Life in the Big Smoke

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…..2009/11/02 - to write the date in the much more logical (as usual) Chinese fashion. I wonder what they make of the Americans, month first, then the day, then the year!

….....it's been cooler but still very mild recently but, after mostly overnight rain at the weekend, this morning sees the smog cleared by an Arctic wind that is a real shock to the system. I don't have classes until 11am on Mondays & I cycle into town this morning due to a mix up over the date of a breakfast meeting with a doctor friend keen to learn more English. I see a lot of gloves & scarves, coats turned backwards (they act as a windbreak on scooters & bikes). I am just beginning to imagine what Beijing, Harbin & Jilin must be like in winter. I'm not sure which is the least comfortable, high 30s & humid or low single figures (with an icy wind). I'm glad now I didn't take that contract in Jilin, in north eastern China, where the the average daily maximum in January is -11C & the average minimum -19C, a bit cooler than the average freezer - though the record is somewhere below -30C.....

…..a friend in Beijing reported a few weeks ago that they were already getting the cold air from Siberia. I hope we're far enough south to escape the worst.....

…..there's a new Aussie teacher due to arrive soon to replace Laura, who is resigning to go back to the UK. We need more people here who can give Chinese kids a fair suck of the sauce bottle when it comes to learning English.....

…..one thing that is striking here is that, in a municipal area with roughly the same population as Sydney (you may remember that Yangzhou is a “medium sized city”) there are very few overweight people & an insignificant handful that could be described as obese. Most of my classes have one large kid, (have a look at the photos), some even a couple, but not to the extent seen in the west. It's not because there's not enough to eat. Despite the cafeteria being a bit short on finesse at times there is NEVER a shortage of food &, western or Chinese cafeteria. I've seen some very slim people tackling sizeable portions of food. Everywhere you go there's food & so many street vendors of cooked food & fresh fruit & vegetables - aha! maybe that's part of the answer. There is plenty of meat here (chicken, pork, beef, etc) but when I think of the proportions of vegetable to meat in the average western meal - schnitzels hanging over large plates with a token salad lost on the edge…..

…..there's not as much reliance on packaged & junk food (yet!). Still, students report their favourites as MacDonalds & KFC & the ridiculous amount of over-packaging at the supermarket is probably a sign of things to come. It's a worry. Maybe a re-evaluation is called for in, say, 10 years time......

…..street food. The stuff that almost every source of information on China, from personal acquaintances who have been here to internet sites to guide books, will tell you to avoid or at least be very circumspect about. Some of the teachers decide to go into Yangzhou for some street food tonight so I go along. Two of them have been here for about three years so are well versed in where to go for the best food. Through narrow tree lined streets south of the main Wenchang road, shops still open well into the evening, dark alleys full of people, bikes & scooters, we find our way on this first arctic night of winter to the “best chicken in China” (Corey's description, & a pretty accurate one I believe).....

…..First Kelly & I do the famous “Dance of 10000 bicycles” avoiding collision across the road to get some “niu cha” (milk tea). In a large, plastic cup with a straw plunged through the lid. It's sweet, creamy & delicious. The first thing you notice is the diameter of the straw. Just a local peculiarity? No, it's to allow the passage of the tapioca at the bottom of the niu cha. I wasn't aware of this the first time I had some & got the first squishy ball of tapioca in my mouth. A cold sweat ensued & a lot of unpleasant possibilities went through my mind before I was told the secret. Off to try the chicken. Only large, succulent legs here. No heads, beaks or feet. Then along the dark street, squid, cooked on kebab sticks before your very eyes on a hotplate on a rickety table, with lots of mysterious spices being added during the cooking. Jiaozi, (steamed dumplings), lamb, kebab style & all sorts of other things to try another day. I think I'll still pass on the raw lettuce though. All in all a good gastronomic experience (with no after effects).....

…..Having finally received the SIM card I left in Australia (because I wouldn't need it!) I put it in the phone &, already having collected all the code numbers, passwords & IMEI code (no, I don't know what it is either), required by the Three Network I phone their customer support number via Skype. A very helpful Indian gentleman unfortunately cops an earful of Anglo Saxon epithets when he informs me that yes, they can send me the unlock code, IF I take the phone to Australia where I can connect it to the Three Network..... “This call will be terminating if you are not stopping the use of profanity.....”. I did apologise to him - he was only doing his job after all. Short answer, (& short pause to assume Indian accent), you are to be buying a SIM card in the country of your residence also buying a new mobile telephone & not to be bothering the Three Mobile Helping desk with your profanities again... Ah, well, I get paid soon....

