Experience China

Happy Christmas

2009-12-24T01:12:00.000-08:00

I remember that when I was little, teachers at school told me that everyone around the world celebrated Christmas. They didn’t go to China, cause here the only people who are celebrating Christmas are other foreigners. Though the Chinese do seem to use the opportunity for having some commercial events, they seem to like the idea of a special day. It reminds me of my first week in China, when I was in Beijing and it happened to be valentine’s day. It was far more commercial than in Holland, everywhere you could see couples buying roses going to more expensive (for China) restaurants, and spend their money in other ways.

However it still doesn’t feel anything like Christmas at all. The weather is finally getting colder, but it’s still more than 10 degrees during the day, and of course there are still palm trees outside. There are people wearing Christmas hats in shops and restaurants and you can buy Christmas trees and products in stores. They discovered the commercial side of Christmas here in China, but personally I think that most Chinese have no clue at all why Christmas is a holiday.

We will have a Christmas dinner at a house of French friends, so I suppose the food will be at least somewhere similar to Christmas food. Tomorrow morning I will earn some money by playing for Santa Claus at one of my Kindergartens. For tomorrow we’re also going to a Western restaurant for a Christmas meal. So the food and drinks will be good or again more similar than the usual Chinese food (which can be delicious, don’t get me wrong.)

The 'real' China

2009-12-14T04:10:00.000-08:00

There’s a discussion going on in the foreign community about what exactly is the “real” China. There are quite some foreigners who claim that Shanghai or maybe even Xiamen is not part of this “real” China, because it’s too rich and modern. On the other hand there are people who claim that, when you enter the isolated rural countryside in far away provinces like Yunnan you leave China. The answer of course is that all these places are China. The only places which you could argue that are truly different, are Tibet and Xinjiang in my opinion. Although I still don’t know any Chinese person who would agree with those regions not being part of China.

The real question is what people see as the “real” China. How they picture the ‘real’ China. Some people think of rice fields when they think of China, while others will think of big ugly polluted cities. Everyone has an idea of what China is, but since China is so extremely big the ideas people have about China are sometimes very different from each other. Not rarely do I read or hear very contradicting statements about China. When I first came to China I didn’t know what I had to expect. Off course I had expectations, but the thing I remember most is that I had pictured it as a crazy place you could only love or hate. I got this idea before coming here, because the stories I heard and read contained such a big contrast. Some people loved it, while others were simply sickened of it. Some people even seemed to be in love with the idea of China as the new superpower of the world, while others were sure that we would all be doomed if such a scenario would ever occur.

By now I have lived in two very different places in China for longer than 3 months, and traveled around for about 2 months. Some places I traveled to were pretty similar to each other from my perspective, but I also traveled to some very unique places. Hiking the tiger leaping gorge in Yunnan is nowhere near similar to traveling around Beijing. I enjoyed both a lot and comparing them shows me how different China can be.

Wuhu is the city I worked and lived before, and for me this might be the ‘real’ China. I just read back my post about Wuhu and I wrote that it was a typical Chinese city. I still think this observation was quite correct. Xiamen is way too modern to be a typical Chinese city, of course it’s also China, but Xiamen is definitely part of the new China or modern China. Last Saturday I had diner in one of the nice restaurant/bars in Xiamen, this place is owned by an old foreigner and has very good pizza’s. The place is located at the sea side and the terrace they have has a very nice atmosphere. It’s hard for me to describe why and how, but this kind of place would just not be able to exist in Wuhu. Maybe in 10 years, or even 5, because that seems to be the same everywhere in China. They are developing in top speed. Too fast even maybe…

Sometimes I like China a lot, while on other times I’m very glad that things are not like this back home. I love some of the food they have here (I also like western food a lot, so maybe I just like to eat), I liked the traveling, I like the way how easy things can be arranged if you speak only a little Chinese and are willing to pay a little money, I like the optimism Chinese people can have, I like to learn and practice Chinese most of the time, and finally it’s still the adventure and the big contrast with Holland that keep me fascinated. There are a lot of things I dislike as well; I dislike the spitting or baby’s peeing in public, the lack of queuing in any crowded public place where there should be a queue, the beggars, useless bureaucracy, the accepted hierarchy, the ignorance of Chinese people which is for a great part due to censorship which I also dislike very much.

All in all I do understand why people come back from China completely disgusted by the country, while others come back completely in love with it. It matters a lot where you go and what you see and experience. China does have some amazing nature, while it also has the most ugly polluted cities I have ever seen. It’s all part of China and so are all the opinions about China, the thing is this country is just far too big to be able to talk about a ‘real’ China.

