Feet on the ground

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Thursday 15th Nov

First day, new home, strange place. First job of the day - get some provisions in, so we take a trip to the local supermarket Cbest. The small supermarket is not far from our apartment, in fact it seems that everything we need is not far. There are vegetable shops just outside in the street and many other small shops. Also in the narrow street are street traders, selling vegetables and other merchandise. At the end of the small street on the way to the main shopping area, is a large square/plaze, in the middle of which is a circular fountain which at the moment is not working. It is all very spacious and pleasent. I can see the tree covered hills in several directions and I am happy they are so close, closer than I had thought. There are new buildings being constructed across from the plaza and one block looks nearly complete. It looks like a stylish apartment block. I feel happy with all that I see. Li Yun, Crystal's sister has made a good choice for us.

In the afternoon, Zou takes us to the transport company and I am reunited with my now tatty boxes. At least they are all in one piece. Zou crams his small VW with six of the boxes and I jump in the passenger seat. I’m not looking forward to lugging the boxes up four flights of stairs, as each one weighs over twenty kilograms but Zou has already thought about that. En route, he calls to a man sitting at the side of the road. The man is one of the many porters that wait with their basket, which they carry on their back to do manual carrying work. The man has dark skin, rough hair, very pronounced teeth and one eye; he runs behind the car as Zou slowly drives the short distance to the apartment. Once there, I grab a box and take it with me, the porter then carries the rest up one at a time on his back. Zou then disappears with the man to get the rest of my boxes and I am free to check out if everything has survived the journey.

Once the rest of the boxes arrive, I go with Zou, Crystal and the porter this time in the car, to Zou’s apartment where they are collect Crystal’s boxes and bags which have been stored there since transportation from Shanghai. I am taken aback as we enter the apartment however; it is very large, very modern and stylish - how the middle class live in China. Zou goes off with the porter to transport Crystal’s stuff and we wait for him there. I am curious to see the apartment and take a look around. The apartment has three large bedrooms, the living room has umpteen lighting options, the kitchen is very stylish with all mod cons and the bathroom has a shower unit in which water is sprayed at you from all directions! Of course the same room has the usual hole-in-the-ground. I ask Crystal how much such an apartment would cost; she reckons around 15k.

When we finally get back to our apartment, all of Crystal’s bags and boxes have been deposited inside. The porter has certainly earned his thirty yuan.

In the evening we visit Crystal’s grandfather who is in hospital, he is 97. His name is Huang Shi-Yuan. The hospital is old, and a little tatty. Grandpa has a small room to himself with three beds, some small cupboards and a TV; some of the curtains are hung up with nails. With him were two of his daughters and a son-in-law. Grandpa warmly shakes my hand but I appear to go unnoticed by the others. Members of the family are with him day and night, sleeping in the available beds. While I am there, one of the daughters massages the old man’s shoulders and the other massages his feet. Apparently nursing care is minimal in hospitals and high level family care is normal.

Friday 16th Nov

Today is unpacking day and it appears that the only casualties were a couple of wine glasses but two survived; two is enough for now. Crystal seems to have a ton of clothes and sets too filling all the cupboards with them.

Saturday 17th Nov

As well as unpacking, there is a big clearing out job to do on the apartment. The previous tenant who was also the owner had left a ruck of things which she didn’t need any longer and left then for us, which was very nice of her, except that most of it was no good to anyone. Crystal wants us to pack up all this stuff and store it at her sister’s incase the owner wants it again, all adding to the work in hand.

In the afternoon we take a walk out by the river which runs through the centre of the city. The river is wide, slow moving and clean, what is more there is not a single boat on it, large or small but it does have pathways along both sides and is lined with trees. It all looks very pleasant.

On our way back, we call in at the hospital again, which is by the river. Again the same family members are there and this time they are preparing a meal in the room on a small electric stove. Every meal is prepared by the family; it seems home cooking is best- no bland hospital meals and anyway, there is not an alternative - there are no hospital meals available. We stay while the family eats and I listen to family conversation which I haven’t a clue about. Crystal explains to me about some of the conversation and tells me something about her aunties. She calls them “auntie number three” and “auntie number four.” She says it would impolite to call them by name.

The river at night has alternating coloured lights along its length and around the bridges which give the whole area a bright and comfortable feel.

