Back in China

As some of you know I didn't get the chance to go home between when I left in early January and the end of July. What most of you don't know is that I ended up returning to the states rather last minute for another visit in late August!

Well I'm back in China now. Here is a bullet point recap of my first day back and what I noticed:

• While it was hot in Chicago it's nothing compared to the heat and humidity I felt from the second I left the plane in Shanghai, only to get worse when I landed in Shenzhen later that evening!
• I returned home to find a nice cockroach on my kitchen floor. I'd say he was the size of a small rat! Dead thankfully! (probably from the heat)
• Then I turned on the water in my sink and a nice brown liquid came out!
• Oh yeah and my toilet wouldn't flush.
• And to top it off I grabbed a cab to find some food and the cabbie had the windows rolled up and was smoking a cigarette!

Welcome Home! Or as we say here "TIC" (This Is China)

Olympic Photos

Well the Olympics were phenomenal to say the least! There is not enough room for me to showcase my photos here but if you go to the link below you will see a pretty good representation of what I took. Awesome!

http://picasaweb.google.com/nolanmitchell14/Beijjing2008Olympics


Nolan

Olympic Tickets!!!

Well I had said I was not going to be heading to the Olympics for a variety of reasons. However once I started to watch and saw all the empty seat I got to thinking...maybe a chance?

Well it turns out an old high school buddy was there on his trip of a lifetime. Basically he was handling some ticket sales. So I got in touch with him and two days later I was headed to Beijing to pick up some tickets! Now I've taken way more photos than I can post here and am way behind in work so you will have to hold a bit for the full story including what events I saw.

What I will tell you is that it was an amazing experience! Everything from the venues to the volunteers (rumored to be over 1 million!!!) to all the people around the world that I meet it was super cool.

Here is a photo from the afternoon of my first day in front of the Bird's Nest. It's so large no matter where you go it's tough to get the perfect photo!


Below is a photo of the Water Cube. This has been given such wonderful reports by the athletes and everyone else who has seen it and been in it. I wasn't able to get in but it's super cool from the outside!

Olympic Spirit - Overdone???

Who all thinks this guy went a bit too far????

The rings/logo on his forehead is one but he also has the Fuwa characters all around his neck! I think he needed a bit of attention!

Olympic Spirit Everywhere!

I must say we are a few days into the Olympics now and the fevered pitch here in China has not slowed down one bit! Even down in Shenzhen here (3 1/2 hours by plane from Beijing) the excitement is literally everywhere! If the games are going on it's shown on no less than 10 stations (only one of which maybe is in English) and the focus is on the Chinese teams for sure. Plus TV's are set up outside of many restaurants and people just stop by to watch for a few on their way.

It's very exciting to say the least. Thankfully the US men's basketball team beat China or honestly I would never have heard the end of it!

Cheers to Michael Phelps as well!

8/8/08

For those of you back in the US, chances are right now many of you are watching the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics. China is thrilled about this opportunity to show the world how far they have come! The number 8 in Chinese is considered lucky. So it's no coincidence that the Olympics start on 8/8/08 at 8:00PM!!! Enjoy

Chinese TV...the Onion

Since I know many of you enjoy reading The Onion I thought I would include this article that recently appeared. You will probably have to click on the image to enlarge it. Enjoy!

Sweet Home...China

For those of you wondering I have made it home to China. Got in late last night (Tuesday the 5th). The visit to the US was all in all too quick with too much to do in a short time. Oh well, I will have to plan better next time.

For all those I got to see it was great seeing you! For those I didn't, maybe next time.

Hope everyone is ready for a spectacular Olympic celebration in a few days! To answer questions, no I am not attending any events due to not being able to get tickets and it's a good 3 1/2 hour flight from where I am.

take care

The countdown continues...

Just two days until I board the flight to come home for a visit! I'm happy to report that I received my upgrade to business class for the 14 1/2 hour Shanghai to Chicago flight! That is welcome news to me and my back (which feels much better!).

Everyone asks what I'm looking forward to when I get home? In no particular order: my condo/bed, catching up with family/friends, consistent food, some of my favorite restaurants, a lack of humidity for sure and a Miller Lite! There is no food that I HAVE to have. I feel blessed with what I have had here. That being said good Mexican food is tough to find here so that is on the agenda and won't be tough because there are plenty of them near me.

