February 2010
And another thing about China….
Well, I’m into my last month here and I’ve recently become something of a recluse. I’ve just about had it with being the only foreigner in a city of about 150,000 people – my patience has almost disappeared. Its hard to explain how exhausting it is to be stared at ALL the time. When I go out in Tongchuan, people stop and look or point; they nudge each other and then the whole group turns and looks; parents point me out to their children who gape; groups of school kids run alongside me; people in shops stop what they’re doing and stare out of the window; an entire supermarket stopped what they were doing one day to stare open mouthed or they just stare and shout the Chinese word for foreigner.
Yes I know, I should just accept that these people actually have never seen a non Chinese person before, but its driving me crazy! Sometimes I just smile and engage with everyone – I used to do this but now its less and less, sometimes I get really annoyed at the plain rudeness and I have also developed a way of walking without giving anyone any eye contact but the whole thing is exhausting.
Actually, I’m happily living in the 24th century – I bought all 7 series of Voyager and I’m getting DS9 next week (thats Star Trek for the uninitiated) – so a happy kop-out.
Anyway, on a nicer note, I spend most of last week learning how to make steamed bread and other lovely things at a little Chinese bakery around the corner. This young guy I met wanted to talk to me some more so I got him to come and be my translator at this bakery. The people were so nice and helpful even though I was quite useless at some of the techniques – things like rolling the dough for the rolls with two hands – very quickly. There are some photos on the Shutterfly site and maybe sometime I’ll be able to upload all the little videos I took.
Sorry about the Shutterfly site, by the way, its the only way I can share my photos but its not too much hassle to register – please do and let me know what you think of my photos.
I escaped into the countryside yesterday and had a lovely walk up a mountain. Fresh air and no people – amazing.
I’ve made a little list of some of the interesting and maybe bizarre things that I’ve seen here:
- people employed to sweep the hard shoulder of motorways -why?
- waiters playing badminton – they all do it between shifts – maybe there’s a waiter’s olympics
- hundreds and hundreds of new apartment blocks being built – everything about numbers here is almost touching infinity
- many of these blocks have structures that look like Grecian temples on top — penthouses??
- a major tourist attraction in the middle of a traffic island – the only way to get to it is to take your chances with ten lanes of fast moving traffic – this is true – I survived
- A three piece suite on the back of a pushbike
- fortune tellers on the street – they weren’t very good!
- People with baskets of live chickens for sale on the street
- women sitting on street corners with a sewing machine ready to do any repair
- the craziest and most inefficient postal system that you could imagine
- old men walking backwards
- blueberry flavoured crisps – just a bit wrong!
- A crowd gathering around a card game – everytime
- stunning architecture with traditional inspiration
- stunningly ugly concrete blocks that people live in
- more new buildings and elevated motorways than you imagine possible
- the fact that 40million Chinese children are currently learning the piano
- a market stall selling crickets in a presentation box – they’re for fighting!
- Trays of baked ducks’ heads – complete with beak – no I haven’t tried one
- a bus turning left across 3 lanes of traffic – the driver didn’t even look at the traffic – she just kept going
I also learned that:
- I have as much right to be in the middle of the road as any car
- cars have the same rights on the pavement
- the Chinese school system deintelligentises young people – 80 kids in a class and 80% of waking hours spent studying for exams
- the most creative people and the entrepreneurs are the people with businesses on the street and no education
- America hasn’t got a look in when it comes to real active capitalism
- that its possible to totally live without chocolate – but I have nostalgic thoughts
- Being amongst 1.5billion people is tiring – its hard to imagine that there can be so many people – everywhere is crowded
- public transport can be cheap and efficient – buses come every 3 or 4 minutes and cost 1Yuan (10p)
- buses are always full!
- In relation to hair – for women, half of the hair must be considered fringe – take a line from the top of your ear over your head and everything to the front is a fringe and for guys…..blow drying is alive and well!
