Kunitzer in China

Rode the train to Shanghai over the weekend. Walked on The People's Square. Visited the Shanghai Museum. Saw The Temple of the Jade Buddha. Walked on Nanjing Street. Copy and paste the following link into your browser to see my pictures of Shanghai:

http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=386201156077169241/l=119563585/g=57456423/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

The only thing I did not get pictures of (but wish I had) was of breakfast on Sunday morning. Our plan was to go to Starbucks (hooray!) for breakfast (coffee) because it was just around the corner from our hotel. Just as we walked out of the hotel, we saw a group of ~100(?) Chinese loitering across the street at the intersection. It looked like they were getting breakfast too. Despite having my heart set on Starbucks (hooray!), my wants to check out their breakfast (boo!). We walk over to see what's cooking and it actually smells quite good. Of course, we are the only non-Chinese there so we get a lot of stares. And since we are joining their group, we are getting a lot more stares than usual, but our money is just as good as theirs so they don't give us any hassle. The closer we get, the better we see how crazy their set up is for cooking food. There are two shop bikes - the kind like a big tricycle with bed in the back for hauling things around. The bed in the back of these have a 55 gallon drum converted into a grill. These things are loaded up with charcoal (probably not Kingsford) that is already reduced to perfect coals for grilling and are cooking some kind of bread in at giant skillet. One person is busy rolling out the dough and another is busy cooking the bread. A set up like this would be shut down by the US health inspectors without even bother to make an inspection, but here it's just a part of everyday life. We bought two different kinds - one with some sort of green onion and another with cooked egg. We ate both kinds too. They weren't selling this at Starbucks, but it was good - good enough to do it again. Even good enough to again eat before going to Starbucks the next time this happens. I only wish I had taken pictures because it wasn't just the taste of the food that made it good, it was the whole experience - the smell of the hot oil and charcoal, the crowd of people, sitting on the curb of the road as we ate our food, seeing people throw their trash on the ground even though there is a trash can right beside them, the laughs and smiles from the Chinese as they watch these four Americans eat breakfast with them, the taxis honking at all of us to get out of their way, getting ripped off because we are Americans, and enjoying ourselves because you can't get this at McDonald's and it's a lot better than an Egg McMuffin. Even if it wasn't as sanitary.

It's about 40 km (25 mi) from my apartment to work. Lately I've been riding the bus to and from work because the colleague from work that I had been riding with is currently traveling in Germany and because I do not yet have my own car. Even though driving in a car takes only about 35 minutes to get to work while riding the bus takes about 50 minutes, taking the bus each day is starting to seem like a better idea than getting my own car.

First of all, I do not yet have my driving Chinese driving license. And I can't even get my Chinese DL until I get my Chinese residence permit. Fortunately, I expect to get my Chinese RP next week because my visa for entry into China will expire next week - and I don't want to find out what happens if I am here illegally.

Secondly, since I do not yet have my Chinese DL, if I do get my own car I would also need to hire a driver. Seeing the way people drive (and bike and walk) and the streets here (definitely more on this later) hiring a driver seems like a good idea. Doing some research to find the best contract, I found a contract that includes: a brand new car (VW Passat or similar), a 4000 km (2500 mi) monthly allowance, all the gas, all the maintenance and all the insurance - for 8000 Chinese yuan per month. That's $1000 per month just for one car! Even by US standards, that is a lot of money. In addition to that, I would need to pay 30 CNY ($7.50) in highway tolls each day going to and from work. Multiply that by 22 working days each month and there's another $165 per month. In addition to that, I would have to pay OT charges for the driver: 10 CNY per hour for time greater than 8 hours per days on M-F (granted it's only $1.25 per hour but hey, I'm already getting gouged!), 20 CNY ($2.50) per hour for any time worked on Saturday or Sunday, 25 CNY ($3.12) per hour for any time worked on a public holiday, and I would have to pay for the driver's accomodations for any personal travel with overnight stays out of town. Basically I could expect to pay about $1200 per month for M-F travelling to and from work + incidentals around town and I could expect to pay at least $1500 per month if I also used the car/driver on weekends and holidays. That is a helluva lot of money for just one car! Granted, I don't understand all the details of my company's policy regarding benefits for a car, but I do know that the current policy is nowhere near as generous as the previous policy. Of course I need to understand this policy and how it applies to me before I make a decision, but right now it isn't looking so good. Comparing what I know now about the cost of a car/driver to what I know about the cost of public transportation (free shuttle bus rides to/from work, 10 CNY taxi rides around town, 108 CNY train fare for 4 people round trip from Suzhou to Shanghai), it seems like a very attractive financial option.

