More Travels in China

B's Dad and new stepmother just finished a visit with us. They were here for two weeks: we visited Shanghai, Suzhou (the garden city and Venice of China), Beijing (we didn't go with them there), Xian (ancient capital and home to the famous terracotta warriors), Kaifeng and Luoyang (in China's heartland, near the Yellow River: Buddhist rock carvings, 4000 year old tombs, and ancient cities), Hangzhou (with the beautiful West Lake and tea plantations), and back to Shanghai.

Now we are back to regular life again: B scanning thousands of pages of industrial production statistics, and me studying Chinese at Fudan. On the 9th I will be traveling to the far west of China, Xinjiang province, which should be interesting. It's part of the ancient Silk Road, and has many oasis towns, sand dunes, bazaars, mosques, and donkeys. The people are mostly Muslim and Caucasian, and speak Chinese only as a second language. I will be going with a friend of mine, as B is getting down to the wire and must complete all his scanning, etc. ASAP.

Travels in China

Since I wrote last, I have been doing some traveling around China. In March B and I went to Hong Kong and Macao so that he could attend a meeting with the other Fulbright grantees. Unfortunately for him, he had many boring meetings and networking events to attend (including meeting with the consul in her extremely fancy mansion on Victoria Peak: apparently it had a complete ballroom), but I was able to travel around Hong Kong and enjoy some of the sights.

We both really loved Hong Kong. It has many of the positive elements of China (great food, picturesque temples and pagodas, dense cityscapes full of people doing all sorts of interesting things) along with those of the West (cleanliness, lots of natural space, the rule of law). It is also probably the best place in the world for shopping: everything you could possibly want is available, and it's all cheaper than it would be in the US (or in China for many things). I very much enjoyed buying clothes there especially: in the US, I must always go to the petite section but in Hong Kong everything fit perfectly.

After Hong Kong, we traveled via hydrofoil to the island of Macao (or Aomen in Chinese), which used to be a colony of Portugal (until 1999). There is still a fairly strong Portuguese influence there in some ways: the food is a unique fusion of Chinese and Portuguese, the wine is cheap and good (something not true anywhere else in China), the architecture and churches are mostly Western, and the legal system is still in Portuguese (most signs are bilingual too). It was the main gateway into China for Western influence until the mid-nineteenth century, so it has an important and interesting history. Now it is also the Las Vegas of Asia (actually bigger than Las Vegas in terms of gambling): as the only place in China where casino gambling is allowed (and since the vast majority of Chinese people love love love gambling), it is very popular.

B and I went to several casinos (including the MGM Grand and the Venetian), where he won money on slots and I lost all my money at roulette (but at least I honored Dostoevksy). We also saw a floor show of Russian dancegirls and went to the greyhound track, where I backed the winning dog much to my excitement. I had never been to any casinos before so it was quite exciting.

Back in China, in early April I took a week-long trip to Shandong province, which is in the north of China, south of Beijing and along the coast. Shandong is famous for 1. being the birthplace of Confucius and Mencius (China's second most famous philosopher) and 2. having the most holy Taoist mountain in China, which has been a place of pilgrimage since at least 500 BC. The people speak a very pure version of Chinese there (people in most other provinces have strong accents and speak other dialects as their first language), so it was much easier to navigate by myself than I'd expected. I visited both famous places (Qufu is Confucius' hometown and Taishan is the mountain).

The latest excitement is that my parents came to visit us for two weeks just recently. We had a wonderful time and I only wish that they could have stayed longer! In addition to seeing Shanghai, we traveled together to Chengdu (capital of Sichuan province, famous for 1. its very spicy food 2. its teahouse culture 3. pandas!), where my mother held a baby panda at the panda sanctuary and we visited many ancient temples and teahouses.

Then we went to Lijiang, in Yunnan province (in the southwest of China, near the border with southeast Asia), which may be the original for Shangri-La. It is high in the mountains but subtropical, so the climate is always temperate and the plant life is immensely rich (azaleas, camillas and many orchids are native to Yunnan). Lijiang is the center of life for the Naxi minority, which is a distinct ethnic group with a unique pictographic writing system (the only one still in use in the world), musical tradition (dating back over 1000 years), and cultural heritage. The town is extremely charming and well-preserved, with cobblestoned streets and a glacier-capped mountain in the distance. We visited the mountain, going up 15,000 feet (the highest I'd ever been! it was hard work moving around), as well as other sights down in the valley around Lijiang.