So I’m just a bit tired of China now but if you have the chance to come here, you should. Its fascinating. I have never felt at all threatened nor have I seen anyone being angry or aggressive. People are very kind and generous and hospitality in people’s houses is wonderful. This country is about to burst out on the world so I’m glad I’ve been here to get to know it a bit. And of, course, the food is brilliant.
January 2010 – Schools, houses and executions.
I had a touch of reality the other day and it was a bit shocking. There was a crowd in the square outside of where I live and work. I asked my colleague what was going on. ‘Its the criminals’, she said ‘but its finished now’. I had a vision of some punishment being meted out by a mob and suddenly thought, I don’t want to be here.
It wasn’t that dramatic, fortunately. The police had brought a load of ‘criminals’ to be paraded in front of the people of the town to demonstrate that crime doesn’t pay. This didn’t seem too bad until my colleague said ‘and now they’re all going to be shot’. I watched as two open backed lorries, full of armed soldiers and ‘criminals’ dressed in orange, drove off. Those guys were having their very last look at the world – they were all going to be executed that afternoon.
There are 68 offences that carry the death penalty in China including tax evasion and theft. I knew this and of course I knew about China’s appalling human rights record but, like most travellers, I put those thoughts to one side when I had the opportunity to work here for a while. But that morning, I had a real feeling of shock as I stood and watched the lorries drive away. I have, like most of us who grew up in the West, had a very sheltered life when it comes to things like executions. Again, like many people, I actively seek out new and exciting places to visit. But we should never forget what goes on beneath the surface of countries like China. By the time I had finished my lunch that day, all of those guys would have been shot. Lest we forget.
On another note, lots of people live in caves around here. I read a fact once that about 5 million people in China live in caves and I had visions of something very basic and uncomfortable. Tongchuan, where I’m living right now, is a town built along the bottom of a steep sided valley. The houses at the bottom are modern and mostly apartment blocks but one day I walked up one of the very steep paths going above the town. The houses all had ornate gates, mostly painted red with statues of lions and dragons but it wasn’t until I was above the houses that I realised that these gates were almost up to the wall of the hillside. The actual living part of the house could only be inside the hill – in a cave.
I had a friend in India who lived in a cave – it was half way up a mountainside in the Himalayas and I didn’t actually know it was a cave until I touched the walls inside – rock. I haven’t been inside one of the cave here but I’m on the lookout for a suitable acquaintance. The hills, by the way are made of fairly soft sandstone so I guess its quite easy to dig yourself a cave.
The children I work with range in age from 5 to 18 but one thing they all have in common is that they have no social life. Someone said to me the other day that the children learn music or dance ‘in their free time’ – a bit of a contradiction in terms. School takes up all of their time. After a full day, they go back for 3 hours in the evening to do ‘homework’ and they often go in at the weekend too. Classes are usually around 80 students and the pressure on these students to achieve is enormous. The expectation is that they’ll get 100%. One girl put it into a perspective for me when she pointed out that will 1.5billion people, there is so much competition for everything, you have to be the best.
But it’s very much a ‘fill the bucket’ approach to education rather than lighting any spark. I was talking about Shakespeare with a teacher who told me that he never had time to discuss anything about the man and his contribution to literature or whatever, he only spent time learning sonnets.
I’m not a Christian but I was brought up in a Christian house and country so I do actually know what Christmas is all about. I now have to go to a Christmas party and tell the nativity story to about 200 children and sing a load of carols – thank goodness for my old fashioned girls school education where we has religious assembly every morning. I never realised that I knew so many carols. Happy Christmas.
Well I’ve been here almost a month now and although the food is still as interesting as ever, I’m realising that its almost totally devoid of roughage and vitamin C – maybe any vitamins for that matter. I still don’t exactly use my kitchen but I’m now exploring the vegetable and fruit stalls on every corner. Now here’s a funny thing – its really hard to find lemons here. Loads of other citrus -some known, some not – and loads of raw sugar cane. I had some for lunch the other day – you just chew and suck and spit out the hard bits. I hadn’t really thought about sugar as a plant before and I’ve never been to a sugar plantation but I did begin to think about just how much sugar must be grown around the planet.
