Chinese hospitality

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Hi! Well, it seems like I'm going to come back from China earlier. I've received an email telling me that I'm really gonna be kicked out of my room from August 31th... So I have to be in Paris before that to move, and I have to start searching for another place to live. I just changed my flight to August 18th, so I'm going back in a week already!

The past week has been great! Heidi is showing me a lot about the real Chinese live.

A few days ago her father was invited to dine in a restaurant with some friends and they also took me. When we got there, the other people were already sitting on the (round) table. There were three other families; one with a small boy, one with a small girl (that was quite sharp and even spoke some english) and one with a girl and her boyfriend. When we arrived and sat at the table, they served the dishes; a lot of different dishes were put in the middle of the table on a turning glass plate. We could all take whatever we liked, there were some local specialities like crab, shrimps, squids and snails but also peking duck. It was all really good. There's a habbit with Chinese dinners that they say cheers to each other all the time! So every 5 minutes someone said cheers to someone. Heidi told me afterwards that they say some flattering things about each other when they do this. Some people also cheered with me to tell me welcome.

Next morning we climed a hill for some morning exercise. Heidi used to do this a lot with her father, and while Chinese people normally do this around 5 or 6 in the morning, we went around 10 😉 On the top of the hill there was a tempel, where Heidi burnt some incense. After we got down again we had some local delicacies for breakfast; noodle-soup and buns with meet in it, and afterwards a seaweed-drink (like a jelly). When we got home I got the email that I will have to move and I spent the rest of the day sending emails and calling...

Next day, Heidi's friend, Jessy, and her father set up a nice tour for me! Their family is friends with Heidi's family, and the father wanted Jessy to talk with a foreigner so they took us out. Jessy told me that I was the first foreigner she talked to. She was very shy at first, but in the end she started to talk a lot. And her english is quite good. She's a very cute girl and she told me a lot about local things; plants, habits etc.
First I went with Heidi to the city where we walked around through a street with antiques and some nice ancient buildings. We met there with Jessy and walked around a bit untill her father came to pick us up with the car. He drove us far into the countryside over some humpy streets, with some really nice ideallic views. Still like the countryside that I saw at Heidi's grandparents; everywhere were houses and all pieces of land were used to build crops, even on the hills! After a while we stopped at the place where Jessy's father grows bamboo. Three ladies here were making vans and hats of bamboo, and they showed us how they do it. It's amazing how they do everything by hand here in China, and they're so incredibly fast! And still it looks perfect; as if it's made by machines. I actually tried to do it myself, but I think I scrued up with every attempt I made haha. Heidi told me that they get 3 RMB on the local market for a van, about 30 cents...
After a while we went to our next destination. We went back into the car and Jessy's father drove us to a huge dam. They told me that it was all build by hands, with shovels to make the earth stick together. It looked a bit like the dikes we have in Holland. If the dam would break, all the houses behind it would flood, it would be a huge disaster. A couple of years ago, there was a hole in the dam, and that caused a lot of damage.
Then we drove further to a local family that had made dinner for us! Chinese hospitality is really amazing. Again there was a huge meal with lots of dishes likes shrimps, ricecake (local delicacy; sticky ricebuns with some vegetables, very heavy), and crab. I started to learn how to eat the crab (Chinese way); you have to bite the shelf to be able to eat the inside. It took me about half an hour, and I stinged myself a couple of times in my fingers and tongue haha. But I'm getting a bit faster with it now.

The next day we spend again with Jessy. Her father came to pick us up in the morning. First we had to pick up Jessy from her caligraphy classes. We drove again to a place somewhere in the countryside, where Jessy was practising under supervision of her 78-years old teacher. He had done caligraphy for 70 years, so he was a real pro! It's a real art on itself, you have to keep your arm really steady to make good lines. Jessy also let me try, but again not much of a succes...
Then we drove to Heidi's grandparents. Heidi's uncle and cousin also came, and another cousin (...)with her parents. ... is like a sister to Heidi, they seemed really happy to see each other. ... studies in Sweden and had to go back there in two days, so they had to catch up a lot. The girl also took a present for me, even before I really met her she gave me some sunglasses! Produced in this town; it's famous for the production of glasses. Heidi's grandparents prepared a lunch again. I feel like I'm eating all day here, and according to Chinese norms you have to eat a lot to show that you like it... After lunch we went for a (digesting) walk through the countryside; very nice! But it started to rain and storm quite heavily so we went back. We waited at Heidi's uncle's house (where we had some watermelon) for their other aunt and uncle to take us to the cinema. They drove us to another part of Taizhou, which is actually a quite long drive through the countryside.
There we saw the new house that they just bought, which looks really nice. It's really apparent how everybody here just moved or is moving; Heidi's parents moved two years ago, her teacher one year ago, Jessy also one year ago and her aunt and uncle were moving now. They all showed their houses and they all look really nice. It's all new houses that are build for them, decorated according to feng shui standards, very nice and luxurious and everybody has a huge flatscreen. Taizhou is one of the most prosperious parts of China, and I guess this is a result of the huge economic growth. Everywhere around here they are building some new blocks of flats with nice appartments. Offcourse people don't have gardens, because there is simply no space; all soil is used for agriculture. In the blocks of houses there are some nice waters and trees though. I think in the rest of China the houses are in general not as luxurious as here. Maybe more like the house of Heidi's grandparents. Although I want to point out that they are not poor, they are just used to this kind of livestyle.
Well, anyway. After having seen their house we went to the cinema. We didn't have much choice, so we went to see J.I.Joe; a science-fiction movie synchronised in Chinese. We were the only people in the room! Even though I didn't understand a word, the movie was quite easy to follow. After the movie we took the bus back to the other part of Taizhou again to have dinner at Jessy's house. We had some local delicacies again, and this time I also tried some pig stomach, pig liver and snake! The pig stomach and liver are not really my thing, but the snake was not bad. Although I have to say that it frightened me a little...

Yesterday we had to stay inside all day because of the typhoon. You might have seen something about it on the news; in Taiwan it was quite serious... But here it didn't seem like too much of a big deal; even the plants were still standing outside on the balcony. Past week it had already been raining and storming all the time. Yesterday was actually not much different, just a bit harder wind and rain...

So now I only have one week left in China. Tomorrow I'm taking the train to Yangshuo, stay there for a few days, and then I'll fly back home...

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Photos

Taizhou
View of the city from the top of the hill

Chinese countryside
A walk through the countryside

Bamboo workplace
The woman and Jessy making vans from bamboo

Comments

[Astrid]

het echte china
Hey Naat, wat leuk dat je bij Heide thuis zo lang mag blijven. Zo zie je iets van het echte chinese leven en niet alleen de toeristische hotspots! Maar op al je foto's lijkt het eerder alsof je bent afgevallen, dan dat je aankomt van al dat eten, ha ha. Heel veel plezier nog even met je laatste weekje en ik hoop dat er dan terug in Parijs een oplossing komt. Dikke knuffel