didn’t want to get stuck in a traffic jam with 100,000 other cars all trying get through the tunnel to cross the Huangpu River. With my Shanghai map in my lap, I was able to make my way across town and I made it to the highway back to Suzhou without any problems. I made one wrong turn, but I was able to find a new route without any problem. It actually went a lot better than I thought it would. Sure, there were a lot of other cars, mopeds, bicycles and pedestrians on the street and sure most people didn’t follow the rules of the road, but traffic moves rather slowly (at least compared to USA) and as long as I used my horn and my turn signals I was able to pick my way across Shanghai without incident. I think I was more nervous about getting lost than I was about getting into an accident. Even though the driving really wasn’t a big problem, it did require a lot of attention and I still think it is better to use public transportation than to try driving myself. But that won’t stop me from using my colleague’s car for a week!

Saturday, February 17 was Chinese New Year’s Eve. I went to downtown Suzhou because there was going to be a dragon dance. I new it was going to be kind of a crazy day because I started hearing fireworks at about 9:00am. The more the day went on, the higher the frequency of fire works. At 9:00am , I could hear fireworks about 1x per 10 seconds. By 2:00pm, it was nearly continuous at 1x per second. After 5:00pm, I could here them going off all over the city at more than 10x per second. This lasted until well past midnight. These people are crazy about fireworks here. Everybody buys them. And these aren’t just sparklers and smoke bombs either – firecrackers, bottle rockets, Roman candles, cherry bombs all the way up to class A fireworks like we would see on 4th of July in USA. The most common fireworks I saw were class A fireworks and two kinds of firecrackers. It was really amazing to see these class A fireworks exploding all over the city. People would light them in the streets, in the apartment complexes, in the city center, in parks. Everywhere I went in the city, I could see these exploding 360 degrees around me. And with so many high buildings in Suzhou, the booms would echo all around. One kind of firecracker that was quite common was about 40mm diameter (~1.5 inch) and about 150mm long (~6 inch). People would set these on the ground, light the fuse and a miniature bomb would shoot about 10 meters (~30 feet) in the air. Right when it reached the apex, this miniature bomb would explode. Most of the time. A few times I saw these go not quite as high as normal, so the mini bomb fell back to the ground before it exploded. Strangely, these people knew this happened occasionally, but they almost never watched to see where the mini bomb went. A few times I saw these things fall less than 1 meter (~3 feet) from a person before it exploded. Even more strange, nobody I saw ever flinched when this happened. The other type of firecracker is the kind that is readily available in USA in those states that allow them. These are the king that are about 6mm diameter (~¼ inch) by about 40mm long (~1.5 inch). But in China, peole will usually buy these giant coils of more than 1000 firecrackers (each coil probably weighs about 5kg (~10 pounds) and will light several coils at a time. Some people would unwind thee coils and then put the long strips to form the number 888 – this is a lucky number in China and people do this to bring good luck in the new year. I bought about 15kg (~30pounds) of these firecrackers myself for only 50RMB (~US$8.50). Good price. Great fun!

Although I just spent an hour writing a new posting, this F#$%&*# blog program took a S#$% right when I tried to post my article. So you just have to be satisfied with the pics for now because it is late and I need to go to bed so I can get up for work in the morning.

I got my Chinese driver’s license several weeks ago. Although I was quite certain that I wasn’t going to buy or lease a car, I at least wanted to have the freedom to get a car. I think it’s this possibility of freedom that had me endure the hassles it took to get my driver’s license.

On paper, the process seems quite simple – take your driver’s license from home country + two passport photos + your passport to the local police station and take a test on the computer with the assistance of a Chinese “support” person. Mr. Qi is the boss of the company drivers and he is also the guy at my company who coordinates all the paperwork and schedules the appointments at the police station. Passport: no problem. Two passport photos: no problem (I had the foresight to bring about 20 extra passport photos from USA). Driver’s license from USA: no problem. Everything else: Problems!