We stop at the bakery on our way back. As in Shanghai and in other cities in China, the variety of bread and cake is great. I spot an extravagantly decorated cake, almost a work of art, enough for two people to enjoy. I ask Crystal if we can have that one as well. It costs 7 yuan (50p) but there is 10% off because it evening time and when we come to consume it, tastes every bit as good as it looks.

Later I am writing my journal when Crystal squeals and calls to me. On the floor is quite the biggest black beetle I’ve ever seen, about 2 inches long. Crystal wants me to kill it but instead with the plastic cover of the cake and a piece of paper, I scoop up the beetle but not before it tries to flee with some speed. I open the window and throw it out. I said to Crystal it has a right to life, like everything else. Whether it survives a fall from this height is another matter!

At the time of writing my notes, I am enjoying a lovely cigar, a good can of beer and Elvis Presley on Crystal’s small c.d. player - the swines at customs didn’t take him - a very pleasant evening indeed.

Sunday 18th Nov

It rained all night and Crystal and I experienced the battle of the duvet, which I seemed to win. The problem however, is that when the duvet comes in my direction, Crystal comes with it and I end up at the edge of the bed with no room - I don’t sleep well.

Sunday is the day for the cleaning lady to come. Like a lot of the contact I have been having with people here, I seem to be invisible and the lady gets on with her work as if I wasn’t there. She cleans and polishes the floor, then cleans the soles of my houses slippers. Crystal has a very firm rule about house slippers being worn in the house and not shoes or boots. She also has very firm rules about bringing day clothes into contact with the bed - don’t. She says the streets are too dirty and there are many germs out there. It is not worth arguing about. However, Crystal’s name is now Miss Fussy and I have become Mr Messy. I can’t imagine why?

Crystal has informed me that there are two rules in the home. Rule 1. Crystal is always right and rule 2. If in doubt follow rule 1. Maybe that will work for now?

We go out to buy an international phone card so I can make cheap calls home but it seems they are not available because there are so few foreigners here. It seems I am going to be even more isolated than I thought - not a happy thought. Crystal then goes off to her father’s house to collect a bookshelf and I go back to see if I can assemble the hi-fi system.

I’m very happy that everything is working and get everything hooked up to the large speakers which have been left behind but I am far from happy about the wiring in the flat. Not only is it old but there are old extension cables running everywhere, as there are so few sockets. A rough hole has been made in the bedroom wall to feed an extension cable into the living room for the hi-fi and TV. Anyway, it works and I can listen to some of the CDs not robbed from me by customs. It is music to my ears!

Crystal comes back with the large bookcase but of course she is not carrying it. A man brings it up on his back; his mode of transport is a large rusty tricycle cart, which are common around here.

Monday 19th Nov

Crystal has solved the battle of the duvet. We now each have a duvet with another on top covering us both. She gets to keep her own duvet and I get to get a night’s sleep.

Today turned into an eventful one. Our plan was to take our washing to Crystal’s sister Li Yu and then have breakfast but as we are on our way her sister and brother-in-law pull up in their car and soon we are zooming through the city to an area of many large stores. Zou drives like a taxi driver and has my heart racing. I am however quite impressed at his ability to anticipate what everyone else is about to do. We no sooner stop outside a large store than a lady in a fluorescent vest runs over. She is the parking attendant and collects the parking fee. No chance of getting a parking ticket and a fine here. We go to a large electrical store called Gome. It is the Chinese version of Currys, except that you could drive a small family car between the aisles over the highly polished floor and that there are many staff waiting to serve you, not hanging around the tills or completely out of sight. In fact there are so many staff waiting to serve, that when we were presented with a free gift, six of the store staff came to present it.

Our mission here was for Li Yu to buy a new fridge-freezer and then we can have her old one, also for us to purchase a washing machine, cooker and heater. I sit and gaze around while all the transactions are undertaken. It was going to take a long time and I could hardly object at not having breakfast because this visit was for our benefit. There is an immense array of merchandise in the store with some names I recognize like Electrolux and Bosch but many more I do not. What strikes me is that at home we call such things as washing machines and fridges ‘white goods’ but here they seem to be every colour but white. What is more, the variety of appliances available is much greater than in the UK. I mention this to Crystal and her reply as usual is a simple one, “We have a much bigger population here, so we have more choice.” I would have never looked at it this way but I guess she is right - rule 1. However, it does appear that not only is the choice bigger but the style is better. How can you account for that? I didn’t ask her. This I have noticed in the many small and large clothes shops; there is a much greater selection of style available, much more interesting than at home. I wonder if that is because we have so many chain stores in the UK that they actually dictate style by mass purchasing and generally play on the conservative side - one size fits all! Here there are so many small boutiques and of course many more clothes manufacturers, large and small.

