Dear friends and family,
We've spent the last week or so moving into our new apartment and going through the (lengthy) BLCU registration procedures. So don't get your hopes up - this update promises to be significantly less interesting than Kim's last one about Chengdu.
We checked out of the Xi Jiao hotel on Friday, so that's when our new apartment officially became home. We'll send the address when we're certain how to write it correctly. It's quite nice - a brand new, sunny apartment with two bedrooms and two full bathrooms. Plenty of room for guests, if you get my drift.
Unfortunately the apartments adjacent to ours are all still under construction. I'm writing this to the accompanyment of hammering, drilling, staple guns, and other Very Loud Noices. I can personally attest that Chinese construction crews work long hours, including on Sunday. Starting around 8:00 AM.
Yesterday we went on our second IKEA shopping spree (yes, they have an IKEA store here in Beijing and it's exactly like the one at home, including the cheesy restaurant selling hot dogs and Swedish meatballs). The store was absolutely packed with people, but it wasn't as claustrophobic as it would be in North America with the same density of people. Here, people push their way through to where they want to go, but never too hard, and everyone is sort of quietly polite. I guess people here are used to moving around through dense crowds and know the best way to do it.
We bought a few extra pieces of furniture, plates and cutlery, glasses and mugs, a bodum coffeemaker, towels, curtains, and so on. We'll send pictures when we're finished setting up the place. We're delighted with it, and the rent works out to about CAD $620 per month.
One interesting observation: Virtually all services in China are paid for using prepaid charge card systems. For example, if you want cell phone service, you go to a phone store and buy:
1. A cell phone, i.e. the physical object.
2. A SIM card, i.e. a little chip that you put into the phone to give it its phone number. They charge more or less for the SIM cards depending on how auspicious the number is. I paid extra to get a number with an eight and no fours. Sixes and eights are good, fours are bad. Kim's phone number has a four (bad) but two eights (good).
3. A service recharge card, i.e. a plastic card with a scratch-off coating like a lottery ticket. That's how we actually pay for the phone service. I can buy a recharge card on the street, then later dial a number on my cell phone, scratch off the coating on the card, and use a touch tone user interface to enter the number under the coating. At that point my account is credited with the money and I can throw away the plastic card. When my credit runs out, my phone stops working and I have to buy another recharge card.
None of this seemed odd to me - we have prepaid cell phone service available in North America now. But then I bought dial-up Internet service the same way (which I'm using right now). That's not something I've ever seen at home. I can check my available credit using a web browser, and whenever it runs low, I can buy an Internet service recharge card on the street, peel it open to reveal the code numbers, then increase my credit by keying the numbers into a special web site.
But what's really wacky is that last week I found out my water bill is handled the same way. My landlord bought a "water charge card" for 90 cubic metres of water and showed me how to swipe the card in our water meter to enable the service. We have to keep tabs on our usage so that we don't run out of water.
It's a strange system, but it's kind of nice once you get used to it. In North America, you can easily rack up arbitrarily high water, electricity, phone, and other charges - and get hit with a potentially unaffordable bill later on. Here in China, I find it strangely comforting that all the services I'm using right this minute - have been paid for already. In theory I could run out of money tomorrow and nobody will send any goons. (I am not planning to test that theory.)
Speaking of goons, (how's that for a segue!) one interesting thing about Beijing is that there are security guards everywhere. At the entrance to most apartment complexes, in most stores and malls, standing around in busy streets, etc. A friend of ours suggested that their primary purpose is to provide gainful employment for ex-military people. Maybe so. In any case, they do help provide order. One guard stopped me in a grocery store to remind me that I needed to check my bag. He was very friendly. In fact, whenever I say "ni hao" to security guards, their faces usually light up and they respond with a cheerful "ni hao" back to me. People in Beijing really are very nice.
Aside from settling into our new apartment, our other main project last week was registering for our Mandarin courses at BLCU. We took a placement test to determine our starting level. The test was too difficult for us, so we will be starting at the A level (beginner), which is fine. The testing procedure seemed unnecessarily bureaucratic though. We had to visit the school no less than five times - once for the actual test, and four times during which we waited in line, were given various forms, and were told where and when to go for the next appointment.
We had one very nice experience last week that I'd like to tell you about. We went to a teahouse at the Prince Gong Mansion Garden (tourist attraction, 20 yuan admission). We bought jars of jasmine tea, lychee infused black tea, and Oolong tea. They served us some of the jasmine tea in a traditional ceremony. A well spoken young woman explained what she was doing as she poured the water back and forth between pots, and finally into thimble-sized teacups. She showed us the traditional way to pick up the teacup using three fingers of our right hand, then told us to drink the whole cup in three sips. The first sip symbolizes happiness, the second good luck, and the third long life. In Mandarin: fu, lu, shou (happiness, luck, longevity). She refilled our cups after each round, and an hour or two later we were feeling incredibly relaxed, happy, and lucky. (I'll let you know later about the longevity.)
Little known fact for Martha Stewart fans: Used oolong tea leaves make an excellent material for stuffing pillows.
Another little known fact: Although bamboo steamers are ubiquitous here (in restaurants and dumpling stalls on the street), it is virtually impossible to find them in stores. We've visited at least a dozen stores already, hoping to buy a bamboo steamer to make steamed dumplings at home. So far we've had no success. It's becoming a running joke. Maybe you have to order them from the government.
Final item for today's update. A friend of mine sent me some information about the Beijing Linux User's Group (BLUG), suggesting that I might be interested in attending their monthly meetings. Turns out that the head of BLUG is none other than Richard Ford, a former e-smith reseller! It's a *very* small world. Richard is from Australia, knows several e-smith staff members, and has corresponded with me off and on over the last four years. He has always been an enthusiastic e-smith advocate. We'll be meeting in person for the first time on Wednesday.
I'm very excited about today's Chinglish example. It was written in large print on the wall of the pizzeria in Chengdu, which was called "High Fly Pizza". (I don't know why my examples are always from pizzerias, since we've only had pizza twice in China so far. Curious.) Anyway, here you go:
HIGH FLY PIZZA
Do you want to forget the agony? You need to bring the
friend to the good heart feeling perhaps. Or, you just
want the delicacy that enjoy the Pizza. Ok, Come "high fly"
the store of pizza. Seeing us can bring you what.
Take care,
- Joe (and Kim)