Passport photos ....

I'll have whiter teeth please .... 

Everyone knows the joys of getting passport photos taken, the no-smiling, the way every blemish seems to show up on your face, the horror of looking at the photo that will haunt your license and passport for years to come.  A few days ago, I had to get some passport photos taken for my Canadian working visa and it reminded me of Chinese style passport photos.  Just before I left China, I had some photos developed at the local photo shop.  Whilst I was waiting, I watched a young, pimply, skinny teenage boy have his picture taken.  White background?  Check.  Not smiling?  Check (although this is common in normal Chinese photos anyway).  However, the process didn't stop there.  The woman taking the photo, the boy and his posse of hangers on gathered around a computer and before my eyes, I watched as this boy was transformed into a grown man, complete with unblemished skin, broader shoulders and a little more hair.  I do wonder how he managed to get through customs.  Perhaps I could ask for this at the local Australia Post?

Customer service in China ......

Wonderful customer service at a favourite Japanese restaurant

Sometimes I really do wonder if anyone in China is taught about basic customer service, namely a polite manner, trying to help where possible and a smile. Checkout chicks at the supermarket look put out to be serving you, waitresses scowl as they wait to take your order, travel agents look incredibly displeased to see a laowai in their office. But, the best customer service I found was at the Beijing airport with Mum and Libby ………

The end of our trip to Beijing arrived and we waited patiently in the queue to check in to our flight. Our main concern was whether or not we could get away with taking all our bags as carry on so that we could save time at the other end. We never even considered that our tickets would be incorrect. This is what happened…..

Check-in man – Can I have your Chinese mobile number please?

Me – Okay, but I’ve never had to give it before when checking in.

Check-in man – Well, we need it.

(The usual check-in stuff happens)

Check-in man – I am sorry but your passport numbers don’t match the numbers on the ticket. I can’t give you a boarding pass.

Me – Okay, well what do we do?

Check-in man – I suggest you call your travel agent.

Me – Ummmm, it’s 8.30 on a Sunday night. I don’t think they will be open.

Check-in man – Okay, well go out to the ticket counter.

(he reluctantly tells us where the ticket counter is)

We trudge out with our bags to find the Shenzhen Airline counter. One girl is on her mobile phone talking and directs us to the next girl who leans back in her chair and yawns.

Me – We have just tried to check in but the man says we can’t because the numbers on our tickets don’t match.

The ticket girl looks at our tickets and our passports.

Ticket girl – Call your travel agent and ask them.

Me – It’s 8.30 on a Sunday night, they won’t be open. Can you help us?

Ticket girl – Oh.

She continues to look at the passports and our tickets while typing something onto her computer. This takes several minutes and we wait nervously.

Ticket girl then throws our tickets and passports across the counter with a gruff ‘Check in’.

Me – So, you have fixed the problem for us?

Ticket girl – Check in!

Me – So, you have fixed the problem? Can we get our boarding passes and board the plane?

Ticket girl – Yes. Check in.

(Note – The girl did not make eye contact with us once during this conversation)

We then proceeded to check in without any problems and soon we were on our way back to Wuxi.

Obviously, customer service wasn’t on the airline training course. No wonder they had to ‘train’ the Beijing 2008 volunteers how to smile. Having said that, since I've been back in Melbourne, customer service in many places seems to have gone very quickly downhill, are there no more polite people left in society?

The warm beer principle ......

Ice cold beer ...... a rarity in China!

"Can I please have a beer?"

"Sure"

"A cold beer please"

(odd stare and no comment)

A warm beer arrives.

This is an incredibly common conversation that foreigners have in China. The Chinese don't believe in drinking cold liquids, which is why you will find stores with fridges full of drinks but the fridge isn't turned on! In restaurants, you usually need to ask 2-3 times before you finally are able to get a cold beer. This applies to anything that needs to be done involving the assistance of a Chinese person. A friend christened this 'the warm beer principle' - unless you ask several times and talk the person through the task, you are likely to get a warm beer (or in other situations, a job half done or not done at all!) I don't think I will be having this problem now that I am home in the land of cold beer!