The first sign of problems was learning that I needed to find my own Chinese “support” person. Basically, a Chinese “support” person is a local Chinese person who had recently passed the written exam for the driver’s license. Getting this support was a problem because I didn’t know anybody that had passed the written exam, but Mr. Qi knew everybody at my company who had passed the written exam, it just wasn’t his responsibility to organize this support. Although I tried to find a support person, I showed up at Mr. Qi’s office on test day without a support person. Fortunately, he says it’s not a problem and I can just use another colleague’s support person because there were three other colleagues who would be taking the test with me. And, he said, I owed him 100RMB (US$12.50) for the fee to get my USA driver’s license translated to Chinese.

Despite the 100RMB setback, things seemed to be going quite well. We arrived at the police station an since we were all foreigners, we went straight to the front of the line. We quickly learned that this wasn’t the line to take the test, but the line to get our picture taken (so tell me why I needed to provide two passport photos) and shell out another 75RMB (US$ 9.37). We then went to the front of the next line, only to find out this wasn’t the line to take the test either, but was the line to pay for the physical exam and shell out another 60RMB (US$7.50).

I am not quite certain why it is called a physical exam because the only thing we had to do was take one of those tests that check for color blindness, the kind of test that has some red circles in the shape of a number and are surrounded by a bunch of green circles. My test showed a number 7, so I said “Seven”. My guess is the lady giving me the test can’t speak a lick of English, but still she says “Hao de” (which means “OK”) and gives my paperwork to the next lady who stamps it about twenty times. I was left with the impression that we were given the abbreviated test and perhaps there is more to this physical exam for the Chinese.

We then went to the next line (again the front) and this time we paid 300RMB (US$37.50), but this was the last line and the only thing left to do was to take the written exam. The test was administered by computer and there was only one computer designated for taking the test, so we could only take the test one by one. I drew the longest straw, so I had to go last.

“Normally” the foreigner will sit with the “support” person in front of the computer because the test is “normally” administered in Chinese and the “support” person “supports” the foreigner in translating the questions and the multiple choice answers. Things started off “normally” until the police officer decided he didn’t like the way the “support” was given. The police officer stopped the test and made the first person take the English version of the test, but still let the Chinese “support” person remain. Through a combination of bad Chinese to English translations on the test, nervousness of the “support” person, and 50% of the test questions more about license administration instead of driving skills, the first person failed the test. This means the first person gets no license. To make matters worse, the police officer decided that since the first person failed, we all failed.

We all had some choice words. Most of them were four letter words. Because we spent nearly the entire day at the police office. Because we all dropped 535RMB (US$66.87) without a refund. Because we didn’t get to take the test the “normal” way. Because the police officer arbitrarily (and, I believe, capriciously) failed us all. Because Mr. Qi didn’t do anything to prepare us for this. Because we are all better drivers than the Chinese. Because even if the Chinese pass the test the Chinese don’t follow the rules of the road anyway. Because we still didn’t have a driver’s license. Not that it we would really need or use our Chinese driver’s license, it was just the principle that others got it the “normal” way and we should too.

Some weeks later, Mr. Qi worked out a deal with the police department. Three police officers came to my company along with three computers for taking the test. This was unprecedented for the police to take such action. So unprecedented that a local newspaper reporter came to write a story about the good relationship between my company and the police department and how well my company and the police station were working together to make things just a little more convenient for us foreigners. The reporter even interviewed one of my colleagues about how my company prepared us to take such a test. Naturally, my colleague replied that since training materials are only available in Chinese, we worked with a translator for several weeks to study and learn and review. He said it was a great effort of my company to provide such a service and that he felt fully prepared to take the exam.

Things finally returned to “normal”. The reporter soon left. The two higher ranking police officers soon left. Mr. Qi and the low ranking police officer soon went outside to smoke cigarettes. And the rest of us took the test with the “support” person at our side. I got a 94% - the way it is “normally” done.