2012

2009-11-30T05:42:00.000-08:00

This weekend I’ve been to the cinema in China for the first time. I’ve been to the cinema in Taiwan, and there I was almost the only one in the cinema and I was definitely the only one laughing at the jokes of the movie.

However last Friday the cinema was packed with people just like every other place in China seems to be. (Although here in Xiamen we are very lucky to have a few empty spots.) We were lucky to have a Chinese friend buying the tickets a few hours in advance for an even cheaper price, cause I’m quite sure that if we would have had to buy the tickets at the cinema, they would have been sold out. A second advantage was, that buying the tickets this way was about half the price of buying them straight from the ticket office at the cinema.

The movie we watched was 2012, which is for the people who never heard of it, a disaster movie, like “The day after tomorrow”. Since this was the only thing I knew about the movie before watching, and that I really didn't like The day after tomorrow, my expectations were very low.

Probably because of my low expectations and because I haven’t seen an action movie like this in long time I liked it a lot. The special effects were over the top and there was even room for some humor at times. Of course it was a very unrealistic movie, in one scene they escaped from an earthquake in L.A. by flying through 3 collapsing buildings. But it looked very spectacular. Though I have to admit that I would probably not like the movie if I didn’t see it in the cinema. The cinema itself was quite big with comfortable chairs and even a lot of leg space. The screen was very big and the sound was very loud, which was exactly how it should be for this movie.

Another thing which was interesting, is that China played an important role in this movie. Yes, the scriptwriters in Hollywood really looked into the developments around the world. So the end of the world is discovered by an Indian scientist in India, and the solution of this problem lies in China, in Tibet to be precise (Which makes me wonder if I saw a censored version of the movie.) Under the excuse of building a dam, the Chinese have build a massive spaceship in Tibet, which is like the Arc of Noah in the movie. However the heroes of the story remain Americans. The American president for example didn’t join the Arc because he wanted to stand by the American people until the end, needless to say that we didn’t got to see a Chinese president showing the same empathy with his people. Apart from that I’m pretty sure that Obama wouldn’t have done the same thing in reality.

The movie also tried to show the difference between the rich and poor in today’s world by having a big role for a Russian billionaire who bought himself into the Arc of Noah, while the Indian scientist, who discovered it all, is not even picked up at all. The other rich people who bought themselves in seemed to be Arabians (Muslims). The Europeans had a very limited role (just like in reality?)

All in all it was nice to go to a Chinese cinema and to see a real Hollywood action movie. I will probably go again. Finally, I will fly back to Holland the 29^th of January, and will stay for almost 3 weeks in Holland.

Formosa

2009-10-12T08:58:00.000-07:00

Taiwan was a very nice break from China. It was similar to China, but with a few big differences. Taiwan is a developed country, and it was very clear to see when I used the public transport, because that was extremely good. It was a huge change from China, to buy a train ticket without any hassle and to sit in a train on a very comfortable soft seat without anyone next to you. In China you usually have to buy train tickets in advance cause else you have to stand the whole journey and even if you can sit it’s usually a hard seat without any space. In Taiwan however it’s ok just to go to the train station and to buy a ticket without queuing for a nice seat with huge leg space. I would even say that the trains I have been on last week in Taiwan are more comfortable and cleaner than the ones in Holland. Personally I think Holland has one of the best railroads in the world, so I was very surprised to see that Taiwan has better quality trains. Apart from the trains I was very impressed by the public transport, I think it might actually be the best public transport I have experienced.

Ok enough about the transport, but it shows that Taiwan is a developed country, which makes travelling in it a lot easier. (Though China has quite good trains and busses as well for a developing country, and it’s amazing that there are public busses going to the most remote corners of China.) Because Taiwan is a developed country it was also a lot more expensive than China, this was most notable when drinking beer, because in Taiwan they pay taxes over alcohol, something which is quite normal, but which doesn’t seem to be the case in China.

Another thing which really hit me when I was in Taipei and actually everywhere in Taiwan, even in the more remote east coast, was how beautiful the people were. The girls are hotter, the guys more handsome and even the old people are looking way better than their counterparts on the mainland. Since the ethnicity of the Taiwanese is the same as the Chinese this difference is quite striking, cause you would think that they look the same or at least very similar. But somehow they don’t. Of course the main reason for this, is that Taiwanese people have more money, so they can spend more money on their clothes, and happily for them it pays off. Another reason for this is that Taiwanese people seem to have developed their own style and rather wear nice clothes without the word ARMANI in big letters, than an obvious fake one.

