Guanxi

Recording

Once again I have been involved with teaching English to junior high school students.  But this time I did not stand in front of the room and give a lecture.  Remember when I told the story about my “Guanxi” experience when I first arrived in Beibei?  Well because of that little adventure, I was given the opportunity to do some voice recording.  Students at a junior high school in the Beibei will be learning English in their classrooms to Diana’s (another English teacher from CSBSJU) voice and my voice.  The recording took about five hours total and we were able to record forty lessons in total (five tapes worth).

When we arrived at the studio on a Saturday and we pretty much immediately got to work.  I grabbed a cup of hot green tea to keep my mouth from drying out and then sat down in the recording room right in front of a microphone.  Reading in front of the microphone was very easy; I just had to speak slowly, clearly, and with emotion (try to make it sound more natural).  I did make a few mistakes every once and a while but overall I did a pretty good job I think.  At the end of the first day of recording we had finished twenty five of the lessons.  The next day we finished up the recording and experienced nothing new. 

When we finished the recording, I was finally able to listen to my voice; I don’t think anybody likes the sound of their own voice.  My voice sounds completely different when I am listening to it than when I am speaking.  But if the teachers at the junior high school thought that the sound of my voice was good enough that means my voice must be just fine.  Overall I had a very fun time and I was told that I might have the opportunity to do some more recording in future.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed.         

The Toilets in China are Different

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid, with the largest and most fundamental levels of needs at the bottom, and the need for self-actualization at the top.  You cannot not reach the higher levels of the pyramid without fulfilling the lower ones first.  The part of the pyramid that I am stressing here is the physiological part; more specifically excretion. 

In America we have public toilets everywhere so you don’t have to stress out or worry about what to do when nature calls.  Every public restroom will have privacy, have toilet paper and have a sink to wash your hands.  I don’t mean to put the American public restroom system on a pedestal; I have experienced my fair share of dirty, stinky and scary public restrooms in America.  But of all of the dirty, stinky, and scary public restrooms I have experienced in America, none have prepared me for public restrooms in China.

In China the idea of a toilet is completely different.  You don’t sit down and relax while you do your duty, you have to squat over a porcelain hole in the floor (the dreaded squatting toilet).  I don’t know about you but I find it very difficult to relax in that squatting position even if I am using facilities that have burning incents, calming tradition Chinese music playing in the background, and beautifully decorated stalls (my hips and knees are just not used to it).  Even becoming comfortable with using a squatter in a nice environment like the one that I just described, is difficult.  I used to have nightmares about using squatting toilets (not really, but I definitely avoided them like the plague) and that didn’t change until I brought myself to the brink of disaster.  Sometimes you eat something that your body just doesn’t agree with and your body will spring into action (out of the blue) and give you the five minute countdown to find a toilet or else……  I could be ten or fifteen (or longer) minutes away from home (my beloved western style toilet) and refuse myself to use a nearby squatting toilet and hike all the way back to my apartment (I would not suggest doing so).  Like I said, my fear of using a squatter took me to the brink of disaster before I finally gave it a try. 

Now even though you may have become comfortable with using squatting toilets doesn’t mean that you have gotten comfortable with public restrooms.  It is very important to remember which public restrooms are nice and which ones look like and smell like a sewage tank.  You don’t want to be forced to use a public restroom that smells like ammonia so bad that it burns your nostrils and makes you eyes water or one that doesn’t have flushing toilets.  Just the environment of a public restroom can give you nightmares that continue to scare you away from ever using squatters.  When learning to become accustomed to squatters, it is wise to purposely go to places that have very well kept restrooms (like at a nice café or restaurant). 

After becoming accustomed to using squatting toilets I have come to understand the reason of their design (I have allowed myself to rise to a higher region of Maslow’s pyramid!).  When you use a squatting toilet, you are not touching anything (except for your shoes on the ground) so it is cleaner.  Can you imagine using western style toilets in an over populated country like China (kind of gross if you ask me)?  Anyway, when you visit China, the sooner you can get over your fear of using a squatting toilet, the sooner you can start enjoying yourself by allowing yourself to rise past the bottom region of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.  Just have patience and an open mind and everything will be more enjoyable.        

There is Not a Whole Lot to See in Shanghai

When it comes to seeing Chinese culture in Shanghai, there isn’t really that much to see.  Shanghai is more of a modern city and there are no famous city walls or palaces to see.  When you come to visit Shanghai you come to see its modern marvels and historical sites that mostly date back to the 1900s.  Jess and I were able to see all that we wanted to see in the city in just two days.

