me again....I have been having internal arguments about abandoningthe yahoogroup cause everyone else uses xanga to weblog, but so farI am sticking with this.
the overnight journey from Shanghai was interesting, what struck memost was not just the stares, but that the people opposite decidedto sleep from 8pm till 1am and then wake up and talk for the next 6hours straight whilst I was trying to sleep -gits. Anyone since Iarrived here, I have been working with Chris (she is the Chinesepresident) and Flic (she is HR, from Aus) full-time, the others areall part time in the head office (well they are not physically inthe office, so its an interesting 'team'). Its fun, laid back andvery different to last year in the UK. Inevitably most decisions andideas are made by the full-timers and that makes things easy.
I love the freedom that I have to do whatever I want. Met theBritish Alumnus, various MNEs, toured a few Universities, gave a 10min speech to 300 chinese students about my life in AIESEC (that wasa new experience). I got a big laugh when I asked if they can hearme without the mic (as they covered their ears!) and was told toslow down, only about 3 times -not bad going I thought. 1 personcame up afterwards and said they thought it was good, so a 1/3rd a %not a bad start, ey!
I now have a vocabularly of around 30-50 words I think..today itgrew by just one (young row, phonetically) as it means lamb, andlamb 'shwoar' is a lamb kebab. They are small, but a fantasticsnack, only about 8 pence each :)
The Great Wall was the excitement of last weekend -it was fantastic,great weather, superb views, and very relaxing. I went with a coupleGermans and an american. This friday the week-long national holidaystarts, so we might go to inner mongolia (a province of china); or Imight do something else. I have not done the biggest tourist thingshere yet; but I did walk aroun Tiananmen Square (where i pretendedto be french so as to avoid all the randoms appraoching me), and an18m high Buddha in a temple (absoultely massive) -I loved the tackyguiness book of records certificate on the wall outside though. Ialso saw a quiet, old, confuscian temple that was interesting andreally serene with an art display in too!
I think I am used to the traffic and the smog (7 of the 10 mostpolluted cities are in China I think!), but not the noise, permanentdigging and traffic it seems all night long. I haven't lived incentral london (the AIESEC office was never central despite thenights i spent there), but I doubt its the same. Kindly the workmenstart at around 7am, replacing the lift here (it took 2 months to dothe last one!) The place I live is a bed, in a corner of the 3rdbedroom of the appartment. that bedroom is also the office :). Ihave got used to the 'whole in the floor toilets' finally, but itsnot easy!
any random stuff this week?
well, the universities tend to be very well kitted out. Theembassies are supremely well guarded, roads near there tend to beclosed and so on. Most MNEs in China are made up of Chinese people,much less foreigners that I expected. I got my business cards made,yay (for those interested the best email to get me on isadam.lane@aiesec.net, the Beijing mobile is +86 13641330497). Flichas started going to the gum (occasionally joined by Chris), I haveresisted....but everyone here thats non-chinese puts on weight :(all the food is fatty and oily, so we'll see. The 2 mile walk alongthe great wall did me good, fresh air and all.
I think chinese people arguing is hilarious. Especially a german whospeaks chinese arguing with a chinese man and breaking all the rulesof 'face' (i.e. bargaining the taxi driver down to 70 RMB from 80RMB in front of the lady we stayed with. He now refuses to drive herguests again! We were pissed off though, as we were expecting thelife to be free, so were entitled to complain we thought)
Finally, my closing thought is about the weatherman on CCTV 9 (theenglish language station on chinese TV). I watched it once or twiceon sky, but missed the weatherman. for those of you who have sky,watch the weather dude! he is american and hilarious -at the end, hedoes a 'city of the day' kind of thing, and talks about randomfacts, including prices to get there, people to fly with and reallystupid information.
right, off to bed, up early tomorrow to go the BritishCentre/Chamber...Back to Shanghai next thursday for a week too.
Adam
p.s. cannot believe Spurs lost to Man Utd, but very happy noonescored a hatrick against us...
p.p.s saw Ghandi on DVD -fantastic film
p.p.p.s been thinking about post CEED in China life; it mightrevolve around staying in China and getting a job/traineeship for awhile, we'll see.
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
the well-off, the scale and the life of a lawai
well China! Slightly further afield than Turkey!
I arrived and quickly estableshed that the few toursits here are mostly from Asia (korea, japan). There are really very few 'westerners', and i think a lot of those here are ex-pats!
