The folllowing was the first "blog" that couldn't be. Instead, it was e-mailed.
If you receive this, then you are among the above in my list
of valued people. If you read some, or
indeed, all, of what follows and would prefer not to receive subsequent
updates, just let me know, and I will still keep you on my list of valued
folks, but take you off the list of those who might be curious about
China. I had fully intended to simply
let you know about the Blog I intended to keep, and invite you to subscribe to
an RSS feed, but heaven knows when I will be able to get a VPN membership that
allows me to skirt some of China’s internet blocks which include Facebook, CBC,
Blogspot, most book review sites, and many others. If I wait any longer to write what the past
couple of weeks have held for me, I will never do it. So, here goes.
When I was doing research lo so many years ago, I learned
that there are basically 4 stages to getting used to a new culture. First one goes through the tourist phase
where everything is a romantic adventure, different, maybe frustrating, but
never depressing. Second, in
homesickness and loneliness, one experiences rejection of the new culture, a
time when we ask ourselves why THEY can’t just do it properly, my way, our way. This period is largely frustrating and
sometimes maddening. Maddening because
we don’t understand THEIR way, and they can’t understand why we are frustrated
because, they are, afterall, just doing it the right way, their way. The first period lasts anywhere from a couple
of weeks to a couple of months, and sometimes people don’t progress beyond the
second stage, tucking their tails under and heading for home. The third stage is adaptation, a time of
adjustment in recognition that you are in Rome.
This may kick in sometime after the first month. After you learn enough of the local language
to discuss the issues, you may get to a time of acceptance and social
change. You don’t need to get all
carried away and political, but you are able to communicate how things are “back
home”, and THEY can then choose whether to make any changes to their way of
living. But mostly, you accept the way
things are, and go with the flow. When I
was here 20 years ago, I got to adaptation, I would say. But then I had the comfort cushion of partner
and my son to keep me busy and involved.
This time, I am older, less patient and less open-minded. I have my colleagues, and that is a comfort I
did not have before. I have moved very
quickly to rejection and adaptation, and my students as well as colleagues help
me accept things as they are. As the
Chinese chief administrative assistant said, most frustrations of China can be
explained in three little words – “so MANY people”. I need to remember that either Beijing or
Shanghai have as many people in one city as we have in our whole country, which
is slightly bigger than China! So, bus
fare is 2Y, the equivalent of 30 cents, shipping 130 lbs of luggage 250 km
Shanghai to Nanjing was 60 Renminbi (Chinese yuan) or $10.00, and a cross
cultural dinner out at a very good buffet with two drinks, Carlsberg beer and
Chivas Regal scotch, was $20.00. Tipping
is not done.
The traffic is only hectic at rush hour. Winnipeg has rush hour, Birtle has rush
minute – here it is two hours, with heavy traffic for three night and
morning. I think buses do have a
schedule as I noticed one female driver a few days ago refused passengers while
parked at a curb. But they simply run
non-stop. Sometimes there will be three
of the same bus one behind the other, sometimes it is 5-7 minutes between runs
because of the way the traffic has moved.
So many people!
My two bedroom apartment is conveniently located in the
Baixia district, 10 minutes from downtown in slight traffic, and close to a
lake, river, canal and Confucius Temple which is an historic sight and a big
tourist market. It’s about 97 square
metres, 1/3 more than my Bonniedoon house in Edmonton that I shared with two
toddlers. I simply keep one door closed
to reduce the weekly electric bill door to door cash collection for air
conditioning now, and heat in the winter; week of electricity was 77Y
($12.00). So many people! But should you want to visit, I would welcome
you for sure, and Nanjing could keep you interested for a week as it is a city
with a lot of history going back to ancient times. The city suffered a massacre by the Japanese
I believe in 1937, and they have not been forgiven; there is a big Nanjing
Massacre Museum commemorating the killing of 300,000 Chinese over a period of
six weeks. And then there is Beijing and
hundreds of other fascinating places to visit.
China is safe and people on the street are honest and do their best to
be helpful.
My first night in, August 31, was the annual day of the dead
when people burn “monopoly” money, and paper decorations and toys in honour of
their loved ones gone, in hopes that their way in the nether world will be
wealthy and wondrous. Street merchants
have a display of it laid out for purchase by mourners. The back streets smelled of burning paper;
fires ranged from a tiny one tended by a lone person just beyond the turned
eyes of the gate guard, to a virtual bonfire with 8-20 silently prayerful
people in the alley.