Fridge is full but nothing is cold

Child safety?

Last week, I went to the post office in the middle of the day with a Chinese staff member and the school driver. On the way, we needed to drop off one our Nursery (2 year olds) students. We drove off with the 2 year old student perched on the staff member’s knee, with no seat belt on. Scary, but hey, this is China!

As we pulled out of the post office, we passed a car that had a child leaning out the window (the car was stationery). The staff member commented on how dangerous this was! How bizarre – driving with an unrestrained child in the front seat with no seat belt is not dangerous?!

Elevator entertainment .....

The electric elevator uses matters needing attention

I live on the 26th floor so I spend a lot of time going up and down in the lift. The lift in my apartment building is pretty slow, so going all the way up to or down from the 26th floor gives me plenty of time to observe my fellow lift travellers and their behaviours. There are the guys who smoke in the lift, right next to the 'No Smoking' sign. There are the polite smokers who butt out their cigarette before getting into the lift, but not before blowing a puff of smoke into the lift. There are the families with small children whose parents force them to say 'Nihao ayi' to me, despite the fact that the child is terrified of the white girl. There are the young people who want to practice their English. There are the old people who are lovely and polite, despite the fact that I don't understand them and they don't understand me. There is the woman with the Dalmation dog who takes the poor dog out for a run each day to escape apartment life. There are the people who make no attempt to hide their stares at the white girl who lives in their apartment building. But, my favourite people to travel in the lift with are the ones who are so impatient that they feel the need to lean over me and my bike every time the door opens so that they can frantically press the 'close door' button - just be patient people.

Local connections ......

Winter waltzing

Every night, year round, a group of older Chinese people gather on the pavement in Wuxi Xintiandi (a largish 'international' shopping complex) and dance. The music comes from a stereo perched on the back of a bicycle. From about 6 o'clock till 8 o'clock, couples and singles dance, occasionally taking breaks to sit and chat, while watching the dancing. I love this daily community ritual and often sit to watch the dancing on my way home from the gym. The enjoyment and good health that is gained from such a simple community activity is obviously a benefit. But, I think it is wonderful that these people take the time out of their day to simply enjoy themselves whilst others are rushing past them, a million things racing through their minds.

Spectators watch and do their own little jig on the side lines

Line dancing

Normally, when I sit and watch, there are very few stares and murmurs of 'laowai'. Last night was different though. I was waiting to meet a friend for dinner and I sat down to watch for a little bit. I took a couple of photos which always interests people, so I showed the pictures to the more curious dancers and spectators. One woman looked at me as she left the dance floor, so I gave her a little clap and cry of ‘hen hao!’ (‘very good!’). Next thing I know, I am being pulled up onto the dancing stage and being waltzed around the other couples. The best thing about this spontaneous experience was the fact that not one person gave me a ‘there’s a laowai’ look (well, at least I think they didn’t, I was too looking at my feet and trying not to step on her feet!).

Music source

Fruit shop lady

It is these encounters with the local people that make me so happy here in China. My daily conversations with the fruit shop lady who has helped me to improve my Chinese, the morning and nightly exchange of greetings with the guards at my apartment building, Emma from Templeside hostel in Beijing and of course, my favourite person in Beijing, Xie who drove us around in his immaculate taxi. I will remember all of these people and their friendly, smiling faces for a long time to come!

Xie, Beijing taxi driver

Speed dating ..... Chinese style

Whilst strolling through the People’s Park on Saturday afternoon, we came across an intriguing sight – hundreds of middle-aged people studying pieces of paper clipped to trees and bushes. A frantic buzz filled the air as people talked to one another and made notes in small books.

Which of these people will find love for their children?

We stood and watched this astonishing phenomenon for a few moments before being approached by a distinguished gentleman who spoke very good English. He kindly described the event to us ………

Frantic exchanges of resume details

All these people had gathered in the park to find husbands and wives for their children. The pieces of paper were advertisements for their beloved sons and daughters. The frantic chatter was the exchange of information such as height, weight, level of education, salary and assets. The parents made notes as they listened to the resume of the potential son or daughter in law being recited.

