Smokefog

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Photos:

…..”Pai dui”. “Form a line”. It's almost a reflex action for those of us brought up in the UK & who have lived most of our lives in predominantly English speaking countries but an alien concept here in China. It is done, but usually under supervision at busy times in bus & train stations but I get the feeling it's under duress. “Pai dui” is an essential phrase in the classroom until they learn the English equivalent. On the rare occasions I give the students any written work they not only crowd around me, or used to, but also thrust their work in my face above the sheet or book of the one I've been trying to look at. Now I don't look until the line has been formed.....

…..at any event where any number of people are trying to achieve the same end in at the same location it's easy to see where the kids get it from. When you're at the bus stop & that bus door opens expect to get swept in or pushed aside, probably by a little old lady with pointed elbows evolved for the purpose. The same one that will shove you aside later to get off a bus with 30 passengers standing, before the door closes.....

…..buying a ticket recently the bus station was unusually quiet. I ended up in a queue of two at the ticket window. Before I was halfway through my ticket request a man walked into the exit half of the barrier, thrust his money through the window & started to order his ticket. In my early days here I would have let it pass but I think I have the measure of the system now. I pushed his arm aside & continued with my request as though he wasn't there. The lady at the desk gave me my ticket. For an Australian the remarkable thing is probably that he just stepped back & ordered his ticket as though nothing had happened. No dark looks, rude fingers or muttering under his breath. Just trying his luck, like the guy at the Da Run Fa, pushing his bag of fruit from behind to be weighed in front of mine. I was about to grab it & hand it back to him but the girl behind the counter took mine first. Better luck next time, mate.....

…..Duan Wu Jie, (Dragon Boat Festival), but there are no Dragon Boats to be seen, even if there were they would be a ghostly shadow in the pervading smoke haze from the stubble burning. A light wind hasn't been enough to clear the whole of the eastern seaboard so it still hangs over Jiangsu province at least, like a winter fog, rather, more like the aftermath of a large Australian bushfire.....

…..I introduce the word “smog” to my Grade 4 classes. YoYo, a very bright new student & a good friend of Lisa, one of my favourites in that class, asks what it is in Chinese. I look it up after class. Surprise! It's “yanwu”, literally “smokefog”. No problems in translation there.....

…..seeing the sky gradually become darker until, by early afternoon it's like an English winter late afternoon, but hot & humid, feels odd. Perhaps there's been another mistake over the date of the Rapture, & the chosen are being called to heaven today. Any chosen ones in eastern China risk being left out as it's impossible to see further than the other side of the road. It looks like Victorian London but feels like tropical Africa. Maybe a bit like hell.....

…..my throat is still not 100% but getting better, the heat pads donated by Mike & George's Deep Heat are relieving the ache where I pulled a muscle through coughing. Jinghua, the manager of Gloria Jean's Coffee Shop is still keen for Friday's gig to go ahead so, the show must go on. It's rather disconcerting in some songs where I can feel my throat gumming up & am not sure that I can reach the notes. Still, the place is really busy, a lot of foreign teachers & this time some Chinese teachers turn up, & Jinghua, the manager, is really happy that the place is jumping. Everyone loves the two or three year old girls dancing in front of the speakers. I think Peter's enjoying the gigs too. Well done Peter, you'll be a hard act to replace when you move to Suzhou. No, not hard, impossible.....

…..we have finished by around 10pm so I decide to walk to Ronnie's & poke my head in the door before returning to the school, maybe sharing a taxi with someone from the school. On the way along Taizhou Lu I see a crowd of people around a couple of bikes. One person appears to be as tall as Patrick. That's unusual in China. Oh! It is Patrick. He & a young English teacher from another school left the Coffee bar & were on their way to Ronnie's. She asked to have a turn at riding Patrick's e-bike. Unfortunately, turning into Taizhou Lu she panicked when she saw a Chinese lady approaching from the north & hit her side on. The woman is sitting by her bike, not appearing to be seriously hurt but an ambulance is called. The young teacher is unable to support weight on one foot & is looking worried while continuously saying “Sorry, sorry”, to the other woman.....

…..I leave after the police, ambulance, head of the Yangzhou Traffic Incident unit, (who speaks reasonable English), & numerous rubbernecks have arrived. The story, in brief unfolded as follows, as I discover later. The injured lady is taken to hospital. Patrick's bike is impounded, until the incident is resolved. He takes the teacher to hospital, not far away on Taizhou Lu. They end up in the same room as the injured Chinese woman, who is friendly enough to Patrick but whose hackles rise when the English teacher is wheeled in. The latest is that no one is seriously injured but the woman is given two weeks off work. The English teacher is fined ¥270 for her fault in the accident & ordered to pay the woman two weeks wages in compensation. She's the manager of a Mah-Jong parlour. That's another ¥2,000. An expensive lesson but not to the point of bankruptcy & quick justice for the injured party. How long would all that have taken where you live? Oh, & Patrick can get his e-bike back on Tuesday.....

…..buying shoes here is a problem for me as they usually just look at my 48cm, (size 12 in the UK system), feet & wave me off with a good natured laugh. Shen Yue informed me ages ago of a shop close to where she lives that can supply large-size shoes. I ordered a pair of sandals. This week they call to tell me they have arrived. Charlene wants some help, or at least moral support, negotiating an X-ray at a dental clinic on the same side of town so we decide to go together. It should be straightforward.....

…..the couple who manage the shop are not there. There's a hatchet-faced woman who looks visibly upset to see us. I gently query the price, ¥280, not the ¥180 I was quoted. It's not really a problem if the sandals are good quality, as they appear to be. She's making hissing noises by now. Charlene tries to help. She mimes a telephone call with her hand & says, in English, (now there's provocation), “They called this week to tell him the shoes had arrived”. The woman waves her away, narrowly missing her nose & looking ready to kill her. “Laoban zai nali?”, (“Where is the boss?”), I ask. I'm not sure what she says in reply. She has the calculator by now, to show these stupid foreigners the price, as though I can't understand what she's just told me. I tell her there's no need. She virtually throws the calculator across the desk. I give up. I'll come back to see the boss another time. I remember a couple of epithets in Chinese, not exactly what I want but they'll do.....

…..in the afternoon Kevin asks about going for dinner. I may be able to kill two birds with one stone here. Can you help me.....? I tell him the story about the shoe shop. His apartment is close by. We meet there, the managers are back & I end up paying ¥240, exactly halfway between the original & the madwoman's price. The managers try to laugh it off, Kevin looks a little uncomfortable & I tell them their staff should treat customers with respect. The sandals are great, by the way & he leads us to a nearby restaurant where we have a great fish hotpot dinner. No, Kevin, it's OK, she hasn't darkened my opinion of the other 1.3 billion or so people of China. Even among the masses everyone is an individual.....

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Photos

Teachers in the news
Charlene - Yangzhou paper with the teachers on the front page

Mike and XiXi
Mike's adopted Chinese daughter from Changsha visits for a week

Daming Temple, Yangzhou
Red ribbons inscribed in memory of the departed

Daming Temple, Yangzhou
XiXi and George

Shao Kao, Yangzhou
Shao Kao means barbecue.

Shao Kao, Yangzhou
Eating outdoors, (in the carpark!) in summer

Dinner, 1912 District, Yangzhou
Another dinner with teachers and Peter

Dinner, 1912 District, Yangzhou
Another dinner with teachers and Peter

Busker, Yangzhou
This erhu busker is ways around the city

Craftsman, Yangzhou
intricate carving with basic tools