'No Man Is An Island' - Maybe John Donne didn't live in China.

No man is an island,

Entire of itself.

Each is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thine own

Or of thine friend's were.

Each man's death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee.

John Donne, 1572-1631.

Last month, OPEN magazine, an English magazine in Suzhou, China, ran a very interesting article about the attitudes of pedestrians in China, why they rarely obey the road rules, and what sort of mind-set Chinese people have to generally obeying, or not obeying, the road rules, and by extension  any rules,  of the land.

As a total outsider, and taken from a purely western point of view, I have some interesting bits to add to this.

This quote comes from the article in OPEN magazine.” People make decisions based on two theories. One theory is consequentialism, which holds that the consequences of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness of that conduct. The other is "principlism," which holds that one acts in line with his or her ethic principles or social code of conduct regardless of the outcome of the activity.”

Chinese people seem to me to live in isolation. They have their immediate families, and perhaps a few friends, but their circle of intimate friends seems to be very small. Take for example the family I am currently staying with in Fujian province.

I asked one member of the family, Qin, I if he knew his neighbours. They live in a very busy market area of their city, and there are lots of little cottage industries all around, with the normal apartment dwellings on top. The street below this apartment is always busy, people coming and going. One shop sells tea, one makes spring roll wraps, another sells fish, another is a dry cleaner, another is a woman’s clothing shop, hairdresser etc. He said he did not know their names. When asked, Qin   said they may know his name, because he does a bit of daily business there, but he wasn’t sure.

When asked if he ever talks to them, he said no. It is not ‘the done thing’ to talk to people unless you have something meaningful to say. So you would not ‘pass the time of day’ with your neighbours.

When learning English, Chinese students have a terrible time with the phrase ‘how are you?’  Qin said that when he first had to learn this in his English class he thought it was the most unusual thing to say. He learnt the reply was, ‘fine thank you, how are you?’ but thought the whole thing fatuous and useless. Why would you ask such a silly thing? A sort of a nonsense thing? In a Chinese household it would never happen. It seems that this idle chit-chat doesn’t exist in a Chinese home.

I commented on the total lack of general conversation in this home where I am staying. I don’t know if this is normal for Chinese or not, but to me it is most unusual. There is no ‘good morning’ when you get up in the morning or ‘goodnight when you go to bed. There is no greeting when you come in or go out. There is absolutely no physical contact, no touching. The parents never have any physical contact with the adult children. There is no praise, and probably little or no criticism.

There is never a ‘thank you for dinner’ or a ‘please’ included in the daily conversation. When I asked about this I was told that if you were a man and talked unnecessarily you were thought of as an ‘old woman’. Unless you have something to say, you don’t say anything. He thought women might chat a little more in the home, but men would not.

For westerners, we chat inconsequentially all the time. We might make comments about anything that we think of, the weather, what’s on television, if we have a toothache, if we have a headache, if we think we might do something, or not do something. When Peter and I get ready for bed at night, we usually say, ‘what’s the plan for tomorrow?’ and chat about what we might do. This just does not seem to happen here.

So, I come back to John Donnes saying, ‘No man is an Island’. From my western point of view, all Chinese people act as ‘islands’, living what seems to me to be a very solitary existence, within their own little circle of friends, and within their little circle of work colleagues, but with no wider connection to the world. Probably the Chinese do not see it this way. It is, I think, the way they have been brought up and it is the accepted way, so to them perfectly normal. I’m not saying it is necessarily wrong, but it is so different.

I wonder then if this is something to do with the mindset of ‘me first and me only’. When crossing the road, if I want to do it, I will and the rest of the population doesn’t come into my consideration. If I want to do anything for myself, I will do it.

I also wonder if the ‘one child’ policy has something to do with this. An only child is a different kettle of fish to a child with siblings. It is universally recognised that an ‘only child’ thinks and acts differently from a child from a larger family. They never have to share, everything is theirs to organise and plan as they wish. There is no dissent from siblings, no interference, no one touches their things or reorganises their things, or uses it, or misplaces it. And certainly there is no ‘meeting of the minds’ with other children. I asked Qin what sort of things he had to share in his life. After some thought he said, nothing. Everything was his, and no one interfered with his things.

I know close relatives play a part in the lives of Chinese children, cousins especially are important, and regarded like brothers or sisters. But even so, the tie is not like a sibling.

Anyone who has been in a queue in China knows the ‘me-ism’ exhibited. The first few times I was queuing for train tickets and a new window opened I was stunned at the reaction. Once people realised a new window was going to be open for sales, everyone ran like the wind, elbowing their way into the new queue to be first in line. Queuing in China is improving I think. Some years ago, trying to get onto a train while others were trying to disembark was a physical feat akin to the Olympics. Now, there is generally some time allowed for disembarking before the new passengers try and force their way on-board.

When talking to an American teacher recently, she thought there was little general community accountability or feeling, and I tend to agree with his, however Chinese people are not without feelings. Recently a kindergarten bus ran into a river, killing about 15 young children. There was much tut-tutting and talk about how sad it was when the news was on. They are very aware of tragedy happening, but it would never occur to them to do anything, to send a note of sympathy, to make some sort of connection with the kindergarten and offer condolences etc. When we think of the outpouring of messages, flowers etc, when Jill Meagher ……http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210838/Thousands-streets-Melbourne-peace-march-following-death-Irish-journalist-Jill-Meagher.html........died in Melbourne, I can’t imagine anything like that happening here.

