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On the Road to China
with George... page 7
I am so pissed,
Friday, August 04, 2006 10:57 PM
I just sent another long email and
it has been lost. I am ready
to scream.
Talking about traffic again, all the cars are new here, except
for a few of the taxis, all of the cars are less that 3 or 4 years
old, and they are well taken care of. Not a single old clunker
anywhere. Henry Ford would be proud, China has only exploded
into the automobile age in the last couple of years. Buy
Ford stock, they are everywhere. Of course if they put anymore
cars on the roads they will have to rent them out as motels, because
no one is going to be able to go anywhere; it is just going to
be gridlock. There are a lot of old bicycles around though,
I was checking out the rentals in front of the hotel yesterday,
there are older and more worn then the bikes in front of the pool
in Spanish Lakes; there were so old, a Florida retiree would get
on them.
So I guess car production is up and bike production is
down. And there aren't a lot of bikes on the street, a fair
number of motor bike and motor cycles but not too many bicycles.
I like the story of the prosperous Chinese man who finally traded
in his old bike for a new shiny Ford. So now he can travel
back and forth to work.
Unfortunately, all his neighbors and friends have also
traded in their bikes. Now he as he sits in traffic at each
intersection trying to inch his way to work, he watches the bicyclists
whiz by in the bike lane or weave in and out of the congestion
heading down the street beyond his sight. As he sits there
he laments his situation and wonders if he wouldn't be better
off back on his cycle. with love George
This is the third time I have tried
to send this message,
Friday, August 04, 2006 11:27 PM
unfortunately there is no real way
for me to save anything until after it is sent, so this should be good because I have written it
3 times negotiating the sidewalk in China can be as difficult
as traveling the road, as a matter of fact, sometimes it is easier
to walk in the street than walk on the sidewalk.
The only comparable place is Times Square, but is is Times Square
in every city here in China. The best approach is
to walk with determination, walking straight ahead,
not paying attention to (or rather not appearing to pay attention)
to anything but where you are going. then everyone will
back out of your way or walk around you. If you make eye
contact of acknowledge the existence of the oncoming person, you
will inescapably have to back off. The other method
is the Mr.Mcgoo approach. Mr. McGoo was that half blind
cartoon Character who walked around with disaster in front of
him and chaos right behind. It works on the same principal,
but instead of determination, you take the semi-conscious tactic.
Again, you don't appear to pay any attention to the people, look
down at the side walk and let everyone else walk around you.
The advantage here is you can walk a little slower. But
again the key here is to let everyone else react towards you.
My Chinese friends are quite amazed at how I have perfected these
techniques.
It is the same with driving a car, the cab drivers look straight
ahead as they inch into traffic. The best example is the
Callahan Tunnel in Boston where 12 lanes funnel into 4, if you
watch the other guy he will with out a doubt, cut you off.
Walking across the street is the same thing, you have to gauge
the distance of the oncoming cars, then walk across the street
as if you don't even see them. It works every time, except of
course, for those few vehicle that have faulty brakes, then one
must move fast and improvise.
let's see if this one goes through, with love, George
Eating here can be an experience...
Saturday, August 05, 2006 12:15 AM
if you don't have a guide
you better know how to say a few words in Chinese, like noodle
or dumpling, or who knows what you might get, I have tasted
some meat that I was unable to identify, but they tell you everything
is either pork or beef or lamb. One fellow from France said
he was some Chinese skinning a Dalmatian. Most of
the food has been good, but one begins to crave home cooking.
Many of the restaurants have menus in English, but that doesn't
always mean that you will get what you expect, or that what is
on the menu has any English meaning. The food that they
serve us usually in very large portions, the soups are enough
to feed as many as 4 people and they don't seem to have a small
size. If one person were to order three dishes, he would be lucky
to eat half. As a matter of fact, Janet and her cousin and
I ordered 4 dishes and we couldn't eat half. One popular
dish is Hot Pot. With hot pot they bring the ingredience
to you uncooked and in the middle of the table is a gas stove
where a large pot of broth is placed, after it begins to boil,
you place your food into the broth, the trick seems to be
not to place too much in at one time, and to put in the items
that need the longest to cook(like potatoes and carrots) so that
everything is done at the same time.
