Belly of the Dragon

VW's new car; it's price: YOUR SOUL

2006-07-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

With respect to the "fake car" thing, sometimes there are unintended consequences... like when you misspell VW's Santana 2000 and end up with a somewhat eviler version: The Satana 2000. The Dark Lord has a branded car design out, and boy, is it boxy and ugly!

Expert Expat Examination

2006-07-25T20:26:00.000-07:00

I was reading Instapundit and came across the following post:

-------------------------------------

TODD STEED sends this email from Beijing:

I've been teaching for three weeks in the world's largest English language camp: Tsinghua University's 2006 English Summer Camp. Tsinghua is probably the Harvard, Yale or MIT of China. Several people have claimed various other schools at times, but those are the most common comparison. The students are smart, hungry, movitated, funny, and are willing to compete on any level at anything.

Basically, I work with a group of about 60 students from computer and electrical engineering. One of the best suprises was how much these tech students love to sing. In the course of the first few days they learned to sing Rocky Top, obscure American pop songs, Louie Louie, and Brown Eyed Girl. Oh yes, and Country Roads, the semi-national anthem of our class. They can now tell you the geographical errors in the song without prompting.

One small group of my guys formed a band called FTP while another formed a group called All for Lucy. Picture attached of FTP and their coach.

There's not much free time- but when it's available I take it. This results in long afternoons getting tea making lessons and such. And walking around in this very pumping city. It's booming, booming booming and the Olympics are just around the corner to make it boom some more. Everyone is excited about the Olympics. The students, the teachers, the guy selling some mystery meat in the streets,the oustanding street musicians, the shop keepers. They are expecting big things as a result.

It's all too much to take in. You can't visit a city like this for three weeks and even make a half dent in it. But I tried, this included also seeing live music. And this where I noticed that Beijing is on the way up quickly. Their live rock bands kick butt. That, and a great beer are the two secret signs of a culture that is ready for the new world. They are still working on the beer, but I think the Beijing Olympic Beer might be a winner.

Great rock bands in Beijing? I think we know who won the Cold War.

------------------------------

Now, I don't mean to rain on this guy's parade, but it's clear from previously listed criteria that he is of Class English Teacher, Stage Euphoric/Optimistic (weeks 1 - 3). Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing. But I can tell you that from my experience, what's going to happen. He's at the crossroads. The mouth of the labyrinth. He's walking in, and maybe he gets through the labyrinth. Maybe he emerges on the other side a few years later, tougher and wiser... a successful China Expat. Maybe after one quarter he cries uncle and goes back to the US in despair about how everything is dirty and broken and how everyone ripped him off. But whatever he ends up as, he will not think about China the same way that he thinks now. He's still looking at it through the sparkling rose-colored lenses. He probably doesn't know how badly he's being tricked in his day to day transactions. It's sad, but they come here all innocent and totally unaware of what lies ahead.

"Tea lessons, KTV, live music, friendly people, wheeeeeeeee, China's so awesome OMFG!" Just add an interest in Chinese food, martial arts, and calligraphy, and you've got almost all of the stereotypical things that a first-timer will say.

They're almost all like that.

Yeah, just wait till this guy hits Disillusioned Bitter Expat phase. It's coming. You just know it. Perhaps he already feels this gnawing feeling inside him that something ain't so kosher right now. Some little thing will set him off and he'll make the flip probably overnight, and he'll go from Sinophile to Sinophobe almost instantaneously. Perhaps it's when he paid 200 kuai for a wallet and had to fight for even that high price, and he sees a Chinese person walks up and gets the same wallet for 20 kuai with no effort. Perhaps it's a bout of food poisoning. Maybe it's cute beggar kid who looks so cute and then steals your wallet. Whatever that trigger is, it's coming. It happens.

I've usually found that those that gush the most about China when they first land are the ones that end up complaining the most and going into foamy rants when they look a little closer and find the warts. It's the ones who come in with a more tempered view who end up being able to navigate the challenges. People who can take a balanced look at China can mentally accept the good as well as bad points. People like this guy have the blinders on with respect to the bad things until reality mugs them.

I wish him well. But heaven have mercy on him.

Fakery

2006-07-25T20:06:00.000-07:00

So, here are list of fake things in China that I have seen or have it on good word that they exist:

1. Clothes/cosmetics/branded bags and accessories (obvious)
2. DVDs (obvious)
3. Ink jet cartridges (they'll ruin your printer)
4. Hard drives (HDs that self-destruct after a week)
5. Memory cards
6. Entire laptop computers (NEC found out about this one after they received phone calls to their technical support for branded laptops that they never manufactured)
7. Motorcycles
8. Monks (The most foul form of trickery)
9. Art students
10. Student ID cards
11. Normal ID cards
12. College diplomas from top universities (I guess it's how you pass a job interview if you don't have the guanxi)
13. Receipts for expense reports
14. Prescription drugs (oops, sorry you died because your heart medication was fake)
15. Beer/wine/alcoholic drinks (now with blindness-enhancing power)
16. Money (counterfeited)
17. Blind beggars (not as blind as you think)
18. Beggars (not as poor as you think)
19. Chinese art and calligraphy
20. Tennis balls (they don't bounce, just plop on the ground like a pancake)
21. Cars (Need to upgrade your car on the cheap? Just attach an "AMG" decal to your benz, or a bigger liter decal on your Audi A6. Congrats, you just increased the worth of your car by 20k. Unless you do it wrong and end up with an Audi A6 AMG, or a Mercedes Benz M5.)

Beware of Goodyear

2006-07-16T00:10:00.000-07:00

Smoking around tires leads to disaster.

The Downtown Beijing Walking Tour, Part VI

2006-07-10T07:31:00.000-07:00

Xidan, a popular shopping district, the Beijing concert hall, Bank of China and the Chinese equivalent of the Federal Reserve (i.e. where they make the money!) Thus ends this Beijing Walking Tour Extravaganza. We now return you to our regularly scheduled blog...

The Downtown Beijing Walking Tour, Part V

2006-07-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Monument to the People, Mao's mausoleum, the equivalent of Congress, and the national museum.

The Downtown Beijing Walking Tour, Part IV

2006-07-10T07:06:00.000-07:00

Wangfujing, the 5th Avenue or the Ginza of Beijing. Basically, it's where rich people go shopping. I do believe they have a Lamborghini dealership here.