In one week I went around the whole island and apart from the weather it has been a great week. We were very unfortunate with the weather, cause there was a typhoon in Taiwan and so it was raining a lot. The only souvenir I now have from Taiwan is an umbrella.

For me the highlights were simply seeing a different Asian country with the same or very similar culture but than a lot more developed, and the Tarogo gorge. The Tarogo gorge is a national park in Taiwan and unfortunately I could not do any hiking there, but there were some great views because off the typhoon. The Typhoon was basically only rain and it made some really big waterfalls possible in the gorge, which were quite spectacular to look at. Those waterfalls were also on the road in the gorge and made the wonderful public transport stop, so there was no bus out of the gorge anymore. I was very glad that in only ten minutes I could catch a ride from an American out of the gorge, cause no matter how nice the views where, it would have been a very boring day to stay there the whole day.

Taiwan has been the first place for me to visit which has been part of Holland in the past. I visited one Dutch fort, called fort Zeeburgia and I was surprised to see that the Dutch colonialists where portrayed as intelligent people who have build great ships and had very advanced artillery. Although in Taipei we also visited a Spanish fort, and there the Taiwanese made the mistake of putting up a Luxembourg flag. Telling me that they didn’t had a Dutch one and that most people didn’t notice anyway. Apart from those two forts and Taiwanese people telling me that there is a historic relationship between our countries, there was nothing to see which reminded of Dutch rule in Taiwan.

Finally Taiwan has also been the first country I’ve been to where at the time of leaving they told me, that I would not be able to enter Taiwan again with the same passport. No, I didn’t do anything wrong, but my passport is just expiring within half a year. Since I didn’t know this, I guess I’m very lucky that my holiday was an early one, cause else I would have been at the border being told I could go back to China again.

Some thoughts about 60 years of Communism

2009-09-29T09:12:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I’ll leave to Taiwan. I’m looking forward to go there, because I’ve met some wonderful Taiwanese people in the past and heard good stories about the country itself. But before going there maybe I should consider why I’m getting this holiday. The first reason is the 60th anniversary of Communist rule in China, the second is the mid-autumn festival, which is a really nice festival of which I could write a really happy post. However I choose to write something less happy about the first reason.

Apart from blocking internet sites, and the trouble of getting the right visa you don’t really notice a lot of the Chinese government if you’re a foreigner. And taking in account that the Chinese have it far worse to get a visa to Holland or any other European Union country for that matter, you could almost say that it’s easy to obtain one. (Although that’s not what you think when you have to run all around the city for another document which really is only unnecessary paperwork.) And if you’re a Chinese neo-Nazi you will be bothered by some EU countries blocking your websites as well. (I know, this is not the same.)

Several days ago I saw a picture of the Dutch premier meeting Barack Obama and his wife. Our premier had a big smile on his face and looked delighted to meet the Obama’s, actually he looked so happy finally to meet this couple that he was about to ask their signature. You saw him thinking “Can I?” If he would been Chinese he would probably have gotten his camera out himself and ask if they would like to pose with him. All in all he didn’t look that good at this picture and he looked a little bit like a loser who will never say no to Barrack. It made me think by myself that this picture would never appear in the Chinese news. Cause one it would not be allowed to picture the president in this way, and second the Chinese president would act a lot more serious and stronger.

Dutch politics are a little bit like a circus nowadays and I don’t think a lot of Dutch people think very highly of most Dutch politicians. Reading about Dutch politics in China always makes me feel a little bit sad. The topics they are discussing are as good as the same, as when I left Holland, except for maybe adding a law to force people to work for a longer time. Apart from that the topics haven’t changed nor have the viewpoints of the politicians themselves. Happily enough I can always find relief in the thought that our governments decisions only influence the lives of about 16 million people and that in a few years there will already be a new legitimate government.

This is where the Chinese government is different. One it’s not legitimate cause it has never been in question who the people in charge are. And second it rules over the lives of almost a 100 times more people. It’s decisions influence roughly about 1/6 of the world population. Thinking about these two facts I’m one very happy that the Chinese don’t have a similar government circus, and two afraid that so much power in the hands of so few isn’t that ideal either…

It’s not such a comfortable thought that China’s future which will most likely determine the future of the world is in the hands of only a few people. I don’t know enough of the Chinese government and how it really works to judge, but looking at the development which is visible I would say that so far, they do a very good job for most of the Chinese. 60 years ago China was a very poor country and now cities like Xiamen are rich and don’t do a lot under for European cities. I can’t see the situation 60 years ago, but from what I’ve been told there has been great progress.