Perusing the partner choices

After the event, we also learnt that it is illegal to display photos of those being ‘auctioned’ off because apparently this would make it like a real marketplace although it certainly had the feel of a real marketplace. Once we learnt this, we understood why some of the auctioneers got extremely angry when it looked like we were going to take a photograph of them.

Discussing potential love matches

One of the advertisements stood out from the others for several reasons. Our 'guide' explained that it was uncommon because it was a man trying to find a partner for himself, not his child. His bright green poster told us that he was 41 years old and was looking for a partner who was tall (at least 160cm) and university educated. He used his salary as a selling point – he earned 200,000 rmb each year (about $40,000). This man had evaded the ‘no photos’ rule by creating a flap at the top of his advert which potential partners could lift up to judge his physical appearance. He was obviously an organised man because he had also placed a stack of smaller adverts for interested parties to take home his details.

Taking notes

As we wandered through the park and observed the matchmaking event in progress, many questions popped into my head. How do the children feel about their parents arranging their partnerships? What happens after the event? Do parents go home and dissect each potential partner with their children? Do the children get a say? What happens if the child didn’t like their parent’s choice? How many marriages come out of such events?

She was happy with the description .....

I also wondered how long such a match making service has been going on throughout China – I am sure that such events have been going on long before the arrival of internet dating or speed dating as we know it in the western world.

..... but is she happy with the visual?

Local bus trips . . . . theme park thriller rides?

"Tunxi! Tunxi! Get on my bus!" Conductor drums up business - no leaving until full!

Some of the most terrifying experiences I have had in China have been on the local buses in Anhui province. Like most bus experiences in China, the trips I have had in Anhui have been ‘interesting’ – but add the windy mountain roads into the mix and it’s a little scary.

No room for the conductor to sit down

Local buses in China generally don’t leave until they are full. If you’re the first person to arrive, you get your pick of the seats (great for me who is fussy about bus seats) but you may have to wait a while until it fills up. Arrive late and you have to fold up your legs and possibly balance your backpack on your head. Finally, the bus is ‘full’ and departs, taking you on a wild ride to your destination. It is now that the bus conductor (normally female) comes around to take your fare. However, many stops are made along the way, where the conductor leans out the window hollering out the destination. Just as you think that not a single person extra can squeeze on, children’s plastic stools appear from nowhere and a few more people can cram on. On my first visit to Anhui, the bus drove up and down the main street of Tangkou until the bus was jam packed before finally heading onwards to Tunxi.

Anhui bus driver (note the slack seat belt just thrown across his body - we were just approaching the police when he slung it across himself!)

During my first bus experience in Yangshuo, I found this all very interesting (and slightly terrifying as anxiety set in at the thought of being stuck at the back of the bus) but now, I just take it all as I come. Generally, I get myself settled with my ipod and fall asleep. However, this is impossible on Anhui buses as the buses travel through small villages and up windy mountain roads. Add the total disregard for the rules, small children playing on the road, hair pin turns, adults strolling across the road and scooters putting their way up the mountain and it becomes like a ride at a theme park.

Everyone is crammed in but they are all still able to have a nap!

But, I’m still here today (albeit with a slightly raised blood pressure!) and I will definitely be on a local bus again I’m sure!

Seeing Suzhou by scooter . . .

Canal cruises

This weekend, I planned to take a day trip to see a nearby canal town called Tongli. I met my friend, Freddy, in Suzhou and we planned to ride his scooter to Tongli, 18 km south of Suzhou.However, due to an unreliable scooter (who is crazy enough to ride a second hand Chinese scooter from Shanghai to Suzhou anyway?!), an infrequent bus schedule and a desire to spend longer than 2 hours in the town, we gave up our plans and decided to explore Suzhou by scooter instead.

A home off an alleyway

Home?

Travelling by scooter gives you a totally different perspective on places. We were closer to the people and saw things that we probably wouldn’t have seen had we been in a car. If we saw an alleyway that looked particularly intriguing, we were able to stop and have a wander through it.