The Downtown Beijing Walking Tour, Part III

2006-07-10T06:58:00.000-07:00

Next, we stroll down Jianguomen which then eventually turns into Changan jie, which is the street in front of Tiananmen. First picture is of the infamous Silk Alley, i.e. the place where foreigners go to buy fake clothes. Then a stroll with random pictures of big buildings and uh, broken rainbow bridges. Don't ask me, I don't know why either.

The Downtown Beijing Walking Tour, Part II

2006-07-10T06:55:00.000-07:00

More pictures of SOHO under construction and new pictures of China World Trade Center (commonly referred to as Guomao.)

The Downtown Beijing Walking Tour, Part I

2006-07-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

So, one thing that's cool about Beijing are the modern areas, or the areas that are under construction. I thought it was a pretty nice day out a few weeks back, so I went and basically walked around through the downtown area of the city. As Beijing is spread out, that's quite a feat for one of as feeble constitution as myself. I think I probably walked 5 - 10 miles that day. So, sit back, kick back, and relax while I put up some cool pictures. The first batch is of SOHO and the complex that's under construction right next to it. SOHO (as you'll see in later batches) is quite a neat piece of work. Basically, it's a huge complex with like 20 skyscrapers going up at once. That's ambitious, even for Beijing.

Hey buddy, can't you see the sign?

2006-07-10T06:44:00.000-07:00

"It is forbidden to detonate car bombs in this area"

(Just kidding, I have no idea what the exploding car sign is supposed to mean.)

Regionalism

2006-07-02T07:02:00.000-07:00

I think one of the many misconceptions westerners have of China is that it's a monolithic entity. Say "China", and the average westerner conception is a country that consists of 1.3 billion clones. Of course, and this will be obvious to anyone who has spent any time in the country, this is not the case.

China is a fractious, rough-and-tumble country that is often heavily influenced by regionalism. If you say you're from a certain region, it says a lot about your ethnicity, your appearance, your cuisine, your language, and your customs. Sometimes, it even reflects your attitude or mindsets. I don't think that many westerners get these distinctions until they spend in time in China.

Some of the roughest language I've ever heard used to describe a group of people while living in China (excluding the way they described Japan, in terms that are best not mentioned here) were Beijingers trashing Shanghai residents. I am sure that in the teahouses in Shanghai that there is smug disdain directed at Beijingers in return. "Shanghai people are cheapskates and only care about money," I was duly informed. "Shanghai women marry men just because of money or passport status, not because of love. They then proceed to make spouses buy houses for every family member they have, and then divorce them and take as much money as they can." Ouch. "Shanghai men are superfeminine and just want to go home and cook food." (Now, as an amateur cook, that doesn't seem like a fair criticism to me, but hey, cultural norms and all.) All in all, "Shanghai people aren't interested in anything that doesn't earn them money." Ok, but as an American that sounds not so bad to me. But if you want to set off a Beijinger, complimenting Shanghai will likely do the trick.

Cities in China have their own sense of pride and local culture and generally hold other areas in disdain. Beijing, being the political center of China, is disdained for being dominated by boring bureaucrats. Shanghai, with its rough-and-tumble capitalism, is decried as being overly materialistic. Meanwhile, the other provinces probably think Beijing and Shanghai residents are all stuck-up and full of themselves.

And you can't really escape any of this regionalism, even if you're several generations removed from the situation. If you're ethnically Chinese, one question that you'll hear often is "Where is your ancestral home? (laojia/laoxiang/etc.)" If your laojia happens to match, then you've got a connection with that person right there, even if you've never met him or her before. And it carries for generations. Chinese people can pick out with very good accuracy who is originally a "northerner" and who is a "southerner". They can pick out from accents, for example, who is from Guangdong or who is from Sichuan. And then they begin to apply their stereotypes accordingly. One person told me to, for example, stay away from Northeasterners because "they're known to be violent". Like all stereotypes, this is probably a huge exaggeration.

China, you will often hear in helpful sources such as your Chinese textbook, has 55 ethnicities. It's got dozens of provinces, most of which the average westerner has never heard of. Each has local cultures, languages, and attitudes. The Chinese language itself seems to be mostly an artificial construct and pretty much nobody speaks it natively, but picks it up in school after learning their local dialect growing up at home and from their friends. Outside of business dealings and TV broadcasts, nobody normally speaks "standard" Chinese. So you can imagine what a task it is to even just communicate in China, where the only real linguistic common denominator is the written language.

When I say dialect, I mean that it's more than just a dialect. I think Americans would consider folks from the South to speak with a southern accent or dialect. But you can understand what they're saying. Same with New Yorkers or people from Bwoston. That's not true in China. Chinese changes and becomes unintelligible based on what province you're in, which reinforces the regionalism aspects. If I go to Sichuan and speak in Cantonese, nobody will no what I'm talking about. I think many westerners are peripherally aware of this phenomenon in that Cantonese is different from Mandarin. But what they probably don't also get is that China is not a land of two dialects, but dozens, and most of them are mutually unintelligible. That's a doozy of a problem to deal with.

It's not always a negative. Many Chinese people use this to their advantage. It's really easy to pick out the "outsiders" in China. This is because, say you're in Beijing, they're the people who speak standard Chinese instead of Beijing-flavored Chinese. You'll find that the average Chinese person divides the world into three classes of people: bendiren, waidiren, and waiguoren (locals, out-of-towners, and foreigners, respectively). You can charge waidiren more than you can charge bendiren. And you can charge waiguoren more than anyone else.

Anyway, my point is that China is hardly monolithic. Perhaps it's more akin to regional (and sometimes conflicting) city states in ancient Greece in terms of make-up than something much more consistent such as modern day United States. Which makes it interesting and frustrating at the same time. Not at all dissimilar from the overall China experience.