Things of note:
the food, certainly cheap and certainly an intersting variety/mix. Most locals dont even know what most of the things they get served are! The best though is monkey brains. A live monkey is brought out, the ehad chopped off in front of you and then you crack the skull and suck out the brains. Fortunately I have not been witness to this yet, but its pretty common!
the size. I always though NYC, the US in general does things on grand scale, but nothing beats China. The skyscrapers, the buildings being built are all fantastic. I was shocked though that they are building a deep-sea containter port. Its going to be a man-made island (I think) around 30km off Shanghai, that they will then build a bridge from linking it to the mainland! the 3 metro lines here are up to 5 yrs old. they are building 9 more i think in the next 5-10 years! the whole of shanghai seems to be constantly under construction, adn spaghetti junction in B'ham is nothing compared to some of the junctions here. Finally how can the chinese build things, and get them finished quickly so that they work, whilst in the UK things take ages, are always delayed, cost more and tend to need redoing 2 days after the opening?
the traffic: something that every traveller in every country points out; here its a case of knowing that red means amber, that there is no such thing as 'right of way', 'speed limit' or limits to what a cyclist can carry on them, on their bike, on their trailer.
the 'lawai' dimension: meaning foreigner, i finally get what everyone else who has been outside fo EU/N. America gets with the hassling for money, dvds, watches etc. 'bu yau'(spelling?) is no! But I am a mean negotiator adn currently pay 30% of asking price (the askign price on the label, not jsut the one they tell me cause I am not chinese) for goods that I have bought. Interstingly its tough to communicate here as there are many, many people, even in their 20s who have had no exposure to english at all (don't even know 'hello', let alone 'please unlock my sim card, that's sim card, not pin number, and no please don't call the SOS number')
finally I wanted to say that I am living with a friend, through AIESEC UK, in a ratehr nice house, wtih a maid and driver; when her parents were here we visited a country club, a restaurant in the 56th floor of jin mao tower (apparently the tallest in Asia?), and a friend's penthouse appartment with his own cinema room, so its been nice. driver's cost about 100 pounds a month -bargain! even people from HK won't drive here! Maids are commonplace for anyone with a management job it seems.
So, a long introduction and some observations that may not be actually true, and might change by next week! its a fantastic city, and I cannot wait to get to Beijing in a day or two. I could go on, but I won't instead I'm off to the french quarter.
Adam
p.s.some great prices (13 RMB = 1 pound): 2 RMB for a single train ticket, 5-8 RMB for fake, good quality DVD, 25 RMB for a real DVD, 4-8 RMB for lunch, 3 RMB for a bottle of coke. Glad to leave London!!!
I arrived and quickly estableshed that the few toursits here are mostly from Asia (korea, japan). There are really very few 'westerners', and i think a lot of those here are ex-pats!
Things of note:
the food, certainly cheap and certainly an intersting variety/mix. Most locals dont even know what most of the things they get served are! The best though is monkey brains. A live monkey is brought out, the ehad chopped off in front of you and then you crack the skull and suck out the brains. Fortunately I have not been witness to this yet, but its pretty common!
the size. I always though NYC, the US in general does things on grand scale, but nothing beats China. The skyscrapers, the buildings being built are all fantastic. I was shocked though that they are building a deep-sea containter port. Its going to be a man-made island (I think) around 30km off Shanghai, that they will then build a bridge from linking it to the mainland! the 3 metro lines here are up to 5 yrs old. they are building 9 more i think in the next 5-10 years! the whole of shanghai seems to be constantly under construction, adn spaghetti junction in B'ham is nothing compared to some of the junctions here. Finally how can the chinese build things, and get them finished quickly so that they work, whilst in the UK things take ages, are always delayed, cost more and tend to need redoing 2 days after the opening?
the traffic: something that every traveller in every country points out; here its a case of knowing that red means amber, that there is no such thing as 'right of way', 'speed limit' or limits to what a cyclist can carry on them, on their bike, on their trailer.
the 'lawai' dimension: meaning foreigner, i finally get what everyone else who has been outside fo EU/N. America gets with the hassling for money, dvds, watches etc. 'bu yau'(spelling?) is no! But I am a mean negotiator adn currently pay 30% of asking price (the askign price on the label, not jsut the one they tell me cause I am not chinese) for goods that I have bought. Interstingly its tough to communicate here as there are many, many people, even in their 20s who have had no exposure to english at all (don't even know 'hello', let alone 'please unlock my sim card, that's sim card, not pin number, and no please don't call the SOS number')
finally I wanted to say that I am living with a friend, through AIESEC UK, in a ratehr nice house, wtih a maid and driver; when her parents were here we visited a country club, a restaurant in the 56th floor of jin mao tower (apparently the tallest in Asia?), and a friend's penthouse appartment with his own cinema room, so its been nice. driver's cost about 100 pounds a month -bargain! even people from HK won't drive here! Maids are commonplace for anyone with a management job it seems.
So, a long introduction and some observations that may not be actually true, and might change by next week! its a fantastic city, and I cannot wait to get to Beijing in a day or two. I could go on, but I won't instead I'm off to the french quarter.
Adam
p.s.some great prices (13 RMB = 1 pound): 2 RMB for a single train ticket, 5-8 RMB for fake, good quality DVD, 25 RMB for a real DVD, 4-8 RMB for lunch, 3 RMB for a bottle of coke. Glad to leave London!!!
Saturday, September 11, 2004
About me
My name is Adam, I've just arrived in China, from the UK. This is the farthest I have been away from home; I'm 22 and graduated a year ago in Management. AIESEC brought me first job, and now it has led me here, as a volunteer to support AIESEC in Mainland of China.
This is my thoughts, activities and opinions...
This is my thoughts, activities and opinions...
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