If you put too much in the pot then everything cooks at once
and you can't get it out fast enough, some of the things will
be done properly, but the others will cook into mush. If you know
how to do it you can have a great meal, but if you screw up you
can ruin a meal. This meal is very popular in this area
and, as you an imagine, is usually eaten in the cooler weather.
One of the other teachers, Ingrid and I went when we were in YanAn
on an evening where the temperature was well into the 90's ;
a hot pot next to you in an un-air conditioned restaurant can
make things a little uncomfortable, fortunately the meal was delicious.
But it was also very spicy, so we had to drink a lot of Beer.
The standard drink here is hot water during meals. Some of
my guides have tried to insist that I drink hot water for my health.
somehow hot water is suppose to cool you off in the hot weather,
I haven't figured that one out.
I think I have found out why the Chinese don't eat potatoes,
I found a restaurant that serves small white potatoes, like the
ones you find in a can, they serve them in a spicy sauce on a
large plate. I was with Janet and her cousin Lewis (most
Chinese take an English name, we gave her cousin the name Lewis
because it was close to his Chinese name) and we proceeded
to try to eat the potatoes with chop sticks, it was comical.
They keep sliding away, then we would try to spear them the would
fall apart, and there was no way to scoop them up. We ended
up getting one of their soup spoons to eat them. With noodles
they kind of dig under them with the chop sticks and scoop them
into their mouths. One night I had a knife and fork and
I swirled them Spaghetti style, they were quite impressed. They
seemed to think that maybe we had a better way. We went
to one restaurant for pizza
or what they called pizza, it was quite good but nothing you or
I would call pizza in the states. At this place they serve all
their meals with knife and fork, it was amusing to watch my Chinese
host struggle to cut up their pizza. I didn't bother to
tell them that it is acceptable to eat pizza with your hands,
it was more fun to watch them work with a knife and fork.
They found it interesting that American eat with their fork in
the right hand and the English eat with their fork in the left
hand. They could quite figure that out. As a matter
fact sometime that puzzles me.
I liked the food better in YanAn. I am near the train station
here and everything seems to cater to the Chinese traveler.
I haven't had any trouble eating with chop sticks (accept for
potatoes) One of the problems here is that the diet consist of
a lot of starch, it seems to slow me down.
I am starting to make a concerted effort to eat more fruit.
I think that is why I have not felt right the past few days, and
another reason I would like to come home early. I would
like to straighten my system out before school starts. Well I
better send this before I lose another one. I find if I
write long emails I tend to lose them.
with love George
in xian there is a hotel right next
to mine...
Sunday, August 06, 2006 6:22 AM
it can be found in the "Lonely
Plant" ,which is the guide book
that all the Europeans seem to use. It seems to be their
traveling bible. As a result any place mentioned in the "Lonely
Plant becomes a gathering place for westerners. Such is the place
next to mine. It is a little Mecca of western culture and
talk. The China Daily can be found there. so it has
been one of the few places where printed international news can
be found. In the lobby people sit and talk and read the
newspaper. They also have a small business center with 4
internet connections, which is not nearly enough, there can be
a wait as long as an hour before you can get a machine, but no
one seems to mind. The business center seems to do a thriving
business in small tours and arranging travel plans for their guests.
I did see the rooms, the doubles were 120 rmb's, a little higher
than what I paid for the same size. There were also,dormitory
rooms for 45 rmb's (about $5. a night. The hotel was busiest
in the morning everyone was heading out on their adventures, and
in the evening, when they would return weary and red faced from
their daily travels. Many would come in and collapse into
the large leather chairs that ringed the lobby.
The only Asians in the hotel were the workers. of which
there were many. The small business center had about 5 people
and the desk 3, and two doormen who opened the door every time
anyone approached from either direction. The call the restaurant
the "Western Restaurant" and they made every attempt
to serve western food. They had a great many waitresses,
but none of them seemed to know what they were doing. I
waited one morning for an hour for a fruit salad and a cup of
coffee (way too strong) The girls just kept buzzing around, but
nothing got served, despite repeated gestures and arm pulling
requests. The business center, the lobby, and the restaurant were
all very small. The restaurant had only 9 tables
(with about 8 waitresses) one table served 8 and two others served
six, and the rest accommodated 4.
because of the the restaurant was so small, strangers often eat
together. thus forming short friendships.
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