I just finished spending a week working in Thailand. Despite having to spend a week away from my family, it was a nice break away from China. It was always sunny and in the mid 80’s whereas it’s been cloudy/rainy and in the 50’s in Suzhou, China (both better than Michigan though). But even better than the weather, the air in Thailand was much cleaner than the air in China. Lately, I have really noticed that there is a lot of stink and smoke and smog in the air in China. Certainly some days are better than others, but in general the air quality in China is quite bad. I can most easily tell how good/bad the air quality is by the smell (or lack of it) when I get off the plane. On October 24, I flew to Stuttgart, Germany and the air had no smell when I got off the plane. On November 4, I flew back to Shanghai, China and the air had the distinct smell of pollution. On November 20, I flew to Bangkok, Thailand and the air had no smell when I got off the plane. On November 25, I flew back to Shanghai, China and again the air had the distinct smell of pollution.

Aside from the air quality, there were a number of other interesting things about Thailand. First of all, the Thai people love their king. There are pictures of the king every where. And not just 4” x 6” photos, but life size and 2x life size and 4x life size and 10x life size. And these pictures were not displayed on plain matted frames, they were displayed in ornately carved, brightly colored and gold leaf inlaid shrines. I saw many, many public and private displays and it wasn’t because the king loves the king, but these people truly love their king – at least all the people I talked to said everybody does.

Transportation in Thailand is also much different than in China. Whereas China has a lot of bicycles, electric scooters and taxis, Thailand has a lot of motorcycles and pickup trucks. It is very rare to see a pickup truck in China, so I was astounded to see so many in Thailand. Granted they were mostly Isuzu and Toyota, but the only place I’ve seen more pickup trucks are in USA. Pickups are even used as taxis. With a special cover over the bed, seats installed over the wheel wells and the tailgate removed, people 8 at a time just climb into the back and away they go like a load of migrant farm workers. Motorcycles are also used as taxis, but not before getting transformed into a Took-Took. The front half of a Took-Took looks like a motorcycle and the back half looks like a golf cart. I rode in one from the company office to my hotel and although I can’t say it was the safest ride I ever had, the slow rate of traffic flow and the 100cc engine ensured there wouldn’t be any high speed accidents. Thailand also had a lot of buses for public transportation, but there wasn’t anything special about the construction of the buses. The paint jobs however were truly phenomenal. It seemed that every bus had a unique air-brushed paint job – Japanese cartoon characters, landscapes, advertisements, and other designs, all in only the brightest colors.

The reason I spent a week in Thailand was to visit suppliers and potential suppliers. Thailand actually has quite a broad manufacturing base. Many of the companies are Japanese transplants (similar to Taiwanese transplants in China and American transplants in Mexico). In fact, Japan is heavily invested in Thailand, much more so than any other country – very different from China where there is minimal Japanese investment, due in large part to the bad relations between China and Japan. Some factories have a very strong Japanese influence (well maintained equipment with Total Productive Maintenance fully implemented, completely visual operations management, clean and organized shop floor) and other factories the influence was not so prevalent. Regardless of the ownership of the company, regardless of the amount of Japanese influence, regardless of the manufacturing technology (machining, forging, casting, spring coiling, etc.) one thing that was common at all factories I visited was the need to remove my street shoes and put on slippers/sandals when I entered the lobby. It really felt quite strange to wear flip-flops on the shop floor of a manufacturing plant (but we did put our street shoes back on in the casting and forging shops).

I was really amazed at the number of street vendors in Bangkok – so many more than in Shanghai. But the street vendors only come out at night. During the day, there are regular shops, businesses and restaurants that are open. During the evening, the day businesses close shop and the street vendors set up shop. It’s very well organized too. There are painted lines on the sidewalk to indicate where a vendor can set up. From there, it’s first come first serve, but I found that most vendors tended to set up in the same general area each night that I was there. Even the street vendors selling food had an organized business. Many of them had small plastic tables and chairs for their customers. In China, street vendor customers are expected to eat their food while sitting on the street curb, standing on the sidewalk or get it to go in a plastic bag.