The Progression

2006-06-25T06:57:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing that would be an understatement of the year, it would be that coming to China has been a big adjustment. And I don't think a lot of people really fully appreciate this fact, because it seems so obvious and self-evident. No, that's the thing, they don't get it. It's not an orderly process, but instead it's a collection of moments of panic, days of stress, feeling stupid and being unable to communicate the most basic of things. A lot of people, especially in the Asian American community derisively mock FOBs. They mock their inability to speak English, mock their fashion, mock their food, and mock their perceived uncoolness. I can say that after being a FOB that my respect for those who go through this process, albeit in reverse, have nothing but the utmost of respect from me. It's hard. Really hard. I suspect most of us ABCs would crumple into a ball in the corner and suck our thumbs if we had to go through the crap that they do. Yes, we're that spoiled. There's probably no process that's harder or more involved than picking up and moving to a country where the language, culture, food, and people are totally different with the intent of assimilating. Anyone who can attempt to jump over that obstacle has real cajones.

Let me describe the process I went through.

When I first landed, I could speak pretty much crap for Chinese. I could perhaps blubber my way through the most basic and idiotic of statements. Yeah, it was bad. The dorm room complex I lived in was my prison, because I couldn't very well leave campus by cab without any way of communicating how I was supposed to get back. Everyday I ate the same food or instant noodles because none of the restaurants or cafeterias on campus except for the one cafe that I ate at had English menus, and I couldn't read Chinese. Meanwhile, the only travelling I did by myself was the daily walk to my Chinese class and back. That was a tough life, and it was made worse by the smog, bacteria, and viruses that immediately begin to attack your immune system. Out of the first semester I was here, I was sick for about seven weeks. I was sick for longer than I was healthy. It was rough. Despite that, I went to Chinese for a class for a semester and plugged away at Chinese, because with language comes a much higher degree of freedom and a huge improvement in lifestyle, plus the ability to communicate. I started from page 1 of the beginner's Chinese textbook and worked from there. (Yes, I started from "Ni hao" and marched forward from there in my class of Koreans, Japanese, XBCs, Americans, Canadians, Australians, Africans, Russians.) Every Chinese character I've learned was one step forward in the Long Linguistic March. And I've still got a long way to go.

I wasn't alone. I had a lot of good friends in that first rough quarter, most of who were exchange students going through the same cultural and linguistic trauma. Some of them were not first-timers and knew the ropes. Many others were like me, random people teleported into what appeared to be Mars, except that everyone looked like me. The old-timers helped, and the newcomers added energy and enthusiasm. With the help from the old-timers, I was able to go out of campus occasionally, and unfortunately, sometimes too often depended on them linguistically. (Sometimes the old-timers were just people on their second semester, so it's not like they were grizzled vets, but they certainly knew what not to do and could point out some newbie mistakes we would make.)

However, it still took months before I had the linguistic skills to go out by myself. And once I could, I fully exercised this newfound freedom, and went and explored as much as I could by myself through trial and error. I learned some of the scams the hard way. I figured out the local expat havens. I sought out new food and tried to learn to read the menu. (For Chinese food, that's still a work in process. Because there are a lot of characters related to food.) I then even managed to go and rent my own place off campus, getting swindled a few times in the process by landlords and my real estate agent. Caveat emptor is the operative phrase here. If you try to run a minefield by yourself, it is impossible to avoid stepping on a few along the way. Financial sacrifices are sometimes necessary for the greater good.

I found out at the end of the first semester, that there's a sad downside to making friends with expats. Generally, one semester and they're out of there. Our little pack of friends dissolved and scattered all over the world, and back in Beijing, other than two people (which after another semester became one person), our original group was dust in the wind. Gone were most of the old hands, and the newcomers, many of whom were just supposed to be here for a single semester. Back to square one. This happens pretty much every semester, but now not nearly as much as before because of the sheer fact that because my classes are now 98% Chinese students, so therefore there are no more exchange students left. Contrast that to the first semester when we were all learning Chinese, and hence were all exchange students.

I got a summer off, and then came back to Beijing last fall. Now, things were serious. I was taking courses that were nominally in "English", and when I say in "English", I mean a large portion was not in English at all. Moreover, I wasn't taking language courses, but full-blown grad school courses. Moreover, I wasn't here to smell the roses, I had a mission to accomplish. So, the second semester was characterized by a lot less travelling around for fun, and a lot more studying. On the plus side, it was also characterized by actually making friends with Chinese people, which didn't really happy the first semester due to linguistic and cultural reasons. My Chinese didn't feel like it was leveling up (in fact, I didn't really perceive that it had improved at all in the past year after the first semester of purely focusing on studying Chinese), but I was assured by several Chinese people that either due to tact or due to reality that my Chinese had actually improved significantly. Before, communicating basic things (directions, for example) was extremely hard and conversation was near impossible. By the second semester, maybe basic things were medium difficulty, and conversation was extremely hard. I made new friends and plugged away at classes.

The third semester, i.e. last semester, I think basic things became easy and conversation became medium-hard. I no longer have total linguistic breakdowns like I used to. But, I often have to rephrase things and work around missing vocabulary. (i.e. if I don't know how to say "pilot", then I'll say "someone who flies the plane") That sometimes causes confusion, but generally I can get the message through. And now, pretty much all of my non-foreign friends have scattered again (as they pretty much do every quarter), thus leaving me with my Chinese friends. And, here we are.

I think what's interesting to note is that when I arrived, almost everyday was a Bad China Day (more on this in the next paragraph). However, as the linguistic prison widened from my dorm complex to the school to the neighborhood to the nearby districts to the entire city to all over China, I think my outlook has really improved. The little stuff doesn't bother me that much anymore. The Bad China Days are becoming fewer and fewer as you adjust to the quirks, the language, the food, and the people. As us exchange students found out in the first semester, after a few weeks, you stop asking why something is broken, dirty, rude, wrong, or inadequate, you learn to shrug and just say "It's just China." And then you learn to pick yourself up and begin to notice the good aspects instead of dwelling on the bad aspects. As time goes on, the Bad China Days go down and the Good China Days where things are clicking and you feel like things are all right with the world began to cautiously emerge from underground. One could call it selective perception, but I would perhaps call it selective optimism. Sometimes you wake up and you're glad you can enjoy the lifestyle you can if you're living the expat life in China.