Although sugar is probably in 90% of the food here, its also hard to find! I was cold the other night and wanted a hot whiskey – Irish answer to any ailment. Its turned out to be quite a mission to get 4 simple ingredients – the cloves were the easiest! I got something vaguely resembling whiskey – brown and alcoholic, no lemons and I searched the whole supermarket for sugar – finally found a small stash hidden away in a basket. It didn’t taste like a regular toddy but it did the trick.
Actually I’m a bit sick of being cold. My apartment is nice – open plan and nice décor but useless in the winter. I’ve moved into one room and I have a heater so I don’t think I’ll freeze to death. However I have discovered thermal tights – what a brilliant idea – and footless so they fit me. If anybody wants some sent over let me know.
I had to go to a Government office in another area the other day to sort out my long stay visa. It was like a Chinese Milton Keynes. Purpose built, shiny and new, wide flat roads with no traffic – very weird. I had to go into some kind of police building and all along the corridor were photos of police with guns, usually wearing balaclavas, standing around loads of bodies. There’s nothing covert about police activity here! Actually there’s nothing covert about the police at all – I’ve never been in a place with so much police presence. I’m sitting upstairs in a coffee shop right now and out of the window I can see 3 police cars and four more have just driven past. Its not exactly threatening, they’re just there. Wearing uniforms of any kind, seems to be a hobby and a passion – I have not idea what most of them are – police, army, security??? but what they all have in common is that they don’t seem to fit! They all look too big across the shoulders and with sleeves that are way too long..
This place isn’t in the remotest bit picturesque or even pretty although to be fair, it is winter – the trees are bare and the sky is grey – still haven’t worked out if its pollution or just everlasting cloud but it doesn’t feel very healthy. I think if I come back here next year, I’ll go to some warm windy place – a bit of jungle in the south.
There’s a curious attitude to cleaning and rubbish. There are loads of people employed by the government to sweep everywhere – even on buses – they just sweep all the time. So pavements and public places are clean-ish and tidy but then you look round the corner and there’s mountainous piles of rubbish. And the packaging……..its hard to buy anything at all thats not in 9 layers of plastic, each one vacuum sealed.
I met an American guy the other day who is learning Chinese because he feels that America is finished and this is The Place of the future and I reckon he could be right. This whole place is bursting with activity – there is so much building going on – miles of apartment blocks, huge skyscrapers, shiny new shopping malls and elevated motorways springing up everywhere ( Highway is translated as Bigway !) and business going on everywhere. I wish that Bulgaria could take some lessons in entrepreneurial spirit from china – there are people selling everything, on every street corner and up every alley from dawn till midnight. There are no empty shops and if anywhere is going out of business, there’s somebody else just waiting to jump in. America might have a stranglehold on corporate business but I don’t think there is this much real economic activity happening anywhere else – maybe India. Economic freedom without democracy, hmm. I expect to get the internet in next week so I’m going to do some research into chinese politics -maybe I’ll find some more blocked sites.
And everything is so cheap! If you thought Bulgaria was cheap, it hasn’t got a look in! The exchange rate is 10yuan to 1 euro – so that 4yuan bowl of noddles is 40 cents. I discovered the DVD shops last week – I’ve just spend a stressful week with Jack Bauer (the whole of series 7 for 4euros) – poor Jack, by the way, if you haven’t seen it. I found a nice tailor and I’m getting a beautiful coat made for about 30 euros.
There was an earthquake last week – it woke me up but no buildings appear to have fallen down.
I’ve joined a gym to hopefully avoid getting too fat but its also because I don’t get very much exercise. There’s a bike at the school that I could borrow but I’d be right on top of the fumes then plus it seems to be one of the most dangerous activities I could imagine here. Pedestrians are like cannon fodder – no driver would dream of even recognising them and zebra crossing are just a waste of paint. You just have to step out and then stand in the middle of the road between fast moving lanes of traffic till the next gap comes along.