Perhaps there is a great deal of truth in the saying, ‘East is east and west is west and ne’er the twain shall meet.’ Culturally the two worlds are so different, and there is probably no ‘right or wrong’ way to do these things, but staying in a Chinese home for some time certainly highlights the huge differences. John Donne says ‘no man is an island’, but I reckon if he lived in China for a while he might moderate his words.

Hair and thair

A visit to the hairdresser was needed. I had my hair cut before I left home, but a little trim was needed, especially from the very top. I went to the hairdresser a couple of days ago for a trial run and went back today for the trim.

Hairdressers here are mostly young boys. I don’t know what happens to them when they get older, maybe they do something else, but the salons are full of young men, and generally they are really good at the job.

The other day I let loose a young man who was wearing a gold necklace on my hair. (I remembered that specifically so I could get the same guy again) He blow-dried and styled it, and it turned out ok. Today I got him to do the cut.  But before you do anything, you get your hair washed.

There are no neck wrenching chairs to sit in here. You lie down on a padded rubber bed, and rest your head on a central kind of pillar that is in the middle of the large basin. The washing takes about ten minutes, with a goodly amount of massaging involved. Very relaxing. Then it’s downstairs to the main salon.

The hairdresser spoke a little English so that was good. I explained I only wanted a little tiny bit taken off the top and to leave the rest alone. He understood and got started with his scissors. Every time I have had my hair done in China they have taken ages and ages over it. I know that my hair, being a foreigner, is very different from the strong straight black hair of the Chinese, and they love to play with it, so they will spend ages, snipping and snapping, then blowing drying and primping and pampering. It’s a very nice experience, and they mostly seem to have a gentle touch and no scalping is involved.

So after ten minutes of massage, and about thirty minutes of scissors and blow-drying I was ready. I have to say I am pleased with the result too.

I have no idea what the name of the hairdresser is or how old he is. One of the problems with Chinese is that they all look so young. It’s not until they get to be about 40 or 50 that they look over 20 years old.

On a different note........it was warmer today, haha, but now I know why. You know how, before a cold southerly blow there is often a northerly then a change? Ah yes, the change has come. Its raining and for the day of the wedding, this Sunday, the temperatures are forecast for a low of 6 and a high of 8.  Oh joy!

For the photos please follow this link.

http://www.englishstoriesforfun.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?post_type=page 

They've come down for a quiet little chat

I had just finished talking to Peter on Skype and Alex gets the teapot out. He is going to make Chinese tea, so I go out to have some. He has a good quality tea and it is good to drink.

Often in the evenings when tea is made at this time of the day, his cousin and aunt come from upstairs too. Tonight in the room were eight of us.

I was sitting on the couch and Alex was beside me making the tea. It is a bit of a process. On his other side was his little five year old niece. I was watching TV, the English news. The niece had the Ipad going with some program she likes to watch, and it was blaring out in Mandarin.

On my right, in a chair is Alex’s cousin’s husband, quite a nice young man, who is on the phone in Mandarin. To Alex’s left is his father’s cousin, around sixty years old I guess, and beside him is Alex’s father. Opposite me, on a little stool is Alex’s cousin. They are getting settled when the aunty also aged about 60 walks in.

Alex is making tea for all, the ipad is blaring, I am watching TV in English and the cousin’s husband is on the phone in Mandarin.

Making the plans for this wedding seems rather a convoluted affair, and everyone has their tuppence worth to add. I think they are taking about where the reception is and how they are going to get there. They need several cars to get the bridal party etc down there. This entails quite a bit of talking, generally all at once, and in this case in several languages. 

In most cities there is a local dialect which is nothing like Mandarin. So most people can speak several languages, they grow up with it. Alex says the little five year old can understand Mandarin and the local dialect. But Alex can’t understand it at all.

So we have the aunty, cousin and father’s cousin constantly switching from Mandarin to the local dialect depending on who they are talking to. Because there are so many little conversations going on amongst the seven of them, intermittent phone calls coming and going, and my English TV program they have to raise their voices to be heard over the others.

So Alex can understand some of it, the rest of them can understand all of it, and I am sitting there like a stunned mullet and can understand none of it. Also with all the noise, I can’t hear the TV either.  Ah, for a nice quiet little chat.

Snakes alive! Well...dead really.

The little neighbourhood has been  a place of thriving industry today. I reckon the lady makes about 500 spring roll wraps an hour, and she is pocketing money on a regular basis.

Just up from her the snake man has had a busy day. Alex’s father told me they were snakes, and that is what I guessed anyway.  I have no idea where he gets these snakes from, and I was too late to get a photo of them being boxed up, but they are whoppers.

He had each snake, and it looked like only one in each bag, coiled up. It looked like it was skinned, and very big and very long and very fat. There were several of them boxing these snakes into large polystyrene boxes which were completely covered in yellow stuff and then taped up very well.

It was interesting to note that today the doorway of their little shop had changed. They had put a piece of wood across it, only about one foot high, but it was obviously to keep something in or something out. And probably something living, rather than dead. I didn’t see anything slithering round, so don’t really know the answer to that one.

