Too much to blog about

Our Apartment

It's been two days since we posted anything significant, so there is a lot to cover.

Banks (again)
Our landlord Nancy tels us that "Chinese are patient people." To see this concept in action, one need only take a trip to the local bank. You walk in, take a number, and then leave and come back in an hour or so, when your number is likely to be called. Or, you can sit around and take one of the newspapers off of the newspaper rack (yes, like in a library), and wait.

Though the deli counter set-up would seem to indicate otherwise, the banks are pretty efficient. The source of the hold-up, according to some of the locals, is that the Chinese have gone nuts about trading stocks, and like to do so at the bank despite the presence of online alternatives. Another issue is that without commercial paper in significant use on the consumer level, China remains a cash-driven society. But since the highest denomination the banks will give you is 100, most people end up walking out of the bank with little white paper bags full of 100 RMB notes.

We also discovered that the Chinese banks have special rules for foreigners in order to encourage a flow of money into the country, but not out. The banks will limit the amount of money that a Chinese person can convert to RMB, but will allow foreigns to change a significant multiple of that amount. On the flip side, however, the banks impose draconian limits on conversion from RMB to USD, which makes it difficult to ever take money out of the country. And, to do all of this you have to sit on line, bank book in hand. (Yes, they still have bank books)

Health
Our expat friends tell us that the Chinese are largely paranoid about their health. But they haven't yet figured out that spitting in public places spreads disease. So when they get sick, the Chinese go straight to the hospital, coughing and spitting from home to the nearest clinic.

Street Food
Chicken on a stick is delicious. So are these little patties you can get that are packed with a filling of your choice. (Cabbage and green onions is pretty good) It tends to be a lot better than the restaurant food, at least in Haidian, because the food is more fresh, and you can watch them prepare it. More importantly, you don't need to rely upon a poorly translated Chinese menu in trying to figure out what you want to eat. As much as I'd like to order something translated as "cellular phone cow head" from a menu at the local mall (no, I'm not kidding), I think I'd rather just point at what looks good and let them cook it right there in front of me.


A billion people know who he is, but you've never heard of him
A Canadian named Dashan (a.k.a. Mark Roswell) is the most famous foreigner in China. Seemingly every Chinese person knows who he is, and whenever our Canadian friends let on that they're Canadian to a Chinese person, the inevitable response is, "do you know Dashan?" His face is plastered on billboards, on advertisements at the grocery store, and on TV. And his Mandarin is impeccable, in an almost annoying manner. But he does a regular show about learning Chinese on CCTV9, so we're going to try to watch it as often as possible.

Shopping
The largest Ikea in the world is in Beijing. It's a true monstrosity of a building, located right on the Fourth Ring Road between the airport and the Olympic Stadium, so no visitor to the 2008 Olympics is likely to miss it when they arrive in Beijing. We went there to buy a few basic things for the apartment, and left feeling completely overwhelmed. But at least the soft-serve ice cream is only one yuan.

Grocery shopping is also overwhelming, but for different reasons. First, there's a ton of products we've never seen before, and some things that we just don't know what to do with. Second, meat does not come pre-packaged; instead, there's open refrigerator cases filled with ground beef and other cattle parts, and people pick out what they want by hand, and toss it into a plastic bag. Finally, the fish section contains things that we would prefer to think of as pets, particularly in the arena of turtles. It's a wonder that "Finding Nemo" wasn't released as a culinary instructional video in China.

But there's some nice places to shop. We made our way to Wal Mart yesterday, and picked up a few things for the apartment, like a drying rack for our clothes. Like most Chinese apartments, our house has a washing machine, but no dryer. We also lack an oven, which will make late-night brownie binges somewhat more difficult to undertake.

Our Apartment
Yes, it's hideously pink, but we're told that pink is "the marriage color." And it still smells a bit from having the workers around yesterday. But we registered with the police station on Tuesday, so we can live here legally now and not get deported. (My favorite part: the clerk laughing at my passport photo when she scanned it into the system) At one point during the registration process, a middle-aged cop sat down next to us in an intimidating fashion, and started speaking to our landlords in a very abrasive tone and looking at us suspiciously. But after all was said and done he said, in perfect English, "your hotel did not register you when you arrived, but that is not your fault. Thank you for coming in."

Pollution
The air is not too bad here. Today, for instance, there's a clear blue sky. A few days ago, however, it was gray and nasty, and you couldn't see more than a mile down the street. But they're working on it. Indeed, there's an entire advertising campaign going on in China right now around how China is ready for the Olympics, pollution included. (Despite the fact that there's a ton of construction going on in order to finish up on time) The ad ends with the tag line: "We're Ready!" I'm not sure that the advertising is accurate, but at the present pace they're sure to meet the deadlines.

Language
We're making headway. Yesterday I discovered an English-Chinese dictionary for my Blackberry that not only does full translations in Chinese characters and pinyin, but that will actually pronounce the words for you over the speaker on the phone. We've also just bought a pair of books that will teach us about writing Chinese characters and what they mean. We're trying to learn about ten characters a day, but it's a bit tough when you consider that you need to learn what the character is, how to write it, what it means in English, and how to pronounce it in Chinese. Sigh...

Dirt
It's everywhere. China is on the eastern edge of the Gobi, so dirt and sand tends to get into everything. We've been told that with enough time our white clothes will never look white again, no matter how much bleach we use. I guess that's why everyone in this town has an ayi. (read: maid)