Looking forward to seeing some of you this week! For those that I don't/can't see feel free to give me a call (312.523.8359) so we can catch up. I arrive Tuesday night in the US!

Food and language

Ok so you have all heard me complain at one time or another about the food here right? It's not terrible but it's not the consistent food we are used to in the US. That is what is tough is you maybe expect something to be good and then it's just different.

Before I go further let me give you a language lesson. In Chinese the letters ZH together make a sound like a "J" in the US.

Those of you in Chicago and other big cities are familiar with a high end grocery store called Trader Joe's right? They make some great stuff. Well low and behold we have one too...

It's right down the street from me. My very own Trader Zhou's! Big difference though is that this store only sells wine! Oh well they tried.

Triathlon training

Right about now a few of you back home are training for various triathlon races around the country and in all honesty making me a bit jealous! Then again not getting up for 5AM workouts isn't the worst thing in the world!

As I've said before there is not much triathlon here in China. They do have some phenomenal races in Asia though - Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, etc. All are supposed to be super race. Problem is, how do I train?

All training is tough because of the pollution and terrible air quality. More than a couple days of outdoor training in a row and I end up with a sore throat. I'm good with a swimming pool. While it's not open water training it will work.

Then comes the bike. Here is a photo of my bike back in the US. Nothing great but it gets the job done...

I do have a bike here that I purchased from a friend. Cost me 100RMB or about $13 US. More about this bike in a minute. This past week when I was in Hong Kong I decided to look around and try to find a road bike. They do have some stores so I went to one that seemed like it had a good selection. In reality they had about 10 to choose from. Probably middle to high end with some costing as much as $6,000 US for the bike alone not to mention everything else!

So I decided to think about my plans some more and determine what I might want. So for now my mode of transportation around town is my 100RMB bike. It's yellow, has a girls frame to it, is rusty, isn't my size at all, etc... I guess this is my sacrifice for living here for now!
Good luck to those of you doing races coming up! Keep me posted as to how they go!

Public Transportation

Taking the bus in China is a very common and cheap mode of transportation. Near me they are 2RMB a ride (7RMB = $1.ooUS). So lots of people use them all the time. I've been on them before where it is just packed like sardines and MORE people get on.

In Shenzhen the bus drivers have been reprimanded of late by the government for poor driving habits. They are ridiculously fast, pass anything they can (including other buses on the same route), cut into traffic, and sometimes don't stop at stop lights if they know there are no cameras in the vicinity. Why do they drive like this?

The answer is simple I have found. They are paid by the number of riders they have. So it's in their best interest to pick up as many as possible (even if they don't fit in the bus easily). So if they see another bus ahead of them getting ready to pick up a bunch of people they step on the gas to get their first!

Kind of makes the CTA problems seem small huh?

Original Copy

I think I have mentioned the "Original Copy" business before right? It is essentially the knock off business. Everything from watches, to clothes, jewelry, purses, DVD's, etc. While I know some people are highly against this activity I will say that if it were eliminated it would devastate this economy. So many jobs and directly and indirectly affected by this business.

However of late there has been a new practice that I do not condone at all. As we all know the price of oil is up significantly from this time a year ago. That means all you with cars are paying much more for a gallon or litre of gas.

Here in China the gasoline and diesel is regulated by the government. If the gov't doesn't want to buy at a high price they simply don't buy anything. Then you see mile long backlogs of cars and trucks waiting to buy gas.

This has lead to the new practice of "knock off" gas! Yes they are actually filling people's tanks with a mixture of gas and water! It totally messes up the car, makes it stop working completely and is costly to fix!

So next time you complain about the price of gas just hope that you are getting gas and not a mixture of 50/50 gas/water!

Love at first sight!

You never know where you will find love now do you? I guess when you least expect it is when things happen huh?

Well this is just love at first sight!!!


I did not say who fell in love though...

Insurance

Today was another day of firsts for me. Over the last 6 weeks or so I have had on again, off again lower back pain. It got real bad the other night and then I started to notice numbness in my foot. So despite not wanting to ever visit a hospital in China, my GM here pretty much forced me. She took me to a nice hospital that was relatively modern. However the nurses outfits were funny. Straight out of the 1950's with the white caps and all!

Long story short I got a CT scan and met with a doctor who spoke no English. My GM is a great translator but when it comes to medical that's a whole different ball game. So I could see the problem on the scan but I never did get the official and correct diagnosis.