When we say we're having a Bad China Day, it's something that you can say any expat, even if they've never heard of the term before, will know what you mean and nod their head in understanding. It means many things. It means you had a particularly bad communication problem you couldn't resolve, it means you ate something bad and got food poisoning, it means someone spit on your shoe, it means the fake DVD guy or the guy selling you computer equipment ripped you off on either the price or sold you fake stuff (or both), a cab driver took you on a ride, it means someone cut in front of you in line, it means you got hassled for free impromptu English lessons, and many more. Everyone knows, because they've been there and have experienced at least a Bad China day within their first week. Sometimes you'll see a laowai totally flip out and start cussing out some hapless Chinese person over something that's trivial. It's easy to criticize, but as someone who has been going through this process, and is still going through this process, it's something I can really empathize with. The stress of living here, especially in the beginning when you're lingustically dependent on other people, stretches you like a rubber band. And then something small, puny, and inconsequential pokes you and then... you snap. People don't understand that throwing yourself into a new country can be a suffocating experience; a claustrophobic feeling that is probably similar to feeling like you're drowning. When you're in that mental state, then it's easy to thrash around and lash out because, well, you're desperate.

I've heard a friend say that foreigners who live in Beijing for five years or more eventually fall in love with the city and can't imagine living anywhere else. I think that's probably true, given my experience. I'm about 1.3 years into it, and I've gone from feeling desperate, helpless, and suffocated, to feeling like I'm beginning to enjoy my time here. From going to sick to basically healthy. From going to socially isolated to having a good solid group of friends. From eating instant noodles everyday to enjoying all kinds of great and delicious food from all regions of China or the world. Things are looking up, and I'm beginning to like it. I think that if you have the endurance and commitment, then if you come to China, your experience will probably be similar as well.

I think the average person in China goes through the first experience:

Week 1: You arrive in Beijing. You're driven on the expressways and everything seems modern and awesome. You visit the Great Wall, Tiananmen, and the Forbidden City. You think Beijing is cultural and great. You love it.

Weeks 2 - 3: You wonder why everything is broken, paint is peeling, and why the side streets are crumbly and filthy. You're starting to feel sick from the oil from all of the Beijing-style Chinese food. You realize that Wangfujing is not representative of Beijing or China. Someone means to spit on the ground, but hits your shoe. You're optimistic that China is still great, but your confidence is shaken.

Weeks 4 - 10: You start to get short-tempered. That sometimes bubbles and manifests itself into righteous Expat Rage. Almost every sentence that comes out your mouth starts with "Why is Beijing/China like [fill in angry observation]". No, you don't have spare change! No, you don't want to buy overpriced fruit! Why is everyone tricking me?! You began to make stupid relativist comments like, "In America, [something is different from China]!" You've reached Disillusioned Bitter Expat stage.

Weeks 11 - Week 50: You begin to accept the limitations. "Because it's China" becomes the default answer to any complaint, and you accept it. You begin to enjoy some aspects, but begin to become numb to the negative aspects. You've already been complaining and bitching and whining for several months straight; there's not a lot more you can complain about that your friends haven't already heard about. You begin to enjoy newfound freedom as your language ability opens up previously unexplored places. You stop asking why and just accept limitations. You've reached Expat Who Has Come to Peace With China stage.

Week 51 - Week ??: You begin to like China. You begin to think that you might fit in here long-term. If you can just find the time to iron out the harder language aspects, you could do it. You can talk with people and communicate fairly effectively, but can't read a newspaper. You're not a newbie but you're not an Old Expat Hand yet. But you can imagine and forsee the day when you'll get to Old Expat Hand stage. I call this the Sunrise phase because the long dark night has ended, and you can see that every moment from hereon out will get better and better.

Week ?? (Year 5?): You love China and can't imagine living anywhere else. And in fact, if you've made it this far, you probably will stay here. You're an Old Expat Hand. The newbies envy you and wish they could be over the Lingustic Hurdle. You live in ease and with grace in China like a fish moves through water.

So, I think I'm in the Sunrise phase. Let's see if we can make it to Old Expat Hand!

Blazing Pearl

2006-06-20T23:54:00.000-07:00

Nightscape in Pudong, Shanghai.

The Truckcycle

2006-06-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

In China, one thing that you'll notice is that there really aren't any pick-up trucks. Ever wonder why? Well, there's no need. Because of an amazing contraption that I'm dubbing the Truckcycle. With a few strands of rope, there's no limit to capacity of what this little vehicle can hold. So what if it's stacked ten feet high? No problem! If you've got to move stuff around, why waste gas when you can, for a fraction of the price, charter a fleet of Truckcycles?

When walking around town, you'll note that many of these Truckcycles tend to travel in fleets. So if you see a Truckcycle coming, watch out, because there's probably a lot more where that one came from. And once those things start moving, they're not so inclined to stop. Despite this, one has to marvel at the resourcefulness of the Truckcycle. It's cheap, and it works.

Behold, the Truckcycle!

Truckcycle Jam

Turquoise

2006-06-18T22:10:00.000-07:00

The Mineral Pools and Waterfalls at Jiuzaigou

Accidents in Marketing

2006-06-18T03:51:00.000-07:00

Some days you just look at things in China and wonder "How in the world did that happen?" For example, take American cars in China. Now, obviously they don't sell very well because the quality still sucks. But a few brands have been doing well, clawing away market share from other car manufacturers. Guess which brand is the best-selling American car in China? Ford? Nope. Jeep? Close, but no cigar.

The best-selling American brand of car by far in China is Buick. Yes, Buick.

How in the world did that happen?

Must have been an accident in marketing.

Each day...

2006-06-18T03:30:00.000-07:00

When was the last time in America that you thought that each day was better than the last? If you're optimistic, maybe you might say that life in the States is "stable" or "comfortable". If you're a pessimist, you might describe it with words like "stagnant" or even maybe something negative like "declining". When was the last time you really felt a sense of positive momentum, or a sense of progress, or a sense of hope for the future? Personally, when I was in the States, if I had to use one word to describe the feeling that we as a country have a tendency towards, it would probably be "defense". We're trying so much to maintain the status quo, to find some sense of safety, to find a firm footing, trying to maintain our standard of living while dealing with the forces of globalization and outsourcing. Everyone is trying to find some way to entrench themself in some sort of safe un-outsourceable niche.