There will be big parade’s, shows and celebrations everywhere in China, and it’s deserved in some way, the development is undeniable and most Chinese people are happy and extremely proud of being Chinese. But coming from a democratic country like The Netherlands I can’t do else than wonder about how the Tibetans or the Uyghur’s or just any Chinese who disagrees with the way things are going, feels on a day like this. There is without a doubt a dark shadow to this holiday.

The only thing the Dutch government could be is a good example of how to lead a country, for the rest of the world. Unfortunately they are very far away from that at the moment, in my opinion, but at least we voted for them and at least we have the possibility to protest against whatever our government would ever think of. Hopefully China will be able to allow something like that as well somewhere in the next 60 years. Personally I think they will, because just as the Dutch government can’t continue like this, the Chinese government will be forced to change as well.

Now I’m going to bed and will write a nice blog about my travels in Taiwan next time.

Some news from XiaDa 厦大

2009-09-22T05:52:00.000-07:00

Already more than 2 weeks at university again and already a month in Xiamen. Time flies! So far I’m quite happy with my lessons and everything. Although it did surprise me that the teachers kind of supposed that we were also able to write the characters we knew. Cause I do know how to write some characters but only very few. So I will learn how to write them very soon I suppose. Besides that I think I will learn a lot of new words here, which I will hopefully also be able to use sometimes.

The first two weeks there have been a lot of students switching classes, because they thought the lessons were too easy or too hard, but now we’ll have the class which will stay the same for the rest of the semester. It’s a very international class, with only a small majority of students with an Asian background. From Europe there are only 2 Dutch people including me, two Turkish guys and four German girls. Surprisingly there is only one Russian girl in my class. It’s a surprise because there are quite a lot of Russians studying here, in Wuhu the Russians were also quite visible in the expat scene. Before going to China I had not expected to see so many Russians, but on the other hand it’s a big country and its right next to China, so it makes sense.

Most Chinese universities have a campus and are isolated from the rest of the city, and because of this many students in China never leave the campus for months. They don’t need to leave the campus and at night it’s normal that they have to be back in their dormitory before 11pm. In those dormitories they’re usually living together with 3 or 5 other students, so they don’t really have a lot of privacy. My university here also has this kind of campus, but having said that, I have to add that it’s not very isolated from the city and that it actually seems to be in the best part of the city. It’s right next to the beach and in a quite (for Chinese standards) area of the city, besides the campus is voted more than once as the most beautiful campus in China. So most students here do leave the campus once in a while, although even here there are a lot of students just staying inside I believe. Of course this is not the case for the foreign students of which most don’t even live on campus. Which leads to a lot of differences between the lifestyle of the foreign and Chinese students. Despite those differences I did manage to make my first few Chinese friends (or maybe I should call them contacts) here. Which is good, cause now I’m finally able to actually use the language I’m studying again.

I also got a teaching job again. And it’s very good that by now I speak at least a little bit of Chinese, cause this time the assistant didn’t spoke any English. Which I found surprising for an English school in a developed city like Xiamen. (Still need to write something about Xiamen itself some other time.) Another thing which is very nice here, is that last weekend there was a beach party on Saturday. There were an amazing amount of foreigners (more than there are living in Wuhu) and only a handful of Chinese, but it was definitely the best party so far in Xiamen. The ambience at the beach with nice music and beer, was very good and wins it by miles over every club in Xiamen I’ve been to so far. I heard it will be held every month, although I’m not sure if they will continue in the winter, cause now the temperature at night still stays above 25 degrees, which is a very pleasant temperature.

Finally we will already get our first holiday in October! This means that in about 1 week I’ll already have my first holiday since going back to university. Since they gave me a very good visa this time, which means that apart from staying in China I’m also able to leave China and come back without any problems, I’m thinking of a small trip to Taiwan. If possible though, cause some people say it’s no problem, and others tell me that I have to go to Hong Kong first. The later will be a bit above my budget I’m afraid.

Back to school

2009-09-07T06:47:00.001-07:00

The first busy days at university are already behind me. It was a busy week including, registration, getting to know the university, getting a new visa, meeting the other students, meeting the teachers, buying study books and finally even a whole medical checkup. Then there were also several diners and parties which were (happily enough) not organized by the university.