He did some sort of Chinese healing by trying to realign me and then gave me some prescriptions. (FYI I do have a doctor visit scheduled the day after I get home and I get to bring my CT scan film with me!)

Of course my insurance isn't accepted here so you pay for everything at the time of treatment (before treatment actually). So now you see my two receipts for the medical visit. I thought it was hard enough to submit reimbursement claims when they were in English. This is going to be ridiculous!!

This one is for the treatment and CT scan (remember you can click on the image for a close up)...

This one is for the prescriptions...

4th of July

From the stories I have received it sounds like everyone had a good 4th of July celebration. Well me too, just a bit different. On Friday I agreed to cook a traditional American meal for my co-workers. This was to consist of cheeseburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, chips and watermelon. Here the problems begin...

I really wanted to grill cheeseburgers. But I couldn't find any frozen patties and the fresh stuff at Wal-Mart just didn't look that appealing. So I made a switch on the fly to chicken breasts, no big deal.

On Friday AM we went back to Wal-Mart to buy a charcoal grill. Total hunk of junk! In fact it was missing all the hardware so we had to go back and exchange. Meanwhile everyone is getting hungry! When we lit the charcoal didn't stay lit for long. So we literally started some of the charcoal by putting it on the stovetop! It worked too. The briquettes finally turn ashen and seem hot enough so the chicken goes on. Then it pretty much comes to a stop. The fire died in the middle of cooking. I literally had to take the chicken and cook them in a pan inside to finish. That sucked!

Surprisingly my team loved it. They actually ate everything I bought and barely left any for me. If it hadn't been for someone saving me a plate they would have eaten mine too. As you look closely you see chopsticks. Not typical BBQ right? Well I didn't realize we have no forks. So we had to eat the potato salad with the chopsticks. And since I was late there were no buns left for my sandwich so I had to cut my chicken using the 1 knife and chopsticks. Too funny!
All in all they want me to cook more often which is cool. Even the husban of our cook would like me to cook more!

On Friday night my one American friend organized a group of us to get together at an American restaurant/bar. She supplied the decorations of red, white and blue and we got a bunch of Europeans to support us for the night! All in all a good time. (The thumbs up was done as a salute to a former expat if you were wondering.)

Cotton Candy? Peanuts?

So are you a cotton candy fan? I thought this was pretty cool. The guy has a machine making cotton candy on the back of his bike! He's selling right near a park and despite nobody buying at this point he was keeping busy.

Also if you look to the right you see two guys standing with their shirts pulled up. Well this is common because of the humidity. You always see guys walking around this way. The women are almost always using an umbrella regardless of the weather. They use them in the rain and in the sun. It's considered not good if you have color in your skin. That would mean you are a worker working outdoors which is equated with a lower social status. I guess right now based on the sun I got this weekend I fall into that lower status!



Your other option is some dry roasted peanuts on this cart. The owner is actually weighing them out on a small portable scale here...

Would I try these? Yes. There are plenty of other street foods that I would highly avoid - fruit being one (because of the water) and meat (because you have NO clue what it is, how many flies have been on it, how many people have touched it, etc). But still the street vendors are worth checking out!

Chinese Wedding Reception

I went to my first Chinese wedding reception the other weekend. They had actually gotten married in their hometown (a 20 hour bus ride away) the week before. Now that they were back they had a celebration for friends/co-workers here. In some ways it was very different but in many it was similar.

For example if you look at this photo you will see one of the tables set up. At first glance it is normal - plates, napkins, chopsticks, etc. But on closer review you see 3-4 packs of cigarettes! Yep they give out cig's for everyone. This is made even more strange given that the bride is adamantly against smoking!



This next photo just shows the plethora of small shot glasses they had. Thankfully they were small by the way. In this goes a drink called Baijou. Sometimes called "white wine" but really it is a rice wine and it is very potent. Anywhere between 35-70 proof! Often tastes like kerosene! I was told that if the bride and groom didn't go home drunk then the guests did not do their job properly. Being the only foreigner at the party and also a boss to many of them meant that the goal of this night was to get 3 people drunk - bride, groom and ME! Everyone wanted to do shots with me! And they kept telling me it is good luck to do them in 2's. So 2 shots with many of them I had to do. Hopefully I can bring some of this fire water back to the US and share with some of you whom I know will love it!