In China, KFC and Pizza Hut are everywhere. In Thailand, McDonalds and 7-Eleven are everywhere. I would even say that 7-Eleven is a bigger institution in Thailand than it is in USA. In Thailand, there are not so many gas stations and pharmacies (like Walgreens, CVS, Eckerd) like there are in USA. Also, there are not so many other competitors to 7-Eleven. In some respects, It was a lot like being in USA because I could easily order a Slurpee from a cashier who couldn’t speak English very well.

I recently learned of an economic index called the Big Mac index. Basically, McDonalds has a very systematic method of setting the price of a Big Mac meal for every location throughout the world and the cost of a Big Mac meal can correlate to the cost of living and the spending power that people have. So as I visit various cities, I will check out the price of a Big Mac meal. In Bangkok, a Big Mac meal was 99 Thai Baht ≈ US$2.60. That’s a good deal. The thing that most intrigued me about McDonalds was the statue on Ronald McDonald. I saw two of these life-size statues in Thailand. Normally (meaning in USA) Ronald is giving a friendly wave. In Thailand, Ronald is holding his hands together just as a Buddhist monk would extend a friendly greeting. It seems to work, the Thai people were lining up six deep.

My gosh, I didn't realize that three weeks had already passed since my last posting. Some days I feel like there are so many strange things to blog, that I can just do it later. Other days it's hard to find something to blog because the strange is becoming commonplace. Thanks for the anonymous people out there (all of you) for reminding me I need to keep up my blog. The things that make this China experience memorable are in the details, and already I find that if I don't keep up with this blog, I start to forget about these details.

Although everybody in my office speaks English in the office, I am the only person who speaks English as a native language (in fact I am the only person who speaks only one language - but since English is the language of money and you know how the saying goes, "Money talks and BS walks"). Being the only English native speaker, I often get asked to clarify some of the finer details of the English language. For example, I've been asked what "blog" and "webcam" mean. For these types of questions, I first remind them that Americans like short words and big everything else. Recently one person asked me to distinguish between Mr., Ms., Mrs. and Miss. Before answering this, it was again important to begin with a reminder - this time reminding that women are much more complicated than men. I think they were clear on this Ms./Mrs./Miss concept until I dropped the bomb about the additional rules for using Miss when one is in Dixie.

This past week was a national holiday in China and nearly all companies are off work for 7 straight calendar days - not 8, not 9, but 7 - and there are no partial work weeks. They do this by making a Saturday and a Sunday a regular working day (WD) instead of a weekend (WE) or a holiday (HD) as follows:
FRI 9/30: WD
SAT 10/01: WE --> WD

SUN 10/02: WE --> HD
MON 10/03: WD --> HD
TUE 10/04: WD --> HD
WED 10/05: WD --> WE (from 10/01)
THU 10/06: WD --> WE (from 10/02)
FRI 10/07: WD --> WE (from 10/09)
SAT 10/08: WE

SUN 10/09: WE --> WD
MON 10/10: WD

Although I need to work on a Saturday and a Sunday, nearly everybody else does too, so it doesn't seem like a big deal. And since I get seven days off without having to spend any vacation time, it makes it worthwhile. It's kind of like turning Thanksgiving into a week-long national holiday except there isn't much American (real) football on TV, so it's not like I'm missing out. (As I'm writing this I'm debating whether to shell out US$21.95 to ESPN to watch a webcast of University of Michigan play Michigan State University at 4:30AM China time on Sunday morning while still remembering that I need to work on Sunday and also knowing that UM is currently ranked #6 in AP Poll and my boss from the States probably pulled all his hair out from MSU's 4th quarter loss to ND and MSU's recent record in The Big House is not so good and even if it's a close game I'm not going to have anybody to talk with about the game.)