A third reason to not get a car, even if I were to drive myself, is because it is extremely difficult to find my wy around new streets. I can't read a Chinese street sign, I can't read a Chinese map and I can't just stop at a gas station to ask for directions because the only Chinese I can speak so far is "Ni hao (hello)", "Xie xie (thank you)" and "Pijou (beer)" and the only English most Chinese people know is "How beautiful" or "How lovely" - generally spoken to my girls at least 100 times each day as a lead in to wanting to take a picture of my girls. Fortunately for me, some of the street signs (especially those near where we live) are starting to have Latin letters in addition to Chinese characters. When street signs are written this way, I at least have a fighting chance but it is still very difficult. Take the street I live on for example: Suxiu Road, or in Chinese characters, 苏绣路. I at least have a chance to read it, but trying to say it so a Chinese person can understand me is still next to impossible. I can't just say "Suxiu Road" to somebody because they don't understand the word "Road". The Chinese word for road is "lu" or "jie" or "dadao" or a few others that I still can't remember. So, in order for somebody to understand me, I need to say "Suxiu Lu" eventhough the sign says "Suxiu Road". But even if the sign did say "Suxiu Lu", I can't just say "Suxiu Lu" because I need to use the correct intonation on each syllable. But is that indicated on the street sign? Of course not! Again, using my street as an example, the "su" in "suxiu" could be pronounced "su" or "sù" or "sú" or "sū" or "sŭ". Likewise for the "xiu" in "suxiu". So, for a 2-syllable street name, I only have about a 4% chance of guessing the right combination of intonations, unless I've already heard it and committed it to memory. The other challenge to reading street signs and maps is that my brain is just not trained to recognize the Latin letter combinations used in Chinese. All the words that start with X start to look the same: xiu, xie, xi, xin, xing, xia, xian, xiang, xien, xieng.... And forget about Chinese characters because it's impossible. If i have an address card and try to find that street on a map, I forget what the character looks like just as soon as I look away from the address card and onto the map. So for me to drive myself to someplace new, I say it is next to impossible right now. But for a taxi or a driver, this is no problem. I show them the address card and they take me right where I want to go - almost always. Tuesday night I had to take a taxi home from work because I worked late. I showed the taxi driver my address card and we were off. No problem. We're cruising down the highway at 140 km/hour - not German autobahn speeds, but we were passing everybody and life was good. Until we get within 500m of the exit and he shows no signs of slowing down. So I point my finger at the exit and say "Suzhou!" He looks at me and says "Suzhou?" Again I point to the exit and say "Suzhou!!". Then he points to the exit and says "Suzhou!" and cranks the wheel to cut across 3 lanes of traffic and take the exit. We make it through the toll both and again, I point my finger at the intersection and say "Suzhou!" He looks at me and says "Suzhou?" Again I point to the intersection and say "Suzhou!!". Then he points to the intersection and says "Suzhou!" and we get on the correct road. Since I now know he doesn't really know where he is going, I try to tell him the next place we need to turn and I say "Xian dai shi zi lu kou". He looks at me and says "失败是成功之母?". I make an intersection sign with my hands and again I say "Xian dai shi zi lu kou". Again he looks at me and says "失败是成功之母?". Since we have a few miles to go, I give up until we get closer. I guide him to the lanes we need to stay in and suddenly he points to the left and says "Xian dai da dao!". Then I point to the left and say "Xian dai da dao!" (realizing now what I should have said). The he points to the left and says "Xian dai da dao!!" and we're making a left turn where we need to make a left turn. Finally, it's time for me to get out and we repeat this charade again. I point my finger down and say "OK!" He looks at me and says "OK?" Again I point down and say "OK!!". Then he points down and says "OK!" and pulls over so I can get out. Not a normal taxi ride, but normal enough for here.