Then we flew to Chongqing (onetime capital of the country during WWII, when the Japanese had conquered large parts of coastal China), located on the Yangtze river. While there, we also visited the Dazu carvings, Buddhist cave sculptures carved from the 9th to 13th centuries, which was really spectacular. We also visited some ancient cities around Shanghai, including Suzhou and Hangzhou, famous for its West Lake.

Now we are getting ready for a trip from B's father and stepmother, so hopefully we will see some more interesting sights.

China Is the Homeland of Bureaucracy

Nothing much has changed here, except that school is gearing up and will start next week. This week has been consumed by adhering to the various ridiculous rules of the Chinese bureaucracy. Among other things, I must get a health check to ensure I am not a public health hazard even though I've been here since Oct. and presumably have had time to infect thousands of people. China has been run by professional bureaucrats for the last 2000 years, so they have had plenty of time to perfect the art. I though that the DMV was bad, but actually Chinese bureaucrats have developed their surly adherence to incomprehensible and useless yet apparently essential rules to a far greater extent. The strangest thing about it is that the rules are not at all evenly applied. In fact, they will frequently make a snap decision to ignore all procedure: for example, when I applied for my visa last time, the official in charge apparently whimsically decided that none of my painstakingly gathered documents (endorsed by the city, the state and the national government at a cost of approx. $40) were necessary to see and issued me one without even looking at them. I am not sure if there is a greater logic behind this or simply the bureaucrats gleefully exercising their power in ways depending on their mood and digestion (I suspect it's the latter).

B has been collecting enormous piles of paper and books containing incredibly detailed information about the production of various goods (cigarettes, coal, steel, paper, etc.) throughout China. He hopes to collect more and hire Chinese students to enter the data for him into Excel spreadsheets, at which point he could just hang out while occasionally supervising them (I doubt this would actually be the case, as B loves doing his research too much).

The weather has improved here dramatically, even miraculously, and I no longer need heat in the house or a coat on the street whatsoever. Instead, it is sunny and temperate (the weather today reminded me of LA). I am very happy about this, as weather cold enough to hurt your skin whenever you ventured outside is not my cup of tea.

Happy Year of the Ox

January 26th marked the beginning of Chinese New Year (it's the Ox's year so little bulls are decorating everything). Actually, the celebrations are still underway (it lasts 15 days altogether, ending with the Lantern Festival when traditionally everyone makes animal-shaped lanterns and wanders the streets) but the main celebratory part is over. Shops close down for a week or so, the streets are deserted, and the city is largely abandoned as everyone has returned to their hometown (in a city like Shanghai, this describes most people).

The most popular way to celebrate is to light multiple, highly explosive fireworks: no wussy sparklers here, but huge rockets going up 50+ feet! Since no safety precautions are preserved (come on, it's China!), I wonder how many people lose limbs each year. At peak times, there was at least an explosion a second in my neighborhood, so the amount of gunpowder consumed must be huge. The ground is covered in red paper now (the firecrackers all are wrapped in red paper since that color is lucky). It sounded like I was living in a war zone, although things have calmed down a little now.

Two days after the New Year is the official birthday of all dogs (the official birthday of all people is the first day). Dogs celebrate by being given copious amounts of food by their humans: I hope Tina had a good time celebrating in the Ghost world (I burned a 5000 yuan (~ $700) ghost money note for her to spend: according to the Chinese, the afterworld uses currency for all purchases just like we do).

Developing New Stereotypes

I am still studying Chinese at Fudan University. My classmates are from all over the world, which is interesting and helpful in developing additional stereotypes. For example, all the students from Kazakhstan (there are a lot studying Chinese!) seem to be mafiosos in training, often receiving mysterious phone calls which cause them to run out of class; they also all dress in black suits and only speak to each other.