Anyway, they filled three boxes, taped them up, and taking two men to lift each box put three of them on the back of this motorbike. How it held the weight without popping the tyres I have no idea, and how he rode it and kept his balance is a mystery too. But he did, roaring off at a fine old pace.

I needed a new suitcase to replace the one with the wheels that fell off when I arrived. I have been scouting round, and visited one shop three times. Today I spent the money, got quite a nice bag, two large strong wheels, a good handle, a fairly sturdy looking inside, it expands and locks and has good handles. I paid just over $30 for it, I guess it would be around the $50 at home.

For the pictures, follow this link…..

http://www.englishstoriesforfun.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=695&action=edit&message=1

Anniversary of the Nanjin Massacre

Anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre.

I’m not going to give you a long history lesson here, but the Chinese people have had a pretty tough history in many ways, not only for thousands of years past but within the past 100 years too. One of the worst events was the Nanjing Massacre. Nanjing, then known as Nanking, a city not far from Shanghai. This quote is talking about 1936 and 1937. I guess today is the anniversary of the beginning of the invasion. In this case the Chinese did not defend themselves but retreated. The population in 1937 is estimated at around one million, so if the figures below are close, then a huge percentage of the population was wiped out.

http://www.nanking-massacre.com/

“On December 9, the Japanese troops launched a massive attack upon the city. On the 12th, the defending Chinese troops decided to retreat to the other side of the Yangtze River (Yangzi Jiang). On December 13, the 6th and 16th Divisions of the Japanese Army entered the city' s Zhongshan and Pacific Gates. In the afternoon, two Japanese Navy fleets arrived. In the following six weeks, the occupying forces engaged in an orgy of looting and mass execution which came to be known as the Nanjing Massacre. Most experts agree that at least 300,000 Chinese died, and 20,000 women were raped. Some estimate the numbers to be much higher - 340,000 and 80,000 respectively.”

Many of the women who were raped or who lost their families have worked for years for this to be acknowledged by the Japanese. This website says that no apology has ever been given, but I am sure I have seen some documentaries about two or three years ago where some sort of apology was given by the Japanese government. Everyone involved are well into their old age now, but it is still an important date here. It seems that practically every country has closets like this, full of old bones, oppression, horror stories, man’s inhumanity to man.

Sanya, the Hawaii of the Orient.

Sanya, the Hawaii of the Orient.

China has been developing Sanya, a city on the island of Hainan, about an hour south of Hong Kong by air. It is being touted as the Hawaii of China, and developed and advertised as such. The problem is the rhetoric and the reality are poles apart.

Hawaii is full of Americans, with American accents, and American food. Sanya is full of Chinese and Russians. Many of the shop staff speak Russian. There are Russian shops everywhere, in the 30 degree winter heat selling the most beautiful full winter fur coats. The shop fronts, advertising and signage is all bilingual, Chinese and Russian. And unlike Hawaii, very little English spoken, American or otherwise.

Sanya is renown in China for its fabulous, ‘Hawaii like’ beaches. They certainly have some nice beaches, but the waves are small, the water is not as clean as Hawaii, there is no rolling surf, there are no surfers and the beach is divided up into bits owned by the big named hotels, and some swimming bits roped off, with, I must say, a life guard on duty, who seems to spend most of his time blowing a whistle and telling people what to do.

We went to two beaches and didn’t bother with any others, figuring they were all much the same.

Dadonghai is the beach here. Da means big, dong means East, hai means sea. So this is the big east sea beach. This is well developed, beach umbrellas and wooden slatted beach chairs, ( hard as rocks to lie on) for hire for 50 rmb each for the day plus 20 rmb for a soft cushion thing to put on top. The 50 rmb applies whether you hire it at 9am or at 4.30 pm. Ah, the rip off system is in good working order here. There were plenty of Chinese out in the sun and in the water.

There is also a nice board walk all along, plenty of toilets (the low type) and shower rooms, and a large area of restaurants overlooking the beach. It’s nice along there in the evening when the sun has gone down and the cooler breeze sets in.

  

In Hawaii, when we went there a long long time ago, the price of food was pretty cheap in comparison to our home prices for eating out. In Sanya, the whole economy relies on tourism so the prices are a bit steeper. Even so, I had a really good western meal, more than I could eat at The Dolphin Restaurant, just along from the hotel. Again the menus were in Russian and Chinese, but we had a Pilipino waitress with reasonable English. I also met a guy from Westport there, and some of his mates from all over the world. They have a well-established Sanya Cricket Club.

 …http://www.whatsonsanya.com/tag-Sanya%20Cricket%20Club.html 

Also check out this video clip….the guy who is talking is the David Taylor I met at The Dolphin Restaurant.

http://sanyaexpat.com/index.php/events-concerts-festivals-parties-sanya-activities-shows/sanya-cricket-club-sets-a-world-record?blog=1

There is quite a bit to do in this city, but a few days is enough. On day one I went to the city centre. It’s just like any Chinese city centre, with a walking street mostly full of somewhat tacky trinkets, pearls, and stuff made from coconut shells. On day two I went to a place called, rather exotically, The rainforest cultural tourism zone. We ended up way up the top of some mountain, going by a sort of open bus that stopped at places for us to get off and see the sights. The two things that were most appealing were closed…haha, isn’t it the way? A huge swing bridge and a long flying fox.

http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Hotel_Review-g297427-d1627161-Reviews-Earthly_Paradise_Bird_Nest_Resort-Sanya_Hainan.html

  

It was nice to be in a forest area instead of concrete high rises though. In the afternoon we went to Yalong Bay, the most famous.  Ah yes, more rip off.  It cost 50 rmb each to go onto the beach, and 50 rmb a day to hire a seat each, and 20 rmb to hire a cushion for the day. Oh, and 3 rmb each for some tax or other.

