Written by: Susan

Date: March 27, 2008

So there’s lots of little things that happen to us that don’t ever make it into any of our blogs but are nonetheless interesting and fascinating (well at least we think so). So this blog is dedicated to all the things we’ve either encountered, habits we’ve acquired, or simply things that we have found amusing.

Order Please!

Coming from the chaos of Southeast Asia where anything goes, arriving in China was a bit of an adjustment. We’d been in countries where you crossed the street whenever you got the chance. It usually meant weaving in and out of traffic and sprinting at the last moment. Here in China, not only are things orderly with traffic lights and signals but there’s also the upbiquitous traffic signal cop. The cop’s sole job is to make sure that things follow an orderly process which includes blowing the whistle at any rogue person who might have dared step off the curb. Of course the only reason we know this is because we’ve stepped off the curb one too many times. Each time to be whistled at and with the flick of their white-gloved hand, sent back up onto the curb. Trying to defy order, Brian has on more than one occasion dangled his toes off of the curb to see what would happen. Luckily, most times he’s just met with a glare. I guess his blues eyes aren’t helping him in this department.

I, on the other hand, am secretly a little bit thankful for the traffic cops. This is usually one of the things Brian and I bicker about whenever we enter a new country. Brian loves to just cross the street, dodging in and out of traffic. I prefer to stand and wait for the light. In most countries though, we’ve gotten used to the no light situation and I too was weaving in and out of traffic. So when we arrived in China, Brian continued to dodge traffic. Not only was he getting whistled at by the traffic cops, but also getting yelled at by me because he would cross without warning me that he was crossing. I, not paying attention because I was checking out the surroundings, would get caught either on the curb or between cars. The problem is that the cars in China aren’t small and I’m pretty sure they don’t care whether or not they hit you. I mean, are you really going to play chicken with a car or even more likely a bus? So that’s typically argument #1 that Brian and I have when arriving in a new city.

Rub, Flip, Scratch

This is the first time on our trip that we’ve encountered counterfeit money, or at least counterfeit money where we knew about it and shops wouldn’t accept it. The thing that upsets us the most about this is the fact that we get the money from a legitimate ATM machine and the counterfeit bills happen to be 100 yuan (equivalent to $14US). So it’s a bit annoying when you get bad bills because none of the banks will take responsibility for it. Now, when we get money out of an ATM (typically 3000 Yuan at a time), we stand at the ATM machine and being as incognito as we can scratch the collar of Mao (on the real bills his collar is rough), flip the bill because the 100 imprinted on the bill changes from a green to blue color, and rub the paper as the paper is a bit coarser and thicker than the slick counterfeit bills. We’ve gotten pretty good at it but I’m sure the security officer is wondering what the hell we’re doing. What would we do now if we found a counterfeit bill after our own inspection? Well I think we would just go into the bank and raise holy hell about it. I’m sure nothing would still be done, but boy would it feel good!

This ain’t Panda Express……..

Nor is it my mom’s home cooking. The food has kind of been an unexpected problem here in China. Although my mom had warned me that the food in the north wasn’t that good, I figured we could make do somehow. In our first town, we made the mistake of going to a local restaurant. We usually try to eat at local restaurants as they tend to be cheaper and more authentic. Authentic this place was as the chickens, turtles, ducks, and seafood were all roaming around in little cages and tubs right outside the restaurant. Our Kung Pao chicken came with more bones than meat, our beef made me feel like Fred Flintstone gnawing on a Tyrannosaurus Rex bone, and the little bits of black flecks floating around in our soup made me recall the notes in our guidebook about this area of China eating dog. Not a pleasurable meal and it wasn’t going to get better.

There are a lot of considerations that have to be made whenever we start thinking of our next meal. What do we feel like eating? Where can we go eat? How much is it going to cost? Is it going to be a long dinner? Will it be good? Will it be hard to order? And the list goes on and on. Cost being one of the biggest considerations puts a lot of constraints on the type of restaurants we can get in.

Admittedly here in China, we have visited McDonald’s one too many times as a value meal falls into our budget range and quite frankly, it’s because we know what we’re getting. A micowaved cheeseburger never tasted so good. The only downside is that at 300 calories a pop on the cheeseburgers and 350 cals for a small fry, the only consequence for this type of behavior was getting fat. Sigh. Fat or starving? Neither sounds that appealing.

Luckily, in the town of Xi’an, dumplings are all the rage here and there are dumplings restaurants everywhere. Although not dirt cheap, it’s easy to order and for the most part really tasty. We’ve heard Beijing is not much better, but we did meet some friendly Australians who said the food in Southern China is sublime. We can’t wait.

Tea time is all the time

Tea is originally from China which therefore means that everybody drinks tea here in China. There are teahouses, tea stores, tea cups, and tea tumblers to fit every whim. The trains here have hot water spouts so that you can make yourself some fresh tea on the train (along with those buckets of top ramen noodles they consume here by the millions). Even the hotel rooms all have hot water boilers and their own tea cups. So when in China, do as the Chinese do. It wasn’t that hard as Brian and I are huge tea lovers. One of our favorite places is this Chinese tea place at the Pike Place Market in Seattle where you sit down and the lady just starts making all different types of tea for you depending on your mood. It’s really just a soothing and relaxing ceremony to participate in.

So when we arrived in our first town, we bought tea mugs. They are a bit of a pain to carry as they’re ceramic but totally worth it. Drinking tea out of anything that isn’t ceramic makes the tea take on unappetizing flavors. So throughout our trip we’ve been stopping at little teahouses, sampling all the different varieties of tea (green, oolong, floral, and black – which we have yet to try) and purchasing boxes of tea. We love making tea in the morning as we’re getting ready for the day and in the evening as we settle in to watch one of our bootlegged movies.

We’ve now entered the second phase of our Chinese immersion program by purchasing clear, plastic tumblers that all the Chinese carry around. In the bottom is a sprinkling of tea leaves and at the top is a little screen. You fill the tumbler with hot water in the morning, let the tea steep and take it with you so you can sip tea for the rest of the day . The best thing is that when you run out of hot water, any number of restaurants or even local shops will always willingly fill your cup with up the hot water already prepared, as if they knew you were coming. It’s one of the many charms of China.  

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