Jack’s observations of China:
Sarah assured me she would be relating the itinerary, so I could leave that out. Suffice it to say we’ve experienced a lot, and the days have been full.
We had the opportunity to visit Sarah at her school during the school day. Part of the session for each of her classes was na introduction and question answer session. We were amazed at how different the character was of each class. Her 7th graders were full of questions and laughter. The 8th graders were somewhat more subdued . Still, the spirit was high, and all were happy to be done with tests and ready to enjoy their summer off.
As we walked (and walked …. And walked … and walked) through the streets of Shenyang, I was caught by the blending of art and functionality. There were many buildings that seemed built strictly for the functionality. There was no color, no style, nothing truly interesting about the building. But on the street of the building there might be some extraordinary street light or monument. All of this seemed to be blended together.
There are also many things that I found to be very human friendly. Many of the traffic lights had countdown timers, so you would know how long before the light changes. Also, most of the walkways had textured segments to allow blind people to more easily navigate, with a change in that texture to identify a cross walk or, in the case of a subway, in indication where the door would be once the subway train arrived.
Regarding the street lights … not that it really mattered. Red lights seem to be more of an indication of “be a little more vigilant” rather than to actually stop. As Sarah has said before, even crossing a street has its adventure! To some extent, however, Americans could learn from the Chinese. There seems to be a great sense of cooperation. Horns are used a lot, but mostly to say, “here I am! Please, give a little space so I may pass.” And they always seem to. And I never saw anybody display what we would call road rage. There were multiple occasions where I thought it would have been appropriate for the driver to express a little rage, but all they did was just adapt a little more and press on.
Now, buses are different. I’m convinced to be a bus driver in the city requires a very special kind of person. We were on one bus where the driver, growing tired of the traffic jam we were in, took an opportunity to cross to the otherside of the boulevard style median and go against traffic on the otherside! None of those drivers seemed concerned … they just changed lanes to give the bus the lane. I did notice, however, that none of the cars followed the bus. I guess there is an unwritten sense as to which rules you must follow, and which ones you can “stretch”. It seemed buses didn’t need to observe very many rules.
As Sarah has told us before, all modes of transportation share the space. This includes cars, trucks, buses, bicycles, pedestrians … whatever. They all seem to share the sidewalks as well. And many of the sidewalks are large enough to allow a car and a few bicycles plus some pedestrians. Occassionally they also are used for parking spaces, as needed. Sarah asserst she feels safer on a bicycle in Shenyang than she does in the states, pointing out that in Shenyang she feels the Chinese are watching out for her. She didn’t follow with what she feels in the states, but I surmise she sometimes feels like a target. I know I do.
Learning to negotiate a street crossing is a learned art. You need to build a sense of when to continue in front of a vehicle and when to hesitate, just a bit, to allow it to pass. I never quite got the hang of it, which is embarrassing – even the dogs know how to do it! Really! I watched this dog travelling alone and it (and the drivers) behaved the same. The dog looked both ways. The cars honked appropriately. The dog paused just long enough to let the car go by (not scared, just calculating) and then proceeded it’s walk (not run) across the busy intersection. So, not only am I not smarter than a 5th grader, I’m not smarter than a dog that lives in Shenyang!
Overall, conditions are really much better than I feared. We have eaten more kinds of food than I would have dared without Sarah’s guidance, and neither Mary nor I have gotten sick. On the other hand, no one, including the Chinese, drink directly from the city water system. Bottles of “purified” water are sold everywhere, and that is what we did while out. In the apartment, all water is boiled before being consumed. Once you get accustomed to it, though, it’s not bad. Oh yeah – water is not the outrageous price of $2 per bottle. You get it for 1 to 2 yuan (about 20 cents).
A bus ride is also 20 cents to most places in the city. And a very long cab ride is under $10, with most being about $3.
We did find that Chinese stuff seems to be very inexpensive, but the more western you get the more the prices are similar to U.S. prices. I had made the tactical blunder of not bringing my camera battery charger with us to Beijing. We came across a camera place which was able to immediately sell us a second battery and a charger. After a little negotiating, we came to a price deemed fair. But it was pretty close to what I would expect to spend for the same in the US. On the other hand, things that are Chinese craft (feather art, scrolls, clothing) is quite cheap. Likewise for the food. If eating Chinese cuisine, it is quite affordable. We often would feed all three of us for less than $5! But a cup of Starbuck’s coffe was still $2.50 for a plain coffee-of-the-day. So the lesson is… if you want to see China as cheaply as possible, keep to the Chinese stuff.