It is certainly a nice area, the water is cleaner than Dadonghai, and heaps of people were swimming, including a few big ladies.

Getting taxi’s and buses to and from is not too much of a problem.

(pics to be added later)

Planning in advance...not!

Planning a wedding is a stressful business. But when you are Chinese and everything is left to the last minute, then the stress levels are inclined to rise a little.

There are 16 days till it is Alex’s wedding day. He still does not know who will be his best man. The one he has chosen may not be free on the day, so if not he will have to choose someone else, apparently there are several people he can choose from.

The other day Zheng Pin chose her dress, well I think so. I’m still waiting to see if it is red or white. I think maybe she has chosen two, so maybe one white and one red. It is quite common for Chinese brides to change into different clothes 2 or 3 times during the two or three hours of the wedding breakfast.

It is interesting to be an outsider and watch the dynamics of a family. Although Alex’s family is basically he and his father, and his cousin and aunt up one level, there are some interesting moments. There was a slight eruption last night, as happens from time to time with these two. Apparently it is over who will sit where.  I don’t think anything is on paper, and everyone wants everything their own way. Goodness only knows what else has to be arranged, but I foresee some fireworks over the next two weeks. And it seems to take three times as many words to say what we would say. If I wanted to make a statement in English I would make it. But they seem to spend ages saying the same thing, and not always with a satisfactory outcome. It’s a funny old world.  As I write, the aunt from upstairs has walked in and a rapid altercation is taking place. I’m off for a shower and will leave them to it.

The Chinese people generally are noisy, loud, vocal, and stubborn. I have been having a little battle of my own with a window. Let’s face it, you need fresh air, even if it is the middle of winter, you need at least one window in the lounge room fully open. But I get so cold! So I go and close it. When I am not looking, Alex’s father goes and quietly opens it again.  He has this implacable face, inscrutable; there is no way of knowing what he is thinking. So when he is gone, I close it again. We have been having this little battle since I got here. I guess it will go on until I leave.

Ah the joys of advance planning…..

Maing spring rolls

When I look out the living room window here, there are lots of shops, small ones that sell different things. One seems to get eels or snakes in, and he seems to re-sell those.

Pic to be added

But the interesting one is a place where they make the round spring roll wraps. These are all done by hand, by someone sitting there, hour after hour, spreading dough onto four hotplates all going at the same time and after about 10 seconds lifting them off and re-spreading dough.  Different people from this family sit here from around 5am to around 10 pm. Once the pile gets big enough, they are taken away, split into what looks like 50’s and bagged up.

The round black things are coke or coal, compressed into cylinders. They have special long tong things to lift them, and the holes allow for good air ventilation. These are used by millions of Chinese as a heat source for cooking. They seem to burn for ages. Inside the 44 gallon drums this woman is working on, is a pile of these coke cylinders slowly burning away.

4 pics of Spring rolls being made (to be added later)

If you think your job is a bit boring, you may like to try this for an exciting change of pace.

Couple of snippets

A couple of snippets.

A photo of the open window.  We are still having our little game. Yesterday was not so cold but last night was cold again, it was open, closed and open.

A further thought for the post on driving in China. I forgot to mention emergency vehicles. Of course, the traffic also has to deal with ambulances fire engines and police cars. Here, as in the rest of the world, the traffic has to get out of the way. But here, well, take your time, don’t make a fuss about it, let them go around you if they can, and it’s preferable that you don’t lose your spot in the traffic. Just because it’s an emergency vehicle, well it doesn’t matter too much.

Not sure if I added this pic….last night’s food come back to haunt us for lunch today, and then dinner if it’t not all gone. Fresh stuff comes, but so does the old stuff…….

An easy today today

An easy day today.

It is freezing cold up north, around Beijing it will be -15 degrees, and some places well inland are having -40 degrees. That’s a lot of cold weather. I see on the news that England and USA are also having some real cold snaps, so we are not alone.  Anyway, China is always a cold place in the winter. It’s overcast, with a bit of a wind blowing.

I have been at home this morning. It is just 1 pm, so is the warmest part of the day. It is 10 degrees in here with some of the windows open, we need a bit of fresh air. They do not use heating, I guess they might in extreme situations but generally not.  I have been watching an American rodeo program, an American boxing program and some American basketball, all with Chinese speaking over the top of the normal speaking.  It’s better than the constant news in Chinese that I can’t understand.

We have just finished lunch of hot tasty white carrot soup, with some pork bones in it, (which I like) nice cabbage, rice of course, and some freshly cooked crabs, rather small, but okay to eat. Along with that were several dishes left over from yesterday and the day before which I did not partake of.

I only own two pairs of fleecy pants, and I am wearing one of them with a pair of long tights underneath. On top I have a Tshirt, and fine woollen long sleeved jersey and a fleecy sweatshirt. On my feet I have a pair of thick fleecy socks and some scuffy things. I am also wearing a long thick woollen scarf. On my knee has been a hottie, which is enough to warm my thighs and my hands. So the cold has set in, and I am pretty chilly right now. Going to bed is a good option right at the moment, but even then it takes me a while to warm up.