The cooker is a simple affair, just a single electric hob but it is far more complex than that. It has eight different buttons for different heating options and as I am to find out, it heats up in seconds and cools down just as quick. We are however to have another cooking hotplate as part of the heater to go in our living room. This is a multi-purpose and very practical unit because it acts as a small square table, in the centre of which is the hob (similar to the other) and below is a four sided electric fire which forms the supporting plinth. It also has two towel rails for obvious use. It transpires that most Chinese homes have one of these. The washing machine Crystal chooses is not the front loader so popular at home but an automatic top loader, which seem to be the preferred choice here.

Purchases complete, I hope for breakfast but no such luck. We are now on our way to a computer market to look at a computer for us. The computer market couldn’t be more different than Gome. It is situated inside an old and tatty building which is circular in shape. All the computer shops are situated on both sides of the circle and each is a small one man/woman owned business with about six staff each - there are plenty of workers here. We walk around the large circle but only visit one shop for specifications and prices. Crystal tells that one of a good spec will cost around 6000 yuan - 400 pounds.

Now we can go for breakfast, except it is lunchtime. Zou drives us to busy noodle shop in a long street which has many small shops catering for house maintenance and light engineering. It appears that in China, all the shop keepers selling similar products like to congregate together. This has a number of advantages; for the shopper, it means you don’t have to travel all over the city to find what you want and for the trader, if there is something you don’t have, you can get it close by. I was to find this with the small shop that eventually made our computer; they didn’t sell monitors but went to another adjacent shop to get one. This street is B&Q divided into a hundred different stores and each generally dedicating themselves to selling one product - plastic pipes, metal strips, electrical tools, paint, rope etc.. Here you get individual attention from someone who probably knows about his product, which is more than can be said for B&Q.

By now I’m ravenous and the thick white rice noodles with fried egg on top is most welcome to my rumbling stomach. The street is chaotic and busy; carts carrying all sorts are being pushed and pulled up and down, small vans ferrying goods and taxis as usual fighting their way through horns blazing.

Noodles consumed we head back to sister’s apartment and await the arrival of the large fridge-freezer. It arrives on the back of one man, who has a strap which goes around the appliance and around his shoulders. However, he’s only had to carry it up one flight of stairs! Crystal and I wait while it is unpacked and installed. Crystal then goes to negotiate with the driver, a different man, to take her sister’s older but very good condition fridge freezer to our place. It is then carried down, by one man and placed on the tailgate of the small truck and tied on.

The toughness of the Chinese people is something which one can only admire. Our newly acquired fridge-freezer is carried four long flights (eight actually because they bend back on each other) to our apartment on one man’s back and it is not a particularly small fridge-freezer, and I don’t even detect he is puffing. I puff up the stairs carrying only myself. The carrier is a small man, which is obviously an advantage, giving him low centre of balance for such large and heavy items.

Later the washing machine arrives in the same fashion and Crystal is to become a happy woman, second only to marrying me!

The television in our apartment, like most of the other electrical items left behind does not work but this is a hidden blessing. Firstly because there will be only one English speaking channel out of sixty or so and secondly because I can listen to some old cassettes I haven’t listened too in donkey’s years. The power of TV is immense; it is amazing how many times I’ve watched a Chinese programme without a clue as to what is going on. That evening, I settle down to enjoy Jim Reeves, Andy Williams and Crystal Gayle, which can only truly be appreciated by people of a certain generation.

I settle into the deep faded leather armchair by the window with a cigar and a book, and all is well. I am reading Bill Bryson’s Tales Of A Small Island. I’ve read it before but years ago. It is such a pleasurable story for me because his travels in the UK commence in Dover which I know so well. He also travels through Twickenham London, where I lived and worked for five years. He brings back so many memories to me, making me think as to what I’m missing. His humourous and descriptive writing paints the country in a kind rosy light and it was twenty plus years ago but I do feel a little homesick as I read. Of course the UK has changed a lot in twenty years, some for the good and some for the bad. There are some things I am glad to be away from and many I am not. What I am also sad about however are some of the wonderful places he describes which I never got to visit at home. It seems I don’t know my own country well enough. Oh well hopefully in time to come, I will return and find out more and maybe I will fall in love with it once again!