The Russian girls dress like hookers (an extremely short: ie showing underwear: miniskirt (NB it is about 20 degrees right now), 3 inch high heeled thigh-high boots and a fake leopard skin jacket was one outfit today). Yesterday, one Russian girl asked the class if any of the foreign girls wanted to dance in a club that night for pay: outfits would be provided. She said to one girl, "You have a hot body, why don't you do it?" Not surprisingly, she had no takers until another Russian girl appeared. Once this was done, she called up her boss and in Chinese told her that a very beautiful, sexy girl was coming. Later she mentioned that she was carrying toothpaste and a toothbrush in her coat pocket as she didn't know where she would be sleeping that night.

Other classmates are from Korea, Japan (they have many extremely cute mannerisms and all are very polite), Sweden, Norway (the Scandinavians are indeed mostly blonde and blue-eyed and serious), Germany (they are all rude), England, the Philippines, Turkey, France, Poland, Denmark, and of course the US. The Americans are all friendly, casual, hard working, and dress like slobs (also all of them need haircuts even though a haircut costs like $1 here): go USA!

Thanksgiving in Shanghai

B and I celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday in a very elaborate and complex production: we made ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, cranberry sauce, foccacia, brownies, and stuffing. We went to the international grocery store (where they stock exotic products like C&H sugar and Barilla pasta), the local Walmart (which despite being Walmart carries mostly local Chinese products) and the local Chinese grocery store. Unfortunately none of these places had a cookie sheet or other baking equipment (for the brownies and foccacia), as Chinese people don't bake (we ended up using a bamboo cutting board as B remembered pizza is sometimes cooked on wooden slabs). Also, none of these places had any measuring cups/spoons, because Chinese cooking does not use them. According to the Chinese, cooking is an art not a science and therefore recipes will only say to add as much as "is suitable". Being scientific-minded Westerners, we were very worried, but luckily a nearby store selling only imported products from Japan had a very tiny measuring cup in stock (it only measures up to 3/4 of a cup: I suppose the Japanese like small portions!)

Then we took all of our purchases home and spent about 6 hours cooking. Neither of us had ever made a Thanksgiving dinner before, and it was unexpectedly complicated (yet we didn't even have a turkey!). I am now in awe of all of you who make Thanksgiving dinners all the time. We finished 2 hours past when we had expected, but the food all turned out very well and was consumed with relish (we had a friend of ours from the US over as well), although of course there are lots of leftovers. I was glad that we celebrated the holiday appropriately: even though it was a lot of trouble, I had a lot of fun.

Shanghai Is an International City

I started Chinese class at Fudan University last week. My class is very international, with students from the US, Austria, Tajikstan, Turkey, France, Japan, Korea, etc. Actually there are a lot of Central Asian students studying Chinese here (many of them are little thugs in training, not suprising since their necessarily wealthy parents are probably involved in organized crime, as most wealthy Tajiks, etc. are wealthy for that reason). Luckily for me, in the new global world the lingua franca is English, and so most of them speak it quite well (although our Chinese is still in the development stage).

Shanghai is a much more diverse and international city than Taipei was. First of all, there are many, many expats here (on business, often, but also working for NGOs/the government or studying Chinese); then Shanghai is a place that tourists visit, of which there are also many (no one went to Taiwan to sightsee). But perhaps most importantly, China is an incredibly diverse country and people from all parts come to Shanghai to make their fortunes. The far west of China (the province is called Xinjiang, pronounced Shin-jahng) is part of the old silk road, with oasis towns, huge deserts, and ancient caves full of carvings celebrating Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu religions (all of these had their devotees then). The people there are ethnically different than Chinese along the coast: they look like Afghanis, and mostly Muslim today. In Shanghai, the men still wear little flat-topped hats and vests (sometimes the women wear head scarves but this is not as common) and often own noodle shops or sell dried apricots and fruitcake on the street. Their food is very distinct too: they don't eat pork being Muslim, and eat flat bread (sort of like Indian nan) instead of rice. I am hopeful of visiting Xinjiang at some point and seeing the camels, the bazaars, and the ancient Silk road cities.

Each province in China actually is quite distinct: they all have their own mutually incomprehensible "dialect" which is really a different language (the government tends to gloss over all differences in their propaganda), and different styles of architecture, food, clothes, etc.This means that Chinese people have a lot of tolerance for my attempts to speak Chinese: they're used to puzzling out weird accents and broken Mandarin just from other Chinese people! However, the writing system (which isn't phonetic) is the same everywhere, and this does make it easier to communicate. The Shanghai natives also have their own language (Shanghaiese) and I hear it in the street often. I like the diversity of it all: very different from Taiwan, one of the most homogeneous societies in the world!