Alex’s cousin lives up one flight of stairs with her daughter, shown in the picture. The cousin’s mother also lives with her, and her husband seems to come and go. The little girl is five years old, and actually very smart. Maybe it’s because they get so much one on one time with adults, but she seems to be very clever. She spends quite a lot of time here, and actually it’s nice to see Alex’s interaction with her, he is very good with children.

Over the road the lady is making plenty more spring roll wraps. Next door there are people sorting tea leaves. Next door again there is the snake man, but he doesn’t seem to have any business going at the moment so he and two friends are sitting outside playing cards, and a few yuan are changing hands. Next to him is the drycleaner/alteration man, with no business that I can see but his door is open. He seems to be very particular with his little shop, he is frequently out the front sweeping his little piece of concrete.

Last night someone came to the house to visit. The courtesy rules here are very different. I spoke to Alex this morning and asked him to introduce me to people when they come to the house. I have no idea who they are or where they are from. I reminded him of a time I first visited Putian, a long time ago now, and his cousin took us out for a meal. There were about 20 people present. I was not introduced to any of them, I had no idea who they were or anything about them. I sat , ate, and left. I explained to Alex that we would consider it extremely rude to sit at a table and not know who you were sitting with and that we would introduce everyone to everyone. He laughed, and apologised. I found out the visitor last night was an uncle.

Lots of relatives are coming from Longyan for the wedding which is now 7 days away. They will stay for a couple of days at a hotel close by. But I can see it is going to be a busy noisy few days. On the 31^st I will go down to Xiamen for a couple of days and stay with Jenny and Jerry.

Alex has been waiting all day to go out. I don’t know who he was waiting for, but they have gone to the hotel to arrange the menu for the wedding. You can bet your boots it will be a banquet to end all banquets. They rarely have rice or noodles but all the specialities. I will fill you in after the event.

For the photos please follow this link:

http://www.englishstoriesforfun.com/photos/blog-pages-and-photos-from-housesittingtails-blogspot-com/an-easy-day-in-the-esky/

Incy wincy spider

Incy wincy spider…but not the water spout.

Skype is a wonderful thing. Peter and I often talk on Skype and keep up with how we both are. Back in the land of the Kangaroo, he is doing just fine. He says it is boiling hot, but in the area of our house sit, the afternoon storms often come up against Mount Tamborine, and slide across with western face and slide on up towards Logan and Brisbane. So we don’t have many storms that are overhead. He says he has had a few showers etc so the lawns are happy with that.

Here in Longyan, China, the sun is poking through the clouds and the temperature is supposed to get to 22 today, pretty good for this area at this time of the year. This afternoon I say goodbye to Longyan and Debbie and head back to Putian on the 3.45pm train.

Anyway back to incy wincy spider. Most of you will know the children’s rhyme,

Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the water spout.

 Down came the rain, and washed the spider out.

 Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain

 And the Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the spout again

Australia is known for its spiders, and we have some little ones and we have some whoppers. At this time of the year, the heat brings them out, and some of the whoppers, the Huntsmen are all over the place.

The home we are housesitting has a lovely pool, and attached to the laundry there is an outside bathroom, with a shower and toilet. Peter uses this often if he has been in the pool or working in the gardens. A couple of weeks ago he found a Huntsman spider in the toilet. The toilet seat was down, and he could see the feet of the spider hanging on to the edges of the seat, so although he couldn’t see the spider he could see the feet. He got the fly spray and dispatched it.

A few days ago he found another one in there, another big one. Likewise, it met its maker.

Yesterday, Peter mowed the lawns, and once he was ready to clean up he went into the outside shower. He saw this huge spider in there on the wall. He went inside to get some fly spray, went back to the bathroom and gave it a thorough spray.

Well, these spiders not only have a large leg span but they have substantial body sizes as well, they are solid, and you can hear them plop down on the floor as they fall.

Slightly drunken with the effects of the spray the spider ended up on the floor. Now, not only are they big, but they can run like the wind. They move at the speed of light, with eight legs even Hussain Bolt would go as fast as these things. Unfortunately for Peter, who unthinkingly was standing in the doorway, blocking the way of retreat for this spider, this spider ran for him, and  up onto his foot. But the spider didn’t stop at the foot. He took off like a rocket up Peter’s leg.

To read the rest of this story and see some pictures, please follow this link…http://www.englishstoriesforfun.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=606&action=edit&message=1

Strawberry Milk Tea

There is a variety of milk teas available here that are not available in Australia.  The strawberry milk tea is just delicious. I have one or two cups a day while I am here. Everything comes in a cup, you add the ingredients, boiling water and drink. It’s fabulous.

For the photos for this post, please click on this link….http://www.englishstoriesforfun.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=543

San sad shrimps

Table etiquette, an invisible barrier.

I am still in the throes of working out table etiquette here. It is similar to home, but when you sit at a table with someone you cannot communicate with, it’s a bit tricky. I had to ask Alex this morning to clarify the rules.