But what we have not been doing is setting goals, making any quantum leaps forward in terms of standard of living, or being daring and making big bets on the future. I think in the past few years, perhaps the mentality of Americans is not too dissimilar from Japan's pessimism in the 1990s. Do you think America's best days are ahead us or behind us? I'm sure some people will say the former, and some people will say the latter, but it's probably a push overall.

China has many flaws, but there's one thing that people generally agree on: China is advancing, developing, modernizing, and becoming richer. While it's not heaven (or anything close), there's just a sense of positive momentum that things will get better. There's an energy that I haven't felt in the United States for a long time. Fortunes are made and broken here at a very rapid pace, and everyone is making big bets (on a relative scale): Everything from betting the family farm to set up a small shop or stand, or setting up multibillion dollar semiconductor fabs. They may win or lose their bets, but at least they're trying and experimenting and trading and selling with a huge amount of energy and gusto. Every day is better than the last for most people. For some people, every day is much better, but even at the low levels, even the poor farmers are getting to enjoy some of the good life... buying a small TV, for example. I said earlier that now is the best time to be a Chinese person than at any point at least in the last several hundred years. That statement is still very true. But I think the even more amazing thing is that there's a feeling that tomorrow will be an even better day, and the day after that will be even better. Meanwhile, America howls at the slightest pinpricks, our young'uns have egos that have inflated beyond belief, and we cannot deal with any slight problems without tabloids and the media going bananas. Basically, we can't take a hit and roll with it anymore.

Now, I'm not saying that everyone in China is happy. Far from it. But the trend is in the right direction, and the positive optimism is there. The energy is there. The place is alive. And every day is better than the last one. When was the last time you felt that?

They're Cuddly Wuddly...

2006-06-05T01:28:00.000-07:00

Panda bear in Jiuzaigou

Coming Down...

2006-06-05T00:32:00.000-07:00

More chai pics.

Goodbye, Adult Health Store, barbershop, and cigarette and alcohol store.

You've been chai'd. Pack your bags.

No more cigarettes and alcohol will be sold from this store anymore.

Lanzhou Old Horse House Ramen store, get your affairs settled... soon you'll be a pile of rubble.

The horses await to cart away the remains of Old Beijing.

Chai'd

2006-06-04T23:41:00.000-07:00

If the crane is one emblemic symbol of Beijing, then the other is this: Chai.

It means to condemn or demolish.

And in order for the new Beijing to emerge, the old Beijing must be demolished. There's no creation without destruction here.

All over the place, every time you see this symbol, you know it's the end for something and the beginning of something else. A wider road? An apartment building? A new skyscraper? Who knows what's in store. But the for the little stores or string of restaurants that wake up to find the red character spraypainted onto it, it's the end of the line. Pack your bags, because the place is going down.

Many people say that this is bad, that sometimes you're chai-ing something cultural. I can see their point, but don't really sympathize with it. It's not like people are going to chai the Forbidden City or the Temple of Heaven and put a Wal-Mart there. Usually, they're chai-ing a crumbling old eyesore in the hutong. I don't think there's that much redeeming value for thos places to prevent them from getting chai-ed, no matter how much I liked the hotpot or the lamb skewers there. Sacrifices have to be made to pull Beijing into the future. Besides, every modern city has had to do the same thing when it modernized; the old must make way for the new.

It's just surreal though, sometimes, to walk to a place that you always have gone to because you liked the food, found something good and cheap to buy, or perhaps you need your bike fixed, and find that the place that you've been going to for quite a while is not only closed down, but is now a pile of bricks.

The bike store where I bought my electric bicycle, for example, is now a part of this rubble pile, as are the surrounding stores and restaurants. Meanwhile, horses in their horse carts patiently wait to cart away the salvageable bricks. (On a tangent, isn't it surreal to have a modern capital of a major world power that still has horse carts running around?)

Old Beijing, rest in peace. New Beijing is on the way!

Close to Eden

2006-06-02T23:32:00.000-07:00

The Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou

Going up...

2006-06-02T23:13:00.000-07:00

One of the things that is unmistakable is the huge amount of construction that's going on. New stuff gets built up, old stuff gets torn down. The symbol of the times here in Beijing is the everpresent construction crane.

China's Future

2006-06-02T23:01:00.000-07:00

A curious and scared preschool girl is fascinated by my camera.

China's Past

2006-06-02T22:58:00.000-07:00

A proud and happy rural farmer couple. They were eager to tell everyone how things have been improving, because even out in the rural areas, they now have electricity and even a television. They say that life is very relaxing; they don't need much from society because they're fully independent. The food that they grow ensures that they don't go hungry, and they sell the surplus for a few luxuries. They were proud of their lifestyle and seemed very content.

Everyday, I'm a little poorer...

2006-06-02T18:39:00.000-07:00

So, this might be obvious, but every day that goes by, I'm poorer in China.

Prices keep on going up. All across the board. Right now, the prices for real estate are increasing a rate that's totally out of control due to speculation. And two days ago, the prices for taxi cabs increased by 25%. It's now less ridiculously cheap to ride around town in cabs, which for foreigners is the main form of transportation in Beijing.

Meanwhile, thanks to the appreciation of the yuan, my dollars are worth less and less. I'm getting poorer without even spending any money.

Every day that goes by, life becomes a little less luxurious and extravagant than when I came here. The comfort of foreigners is one thing that likely must be sacrificed for the sake of the further development of China.

I remember back in the day when I was in Japan, and how my long-term expat foreigner teacher in Japan told me about how things were awesome in Japan in the 60s and 70s, when the exchange rate was crazy in favor of the dollar. (I think I remembered it was 200 - 300+ yen/dollar.) He told me how great things were back in the day, and now I can't help but reflect that for me, the "60s/70s" for China are coming to an end.

Foreigners, enjoy the niceties of life while you still can.

(I exaggerate a bit; things are still cheap here. But less cheap than they were a year ago. The trend is clear.)

It's the Little Things

2006-06-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

One thing that is great about China is that a lot of stuff is way more convenient than in the States. Delivery? It's not just for pizza or Chinese food. Almost all but the highest-end restaurants or restaurants with obvious impracticalities (such as hotpot) deliver. For free. Even if you get something small. Can you imagine ordering some fast food in America, ordering one dollar's worth of food, and then asking them to deliver it? They'd tell you to take a hike. Not so over here.