Get that scooter off the lawn! Unheard of in China

Scooters and people on the lawn?!

Suzhou is a really beautiful city, with wide, tree lined streets and hundreds of canals crisscrossing their way across the city. It has a great mix of Chinese and western things to do.Yesterday, we found a really great mix of the two. We wandered through the alleyways. We spent time hanging out with hundreds of other Chinese in a park, we sipped tea in my favourite bookstore, The Bookworm and we ate Mexican and Coldstone Creamery icecream at Jin Ji Hu (Golden Chicken Lake).

Enjoying some fishing in the Autumn sun

Taking a nap

So, although I didn’t quite make it to Tongli, it was still a great day of exploring a Chinese city in a very Chinese way, on the back of a scooter! I was back in Wuxi by late afternoon, as a group of us were heading out to the grand opening of a ‘new’ bar in town. I say ‘new’ because it isn’t actually a new bar – in fact, I attended the opening of it several months ago! But this was the very official opening with government officials in attendance, television crews interviewing all the laowais and the obligatory free food and beer that comes with a grand opening!

Do you know where you are going?!

Fruit stalls at a busy Suzhou intersection

Interesting outfit to water the lawns!

Belynda and Nat impersonate ABBA

Black and white theme!

Beau is interviewed by the local TV crews

The lovely Beau and Melinda

The boys act cool with the TV crews in the background

The humble rice cooker ....

Nobody I know in Australia uses a rice cooker. It seems to be one of those gadgets that seems like a good idea at the time but quickly makes it to the back of the cupboard along with the foot spa, soda stream machine and bread maker that someone was once given for Christmas. Not so in China where the rice cooker is one’s best friend - big restaurants use them, street stalls use them and nearly every apartment comes with one. I wonder why they lie dusty and unused in so many Australian homes? They are incredibly useful and so quick – simply load it up with rice and water, hit ‘cook’, and presto, a bowl of rice ready in minutes. No stirring, no boiling over, no messy pots (and stoves) to clean up – amazing! You can even steam your fish, meat, vegetables, jiaozi (dumplings) while the rice is cooking. My only gripe with my wonderful rice cooker is that I still haven’t worked out how to get it to cook brown rice without half of it sticking to the pot. The humble rice cooker is a gadget that no family should be without and should definitely not be sitting dormant at the back of a cupboard. So, guess what my family are all getting for Christmas?

Weddings, weddings, weddings ......

No, I'm not getting married! But, several people I know are, so I thought I'd take a moment to consider cultural differences. I have never been to a Chinese wedding, but got my first invite today. It's a lovely pink card with the words, 'Forever joined in happiness. Love makes the woeld go round' - yes, love does make the woeld go around! Unsure of who I knew well enough to receive this invite, I curiously opened it up. I have been invited to the wedding of Mr Meng's (our school driver) daughter who I have never met before (in fact, I didn't even know that Mr Meng had a daughter!). And not just me, but the entire staff! If we are all invited, I wonder how big the wedding is?! Unfortunately, the wedding is during the holidays so I won't be able to attend, but I was appreciative of the invite. The wedding is being held at a hotel in Wuxi at the very precise time of 11.18 am on a Saturday morning. According to a colleague, getting married at a time with an '8' in it, is very lucky. '8' is a very lucky number, whilst all Chinese people will shy away from the number '4' whose character (word) sounds very similar to the character for death. Then we got chatting about presents - what do you take to a Chinese wedding? It seems that any present will do and my Chinese colleague thought it was hilarious that we gave toasters, crockery and dishwashers as gifts to newly weds. And dresses? Again, according to my colleague, a lot of Chinese women are going for western style dresses (think lacy, puffy meringue dresses) rather than the traditional red and gold dresses that bring luck. I've never been to a friend's wedding before, so was quite looking forward to going to this Chinese one to make comparisons when I head home at Christmas time for two weddings. Both Australians are being held in very different settings - one on the beach and one at a winery - but both I know will be beautiful, relaxed and fun! Now, I just need to find a man ...... (or not, I'm having too much fun on my own at the moment!