The word ‘san’ is Chinese for three, and it is pronounced like the word ‘sun’.  Last night Alex did not come home for supper so it was me and his father. Shrimps were on the menu. Good, hot, tasty shrimps. But we were sort of shuffling them to and fro between us. There were not a lot of them, maybe a dozen or so, and I was really enjoying them. But his father did not eat any. This became the difficulty. Should I eat them all? That would be really greedy. Should I offer them to him?  I did, but then he refused. But often he will not eat something until the end, and then finish off whatever is left over. Did he want to keep them to the end and have them then?  I didn’t know and due to language problems I couldn’t ask.

So these seem to be the rules for table etiquette.

1.    Eating with strangers. This is a little more formal. In normal circumstances you would eat a little but not too much of each dish. You would then offer it back to the others. Remember too, that these are communal dishes that everyone just helps themselves to with their chopsticks. But you would gesture to say ‘you have some’ etc, a fairly universal sign language.

At first, when it was offered back, it would be refused…you don’t want to seem pushy or greedy. But then you would offer it again, and they might take some, with a face that says, okay I will have some to please you, and thanks very much. This would continue on, to and fro until all the food was gone, or until you were full.

I think that if you were with strangers and just sat there are ate the whole dish of something, especially a delicacy, you would be considered pretty rude.

Generally, entertaining is done in a restaurant and I think maybe it is not so common to cook a meal for guests in your own home. When eating in a restaurant with strangers, one person or family is the host and does the ordering. To show hospitality you order heaps. So if there were five people you would order for eight or ten. You never want to look mean or stingy when entertaining guests, it is part of the culture. And it is similar at home, if we take guests out, we never want them to leave the table still hungry.

When we first came to China it was common to see large tables of people, who once their appetite was sated, would leave, but with the table still laden. Today, I am pleased to see ‘da bao’, ‘the bag, in use, that is, food is put in containers and some of the left overs are taken home. Food wastage here when dining out seems excessive to me, although in the home people are very careful with food quantities. I had some Chinese friends I would eat out with regularly, and it took me a long time to educate them to buy just enough for us but not overdo it.

2.    Eating at home. Here the rules are more relaxed, but last night I just wasn’t sure what to do. I enjoyed the prawns. I ate about 3 or 4 then offered them to the father but he refused. I had some more, eventually eating about 8 or 9 of them, leaving 3. After all, enjoying them and being a greedy pig are two different things. I thought maybe he would eat them at the end of his meal, but no, there are the three sad little prawns still on the table for breakfast and they will be there for lunch and dinner too if they aren’t gone beforehand. So apparently, I should eat them all if I want to. I should eat some, offer to the others or leave for the others, but if towards the end of the meal they are still there, it is okay for me to eat the lot.

 Often there are some really good dishes on the table but I feel terrible if I eat too much of it.

So now I know what to do next time. It’s all a learning curve. Lol.

For the pictures please follow this link:   http://www.englishstoriesforfun.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=631&action=edit&message=1

A bit like Stanthorpe in July

Any Aussie who listens to Macca    http://www.abc.net.au/australiaallover/  on a Sunday Morning, will know the song, ‘The monkeys sing soprano at Stanthorpe in July. Well, at the best of times I am a cold fish, and here in Putian I am being tested somewhat.

You can take my word for it, and hang me if I lie,

 But the brass monkeys sing soprano at Stanthorpe in July.

 And August

 And September

 And October

Now people tell you Queensland is a place of heat and dust,

 That ain't at all exactly true, believe me if you must,

 ‘Cos it snows at Wallangarra and up past Girraween,

 And if you go there in the wintertime you'll feel just what I mean.

 The wind comes up from New South Wales, it ain't exactly nice,

 Because it brings upon its blast big mobs of snow and ice.

 You'll shiver all the flamin' night and all the chilly day

 Despite your thermal underwear.

 But the monkeys sing soprano at Stanthorpe in July.

Putian is akin to Stanthorpe. It doesn’t snow here in Putian, but when the weather is bad all around, as it is now, the wind is somewhat keen, to put it mildly. Beijing, a long way north is minus 15. Xin Jiang region is minus 40 odd. That is a long long way from here, but even so, the winds tell us that they have come from that region. Hence, I am cold.

Living on the Gold Coast, or any part of Queensland, it is warm. Even our winters are warm, wearing T shirts in the day, and in the cold, yes, long fleecy pants at night. But here in the day, we hit around 10 degrees, maybe up to 15 or so, and a goodly amount of fresh air makes its way through fully or partly opened windows. Those temperatures are a Queensland night in the winter, when we are snuggled up in bed with our hotties and feather doona’s all wrapped around us.

Therefore, to keep warm I am resorting to my bed. I have sufficient bedding, and my bed is quite warm and cosy once I get in and get warmed up. But so far I have needed an extra blanket, and I wear my thick woolly socks and take three hotties with me until I warm up.

I was sitting at my little laptop last night, sporting many layers of clothes and a thick woolly scarf wrapped round my neck and shoulders when Alex pops his head in. ‘Oh, you are cold!’ he says, a little surprised. ‘How will you get on in Suzhou?’

He knows Suzhou(said Soo joe) is much much colder than here, and next week I am off to Suzhou for a few days, so he has no idea how I will manage in a house where the temperature is an average zero or minus. With a tiny touch of irony, I said, ‘They will have the heaters going. It will be warm in their house.’ I know, in the winter they keep it around the 20 to 24 degree mark. ‘Oh,’ he says, ‘it’s not healthy to use the heating, the air is not fresh.’ You gotta love it!