Sometime in the day before school started I made the mistake
of drinking an ounce of tap water after brushing my teeth. Not a good idea! So many people, so much
pollution. But 48 hours later I was
healthy again. I have bought a t-kettle
though, and am careful to boil water, and then drink it when cooled. I am too frugal and despise the billions of plastic bottles
that are either landfilled or put in recycle bins daily. I do have two 1.5 l
bottles of water in the fridge, but on the whole, use re-bottled water. re-bottled
water. My students tell me the recycle
bins are largely for show – I hope they are wrong because it is a medium sized
city 10,00000 times the size of beautiful Birtle, with 8,000,000 people. So many people. Unfortunately, split pants for babies and
toddlers are being replaced by disposable diapers which will mean so much more
garbage.
I have pretty much got my household set up and am settling into a teaching routine. Grade
12 was never so good. Jet lag the result
of being 13 hours AHEAD, and therefore having lost a full night’s sleep, took a
week to get over, sleeping in 3 hour naps and feeling exhausted for several
days. I carefully selected the shoes
that were the most comfortable for my new duck’s feet, but walking on concrete
all the time is downright painful. I
broke down today and bought a pair of crocs for work, and will only wear real
shoes for the commute to and from school. Nonetheless, when I get to my
“community”, the set of high rises where my apartment is, the grounds are quite
lovely, with intricately woven treed walkways (concrete) and bridges (wood),
concrete lattice with groomed grass, lily pads and carp. Many people are keeping dogs as pets rather
than food now, and there are the occasional cats outside. Noone has mentioned having a cat as a pet
though. One has to step carefully on the
streets in the morning because the Fidos have been out for their morning
patrol, on or off leash. It is amazing
to see how the dogs adjust to the traffic, staying fairly close at heel at all
times. I called to one the other day and
he ignored me. I was told, in English,
that the dog does not speak English. I
have seen very few dogs that appeared as tho they might be strays and I’m not
sure what to think of that! Most are
well cared for and well fed. However, I
felt rather sorry for the full haired Samoyed on a 33 degree day, and for the
unsheared panting poodle wearing a jacket against the cold when the temperature
dropped to 29 degrees.
Aside from the disposable diapers, much of Westernization
has not been kind to the Chinese. My
students tell me everyone is crazy for Fast Food, and it shows. I don’t recall seeing a Chinese who was obese
when I was in Xuzhou but it is not uncommon now. I had a Big Mac last week at the local
MacDonald’s. Not entirely disappointing,
but no Thousand Island dressing, either.
Nanjing is known for its snacks of which there are more than 300 from
which to choose at street stalls. I
tried one noodle shop but will need to learn to order before I do that
again. There is a green leafy parsley sort of thing that is
used to flavour many dishes, and I find I don’t care for it. There is a special local Nanjing duck, which
is salted and delicious, but otherwise main courses are very greasy. It took me an hour and a half of intense
scrubbing to clean the hood fan – which I was assured had been cleaned. But, the good news is there is a hood fan and
there is a “hob”, two burners of gas range, a microwave, fridge with freezer,
and now the T-kettle, a frying pan and a big cooking pot where I can cook my
bland western food. So many people. I have not shopped, except for today, in the
morning so meat is in short supply by the time I get there after my late
afternoon nap. That being said, there
are many kinds of fish, chicken (laying hens gone butchered as fryers?, and
stewed), beef (expensive low grade cuts) and plenty of pork. I think the better cuts may be saved for the upscale restaurants. I cooked up a meal of chicken breast the
other night, and though a tad tough, it was tasty. Stores are open till 9:00 or 10:00 every day
of the week, and the street stalls open sometime before 7:00 a.m. I’m glad I don’t work those hours!
There is a gym somewhere in this community (my group of
walled high rises), but the interesting thing is the street gym not far from
the market that is just outside the gates.
It’s like a free Curves! Old and
young alike take some time to play or work out on the machines. Early in the morning, in parks, one sees
groups of a dozen or so women dancercising to slow enchanting traditional
music. Men on the streets scanning the
newspaper right to left, and sometimes still, down to up. And at dusk, the men exercise.
There is the cutest puppy owned by a street merchant in the
market, and folks were delighted when I stopped to watch the toddlers scamper
or to play with and pet the cutest little puppy. He is one of the very common local Heinz 57
breed that looks like a cockapoo, taffy coloured. The one child policy has now been in place
long enough that not all boys are little emperors. I have never seen a parent even appear cross
with a child except once today when a parent called in consternation to her 4
year old who'd run ahead into the e-bike/bike/pedestrian lane; redirection seems
the most common discipline. Though here in Jiangsu province, people are
allowed to have two children. Mao’s idea
about reducing the population has fallen by the wayside, and the intent now
seems to be to hold the population constant.
I don’t know whether there is a pension policy for peasants in the
countryside other than sons, though. The
population was, I believe about 1 billion 20 years ago; now it’s four times
that!