And the final reason to not drive myself is because of the truck/bus/car/scooter/bicycle/pedestrian traffic. But I'll save that one for later.

It's been 3 1/2 weeks since we arrived in China and I'm surprised at how quickly we have been able to settle in so far. Daily life is so much different than the States, it's just not possible to tell about it all in one posting. In fact I don't know if I could do it in a hundred postings! But the thing I can easily say is that our actions and reactions to being in China have already changed quite a bit during the past 3 1/2 weeks.

This past Saturday (August 12th) turned out to be a rather enjoyable day despite not doing everything we planned on. Our initial plan was to get some lunch and then go to a local amusement park because we wanted the girls to do something fun. Seemed like a good plan, so we head out for lunch to The Blue Marlin.

We heard that The Blue Marlin serves excellent hamburgers. Since I had been eating nothing but Chinese food for 3 weeks straight, I was willing to eat even a crappy hamburger. So my vote was for The Blue Marlin. Even Renee was looking for a little variety, so she was willing to go along. The Blue Marlin is only about 1/4 mile from our apartment, so we decided to walk - the two girls rode in the stroller. It was only 11:30 am, but it was already >90 degrees F. Mira fell asleep on the way there, so she didn't care how hot it was, but the rest of us were dying.

I don't know if it was the heat or if it was just giving in to being in China, but we quickly drank the water we were served when we sat down. Until that moment, we treated a glass of Chinese water like we would treat a glass of Mexican water - we wouldn't drink it unless it was bottled. But at that moment, the cold water looked so good. (First of all, you have to understand that nearly evertime that water is served at a meal, the water is hot. I don't know if it's because the people here are accustomed to drinking tea (not Charleston sweet tea either because that's a future posting, but can you see why it's not possible to tell about everything in one posting? I digress) or they are are accustomed to boiling (read "sterilizing") their water before drinking. Secondly, you have to understand that Chinese standards of cleanliness are completely different than American standards of cleanliness and clean dishes, hands, food, you name sure isn't the same to us as it is to them - certainly another future posting (or more), but again I digress.) Throwing caution to the wind, and figuring we are going to get sick sooner or later, and imaging how great that ice cold water is going feel, we all drink our water. Sixty hours later, we still have yet to get sick, so we will probably be up for it again.

Of course the burger was delicious. It was real Australian beef! With french fries made from real potatoes! And real ketchup! And real draft beer! Chinese beer, but hey, I was willing to look the other way because it was real draft beer! Normally I wouldn't get this excited about a hamburger, but let's see you eat fried rice and won tons 3 times a day for 3 weeks and not get excited about a hamburger and fries. I can't exactly say that I've had fried rice and won tons 3 times a day for 3 weeks straight, but that's because I don't really know what I've eaten for 2 out of 3 meals for 3 weeks straight. Again, another future posting (or more) of discussion.

Although I spent so much time writing about a glass of water and a hamburger, I can't say that that meal was the highlight of the day. The rest of the day had it momemts of taxi-riding (another future posting), taxi-dodging (another future posting), getting stared at (this one's good for at least three more postings), shopping at Auchan (Chinese version of Wal-mart - this one's also good for at least three more postings, if not a good half dozen), getting a haircut (again another posting), eating dinner (by itself this is good for a future posting, but since our housekeeper made dinner for us this is definitely good for multiple future postings), and walking at the lighted fountains (deserves at least one posting because it seems like it should be exciting but when compared against all the strangeness of just trying to live through each day isn't really as exciting as I would expect it to be).