I know it’s really hot back home at the moment, I Skype Peter most nights, but a bit of heat and humidity would be welcome relief just now.

Follow this link for more.

http://www.englishstoriesforfun.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=637&action=edit&message=6

Ridgey Didge Chinese tucker.

For un-Australia readers, tucker is food, and ridgey didge is true blue, all right, fair dinkum, true, the real thing, the real McCoy etc.

Alex’s mother died about 7 years ago, so his retired father takes care of him, doing all the cleaning, cooking, etc. His father is a good cook, and while I am here I am getting some good food.

The Chinese seem to pack away an enormous amount of food at each sitting. I think, for my visit, there is some extra food being prepared, this is one of their ways of showing that their guest is welcome, by supplying copious amounts of food.

At most meals there are about 6 or 7 dishes on top of the obligatory rice. At each meal there are about 3 fresh dishes, and a big bowl of vegetable soup with some sort of meaty bones in it. The problem is, that what you don’t eat at this meal comes back to haunt you for the next one. And the next one, and sometimes the next one. So there will be 3 or 4 fresh dishes and several cold ones. With my stomach being what it is, I rarely eat the left over stuff.

Here are some pictures of last night’s dinner. 

At the back you can see two small bowls. These are some left overs from previous meals. Then there is the white carrot soup, which tastes like a sweet swede, pork and mu’er, the black mushrooms, and on the right of that a fish and tofu dish. I don’t usually eat their fish, it is full of little bones.

Pic 2. You can see how much rice they eat each meal, I would have about half to three quarters of a cup, they put away the rest.

Pic 3. The pork and mu’er dish. Not a very clear pic unfortunately, and I can’t take another one, it has all been eaten. Mu’er stands for wood ear, it is a type of mushroom that grows round wood. It is black, slipper, you buy it dried and soak it and boil it for a few minutes, but it is surprisingly tasty.

Road rules when driving in China

There is a road code, but I don’t know what they call it.  There have been some times when I have asked locals what the rules are for certain situations. The answer has been, it is too hard to expect everyone to read the book of rules and obey them. So although there is a rule book, no one knows it and no one follows any of the rules.  Here are the rules as I see them.

Traffic lights. You must obey the traffic lights. Except if you are a pedestrian and can get away with crossing on a red light, or if you are a motor bike, bicycle or electric bike. Also, you should go through orange lights, and probably the first ten seconds or so of red lights. This website suggests about 17,000 pedestrians get killed each year. grapevine.net.au/~mccluskeyarundell/Ped_casualty.pdf 

Pedestrian crossings. There are clearly marked crossings but they don’t mean a thing. Probably if you were knocked over on a crossing the penalty might be higher than if you got knocked down on the unmarked road.

  

Double white ‘do not cross’ lines. These are in the right places to keep the traffic on the right side of the road. Unfortunately, no one obeys them. Certainly if you are going in one direction and the lane next to you but over a double white line is free, it seems such a waste not to use it. Crossing a double white line is par for the course.

If you have an accident.  No matter where you are, or how many lanes of traffic you are blocking, if you have an accident even a tidy little ding, you never move your car until the traffic police have come and worked out who was in the wrong.

Motor cycles. The rider must wear a helmet. Pillion passengers, children or other family members seem to be exempt. It is quite okay to have the whole family on the scooter.

  

Electric cycles. As for motor cycles except they have no motor noise and they creep up on you unawares. Then they honk their horn to tell you to get off the footpath because they want to use it.

Footpaths.  You should use the footpath. But when many roads were built, it was for a few cars and no parking was allowed for. So the nice wide footpaths became the parking lots. Hence it is necessary for pedestrians to walk on the roads more often than not.

Horns. Horns are for honking, any time anywhere, any place. Restraint is unnecessary.

Turning into oncoming traffic. This can be done anywhere anytime, but it must be done slowly so that everyone can stop for you. In this picture there is no oncoming traffic, but if there was, it wouldn’t make any difference.

Crossroad intersections with no lights. It’s just a major free for all. As my informatant mentioned earlier said, no one knows the rules so no one obeys them. He is a driver, but has no idea what the road rule is for intersections.

Driving awareness. You need to be aware of what is in front of you. You need to honk at what is in front of you so it knows you are either behind it or coming up beside you. You don’t need to know what is behind you, the people behind you will keep their eyes on what is level with them. When entering from a side road, you just go like the clappers and somehow the others on the main thoroughfare will make room for you.

Keeping pace with the other traffic around you.

Patience is a virtue,

Possess it if you can,

Sometimes had by Aussies,

Not by a China-man.

If you can weave in and out like a formula 1 driver and make ten milliseconds on the trip, then you should do so. Going with the flow is not an option.

On the whole it is a system of semi-organised chaos. It’s a wonder the whole nation doesn’t wipe itself out on the roads. The one saving grace is that most of them are so unsure of what they are supposed to do, that they do it quite slowly, so the accidents often are not high speed killers like we have on our wide long open road in Australia.

Oh and how to they keep their streets clean? By women sweeping them day and night, in the towns and in the country. This woman is covered in several layers of top to toe clothing, plus hat, scarf wrapped right around her face and nose, so only her eyes are visible, white cotton gloves and a sort of uniform over her normal clothes. How she doesn’t die from the heat I’ll never know.