I have made some new friends now because I’ve joined one of the Tai Chi groups in the morning. After some careful reconnaissance, I saw a small group who don’t start their routine till abut 8.30 – I wasn’t very keen on getting up for the 6.30 sessions. Everyone is fascinated by my presence but they’re very kind and helpful although they obviously think I’m totally uncoordinated – its a good job they haven’t seen my ineptness with chopsticks!
A woman from work got married yesterday and I was delighted to be invited to the wedding. At some point before the day, the couple had to go and register their wedding with two witnesses but that bit wasn’t important. So we all gathered in a large room below a restaurant in Tongchuan. I was assured that getting dresses up in any way wasn’t important and right enough, everybody was in normal clothes – I haven’t actually seen anyone in this country without a coat yet. People never take their coats off – the expectation is that the room will not be heated, usually right, so you just work, eat whatever with coats on. The bride of course was dressed up – in white with great red shoes. Red is the lucky colour so we all gave gifts of money on a red envelope. The ceremony involved a kind of chat show host on stage with the couple. He said lots of nice things and told some jokes, then the parents came up for a some traditional words to be spoken, then the groom carried the bride on his back around the room while everyone threw confetti, fireworks went off and the bubble machine went full blast – brilliant. Then of course we ate – a very long banquet with an endless stream of really interesting things – I took loads of photos and I’m going to put a food photo diary on the website.
Just to add that in my exploration of Chinese food, I have had some disgusting things! Some things that didn’t get past the second bite -black eggs, milky wheat tea, weird fried fish in a tin, sweet sausage!, a completely unknown flavour of crisps and sadly, up to now, Chinese wine. I’ve tried three brands up to now and they’re all sweet with a very weird aftertaste – don’t know what the grape is but its not pleasant…..but I’ll continue my exploration.
November 2009 First thoughts after about a week here.
The window of my apartment in Tongchuan overlooks a large square with
small shops on two levels around 3 sides. Every morning I wake to the
sound of gentle traditional Chinese music and if I sit up and look out
of the window, I can see three of four groups of people doing
different exercises – there’s a large group doing some kind of
aerobics, there’s two groups doing Tai Chi, another group doing
something similar with swords and another group doing what looks like
a dance with a bat and a ball. But they are not batting the ball –
they put the bat on the ball and then wave it around so gracefully
that the ball never falls off – I didnt even realise it was a ball
until I watched them begin one day.
I’m in China and for those who thought I was hibernating again in
Voditsa, I’m not. I’m hibernating in central China for a change. Its
not snowing and actually its not even cold here but i’m told it will
be cold pretty soon so maybe I was right to bring my fur coat. I have
a job teaching English – more of that later – but as I only do that at
the weekend, I have loads of time to catch up on stuff like writing my
book(s) and getting my website stuff together. It appears that I am
the only foreigner in this town – how does that keep happening to me?
So i’ll have plenty of time on my own to get stuff done. I also have a
nice big apartment so if anyone wants to come and visit me, they are
very welcome.
It took me two days to get here – bus to Istanbul (I still love the
fact that it goes by the end of my road), flight to Abu Dabi, flight
to Beijing and another flight to Xian (terracotta warrior land) then a
long taxi ride to Tongchuan. My street here is called Limim Lu if you
want to look on google earth. The best thing about the journey, which
was quite hassle free, was that I got to see the latest Star Trek
movie on the flight to Beijing – I agree with all my trekkie friends –
its great.
Its a bit hard sitting down for two days – saturday evening to monday
evening – it was bits of sleep with airline food in between. As soon
as I arrived, in typical Chinese style, my hosts took me out to a
banquet. Great food of course but I could hardly keep my eyes open. I
then slept for 10 hours.