Wuxi makes the world news .....

Well, in the food safety world at least. Last week I received an email from my aunt, Jenny who happens to work in this industry (she knows everything there is to know about cheese!), informing me that Wuxi had in fact made the news. Here is the article: 300 people ill in suspected food poisoning in E CHINA city 09.sep.09 Xinhua News Agency http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-09/09/content_12023779.htm NANJING -- More than 300 employees of a pipe manufacturing company are suspected victims of food poisoning in an east China city Wednesday, local authorities said. The 300 employees of Seamless Oil Pipe Company Ltd. in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province asked for leave Wednesday morning and the company found the employees had begun going to hospital late Tuesday, said an official with the municipal health bureau. The initial investigation showed that the unsanitary conditions in the company's canteen caused the suspected food poisoning, the official said. Maybe I should pass this onto the catering company that provides our lunches, maybe it will inspire them to feed us something more edible.

A seemingly simple task .....

On Sunday afternoon, I headed out to Metro to stock up on some pantry staples such as nuts, seeds, organic vegetables, smoked salmon and frozen berries (a new discovery!). I also decided to purchase a counter top oven, as my landlady was reluctant to install a regular oven. Sounds like a simple task, right? Not in China. There were about 15 different models to choose from and I spent a considerable amount of time deciding which one to purchase based on a few simple questions – How easy were the Chinese labels to interpret? Would the oven be able to cook fish, meat, toast and possibly puddings? How heavy was the oven, should I want to move it to my next international posting? After much deliberation, I decided upon a medium sized oven that seemed easy to use and was moderately priced ($100). Decision made, I asked one of the many shop assistants if I could have the oven in a box. “Mei you”……. “I don’t have”. Hmmm, it seemed that they did have the oven, after all it was sitting on the shelf in front of me. But no, it wasn’t available. The woman went to get someone else, who repeated that I couldn’t have this oven. I was persistent and communicated via basic Chinese and a lot of sign language that I wanted the oven and I wanted it in a box. By this stage, a crowd had gathered – who was this laowai, thinking she could buy an oven that was on the shelf?! Several staff members were now involved and after much hunting involving a forklift, a box materialised. Not the box for the oven, but a box for a large free standing fan. The oven would have taken up a third of the space in this box. Frustrated (but still smiling), I handed over my shopping bag and together, we pushed the oven into the bag. Mission accomplished! The next challenge came when I arrived at my apartment and I considered how I was going to get two bags of shopping, an oven, a tea set and a bucket filled with shopping up to the 26th floor by myself. Enter elderly Chinese man dozing in the back of his bike trailer. The kind old man loaded up my purchases, drove to the building and helped me to carry them up to my apartment. He left, happy with the bottle of beer that I pressed into his hands. Nothing is simple in China, but with some perseverance and patience, things happen. I can now cook a roast, toast bread and bake a chocolate pudding! (As you can see, I'm still unable to load pictures ...... Peter? Help!!!!!!)

Do not ...... ....

I'm currently hanging out at the Melbourne airport because my flight has been delayed due to bad weather. When I'm bored and have time to kill, funny things capture my attention (or maybe I just have a weird thing about taking pictures of signs in toilets ..... remember my first trip to a Japanese toilet?!)

So, here are two signs at the Melbourne airport that I am sure are in place for the majority of passengers travelling on a flight beginning with CA (Air China)...........

A brief lesson in toilet etiquette in Australia

This sign is above the water fountain

Old posts - I did it!

Before the race started – Me, Terrie, Andrea and Tiffany (all from the other big international school in Wuxi, TIS)

Over the next few days, I will post all the unpublished blog entries for the couple of months that China didn't want anyone contacting the outside world and before I discovered how to get around the system! Many of you have already read these, but some people missed them, so here they are!! Enjoy.

The start and finish area, in the Yin Yan Square, surrounded by the Wall.

Timing chips on our runners.