Chinglish cooking lesson number 1

Cooking and eating bacon, eggs and fried tomatoes with chopsticks.

Well, it is to be said that a Chinese kitchen is not what I am used to. Occasionally I had cooked bacon and eggs for Alex, along with some fried tomatoes. So he put in an order for me to do that for breakfast today. That’s all very well when you have the equipment, but not so easy when you don’t.

I had bought the frying pan in Xiamen. It was not big, so I knew I’d be doing a few batches. I’d also found the bacon, which is probably not available here in Putian.

In this kitchen, as with most Chinese kitchens there is one electric hot plate and everything gets cooked on that. They are very fast, a small kettle will boil on it in about two minutes. I guess they are designed for wok cooking.

The cooking utensils consisted of one metal small fish slice thing and chopsticks. I managed the cooking reasonably well, doing it in batches. But I was cooking for several people. There was Alex, and his wife, (they have a strange arrangement at the moment, it seems like she stays here for weekends only, so she was here last night), his father, his 5 year old niece from one flight up, and me. Oh, and his aunty from one flight up who came to check on things.

But then you have the problem of eating the stuff. The bacon is not too bad, you can pick it up with chopsticks and chew bits off. There are no knives and forks to break up the food. The egg is a bit messier, picking the whole thing up and taking bites off it as you go. But the fried tomatoes were really tricky. I suggest you have a go at picking up a slippery half of a fried tomato with chopsticks and eating it without dropping it all over the place and sploshing juice everywhere. They didn’t really know how to go about it, so it sort of got shovelled in the best way they could.

I cheated. Although there are no knives and forks there is one desert spoon and one teaspoon in the house. I got the desert spoon and sort of cut up the egg and tomato with that then ate it with the chopsticks.

Ah well, the dishes are done and they are off again to find her a wedding dress. She took one home that she didn’t like, a white one. He wants her to wear white and she wants to wear red. I wait to see the outcome and who wins this little battle.

Longyan Campus

My dear daughter, long suffering and hardworking has been putting up  my posts on this blog because I can’t access it from China. From now on she will just post the text and there will be a link to my website where I am also loading up the posts and all the pictures. Please follow the links at the end of each post from now on to see all the pictures associated with the posts.  Thanks.

Coming back here after six years has been an interesting experience. Staying with Debbie is good, Peter and I were good friends with her during our first year here, and she has hardly changed at all. Her little flat is nice, but like all Chinese places the floors are ceramic tiles, the walls are tiles or plastered, there is no carpet, so they are quite cold.

My bed is very warm and cosy and I am sleeping really well. I think I have adapted to China time rather than Aussie time. The two hours makes a difference in the sleeping patterns.

I went with Debbie and spoke to some of her classes. It was nice to be in front of a black board again, good fun, and the students here really are very well behaved. I also think they are coming here to university now with better English than when we were here. The middle school seems to be doing a good job. Even the freshmen had pretty good English skills and much of the speaking has the prepositions in the right place, which is one of the hardest things for Chinese students to learn.

The actual campus is lovely. Well set out with trees and gardens. This is the round building we were supposed to teach at, but only go to visit a few times. It is also on the edge of town, and well set back from the road so it is quiet, we hardly hear any traffic noise. 

Clark is now a teacher at the Number 1 middle school here in Longyan. He was one of the best speakers at the school when we were there. He is courting a girl at the moment. He is just 30 years old, a good time to marry.

Even in the coldest weather there is  no heating, but this room seemed warm enough when I was there. They are used to wearing their heavy coats and clothes indoors, even in the house it is normal, rather than using power. Heating is usually only turned on in exceptional circumstances in Chinese homes. They generally have 3 or 4 layers of clothes on and woollen longjohns too.

The architecture for this university was based on the Tulou. Link to here……..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulou  

 These are round stamped-earth buildings that are unique to this part of China, in fact I think this is the only place i the world that has these. So this whole university was based on a round building concept. This is a photo I took when Peter and I visited some of these unusual buildings not far from Longyan.

So it has been an interesting time. The town of Longyan is changing, some lovely big buildings, more modern, but the old part is still the same, old and grubby and smelly in comparison to what we have at home. Although I really enjoyed my few times in the classroom, there is no desire to come back to it.

Follow this link to see the pictures…..Link to here.

http://www.englishstoriesforfun.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=594&action=edit&message=1

Chinglish cooking lesson no. 2

Pork and mushrooms.

You  need to use a bit of poetic licence with this, because getting quantities ain’t that easy.

You need to buy some mu’er. It is a Chinese black mushroom. You can get it in any Chinese shop. Soak it for an hour or so then boil for three minutes.

For three people you would need about 1 cup of pork, diced and sliced quite small. Add some salt, and some soya sauce. Leave for about 10 or 15 minutes. Then they add potato powder, which I guess is potato flour. I don’t know if we can get that, but I think cornflour would do the job. Add enough to mix all together and make a gooey mess.

Have your wok or frying pan with hot oil, I couldn’t get a quantity from him, and add the pork. Stir and cook through, this will only take a few minutes.  Then add the soaked and boiled mu’er, a few pieces of finely chopped celery, and continue to cook another minute or two.

I would think you could add quite a bit to this if you wanted to be a bit more adventurous, a bit of chilli or ginger.  But it is a delicious meal, and with rice and a vegetable is sufficient.