This photo is of the bride and groom. While she is very dressed up in a traditional Chinese dress he wasn't really, just a short sleeved shirt and slacks. All the guests were very casual. Some wearing ball caps and t-shirts.
As you see below all I wore was a black shirt and shorts. And you can also see that I have spilled on my shirt...thanks to the shots! It was a great night of tradition and learning for me. After the official party was over it moved to a local hotel for more drinking. I made it there but after all the drinks and the fact that everyone was speaking Chinese I had to head home!

Beer in Singapore

I guess in many respects I have been lucky to be away right now, what with the price of gasoline going up, up, up back home! So I saw this sign at a restaurant/bar in Singapore and thought I would suggest it to the rest of you.

Two Weeks!

Well today officially marks the two week countdown before my first trip home! I get back on the 22nd and can't wait! I'm looking forward to my condo/bed, food, catching up with family/friends and doing some shopping for necessities!

I have lots of posts to add in the coming days as I'm way behind!

Hospital?

I have spent too much time in hospitals in years past. So needless to say I really have no interest in visiting one here in China. This photo will give you a glimpse at what a hospital looks like...from the outside. First notice the metal gate at the front. I think they are trying to keep out the sick people! Secondly it doesn't look to clean to me...but not much does.

Lastly it's called the Hangzhou Stomatological Hospital. Now don't get that confused for a Stomach hospital because it is spelled similarly and looks like what it might be. Rather this is a hospital for mouth problems according to one of my colleagues.

Again, I will pass...

Typhoon - Fengshen

Well yesterday was another day of firsts for me. I was called by two colleagues early morning and told not to make the commute to work because Typhoon Fengshen was going to be hitting. Mom - no worries all we got was a lot of rain and some wind. However the amount of rain is stunning. While the worst is behind us they say, we are still getting heavy rain today. I guess it is a good thing in that the rain has cooled the city off some as it had been in the upper 90's for the previous days...

Beijing Olympics - Article

I thought you all would enjoy this article about Beijing. It will give you a good idea of the size of the city, the architecture, food, etc not to mention the wonderful pollution.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=3453777&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab6pos1

Carnival game anyone????

We all remember the game that is at carnivals or sometimes in the front of a grocery store? You put your money in, then try and operate a machine to grab the best toy in the box and hopefully it doesn't fall when it comes up...and therefore leaves you with nothing right?

Well check out this Chinese version. Called Lucky Baby! I must admit that this is not my photo but taken from a friend who saw this. Inside is a variety of cigarettes from cheap local brands to expensive local and import brands!

What do I eat on a regular basis?

I have been asked in numerous e-mails to try and explain what I eat on a regular basis. When I'm not on the road I try my best to eat at home. Within a 5 minute walk I have a full grocery store. However many things in there are really for locals. For example this photo of a variety of meats included dried duck! Thanks but no thanks!! So in this store I find a lot of staples like: rice, juice, milk (another story for another time there), soda, Oreo's, Pringles, great fresh vegetables, etc.


Then I also have 2-3 western stores that are like small convenience stores that carry a variety of western foods. This includes many items that are way over priced but at the same time it's the only way to get them. This is stuff like canned Tuna, Mac & Cheese, potato chips, Oscar Meyer Bologna and the occasional Turkey!

So I do eat way more Bologna and cheese sandwiches than I've eaten since I was a little kid! But I have also been experimenting with some Chinese style cooking. Pork is excellent here and used often because it is relatively inexpensive. Rarely do the Chinese eat beef so when I cook that is usually what I try to make.

Below is beef (at least I hope it is) that was bought at Wal-Mart with snap peas, onions, peanuts and a spicy Chinese seasoning. All on top of a bed of rice with some extra hot peppers on top! By the way this isn't Uncle Ben's 10 minute rice! This rice has to be cleaned at least 2 times before being cooked in rice cooker for about 30 minutes or so. I must say I love this dish!

Flooding!

It seems like flooding is all over the world these days. I've seen disasters in Iowa and Wisconsin, including the Wisconsin Dells! Well my current "hometown" of Shenzhen is not immune either. Today we have been inundated with torrential rain all day! These photos are taken in the Bao'an area of Shenzhen near the airport.

There are notices up in my apartment complex that we have officially begun Typhoon season and to make sure windows are closed, etc when you leave. I guess I should get used to this!

I've also just looked out my window at the South China Sea and you can literally see a line in the water where it goes from brown to blue. I'm not sure if this guy thinks he can actually control/move the bus in these conditions!
If this were me I would be outside of the bus even if that meant in the flood as I wouldn't want to be trapped in the bus if the water started rising fast!