Getting Adjusted to Shanghai Life

I am becoming more accustomed to China now, although actually the transition has been a lot easier than I expected. Maybe it's because I lived in Taiwan already, or because I was in Shanghai for a month last year, but so far it's been pretty painless. Of course it helps to have a nice apartment to retreat to when the craziness becomes too much.

Walking down the street here is an adventure. While the Shanghaiese don't keep late hours (most businesses are closed by 10 pm), leaving the house anytime between 6 am and 11 pm means that you will be instantly surrounded by hordes of people, walking, hauling enormous loads of furniture, garbage or coal by bicycle, hanging out in the street doing laundry in small plastic tubs, talking on their cell phones, or pushing food carts (many of these sell roasted sweet potatoes, corn, or hazelnuts due to the season). Crossing the street is also an adventure, requiring nerves of steel and a speedy dash to avoid multiple buses packed with people driving at top speeds and swerving around corners, taxis driving extremely slowly (in case you as a foreigner want a ride), requiring the rest of traffic to swerve into the opposite lane without slowing down, and dozens of bicylists and people driving motor scooters (many with 2 or more passengers). They have red lights and crosswalks here, but they don't seem to mean anything in particular. Many businesses don't have a front door: the building just opens directly into the street (like a garage), which adds to the liveliness and hectic nature of everything. Also, everything is extremely noisy: people shout at each other (not from hostility, just to make a point), all forms of traffic continually honk (this means I'm passing you so look out!), there is always construction going on, and music blares out from stores. It's all very intense but exciting: you are surrounded by vibrant life and something is always happening.

The area we live is right next to the university, so the people here are used to foreigners and do not stare at you (in other parts of China, being a foreigner means that everyone you see on the street will stare at you stone-faced as long as you are in view or worse, call "hello" to you over and over, then hysterically laugh if you look at them). Also, they are very forgiving of my butchered attempts to speak Chinese (although often B is with me and can act as my translator). There are actually quite a few foreign students here (most of them are Japanese or Korean), but they are swallowed up in the masses of Chinese humanity. Apparently Shanghai now has about 15 million inhabitants (the university has over 50,000 students)!

First Days in Shanghai

I have been in China for 2 1/2 days now, and am getting settled in to my new environment. The apartment is very nice and large, in fact bigger than any of the other apartments we've had before. It is on the first floor of a multi-story apartment building (thus no stairs to climb) and is in a Chinese-style gated community. Although the complex is right off a main street, there is a gate and security hut (with 24-hour guards) which separates it from the city. Inside the complex are 4 multi-story apartment buildings (perhaps 20 stories high each?) and landscaped grounds, including a small park with exercise equipment. Thus, we have views of trees and shrubbery from all the windows: also, it is very quiet (especially considering the general noise of the city!). Maintainence and garbage service are included, so unlike Taiwan we don't need to meet the musical garbage truck at night. There is no obvious place to recycle: however, according to B, late at night human scavengers turn up at public garbage facilities wearing thigh-high boots and wade through the liquid waste looking for cans and plastics, so I suppose at least this reduces waste.

The apartment itself has hardwood floors, a full kitchen (including an oven! which we did not have in Taiwan), 3 bedrooms, and a laundry room. We don't have a dryer, as they are not really used here: instead, there is a ingenious clothes-hanging apparatus operated by pulley. Unfortunately the washing machine is Chinese-made and thus eats clothes on all settings except woolens. The neighborhood is also nice: it is right next to one of China's most famous universities (Fudan University) and thus there are (at least for China) many foreigners here, although you wouldn't really know it walking down the street, as the Chinese population so far outnumbers everyone else. There are tons of restaurants, several grocery stores, Walmart, parks, and two Starbucks within walking distance. I bought a bicycle yesterday (it was about $44), so now I will be more mobile if I want to venture further.