Tuesday 20th Nov

Today we had a visit from a neighbour, not coming to welcome us but to tell us that her kitchen was being flooded. She was apparently very nice about it, saying to Crystal she was sorry to trouble us but could we stop whatever we were doing. The problem was that we had had the washing machine plumbed into the kitchen and the outlet pipe discharged below the kitchen sink, which was apparently causing the problem. Like the wiring in the flat, the plumbing is equally suspect. We have also been told by the owner we can’t use the bath because that also leaks, so we are resigned to using the shower. The shower however works great, in fact you have to be careful not to turn the dial too far and parboil yourself. The water comes out a ferocious speed from an overhead cylindrical heater but the only problem is you have stand over the hole-in-the-ground to shower, which is fine as long as you are careful to not put your foot down the gully. Don’t worry, you can never forget not to flush it! There are pipes running everywhere in the bathroom but apart from that everything is fine.

Crystal gets on the phone to the owner who is soon round to sort out the problem. My view is that the leaking outlet in the kitchen should be fixed but apparently this will be a big job and so a compromise is agreed. The washer will be moved to the small connecting room to the bedrooms, the bathroom and the main room, where we keep our coats; it will be outside the bathroom and so the washer can be connected there. I decide to keep out of it, if Crystal is happy about it, then I am. Within ten minutes a man arrives with a hammer and chisel and begins knocking a hole in the wall and then a very short while later, another man arrives to move the washer and reconnect the washer in the bathroom. Things move quickly in China. The job is done in no time at all and soon Crystal has another load underway. However, I’m a little concerned to discover that the outlet pipe for the washer now discharges via a plastic pipe into the hole-in-the-ground, which means that two things can’t be done at once, otherwise one could be in for a very unwelcome surprise on a short cycle! I’m not happy with this arrangement but it would have to do.

I am learning to sit back and let things happen which can have its benefits but can also be frustrating because I can’t be too involved unless Crystal involves me. I will just have to get used to it. The thing about Crystal, she doesn’t seem to get stressed about anything, she just gets on with things, so the less I interfere the better. We could have argued about the placement of the washer but it wasn’t worth it. I’ll just smoke my cigar and enjoy my book.

On our way to the hospital to visit Crystal’s grandfather, we call in a little food shop to eat. It is like so many eateries, just a single shabby room open to the street with plastic stools and Formica covered tables. The owner’s specialty is fried rice and grilled food, including kebabs. He has a great array of different foods on display and some of them look positively revolting mainly because they are dark brown in colour and are probably pig’s entrails or similar. Actually one looks uncannily like a pig’s tail! However, we play it safe and have egg fried rice and pork kebab. The portly man who runs the stall is surprisingly chatty with Crystal, mainly because she has a westerner with her. He said he had known another westerner who had come to his shop and liked really spicy food. Anyway the food he serves is good and not too spicy, and he gives us a cheery wave as we depart.

In the hospital room, grandfather Huang was in his chair; his son-in-law Zhao Xue-Guang is washing the old man’s feet in a bowl on the floor. He is Uncle number three and would normally be called Zhao, being his family name. His nieces and nephews however would call him Uncle Number Three. The care and attention Zhao gave to washing the old man’s feet was truly amazing. I could never have imagined washing my father’s feet nor my son washing mine - sad isn’t it? Also in the room was another man, an older man in ordinary working clothes, who apparently was a nurse, or at least someone who was paid to help look after grandfather Huang in the night. He and one other family member would be there all night and sleep in the two spare beds.

On our way back we come across a large pile of sand at the roadside and a number of porters are busy shoveling it into their baskets to carry on their back into a building. I see that three out of the four are women and one is actually shoveling the sand with her bare hands into her basket. This is another thing I have difficulty coming to terms with in China; the hard life that many people have regardless of gender or age and that women do the same hard manual work that men do. There is no social security fall back here and what is more, the divide between country life and city life is extremely marked. Country folk here are not The Archers, they don’t wear Barbours, green wellies or drive Land Rovers; they are generally the nation’s poor. The wealthy only live in the cities. Many country people come to city to make living with the hope of a better life but I don’t know if they get it. Judging by this work I have witnessed on the street, I can’t imagine they do.