There are so many tall buildings and so much of the
architecture is similar with the exception of 1912 district nearby. Finally, today I got a wisp of north/south,
east/west, so maybe I will suffer less directional challenge in finding my way
home next week than this week. The second day of school I got misplaced and
turned around. I thought I recognized
where I was going but ended up walking for 1.25 hours before finding my way
with the help of police officers directing traffic or Western looking young
people who spoke a little English, or understood my horrifying Mandarin, to
direct me. The blister on my heel broke
and my hammered toes ached and my back hurt from carrying the weight of my
computer and purse with dictionary, phrasebook, a pound of 1 quai coins,
etc. I was so tired, and so frustrated
with myself that when I got home at 7:00 p.m. I lay down for a nap and woke up
at midnight, then worked till 3:00 a.m. before going back to sleep for two
hours to get up in time for my 7:45 class – no kidding! It takes an hour to get to work either on the
direct bus route or on the subway and connecting bus in rush hour and it’s
about 6 blocks between bus stops. When I have that early class on Tuesdays and
Thursdays, the bus trip is 10 minutes as compared with 45 otherwise.
But then the next day I decided to stay on the bus for an
extra stop, hoping it would be less far to walk. Again, I could not tell the
difference from one Bank, three to a block sometimes, or one glassed or
concrete high rise from another, and got all turned around, walking for an
hour, part of it in two circles within 3 blocks of home. I had intended to come home and have a
shower, change clothes and get a rest before going out to dinner with
colleagues. Instead, carrying that ever
constant bag of books, I ended up taking a cab for 9Y (multiply by 15-16 cents)
back downtown. Available cabs display a
red light, engaged ones a green light, and engaged and embarking on a shift change
green outlined by yellow; there was not a red light to be seen after the dinner
so I took an electric bike equipped with an umbrella for added comfort and
shelter when it rains. The driver was
confident he knew the address, and even more so after consulting with another
driver. Bad sign maybe, but cities are
groups of neighbourhoods everywhere. I
recognized we were close to home when he stopped people on the street to ask
directions. I was in the same area where
I’d earlier been walking around in circles.
Looking at the address, he insisted we were in the right place and wanted
me to get out of the cab but I would not, equally insistent that the building
he said was mine was definitely not.
Given my earlier experience, there was no darned way I was setting foot
on the street till I was at my gate! At his suggestion that I call someone, I
remembered that the one person who might help , despite that it was 11:00 pm, was the real estate agent who had
found the apartment for me. After some
discussion with him, she informed me that he said I’d given him the wrong
address. But she had written it down for
me! He finally got to the main drag,
Zhongshannan Lu (street) and then I recognized where we were. As it turned out today when I had the real
estate agent’s colleague check, the original agent had indeed written down the
wrong address. So that explained a
number of hiking miles! He had quoted me
40 Y initially I think, but I may well have misunderstood him too. When people
on the street helped me, the quote was 15 Y. When I got off the phone, I had to
pay 25 Y for having mislead him.
Ahhhhh! Whatever, getting home
was worth the $1.60 penalty! I was driven
home safe and sound. Hopefully, I will
not walk in circles this coming week, and will get a bicycle soon so the
commute to work will be only about ½ hour.
As Che says, a bike can be faster
than a vehicle in heavy traffic tho I will have to be careful to dodge the many
pedestrians in the bike lanes. So few
walk in the outermost pedestrian lane where the concrete is ridged and marred
by 2 foot diameter eucalyptus, the occasional broken heaved tile, and morning
doggie doo before the street sweepers come on duty with their bamboo
brooms. I have come to see the humour in
the traffic, smiling today as my bus swerved into oncoming traffic to get
abreast of three other buses at the traffic light, rather than wait with car
traffic for the light to change. Should
you come, as I was told, always carefully watch the traffic. Private cars, all black, may stop for you,
but should you be run over by a taxi or a bus, and live, you will be sued
heavily by the Company, which has very deep pockets.
I could not avoid shopping at Walmart today, though I had
tried. But here it is just another
department store, with a floor for food, and one for dry goods and
clothing. Service in all the stores and
shops is great. Hovering, even, in
anticipation of the foreigner's desires.
At my local SuGua supermarket, the floor servers recognize me (no
surprise, I suppose) and one helped me buy a better quality of pillow for less
money than the one that was on sale for 30Y (quai). Today, after shopping at
Wally Whirl, I emerged to a heavy rain and again, nary a cab to be found. I and my 40 lbs of shopping, took a peddle bike
taxi with a female driver who probably weighed about 125 lbs. She quoted me 15 Y, and was bowingly grateful
when I gave her a 5Y tip. I explained,
“Wo hen da”, (I’m very big.) I felt sorry for her having to pedal me and
all my shopping through the rain. Thank
goodness there were no hills. She also
sought a colleague’s advice about where to take me but the correct address
helped immeasurably!
If I’ve bored you to tears, I’m sorry. If you’ve read with interest, I’m
grateful.
No comments:
Post a Comment