The holiday is called the Autumn Golden Week and it occurs during the first week in October. There is a similar week-long national holiday for the Chinese New Year and for the Spring Golden Week. Three week-long vacations isn't a bad way to live. Although we spent a few days in Shanghai, we did our best to avoid the crowds. But when 1.2 billion people are on holiday, it is quite difficult to avoid the crowds. It probably wasn't the best idea to visit one of the tourist attractions in Shanghai during this week. We wanted to see the Yu Yuan Garden. The entrance to this place is kind of hidden among a network of pedestrian streets that were completely packed with people and we were met with numerous challanges in trying to find this place. Challange #1 - find out where the entrance is located.


















Challenge #2 - navigate our way through the mobs of people.


















Challenge #3 - minimize the number of times we got stopped because people wanted to take a picture of our daughters.



















But once we made it to the garden, it was actually much less crowded and was a stark contrast to the madness outside.

Despite the fun we had in Shanghai, I think the most excite came from having to take our oldest daughter to the Emergency Room (for the third time since we arrived just 11 weeks ago) because she injured her foot while riding a bicycle. Fortunately it was right close to our home, so we were able to first get home to calm her down, calm my wife down, and inspect the wound. Without my daughter screaming in one ear and my wife screaming in the other, I could tell indeed that my daughter would need stitches. Since my wife has already been to the Emergency Room and since it didn't make sense to take our youngest daughter there too, my wife drew the short straw and was elected to go. Luckily, our Ayi (bless her heart) was at our home and she also went to the hospital with my wife and daughter. Although I wasn't at the hospital to see first hand what happened, I had a pretty good idea what happened after my wife returned home crying and said "We aren't in America anymore!" Evidently she and my daughter were ushered to one room where they would wait for awhile, then somebody would come in and smile at them and leave, them my wife and daughter would get ushered to another room. This was repeated 3 or 4 times. Meanwhile our Ayi (bless her heart) was doing all the talking and filling out all the paperwork because nobody there spoke English during the National Holiday. Finally my daughter arrives in a room where she will get treated. Nobody wears gloves. Nobody washes hands. No sterile equipment is used. And most importantly, no anesthetic is used. (Another good reason to keep a stock of liquor at home - never can tell if I might need to have an emergency appendectomy!) Although my daughter obviously suffered through the seven stitches she got in her foot, she was in pretty decent spirits by the time she got home and I think it shook my wife up more than anyone. I don't think our Ayi (bless her heart) was too shaken up, she still took time to cook dinner, clean the dishes and finish the laundry.

Saturday we went shopping at The No. 1 People's Department Store in downtown Suzhou. We needed to get some new electrical appliances (microwave oven, vacuum cleaner, electric razor) a rug, and a few new clothes. We wanted to try the department store because we heard the selection and the crowds are better than at Auchan (a French-owned supermarket similar to a Super Wal-Mart). We were right about the selection: it was like going to a Macy's - seven different floors and each floor specialized in separate items. We were wrong about the crowds: it was also like Macy's - on the day after Thanksgiving. Although there were a lot of people, there weren't so many that it was impossible to move, just so many that it was very difficult to navigate two small, tired children who everybody wants to touch and hold.

First we bought an electric razor. Fortunately they took Visa because we realized we didn't have enough cash for all the things we wanted to buy. Buying things at a Chinese department store isn't like buying things at an American department store. In USA, you take your item to the counter, give the sales clerk your cash, check or credit card, get your receipt, and leave. Not so easy in China. First you get a special ticket for the item you want to buy. Since I was buying an electric razor on the first floor, I had to take my ticket from the electric razor counter to the credit card office at the other end of the building. After they figured out how to process a Visa transaction, they kept my special ticket, gave me my credit card receipt and then gave me a different special ticket. I had to take this second special ticket to a different office where they perform the sales transaction. There they gave my second special ticket the official "Paid In Full" stamp (I think) and they gave me my fapiao (my official invoice). Then I had to go back to the electric razor counter to give them my second special ticket with the offical stamp. Then they showed me a brand new electric razor still in it's sealed box. Very Important - you must inspect the contents of the box regardless of its appearance of never having been opened because there is no guarantee that the actual contents of the box match the description of what is written on the box. So we opened the sealed box, inspected the contents, found everything to be in order (it helped that the manual was also in English) and went on to the next location.