On day one of sight-seeing in Shanghai we first went to see the Jade Buddha temple.  It is a temple in the downtown area of Shanghai that has a beautifully carved, jade Buddha statue.  We were allowed to take photos of the temples but not of the jade statue.  The temple’s religious ceremonies and tourist activities are organized by the many Buddhist monks that live in the monastery.  It was very neat to see that this temple was still in use.

After leaving the temple we took the subway to one of the city centers along Nanjing Rd to experience all of the shopping malls.  It reminded me of pictures that I have seen of New York City with all of the foreigners, western restaurants and shops, skyscrapers and big screen TVs.  After that we walked down the road until we got to Shanghai’s famous waterfront.  On one side of the river there is the Bund, which contains old skyscrapers from the early 1900s and on the other side there is the Pudong Skyline.  The Pudong Skyline has Shanghai’s modern skyscrapers, some of which rank among the tallest in the world. 

Lastly we went to another famous area in Shanghai called the Old city which contains the Yuyuan Garden and a Ming dynasty style bazaar.  The garden was a beautiful example of on old traditional Chinese garden with many coy ponds, and great pieces of Chinese architecture.  The bazaar was also a lot of fun.  There were many different types of food that you could buy and eat off of a stick and there were countless shops to buy souvenirs from.  We really enjoyed Old Town because it had character and a festive atmosphere.

On day two of site-seeing we walked around in the French Concession and were able to see the building where the first Communist Youth League was started.  Other than shopping malls, there wasn’t too much to the French Concession (at least of what we were able to see) so we didn’t stay there too long.  We next went to a major shopping mall back on Nanjing Rd to do some bargain shopping for fake goods and were able to get Jess some souvenirs for her family members.  

Then after that we got back on the subway to go to a station that was near an old Spanish church in the old part of the city.  Finding this place was a bit of a task because we kept getting lost and its location was in the middle of where the local lived.  Eventually we found it and went inside.  It kind of reminded me of home because I had not been inside a church in being at home in Wisconsin.  It was a little tough getting back to a subway station to get back to Reid and June’s apartment, but we still made it back in time for dinner.  The next day we said our goodbyes and then took a bullet train to Beijing.   

Over all Shanghai was good to see so I could better experience China’s skewed money distribution, but other than that, there wasn’t too much to see.  And it was good to get to know Reid and June.  

Arriving in Shanghai

Shanghai is one of China’s most populated and developed cities.  Historically Shanghai has been one of the major port cities for foreigners to visit and do business.  Even today Shanghai is still the most favorable port for international business interests.  Also many travelers from all over the world come to Shanghai to see its famous skyline and witness how western culture has influenced it. 

Jess and I arrived at the Shanghai Hong Qiao Airport at midnight.  Since it was too late to use the subways, we had to take a taxi to our hostel (The Rock and Wood International Youth Hostel).  Immediately after exiting the airport a man came up to me telling me he was a taxi driver and wanted to know where I was going.  After telling him where I wanted to go he very quickly told me his price was two hundred Yuan.  I thought this was strange so I walked away from him and then he lowered his price to one hundred and fifty Yuan.  I still thought that his price was too high so we waited in the taxi line to try a different taxi.  I ended up only paying seventy Yuan for the taxi ride to the hostel.  I later learned that unlicensed taxi drivers try to take advantage of tourists at the airports.  After we paid for our room and dropped our bags off, we went out to see if there were any restaurants open at two in the morning so we could get something to eat.  After finding a restaurant and we ate some Kung Pao Chicken and then went back to our hostel to get some sleep. 

The next morning we were able to have a very nice American style breakfast and then set out to the subway station to head over to Reid and June’s apartment.  This was Jess’s first experience with subway systems.  We arrived at their apartment in the early afternoon and were welcomed by their Ai Yi (maid).  Then we waited for Reid and June to arrive home from work by going to a Carrefour Supermarket to walk around in.  That night we ate a delicious dinner that their Ai Yi had prepared for us, drank some wine and talked about China. 

We went to bed pretty early that evening because we were going to wake up early the next morning to do some sight-seeing.    

Monkey Island

The most memorable day trip that we took during our vacation in Sanya was our visit to Monkey Island.  Monkey Island is quite literally an island full of monkeys that live in a nature reserve that is open to the public.  This story is another example that sometimes nothing seems to go to plan in China. 