…..I finally catch up with my doctor friend from the Paediatric unit of the Yangzhou no.1 Hospital on Wednesday after the night shift. I am taken to what I'm told is a very popular breakfast restaurant on Dongguan road. It is packed. I sit next to a couple of Chinese men who looked up from their bowls in some surprise at seeing a Lowai at their table but they soon got back to their breakfast then off to work. I don't quite catch the name of the lightly browned, meat filled pastry, or the light soup with egg but it all tastes great, even if I make a mess of the cuffs on my clean white shirt by letting the former slip off the chopsticks into the latter. No one seems to notice, just as I'm not sure that I really notice an older guy stand up at a table on the other side of the room & clear his nose. No, no, I am just imagining it.....

…..like most people here, certainly educated people, the doctor speaks English a little but lack of practice has dulled the edge a bit. There is a real enthusiasm to speak English. Many seem to want to “speak like a native” & are a little put out when you tell them that only years of living in an English speaking country will achieve that. They're usually happy if you can tell them that their English can be understood very easily & their pronunciation is good. In this case I can't honestly say that yet but anyway a little practice on both sides should improve their English & my Chinese. Now, what's the word for that lightly browned pastry thing again?.....

…..the arctic weather was just a taste of what's to come. For now it's reverted to mild & I'm back to a thin shirt in the evening.....

…..pay slip arrives today. ¥10 (about Au$1.60) has been deducted from my monthly pay. I query it. It's income tax!. I can live with that.....

…..I am invited to go with some of the other teachers to a hotpot restaurant. The first choice has a queue. The street is FULL of restaurants. The next one has a free table. What a meal! With my aversion to pork & our Foreign Teachers Administrator not keen on sea food what is left? Well, chicken, beef, lamb, all manner of vegetables, noodles, tofu, & there are lots of ways to present tofu, for those who have only seen those bland looking (& tasting) white blocks of what looks like Neufchatel cheese in the health food shops. More table staff than you could shake a stick at. The hotpot arrives in a deep 2 part wok (spicy hot one side, mild on the other, separated by a Yin-Yang shaped divider) & is placed on a heating element in the middle of the table. A bowl of spicy noodles, a sizeable vegetable dish plus a sweet red bean "soup" (more a dessert), plus a couple of beers for me & soft drinks for the others. More than we can comfortably eat. We brave the discomfort however. Total each: Y20 or a bit under Au$4. It will be very hard to go to a Chinese restaurant back home after this, even harder to pay the bill at the end of the meal.....

…..Matt, one of our American teachers arrives with his Chinese girlfriend, whose name sounds a bit like “J-C”..... She is great value, very lively, a good line of communication with the waitresses after we've struggled to order even with a picture menu - pathetic! Also speaks very good English so is able to translate what's going on. Peter is regretting the fact that the new trousers bought at the Da Ren Fa this afternoon were a bit tight even before the meal.....

…..why do we go for a large cup of niu cha across the road afterwards? We can hardly walk after that.....

…..J-C likes playing pool so suggests we go to a pool hall not far away just past the University campus. We find 2 video shops on the way with some English DVDs (always good to know). Pool halls, like MacDonalds, have a certain je ne sais quoi that transcends national boundaries. 10 pool tables in a dimly lit room, young Chinese, mostly men but a few girls, playing pool, looking up briefly as the Lowai arrive but just as quickly getting back to their games, rap music in the background (I'm sure the Chinese government hasn't got round to translating the lyrics yet) mixed in with cheesy Chinese pop songs. A few are smoking but it's not too intrusive. Pool table ¥25 for an hour (around Au$4). When you finish your game instead of setting up the table yourself for the next round a stunning Chinese lady in knee length boots & a tight fitting knitted mini dress quickly arrives to set up the table. Now there's an idea for flagging patronisation in a few pool halls back home.....

…..despite parents arriving with their kids at this private boarding school on Sunday afternoon in BMWs & Audis (& I spotted a Porsche last week), some of the mums in very obvious designer clothes, where conspicuous consumption sits side by side with a small but noticeable degree of poverty & where everyone is busy trying to make a buck - despite all this it is a communist country. As a concession to the International Teachers we get Christmas Day off but the rest of the school functions as normal. We go back to work on Boxing Day. The big holiday is for the Chinese New Year in February. No, I won't be going back for Christmas.....

…..smoke - the rice stubble burning & the lack of air movement leave a grey, ghostly presence everywhere, even faintly visible inside the Da Ren Fa supermarket. I have a photo to post on Photobucket of the thick grey smoke from a stubble fire across the road from the school. I'll be glad when they finish the burning.....

Great photo opportunities missed this week:

Too many insane loads on 2 & 3 wheelers to even be worth including in subsequent weeks. I'll snap as many as I can.

The Chinese lady setting up the pool table.

My face when I grabbed the hotpot ladle that Peter had helpfully left just above the hotpot heating element.

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