We did take the high speed train between cities. For the most part, these trains are recent additions to the Chinese transportation system, so are quite modern. The had a sign in each car which displayed the speed and temperature. Usually, except for passing through towns, we traveled between 100 and 150 miles per hour. For the experience, Sarah proposed we take the night train for one leg, but she doubted there would be an electrical outlet for my sleep apnea machine and therefore we elected to stay one more night in the hotel and take the high speed train the next day. Sarah just shrugged and said, “It’s your money!” So it is (or was…)
One thing that struck me was the apparent dichotomy between honesty or not. On the one hand, misrepresenting product is rampant. And we witnessed Sarah taking a cab driver to task on his setting his meter incorrectly prior to beginning a trip. Yet, anything for which you can really see what’s going on, they seem to honest to the letter. I had one incident where the vendor was inconvenienced with providing exact change so, instead of cheating me he cheated himself. Fortunately, I had some loose change in my pocket, so was able to pay the full price. Obviously, good will was exchanged by both parties!
As you all know, Sarah is living in a “new” apartment. This one is closer to what many Chinese experience. It is small. Many of the windows are cracked. Interior doors which originally had door knobs no longer have the convenience (including the bathroom door). In general, things are run down and in disrepair. But, at the core, the essentials work. And, interestingly, she has DSL service for her computer. Sarah’s roommate graciously vacated while Mary and I are here, so we’ve taken Sarah’s room, and Sarah has taken her roommate’s room. The quarters are close, but we function. I have given Sarah some grief about not having a table or chair for our use, but it’s all in fun. As she points out – if I need to sit, there’s the bed. If we want to play a board game … there’s the bed. If you need to eat … there’s the bed.
Contrast this with the place Amy experienced in her visit last December. That place, provided by the school, had a spacious living room plus an eat-in kitchen, plus 3 bedrooms. It was very nice! In fact, much nicer than I had my first 2 years out of college. As Sarah pointed out, Amy stayed in a very nice place, but didn’t get to see much because of time and budget. We, on the other hand, are staying in a more Chinese place, but are seeing and doing more because of a less restricted budget. I guess there’s a balance (ying and yang) in there somewhere.
Speaking of ying and yang… One of our tour guides mentioned that odd numbers are considered masculine and even numbers are considered feminine. Becoming increasingly aware of numbers, I started counting the number of stairs in a flight of stairs. I initiated this practice at the subway, and found that there would be a flight of 15 stairs, followed by 14 stairs, followed by 15, and so on. Sarah asserts this is likely planned. There have been stair ways that did not follow the alternating odd/even pattern. Interestingly, though, they always had odd numbers of stairs. Apparently, beyond the masculine/feminine aspect, odd numbers are also consider more lucky than even numbers, so you would never have a stairways with nothing but even number of steps.
We also found out that red is considered a lucky color, and that, in imperial times, yellow (gold) was reserved for the emporer alone. Also, most weddings and many other events are adorned with large, often blow-up, arches, usually in red. This is done because walking through an archway is also considered lucky. So, as I’m walking down the street, I’ve been trying to find the meaning behind the obvious everywhere I look. I had to chuckle, though, when applying the process to the McDonalds. The double arch must be double luck. The yellow implies very good and mighty. And, of course, it is done with a backdrop of red. Anybody think this is an accident?
The last thing I’d like to address is the parks. There are many in Shenyang, and they are full of people. During the regular part of the day, these are mostly older people, possibly accompanied by pre-school grandchildren. Most of the parks we visited had very nice walking paths as well as wide open areas. It was common to see these areas used by people doing Tai Chi, dancing (not rock n roll, but something similar to ballroom dancing), games of all sorts (board games, chinese hacky sack, badmitten, tennis, ping pong …) or using the exercise equipment available everywhere. There weren’t any gangs that we could tell, and nobody was perturbed if the music from one gathering was bleeding over to the next. The music was never blaring, just sufficient for its cause, and all seemed to take joy in participating in whatevery event they doing, and never expressing concern over what others were doing.
So, as happens all too often, once I get going, it’s hard to stop. We had a grand experience, largely because of the care and consideration Sarah put into developing our itinerary. Because of her, we’ve experienced everything we would have hoped for, plus a little more. It will be interesting to see what new experiences she’ll plan for our next trip.
Jack
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