The first full day that I was here I went to the local police station and registered with them: they have a full wall of files on each inhabitant in this district, so that the entire population is supposedly accounted for at all times (of course, this is theoretical due to the large number of illegal immigrants from other parts of China in Shanghai). You are required to do this within 24 hours of arrival, and they do come to the house to ascertain this (B already had a visit to check on him: our next-door neighbor works for the police, so this is especially important). However, they did not give me any trouble.

Honeymoon: Shanghai Still

B and I are still in Shanghai, which is hectic, noisy, exciting and strange. It's hectic because there are 20 million people here, and wherever you go, at whatever time of day or night, they all seem to be out on the streets. I actually find this very frustrating because Chinese people walk at half the speed I do (even though I don't really walk that fast for an American, being short-legged) and I must either shuffle along or constantly try to pass the hordes. The other aspect of the hecticness is that there are thousands of bicycles, scooters, cars, taxis, buses, bicycle carts, people carrying goods on wooden poles, etc. on the streets too. The traffic is suprisingly fast-moving though, and much better than in LA; the excellent public transportation system probably helps.

Shanghai is incredibly noisy too (although our hotel room is very quiet), due to the 20 million people, the traffic, and the fact that Chinese people are much noisier than Americans and yell at each other with abandon. In fact, they like noise because it connotes liveliness and cheerfulness (perhaps this is why restaurants, etc. are always lined with marble and no carpeting for maximum sound reflection). All the quiet areas are for the benefit of foreigners (like expensive European restaurants). Going for a walk in the park is crazy because all these people are singing, playing instruments, shouting with excitement while gambling, or talking loudly. And the entire city, like the rest of China, seems to be under constant construction 24 hours a day (construction doesn't stop at night here, as they don't have overtime or noise regulations).

But the noise and the hectic craziness do make it a very exciting place to be, and I feel like I'm surrounded by constant change, thousands of things to do, and all kinds of people, from all parts of China, from the very sophisticated lady in Gucci to the rag-clad laborer from some rural backwater. China doesn't really have immigrants, but since it's such a large country, the people are incredibly diverse and one gets the same feeling of endless variety here as in LA or San Francisco (unlike in Taiwan, where the people were very homogeneous).

Honeymoon: Shanghai

B and I arrived in Shanghai in mid-August, the most modern and developed city in China. It's strange to be here after having traveled in Yunnan (a province in the Southwest of China, which is quite poor and undeveloped), because things are so different here. They have many convenience stores open 24-hours, enormous freeways (that are still congested with traffic at all hours), and immensely tall buildings. We are living in one, on the 18th floor (it has 30 floors I think), which is very nice indeed. Unlike Yunnan, in Shanghai if you have money, any level of luxury is available. But a large percentage of the population does not have money, so it's almost like the poor and the rich live in parallel worlds, with the rich eating $100/person dinners and living up in the clouds, while the poor live in crumbling concrete 5-story buildings and eat dinner for $0.50/person.

Shanghai used to be a treaty port, so most of the older architecture looks very European and Art Deco. The newer buildings, which have almost all been built since 1990, are pink and purple and circular, and look like they were designed for the Jetsons. The contrasts are strange to see, but exciting; I feel like everything is available in Shanghai, good, bad and indifferent, whereas in the rest of China, choice (in housing, food, clothes, etc.) is generally quite limited. I think staying here for a month will prove to be quite interesting. The Shanghai Museum is supposed to be the best in China, and I am very excited to see that.

Using the Internet is a little tricky here. Most of the Internet cafes here are dark, smoky caverns where people go to play online games for hours at a time (like 20 hours straight) while chain-smoking. It's a whole culture, mostly patronized by young guys (although perhaps 1/3 are girls) and not approved of by the government, who mounts propaganda campaigns about the evils of online gaming ("It will kill you!!!"). The Internet is censored here too, so there's a bunch of sites (all blogs, for instance) that I can't look at.

Settling in to Shanghai

I arrived in  Shanghai a few days ago and we now have a permanent address (at least for the next month, until Sept. 16th) and a cell phone.

We are staying at the Celebrity Service Apartment. This means it has a kitchen and so on, but is in a  hotel  and also has maid service twice a week. This is the only way to rent an apartment for a short time, but actually it's not so expensive (about $50/day  which is covered by B's grant). It's very nice.

Shanghai itself is very crowded, modern in spots (and not-so-modern in others) and full of interesting things to see and do.