Wednesday 21st Nov

The telephone man comes today and does whatever he has to do and within half an hour we are connected. I’m sitting in my usual chair by the window which overlooks the car park when I hear this loud cracking noise coming from outside. I look and there in the car park are several men with wooden spinning tops and the loud crack comes from a sort of whip they use to make the top spin. In England this is a game of yesteryear but here it seems the game is alive and well.

Contact with home
I had two emails from a couple of my Viking mates today, Chris and Nigel. Their messages really cheered me. Being in touch with folk back home has been a lifeline but one that at times seems to be cast adrift even with all the different ways of communicating. The problem is I’ve had too much time to sit and think and too much time writing letters and emails home. Of course at home, people have busier lives and also Christmas is coming, a busy time for all. We have also no home address given to us yet, although I think Crystal’s sister might know it. We certainly don’t have a post box which should hang outside our door. Apparently the only way to get this is to order some newspapers and magazines, and that entitles us to a box. According to Crystal, people in China don’t write letters to each other and obviously don’t get bills through the post or receive junk mail. Maybe good enough reasons not to have a mailbox. So it is all a bit odd to me, I write letters but can’t put a reply address on - thank goodness for email.

Eating at home
We go to have a meal with Crystal’s sister who prepares a nice meal for us of many different vegetable and meat dishes. Curiously enough however, she has placed newspaper on the table as a form of table cloth. I think she might be concerned how westerner might cope with chopsticks! I think the Chinese have a really good way of eating - five or six bowls of meats and vegetables, often combined are placed on the table. Each person has their own small bowl into which they take rice, then each person eats straight from the dishes of food on the table using chopsticks. There is no great pile of food on your plate and you can eat from the dishes you like and leave the ones you don’t. This way you don’t feel obliged to empty your plate or eat what you don’t like. There is generally a clear soup dish with vegetables and this is consumed at the end of the meal. I have never seen a sweet dessert yet. On another note, Chinese people don’t have ovens in their homes, nor a grill as far as I have seen. Most things are stir fried or boiled but generally the former.

Li Yun and her family live a twenty minute walk from our apartment and Crystal’s parents live only ten minutes away, which is really good for Crystal.

On the road
On the way back from Li Yun’s I muse over the roads here, they are so shiny; worn I suppose by the passage of vehicles. This must make for interesting travel when it is raining, especially for motorcycles. I think emergency stops are out of the question. Those who know me, know I love motorcycling but I just cannot imagine it here. I suppose the saving factor is that no one really travels fast, except sometimes taxi drivers and Zou, the brother-in-law. The other curious thing is that it appears that lights at night are not necessary because a lot don’t use them, especially motorcycles and bicycles, and a lot of taxis and buses don’t use them simply because they don’t work. I watched a taxi the other night pull into the car park; it had front lights but no rear lights and no reversing lights. It used to alarm me greatly but I am a little more used to it now. I think Chinese folk must have exceptional night vision and awareness. The main difference however between driving here and in the UK is that at home the traffic is very controlled by many laws and regulations and therefore people drive to the limit of these laws and sometimes beyond them. They know the person approaching from the side road will stop or give way to them and they know that another won’t push in when there is no space to do so but here there are no certainties because no one gives way and nearly everyone pushes in. It is accepted practice, so people don’t get angry when this happens and all know that speed is a recipe for disaster. Yes, I’ve seen bus and taxi drivers get irate but not very often and I’m certain road rage doesn’t exist here; Chinese people are not like that. The confusing thing about how people relate to one another is that sometimes their words and expressions seem to indicate that they are shouting at another but in fact they are only being expressive

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Photos

Crystal with grandpa
Aunties number 3 & 4, Crystal and uncle No 3 - grandfather Huang in foreground

Our apartment
Little stove/cooker in middle of room

Playing with spinning top
& whip

The Plaza
This is near our apartment and everynight folk gather to dance to music, regardless of weather.

Misty day
Pheonix Park

Crystal purchasing oranges
Big ones!

336 steps to the top
give or take one or two

Red Army Street
A new street recreating the old

Making candy
in Red Army Street

Christmas time
Inflated Santas

Playing Majong
while the children play

City Hall
& balloon sellers