There were some things on the 2nd floor, so we had to find our way upstairs. After navigating through the crowded aisles, we made our way to the elevator (because we had the strollers). We were fortunate enough to get on one right away, but we were unfortunate that the elevator was so crowded that we couldn't get out on the 2nd floor and we went up to the 3rd floor. Since a bunch of people were getting out we, we pushed our way out with them. We figured it was better to get out and look for something else than to continue being trapped on the elevator. Lucky for us we quickly found the vacuum cleaners. After having one of those bagless vacuum cleaners when we lived in Charleston, I only wanted another bagless vacuum cleaner. Trying to tell a sales clerrk that I wanted a bagless vacuum cleaner was impossible, so all we could do was start looking at the first one we saw. I made the sales clerk open the vacuum cleaner to show me if it had a bag or not. Of course, the first one had a bag. Piece of cake, I point to the bag and say "bu yao" (I don't want it - meaning the bag). I think she understood what I meant because she quickly went to another model and eagerly opened it up to show me there was no bag. True enough, there wasn't a paper bag, but there was a non-disposal cloth bag. This was not what I wanted so again I point to the bag and say "bu yao". Now she clearly doesn't understand me because every vacuum she shows me has either a paper or cloth bag. Disappointed, I just walk away shaking my head. The next counter also has vacuum cleaners and I see a Philips that I think is bagless. I make the clerk take it off the shelf, open it up, and find no bag! So I make her plug it in and turn it on, but she won't let me suck up any paper so I can see what happens. But this lady was really thinking because she shows me a manual in English for this vacuum and it's what I want. At this point, I thought it best to buy this instead of trying to find another less expensive model. So we go through the same routine I did with the electric razor - back to the first floor to make the Visa transaction (there only one Visa card reader in the entire store!), back to the 3rd floor and to the sales desk, then back over to the vacuum cleaner counter, where I open the box and inspect the entire contents and finally find that everything is OK.

Buying these two items has taken over an hour, so we decide we should leave and get the microwave oven some other day because it's not a high priority right now. My wife quickly changes her mind when she sees a simple, low-priced microwave with English writing on the controls. She figures the difficult work is already done because we already found exactly what we want and we'll pay for this with cash. Since I don't have to go back downstairs to the the credit card office, I just take my ticket to the sales office where I gave them my money and they give me my fapiao and my "paid in full" ticket. I takes these back to the microwave oven desk and now they want me to fill out some special paperwork. I didn't have to do this before and I can't read the form because everything is in Chinese, so I don't quite know what they want. Fortunately I have my cell phone on me, so I call one of my Chinese colleagues from work. I explain the situation to him and have him talk to the sales clerk. Come to find out that they don't have the microwave in stock, but they can deliver it on Monday and they just need my home address. I show the sales clerk the taxi card for my apartment, make her write my address on the form (in Chinese) and I put my phone numbers and signature on the form. One hour after deciding it was time to leave, we are definitely ready to leave.

Since we took a taxi to downtown, we need to take a taxi back home. And since the department store is in the pedestrian-only part of town, we need to walk back to the taxi stop. One thing we can count on in the pedestrian part of downtown is getting solicited by every bicycle-taxi driver that we comes within 1 city block of us. That's a lot of times to say "Bu Yao!" I'm sure the entertainment value of riding these things is high, but we're not here as tourists now.

And after we make it past these guys, we can count on getting accosted by the automobile-taxi drivers that are walking around looking for a fare. These guys promise us a taxi is ready and waiting for us and will guarantee our fare will not exceed a certain amount. We just laugh at these guys because we know they charge at least double the normal cab fare. Because they can see we are foreigners, they think we are rich and stupid. Well they've got us figured wrong, we're just stupid. Who else would take their two young children shopping at Macy's on the day after Thanksgiving? Maybe it will be better during the October Golden Week.