We left our hostel (Peter, Jess, and I) after lunch to walk to a bus station so we could catch a ride up to Ling Xue so we could go to Monkey Island.  It took us about an hour and a half to find the station because we kept getting lost.  When we got there the bus station was in pretty bad shape; smelled like gasoline, exhaust, sewage, and cigarettes.  Luckily we only had to wait inside for about ten minutes after purchasing our tickets to board the busses.  We arrived in Ling Xue after about an hour and a half of driving and started to look around for another bus that would take us to Monkey Island.  We couldn’t find the bus that we needed, so instead we crammed into the carriage of a motorcycle taxi.  The forty five minute ride was both pleasant and unpleasant.  We seemed to hit all of the potholes in the road even though I could tell the driver was doing his best to avoid them.  The air we were breathing was a combination of fuel exhaust from the motorcycle, dust from the road and whatever rural China smell was alongside the road.  But we did get to see what most of China (rural and poor) is really like; pigs, chickens, ducks, and gnus roaming freely, lots of demolished buildings and small farm plots.  I kind of enjoyed the ride, but unfortunately for Jess, the ride did not help her migraine head ache that she had acquired earlier in the day.  By late afternoon we arrived at the entrance to Monkey Island. 

We were not too pleased with the price of the entrance tickets once we had arrived, (25 US dollars per person) especially after what we had to go through to get there.  What they are doing is smart; after traveling all the way out in the middle of nowhere they force you to pay a lot of money.  Despite the high price we tried to enjoy our experience at the park.  To get on the island we had to take a spectacular cable car ride that looked out over a beautiful ocean view. 

Monkey Island has tons of monkeys and almost none of them are actually in cages.  Part of the fun is trying to get as close as you can to the monkeys and take a good photo without making them feel too uncomfortable.  Since the monkeys kept going after Jess, Peter and I had to keep scaring them off.  Unfortunately we had arrived so late to the park, so we were only able to stay there for about an hour and a half before it closed.  Now we were going to have to figure out how to get back to Sanya. 

We waited outside of the park for a bus that may or may not come to bring us back into Ling Xue but no bus came.  We started walking up and down the road asking random Chinese people where a bus was but they would each point us in a different direction.  Eventually we asked a motorcycle taxi where the bus was and he told us to get in.  He drove us directly to the bus that we needed after driving us around for a little while.  The bus was an old rickety piece of machinery but we didn’t really have any other choice.  The bus winded its way back to Ling Xue, stopping at severs places in the countryside to drop people off.  We were very relieved to arrive in Ling Xue again, but to add to our imperfect day, we discovered that the bus station was closed.  How were we going to get back to Sanya?  What we had to do was find a taxi (which was rare in this town) and haggle a driver down to a reasonable price to bring us back to Sanya.  After finding a driver, we haggled him down to $33 to drive the three of us the hour and a half drive back to Sanya.  When we got back to our hostel I needed to drink a couple of cold Tsingdao beers to finally relax.

What a day!  Even though nothing seemed to go right, and Monkey Island was not worth the amount of money we had to spend on it, I still enjoy looking back at this adventure.

Arriving in Sanya

Finally after submitting grades and celebrating Christmas in Beibei, it was time to start doing some traveling.  The first destination was Sanya, a city on the southern tip of the island of Hainan located in the South China Sea.  We started our journey by going to China’s tropical paradise.  (December, 27^th)

After packing our bags, Jess, Peter and I set out to the Chongqing airport to begin our adventure.  After two and a half hours of flying, we finally landed in Sanya.  Immediately after getting off of the plane I started over heating because I was still wearing my several layers of clothing.  Eventually I was able to change into warm weather clothing after we picked up our bags.  Then we headed out to find our hostel, Joes Seaside Inn.  We chose this hostel because of it low price (13 dollars per private double room per night) and because the owner was quite knowledgeable and helpful with going to visit places.  By using his help and advice we were able to visit a couple of places within and outside of Sanya.  

On our first day, we just explored the near-by beach where the local people visited, and then walked around to get a good idea of what was around the area.  Sanya, just like cities in Chongqing is going through quite a bit a of development.  But, over all the beaches in Sanya were our favorite.  There were the beaches that the local people went to exercise wushu in the early morning and evenings, dance at sunset, sunbathe in the sand during the day, or just take a stroll.  Our favorite beach was in a tourist area called Da Dong Hai.  In Da Dong Hai you could either find spot on the sand to lie down or rent a thatched umbrella with a folding beach chair.   For a couple of the days we would just go to this beach and find a nice piece of sand to lay our towels down on, get a cold beer or a fruit smoothie to drink and then just listen to the waves as we soaked in the sun.  Why would anyone want to leave here?

Sanya was just was I needed after finishing a long semester of teaching, but after staying there for a week, we departed to Shanghai to stay with some relatives of mine (my brother in law’s aunt and uncle) who are teachers at Shanghai American School.  I hope to someday come back to Sanya.