Moreover, it's not just restaurants that deliver. Convenience stores deliver. Buying furniture? They deliver. Water bottles? Delivery. That bookstore? Yep, delivers. All delivery.

It's just so damn convenient sometimes.

Out Fishing

2006-06-02T18:31:00.000-07:00

Blogging will be light for the next two weeks or so while I slog through finals. Apologies.

The No Credit Society

2006-05-30T05:03:00.000-07:00

Imagine, for a second, you're in America.

Now, imagine that suddenly, everyone's credit cards disappeared. Checkbooks too. Social security numbers disappeared. Credit histories disappeared. Credit bureaus disappeared. Small business loans disappeared. Paypal, of course, disappeared. What do you think would happen?

Well, I'd imagine that it wouldn't be pretty.

But that's where we're at in China. Now, there are some people who are starting to carry credit cards, but they're in the small minority. I don't think they're really technically credit cards per se, or perhaps can be described as a secured credit card (against your back account).

However, most people don't have them. And you know what? It works ok and society functions quite well. How does that work? Through the miracle of prepaid cards.

It's actually quite ingenius. You want to add minutes to your cell phone? Buy a prepaid card. You want to get gas? Prepaid card. Electricity? Prepaid card. Want to go to pay your phone bill? Prepaid. Online games? Prepaid card. Get the picture? Everything is prepaid. And, amazingly enough, it works.

Hence, there's no fuss about credit histories, credit scores, collection agencies and all that good stuff. You want something? Pay up front. Don't pay? Well, your lights go off the second the prepaid meter reads zero. Your phone's cut out at the end of the month. No hot showers for you. Nothing like that incentivizes people to pay up. None of this silly stuff about "first notice" "second notice" "final notice" "we're sending Biff to break your kneecaps and ruin your credit history" that you get in the States. Don't pay, don't play here. It works.

It works because China's a low trust (no trust?) society. In the U.S., a man's as good as his word, until proven otherwise. Here, it's "show me the money" first, unless if he's friend or family. As such, given that there's no way to track someone if he runs away with your money in a country as big as China, so the only thing left is to make everyone pay up front.

And you know what? I actually kind of like it this way.

Evasive Maneuvers

2006-05-29T23:40:00.000-07:00

I think the thing that foreigners really learn to respect upon landing in Beijing is the traffic. And Beijing drivers. A year into this, I’m still trying to figure out if Beijing drivers are really bad drivers or really amazing drivers. Is it possible to be a bad driver and an amazing driver at the same time? Beijing drivers are paradoxically both reckless and yet remarkably safe. Being in a cab weaving through traffic, one gets the impression that the cab is a fish swimming through water. The fish doesn’t care if there’s a rock downstream, the fish just swims around it effortlessly. Likewise, a Beijing cab will just bob and weave, as if running red lights and narrowly missing pedestrians was just second nature. An average American driver would have no chance. Heck, in the Bay Area, the second it starts drizzling, everything goes nuts and the highways are festooned with wrecked SUVs and cars. Yet, despite the outward chaos of Beijing, with cars careening and muscling other cars out of their lanes and people playing chicken at highway speeds, crashes are surprisingly rare. It is as if the whole thing is a tightly orchestrated Darwinian ballet… violent, chaotic, and yet there is a certain logic and order to things that’s not apparent on the surface. That’s the beauty and the horror of Beijing traffic.

Oh yeah, and green does not necessarily mean go, and red does not necessarily mean stop.

Walking in the Clouds

2006-05-29T23:25:00.000-07:00

Cloudy sunset in Huangshan. Huangshan is a place that has been a historical inspiration for many traditional Chinese artists because of the magnificent scenery.

The Frozen City

2006-05-29T05:12:00.000-07:00

This is in Haerbin, which holds an annual ice festival. They basically build an entire city out of ice every year, and it looks amazingly beautiful. It's like you're in a fantasy wonderland out of some RPG.

People are Weird. (Part 1 of what’s sure to be many parts)

2006-05-29T03:43:00.000-07:00

Yeah, for all the talk about China swallowing up the world, sometimes it’s useful to look at the lighter side of the Evil World Swallowing Red Communist Chinese Menace and point out some of the weird/funny things that make you just want to say… that country is just different.

So, let’s go through, shall we?

Public bathrooms where the stalls/booths have no doors. Or toilet paper.

Babies and toddlers eschewing diapers and instead going au natural: pants with a hole in the back. Direct input, direct output. No need for a buffer.

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaacccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk-ptui!” Oh dear Lord, not in front of the young’uns! Yes, the Chinese have gotten the art of projectile expectoration mastered. Indoors? No problem. From a moving vehicle? Bonus points if you can get a pedestrian!

There is no such thing as a line/queue. There are only unruly mobs that push and shove. :P

Crossing the street is like playing a real-life game of Frogger. Except you’re the frog. And you only get one life. And instead of just continuing in a straight line, sometimes it seems like the cars are actually aiming for you.

Stinky tofu. Yech!

Yessirree, China’s a fixer-upper. But there are plenty of redeeming features that I’ll go into in a different post.

The Eternal Guardians

2006-05-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

So you want to go to China...

2006-05-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

Yeah, China's hot and happening. I happen to live in the college district, so you can see folks like you all over the place here. Around here, they're mostly of the The "I'm a student out 'finding myself' bucket, The "I'm an English teacher" bucket, and The "I'm an XBC" bucket. (Most of the moneyed folks are over in the Central Business District.) So, you want to come to China to learn martial arts/learn Chinese/learn about Confucism/wrestle panda bears/try eating dogmeat, or whatever other reason you have. Here are some tips for you.

1. Scrutinize every transaction. If you have white skin, you're at a huge disadvantage. The price just went up for you from everything from computer equipment to fruit to clothes to DVDs. Sorry man, them's the breaks around here. Cab drivers will take you for rides, so be careful. If you have yellow skin, maybe you'll slip by, but most likely not. Depends on how good your Chinese is. Know the prevailing prices for stuff before you buy. (5 to 6 RMB for a DVD, for example.) Your first battle with them is to let them know that you know how much the prices ought to be. Work forward from there. But don't spend a single penny unless you have thought stuff out and have a general idea of what the prices should be. Think about every purchase you make whether there is any potential for chicanery.