Well, 14 weeks of obsessive training and it was all over and done in a few hours! But, wow! What an amazing experience my first (yes, note, I will be back!) half marathon on the Great Wall was. It was quite an overwhelming experience to have the opportunity to run with so many other like-minded people in a stunning location, with the local Chinese villagers cheering you on. I felt quite emotional at times during the run, I couldn’t quite believe I was there.

Looking very happy at the start line!

Heading up the first section – 5km of solid uphill running. Why am I smiling?!

Friday afternoon/evening proved to be an eventful time as 7 of us made our way from Wuxi to the Huangyaguan section of the Wall, about 2 hours drive south west from Beijing. The driver was a little unfamiliar with the area, so we had many stops to call for directions – a little unsettling at 10pm at night in country China! We eventually arrived just after 11pm and walked to our hotel where the staff were surprised to hear that 4 of us would be sharing a twin room. They kindly provided us with extra blankets and we bunked down for a short and restless night of sleep. Sleeping on the floor (thankfully, I had been prepared and bought my sleeping bag!) was not an ideal situation before a big run, but I woke up at 5.30am feeling okay. After forcing down a breakfast of bananas and Powerade, we headed up the hill to the start line of the 10^{th Great Wall Marathon!}

The first ‘bottleneck’ of the race – getting up onto the Wall.

On the Wall.

The race was broken into 3 main sections, each with its own set of challenges. The first 5km was solid uphill running and I had to put my competitive edge to the side and accept that I would be overtaken! I was determined to run the entire way, and I did – none of those wimpy walking breaks for me!! Once we reached the top of the hill, we all had to line up to actually get onto the Wall via a narrow set of stairs. The second section was on the Wall itself and proved to be the easiest part of the run for me. There were several bottle-neck periods along the Wall, where you had to wait to squeeze through the narrow sections. I walked up most of the steps, it was difficult to run because all the steps were different heights and widths, making it quite easy to fall or twist an ankle.

On the Wall.

Major laowai traffic jam!

After running down some steep and narrow goat paths, we came out on a flat part of the Wall, before running through the Start/Finish Square again and then onto the flat. The last 12 km were mostly on the flat, on a main road, through farm land and through the local villages. It was this section that I found most challenging because my legs were beginning to get really sore. Surprisingly, my heart and lungs felt fit and ready to go, but my legs were killing me! For the last 3 km, I managed to pick up the pace and finally, achieved my goal of running the race in 3 hours – my official time (which was changed yesterday) was 3 hours and 49 seconds!

The traffic jam behind me!

That’s where I was heading!

After the race was fantastic as well, the atmosphere of the crowd was so energetic and positive. Everyone milled around and cheered on people finishing the race and the marathon runners who came past the finish line and back up onto the Wall for another 2600 steps, as the commentator so kindly pointed out! When the marathon winner came through the finish line, there were huge cheers all around. The record for the marathon is 3 hours and 18 minutes – that is so fast to run 42 km of hills, steps and goat tracks!

So many ups and downs.

Heading down the hill.

The scenery surrounding us was so diverse, it was quite difficult to keep your eyes on the track at the same time as enjoying the beautiful panorama. The day provided perfect running weather – cool with a heavy fog. It got a little hotter towards the end of the run, but was it really couldn’t have been any better. However, the fog meant photography was not at its best. One of the best parts about the run was seeing the locals lined along the village streets cheering everyone on. All the children wanted to high five each runner and the elderly people were happily chanting ‘Ja Yao! Ja Yao!’ (Go! Go!).

Locals cheering the runners on.

Local children.

All the Wuxi crew were happy with their performance, whether they were aiming for a particular time or simply wanting to finish the race. A couple of us celebrated with a beer before heading back to the hotel to shower and head back to Beijing for a night of celebrations. Stay tuned for the next installation of the running weekend in Beijing!

Through the local village.

In the village.

Through the farmland.

Children collecting the runners water bottles to recycle for a little money.

Women’s Half Marathon winners.

Tony and I representing EtonHouse and Australia!

Heather and I celebrate with a beer.

Finished!

Wuxi women – me, Sharon, Tiffany, Terrie, Andrea and Heather.