I love China in the same way that I love India – its huge,
fascinating, constantly surprising and totally focused on food. I can
think of a few people that I know who sadly wouldn’t enjoy it here
-every second shop is about food and in one street I counted 15
restaurants all in a row … and they were all full. There’s great
markets selling everything you can imagine but I wonder who cooks
because everyone seems to be eating out. I think I probably wont use
my kitchen here because right outside my door is a really great street
with restaurants and things that can only be described as eating
places plus loads of stalls selling strange things on sticks – skinned
frogs and stuff like that. I’m not very good with heads and eyes so
i’ll pass on the frogs but i’m working my way through everything else.
I’m going to learn how to make steamed bread and dumplings and i’ll
introduce them into St James Park next year! And of course its really
cheap – a big bowl of noodles and other things is about 4 Yuan – under
1euro.
I was ready to give up coffee (a waste of time here) black tea (tea is
made form all sorts of flowers and different leaves) and smoking
(failed on the tobacco) but I forgot that China is devoid of chocolate
and of course I haven’t seen anything remotely like cheese. But the
local supermarket sells everything from weird eggs coated in strange
mud (I tried one and made the mistake of smelling first!) to live
turtles – I might pass on those too. I’m probably going to get really
fat here but it’ll be fun. Of course I dont read chinese so ordering
things is interesting. Last night I randomly picked something off the
menu and I had to laugh when it came – i’m a bit out of practice with
chopsticks and what I got was a big plate of tiny diced bits of tofu
with peanuts in a rather lethal sauce. Eating peanuts and small diced
things with chopsticks took ages!
Breakfast is now is Dou Jiang – warm sweet soya milk and a sweet fried
bread roll with sesame (sorry but this is going to be all about food).
I’m going to have some Chinese lessons and we’re starting with menus.
I’m practicing the four tones first – its a bit like Bulgarian where
you have the put the emphasis on the right syllable or nobody
understands. But also like Voditsa, people here haven’t met anyone who
doesn’t speak Chinese so they just talk to me – there are people like
Baba Penka here!
Back to my comparison with India – there is a wonderful sense of a
huge place with a cultural history much longer than anything in Europe
and sense of personal pride in that history but little knowledge of
the outside world. But its also a massive emerging economy – actually
its big enough to have a massive internal economy that in one sense
doesn’t need the outside world. But I guess the differences are that
there is no sense of spirituality here and there is a lack of colour –
clothes are many variations of black and although it has wonderful
aromas (for want of a better word) your sense are not blasted by
colour and smell like they are in India. The other thing of course is
democracy – imagine all these people and they dont vote….and dont
mention Tibet!
I was surprised to be able to get Radio 4 on the internet but Facebook
is a blocked site.
Clothes are totally western – they dont do bling here – not much
glitter around but they do pink and girly girly. But I also dont think
that anything I see will be in a size to fit me – i’m head and
shoulders taller than anyone and as for shoes, no chance.
And there are loads of mosquitoes – summer must be awful.
I miss the clear blue skies of Bulgaria – I cant decide if its
actually pollution or just permanent fog. I mentioned it to my work
colleagues and they were surprised – of course you can see the sky!
But not much in the way of blue.
I’m looking for a Tai Chi teacher – maybe in exchange for english
lessons – I want to join the group in the square in the morning but I
need to practice first. Also in the square in the morning are a load
of old guys with huge calligraphy brushes – they write poetry on the
paving stones with water. Beautifully done and then they evaporate and
they’re gone.
I have a house sitter in Voditsa – a lovely woman called Yvonne from
Holland who answered a random ad I put on a Dutch site. She is now
living with my army of cats and my white dog called Dusty. She’s also
hibernating and writing a book. I think I’ll market Voditsa as a
winter hibernation retreat for budding authors.
I’ve kept the thoughts about my work till last as anyone who knows
will know that I have managed all my life to travel whilst avoiding
teaching English. Now I spend all (literally) of saturday and sunday
teaching children – I guess i’ll survive!
So i’m here till the end of February and the invitation to visit is
real and is open – come and check out China – its fun and full of
food.