2. Those beggars, aren't. You see a pitiful looking beggar on the street. You figure that he's had it rough and give him a kuai. Congratulations, you have just perpetuated the eternal scam around here... you've been tricked! He's not a real needy beggar, but someone who just looks pitiful and some guy picked him up from the sticks. He actually makes a very comfortable living and probably earns more than the average salaried worker. Hell, maybe they're unionized and he's member 123,233,282 of the Beggar's Guild. Point is, he's just an employee like everyone else, working to close the sale. He's part of Beggars, Inc. The tricksters are out there in force to play on your guilt to their financial advantage. The girls selling flowers? Tricksters. The blind guy playing an instrument? I suspect if you yank a kuai out of his jar and start running away that you'll find out he's not as blind as he seems. The priest asking for money? He's not a real priest, but a fake priest. (My parents found that out the hard way.) The teenage girls who hang out around tourist areas and say to well-to-do passerbys that they're hungry and want you to give them some food... total scam. (Again, parents got roped into that one.) Basically, anyone who is asking you for money is just copying a well-known and well-tested scam, so just remember that in China, no good deed goes unpunished.

3. The easy way, isn't. So you just visited a cool tourist place and want to go eat lunch somewhere. You hop into a cab and tell the cab driver in broken Chinese where you want to go. BZZZZT. You lose. He takes you on an awesome scenic tour to the next province even though the restaurant was two blocks away. You have made a critical mistake. You hopped in a cab right parked right next to a tourist attraction. You didn't pick them, they picked you. And they know you're rich and can't complain to their office because your Chinese sucks. Result? You got hosed.

The correct course of action, of course, was to walk a block down the street and flag a randomly passing cab. Because those cabs lined up outside of the gate of a tourist attraction are up to no good.

The point is that if something seems easy and convenient, then in the wise words of our esteemed Admiral Ackbar, "It's a trap!" Learn this phrase and live by it.

Another example: You go to buy an ink cartridge for your printer/memory card/hard drive. After bargaining you find that the guy didn't put up much of a point and you got a pretty good price. You count yourself lucky. You go home and install the ink cartridge/memory card/hard drive. It promptly makes your printer explode/ceases to write memory after one attempt/crashes after one week, taking all your information with it. Congratulations, you've just bought fake goods unknowingly! No wonder the guy didn't put too much emphasis on fighting for the price. (Not that if he does fight for the price, that doesn't mean he's not tricking you, he could just be better at lying to your face than his peers.) Didn't that seem too easy? Well, now you know.

That fresh country air.... Part Two

2006-05-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

In case you received the impression from the last post that we see a lot of blue sky out here, the answer is, of course, not really. Sometimes it's such a rare occurence that when it does happen, one feels compelled to whip out the camera.

In fact, the air here is typically very bad. As we used to joke, living here is about as environmentally healthy for you as living in Mordor. And sometimes the natives in Mordor seem friendlier too.

The Eye of Sauron beckons you.

Yes, see that little tiny white dot? That's the sun, feebly trying to poke through the dense haze.

Hackhackhackhack.

The Beijing Smog.

I think it really hits you for the first time when you first approach Beijing by air... you can look down from the airplane and realize that you can't see the ground. And as you descend into the smoggy miasma, you better enjoy that last breath of fresh, clean air. Because we're not in Kansas anymore.

Wondrous World

2006-05-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

One thing that I've learned in China is that living in a less-developed country has a big impact on how you look at the world. I think that living in such a place, even a metropolis like Beijing, makes you think about a lot of things. Here, you can look around and really see the human condition. The whole place is a study of contrasts. You can see a Hummer parked next to a horse cart, with the horse looking like he hasn't a care in the world. You certainly wouldn't see that, say, in New York or Tokyo. Around here, rich people don't just get fancy cars. They get fancy cars with chauffeurs. And the poor people don't just not get cars. The poor people hobble around, sometimes without arms or legs, and are covered in filth. In the middle of the capital city. Sometimes you can really see that the system is designed to really results in two extremes, sometimes right next to each other. A old decrepit collapsed (but still inhabited) Mao era housing unit that looks like cities that were bombed into oblivion in WW2 right next to new modern skyscrapers. Bicycles and new subways. Rich and poor. Clean and dirty. It's all here. It's a bit overwhelming, because it's so different from the States.

But then sometimes you see something beautiful, and then you think, you know what? This place is magical sometimes.

Like this.

Starry starry eyes

2006-05-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

I am, of course, massively stereotyping, but the non-tourist foreigners you find in Beijing typically fall into the following buckets. And I just thought it was interesting. Some people fall into more than one category, but at least one shoe generally fits. Before you think I'm being so high and mighty, yes, it fits for me too. Don't be too mad if it fits or doesn't fit, it's all in jest. :P

The "I'm a student out 'finding myself' bucket. Yeah, you. You're into kung fu/martial arts/tai chi/calligraphy/Chinese instruments/Chinese language/Chinese art. You decided to go to The Source. You landed and thought, "Oh shit, I'm totally out of my league here." Yes, you. I've seen you around. The urge to do your student thing lasts for a few weeks. Then you realize things weren't all they were cracked up to be. Chinese is hard. China is dirty. You thought it would be fun and interesting. Instead, you eventually give up and you retreat to expat student hangouts and try to hang on for a few months and then go back home. When you leave, you hate Chinese food. You live in Wudaokou. You party in Propaganda or Lush, or sometimes to mix it up, you hit up Sanlitun or Vics. You need a shower, hippie scum. :P

The "I'm an overpaid expat on the mega expat package" bucket. You. Yes, you. I see you trolling all the luxury bars and restaurants. You're moneyed and you're on the Bling Bling Expat package. Score! You wine. You dine. You have a gold-digger Chinese girl hanging off of each arm, and boy, they can't wait to get into your wallet. They're drooling over the thought. You wear an expensive suit by day. By night, you're in Suzie Wong's or Babyface/Angel/Cutie Club/Cargo/Coco Banana, shaking your booty. You probably don't know this, but everyone tricks you and robs you blind. You're probably playing five times as much as everyone else is. You live in a swank apartment around Guomao or in a villa in Shunyi. You need a soul, yuppie scum. :P