Hangzhou/Ling Yin Temple

I stayed in Hangzhou basically right on Westlake which is a dynamic lake with lots of lotus flowers growing around it, scenic walkways, boat rides, etc. Very crowded during the day but super peaceful in the early morning hours. Here is a view of the lake, obviously a very overcast day but still...
I was sitting on one of the many bridges connecting different areas of the lake...
If you open this up and look a bit more you can literally see it raining. It was thankfully a light rain as we had lots more walking to do.
Here is the area called Ling Yin Temple. According to history this is a limestone mountain that came from India and is a holy mountain. There are hundreds of Buddha's carved into the limestone through the park...
In addition the actual temple is so large that it can't fit in any pictures. This is from one of the rooms that had 4 enormous guards like you see in this photo. Each were no less than 25' tall!

This shows just a bit of the temple. It was on multiple levels and probably comprised about 5 buildings of this size, each seemingly more amazing than the last...
This was the view from the top where you can see the roof of one of the temples...
All over we saw very interesting trees and their root growth. Sometimes growing in circles, sometimes seemingly growing out of rocks, etc...
This is in the city of Hangzhou we went to a restaurant in a very non tourist part of town. It had lots of the cool local attractions, good food, etc.

Qiandao Lake

This past weekend I stayed in Hangzhou which is soutwest of Shanghai by a few hours. It's a gorgeous and scenic place and was voted the top tourist city in China in 2007. Here are some photos from a day trip to Qiandao Lake. Qiandao (pronounced "chindauw") means lake of 1,000 islands.

National Geographic

If anyone is looking for a lot of insight into China today check out the May 2008 edition of National Geographic. It has a whole issue dedicated to China. Plus a map inside that is in English - which for me is a godsend as I’ve not found a good one here that I can read!

Mc Donald's

With all my talk about the food here, some good, some bad I do have McDonald's and KFC around. I eat way too much McDonald's here. When I get back to Chicago I'm guessing it will be a long time before I eat at the Golden Arches again...

However even the architecture on a McDonald's can be very different here as seen in Hangzhou.

Hot Pot

Hot Pot is a really cool meal, especially with a bunch of people. You see the pot here in the photo. It has two sides to it - one with very spicy flavor and the other with a non-spicy flavor.

You order your food - meats, seafood, vegetables, etc and then put them in the hot pot in the middle of the table until it is cooked. Grab it out and enjoy!

Eat as much or as little as you want because the cooking takes just minutes.

The restaurant I was at had all sorts of disgusting items to put in. These included - intestines (of what I do not know), stomach (don't know), chicken feet and my favorite...Pigs Brain. I actually saw two ladies eating that and nearly got sick!

Toilet

A few of you have asked about the toilets here. Well some are nice...relatively speaking. Some are our typical western style toilet including my apartment, office and more western restaurants or bars.

However much of China still uses the type of toilet you see at the right...a porcelain hole. These bathrooms stink more than you could imagine and just simply are not clean.

The one you see at the right though is in fact a luxurious one! That's because it actually has toilet paper and a bucket of water to "flush" the toilet with! Literally most bathrooms do not come with the toilet paper included so people carry their own.

Hopefully this image gives you a good idea, just be thankful there is no way for me to transmit the smell for you to check out!

Drunken Shrimp

One great thing in China is eating fresh seafood, fish and vegetables all the time. However this bit of shrimp was a new experience for me. First off we were delivered 3 dishes. One was essentially fresh green beans, the other was liver (from what I do not know). The last was this glass dish with a red looking sauce...

When I took off the lid I found that the dish was filled with shrimp. What shocked me was that the shrimp were still totally alive! Yes I said ALIVE!!!
The sauce was a mix of red wine and vinegar. The dish translated was called "Drunken Shrimp" because after 10 minutes or so the shrimp die from drinking the wine. However they are never cooked as the dish is actually relatively cold. I've not been one to eat live anything and so the idea didn't sit well with my stomach. But I grabbed a small one and gave it a try...
It's a little challenging in that you have to peel the shrimp in your mouth while thinking about it still being alive even though it is dead.
All in all it wasn't terrible. My colleague on the other hand loves them and kept grabbing big shrimps as you can see here.
I found out later that the factory person we were guests of pretty much eats anything. In fact he was asking my colleague if she had tried rat? Don't think I will go that far!