The "I'm an English teacher" bucket. Congratulations! You have failed at life! Your only useful skill in life is that you can speak English, which in most cases, is your native language. If you think about it, being able to speak your native language isn't a very impressive skill, is it? You have no ability to actually teach. In many cases, you are here because you can't get a job back at home, and have no long-term future anywhere. By a total not-coincidence, almost all of your tutor session students are female. You're the gold-digger. You spend most of your time in Bar Blu or Kai Club. You need a real job. :P

The "I'm an XBC" bucket. You. Yes you. You're an American born Chinese (ABC). Or Canadian born Chinese (CBC). Or any other country born Chinese. (XBC) You told your parents that you came here to explore your roots and study Chinese. In fact, you do no studying at all and your Chinese still sucks. Maybe you're between jobs. You figured coming to China would be an easy way to score a hot girlfriend and party. When you land, however, you figure out that for some reason that you've got the worst of both worlds: you have the same communication barrier and you don't have the laowai fetish appeal that white guys have. Nobody wants you, and you're a deaf mute! Awesome! Get used to being asked, "Are you Korean?" as the natural conclusion Chinese people have when they see someone with an Asian face and less than perfect Chinese language ability. Better hit the Chinese language textbooks, buster, because you're not sliding by on looks, buster. You hang out at Vics and Propaganda. You need a sign that says, "I am not Korean." :P

If this post has touched a nerve, don't worry. We're all here for a reason. Some of them good, some of them bad. What's important is that you find what makes you happy.

That fresh country air....

2006-05-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is the city where the Olympics will be held in two or so years. (You've got to feel sorry for the athletes.) No, that's not rain or fog, that's pure smog. I've read that the pollution here dwarfs anything Los Angeles or London have ever seen, even back in their heydays. Long-term residents will get the Beijing Cough, which is a persistent hacking thing. Some fellow students at one point told me they had black snot. Scary stuff!

Journey's Beginning...

2006-05-28T04:38:00.000-07:00

I’m a blog refugee. I have a bad habit. I usually start a blog and then give up a few posts later. Sometimes it’s for different reasons: I run out of things to say (I’m not a very interesting person), sometimes I discover my blog is being read by people I don’t want to read, and sometimes I just quit because I’m not a very public person. But, for better or worse, I’ll endeavor to do it right this time.

I live in China. I’m not from China. One would figure that this alone would give me a bunch of things to say, right? Well, yes. What’s it like living in China? Well, that’s what I’m hoping you’ll find out by reading my blog. Not just that, but the thoughts and feelings of whatever topic I choose to opine on any particular day.

Living in China can be a frustrating experience. Other people on other blogs have termed a day where you encounter a frustration that you wouldn’t have encountered “back home” to be a Bad China Day. I agree with that, and will go a step further. Sometimes, the stress of living here, in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language well, and a developing country at that, causes what I term China Rage Syndrome. Think of it as like road rage, but then you’re pissed at a country instead of a driver. Something you see a hundred times, but on that hundred and first time you just flip out for some reason. Yes, I know, yes it’s not fair. But I think most long-term expats will relate. You’re just moseying along minding your own business and then something, say seeing someone hock a green snotty loogie onto a carpeted floor in a five star hotel or in an elevator, and then inside you start going apeshit. Sometimes it takes 100% of your sanity to avoid running around, arms flailing, screaming “WHY!?!?!??!” as you proceed to throttle the offender. Yeah, it’s kind of like that.

So why put up with it? Well, I see it from several angles. The first angle: life is no fun without any challenges. (If you can call cabbing from expensive restaurant to expensive restaurant and living in an apartment whose rent exceeds 80% of Chinese peoples’ total salary “challenging”, yeah, I know, I’m a snot-nosed brat.) But I could have just stayed in the States and gone on with my merry little life and died from boredom. When things get so routine that you’ve long forgotten the reasons for doing them, then maybe it’s time to get out. So, off to slumming in the developing world. I’m sure some crotchety old folks would say it builds character or shit like that.

Secondly, yeah, China’s developing quickly. Maybe the people aren’t developing very quickly, but the country is. It truly is an exciting place to be, and just by coming here you realize the dynamism and pace of change that you can’t see anywhere else in the world right now. That restaurant you liked? BLAM, it’s been knocked down and replaced with a skyscraper the second you turn your back. Things move in fast-forward here. People often coo and crow about how the United States is the most dynamic country in the world. That’s total bullshit, the U.S. has got nothing on China from this metric. You want a road widened in the States? True story. Get ready for a multi-year ordeal, chock full of environmental impact studies to make sure you’re not disturbing some rare endangered salamander (true story), celebrity protests (true story), years of red tape and bureaucracy to go through (also true). (Those from where I live, Silicon Valley, know how long it took to widen Sand Hill Road, thanks to Tiger Woods bitching about the impact to one of the golf course holes.) We had an earthquake in 1987, and 19 years later lots of places I-880 are just sitting there, half-reconstructed and signs mocking you while you’re stuck in gridlock saying “Your tax dollars at work.” Contrast that to China where, thanks to the efficiency of the government, there’s no need to worry about stuff like protests or delays. People just wake up one day with a big “chai” spray-painted on their house, which means, better pack up the wife and kids because you’ve got an hour before the bulldozers come through. Well, just kidding, maybe they’ll be coming through next Friday. BLAM. A brand new freeway. Awesome, no muss, no fuss. Unless you happened to live in the place that got chai-ed. Or you’re a salamander in the place that got chai-ed. Things here sure are efficient!

So yeah, China’s exciting. It’s the Wild Wild East out here. Yee-haw.

Thirdly, it’s interesting because you can see the hope and energy in people’s eyes. Arguably, right now is the best time to be a Chinese person in the last 200 years. China’s standing up, Chinese people are getting richer, and people just feel that things are going in the right direction. Don’t get me wrong, the depth of human misery here is still unbelievable. Beggars with broken bodies and missing limbs troll all of the touristy areas just to drive this point home. The difference is that unlike before, at least some people are on the road to success. Compare that to the last few hundred years where almost everyone was poor. So despite the belly-aching and bitching, which I’m sure you’ll see plenty of in ensuing posts, it really is a great time to be alive.

So, that’s it for the inaugural post for what may end up being a one post blog. Until next time, see ya around.