The first official activity was the introduction ceremony. I remember that this kind of ceremony in Amsterdam was held in the afternoon and that it included a short welcome speech and then a few free drinks to welcome the new students. It was the same in London. In China however this is a bit different, here the welcome ceremony starts at Sunday morning 8:30 and here it doesn’t even include a free cup of coffee, nor an expensive cup. Not even tea! Another difference is that after the short welcoming speech, there are several other people who need to tell the new students about the registration procedure at the university and finally they also need to inform us about the rules and regulations of the university. The last thing is a bit typical because the rules and regulations are what we in Holland would think of as common sense. In Amsterdam and London they also inform the new students about most of the possible risks they should not take, but in China they kind of exaggerate it.

A good example is that at some point the guy told us that the sea was very dangerous, because every year they “lost” at least one student. He said this in a way that half of the crowd (The people who understood English) had to giggle which made him add very seriously; “The sea is very dangerous! Don’t swim in the sea! We have a pool, so swim in the pool! Not in the sea!” So it looks like I already broke this rule before I had even heard of it.

Another noticeable event was the medical examination. It was the first time that I had to go through such a complete medical examination. It included far more doctors and research than I thought it would have, cause I thought it would be a simple blood check to see if I had aids or any other scary disease. But it turned out to be a very complete body check, everything from my body; eyes,ears, mouth, heart, lungs, skin, blood, weight, height, etc was going to be examined. In total there were about ten rooms and almost 20 doctors. If there would have been any unpleasant surprises they would have kicked me out of China by now. So as you can guess I came through the health check without any problems. Although there were a few small surprises (nothing serious), which looking on the bright side might be good to know. Although I could doubt the expertise of the Chinese doctors.

I would almost forget that last week my Chinese lessons also started. Before the classes started I had to take a placement test, so that they could put me in the right class. Having survived the first week of classes I think they placed me in quite a good class. Most of the students in my class come from other Asian countries like Korea, Thailand, Japan etc. But I’m glad that I have a few classmates who come from Europe and even one girl who comes from Holland. She already studied Chinese for 2 years in Leiden university, so I think the level of the class is a bit higher than I expected it to be. The teachers don’t speak any English in class, but I’m able to understand most of what they’re saying. Mostly because they speak very clearly, I wish all Chinese people would speak like my teachers. So far I think the classes are quite good, so I should be able to make great progress with my Chinese this year.

Finally I met a lot of other international students here. So I had a lot of social dinners and beers this last week, made my first friends in Xiamen and had a busy eventful but very enjoyable week. Although I’m very glad to have some friends around here, I do hope to meet some new Chinese friends here as well, cause so far I only know two Chinese people here. For some nice photo’s from the last days I would like to give the link of my new Swedish friend Jimmy, he’s also a new student here and updates his blog a bit more often than me. http://coffecravinginchina.blogspot.com/ Because he takes his camera to most places he’s able to upload photo’s in his dropbox. So below every post of him there is a link to some photo’s. So check it out!

A room with a view

2009-08-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

View from my window.

Last Friday after more than 2 months of travelling I finally arrived in Xiamen. From now on I will stay in the same place again, at least that’s what I’m planning to do. Much to my surprise I immediately found a room on the day I arrived. I expected to find a room somewhere this week with a lot of hassle and the whole search to be quite frustrating. But apart from the bargaining it turned out to be quite easy.

When I just got off the bus I found out that the youth hostel, where I planned on staying the first week was already full. So I went to the first internet bar I saw, and searched for the number of the University’s foreign student department. When I called them, I was surprised to hear that they would immediately send someone from a housing agency to the main gate of the university, to help me find a room.

I was even more surprised to find out that the student working for the agency could speak decent English. This is quite a change from Wuhu, where even the English majors don’t speak English that well. The first room she showed me was quite small and 600 Yuan more expensive than I had in mind. Apart from the size and the rent, I wasn’t very happy with the room. The second one she showed me, had the price I had in mind, but this room was even smaller, and didn’t have any windows. And because the room wasn’t that new anymore all in all it looked kind of depressing. Not a very good place to live, to say the least.

Fortunately the landlady had another room upstairs. This room was a lot bigger and had two big windows opposite each other, both with a great view. Outside the room there was a roof balcony, from where you could see the sea and on the other side the university campus. I immediately liked this room, but unfortunately the landlord wanted 500 Yuan more than I was planning on paying for accommodation. It was a very nice room but not being sure of getting a part time job here, I thought I could better go and find another room. Because I said that this was a really nice room, but just a bit too expensive for me the landlord offered the rent 200 Yuan cheaper, I still thought this was too expensive, so I left. Downstairs we were surprised by a phone call. “What about 300 Yuan Cheaper?”

So I experienced my first bargaining over a room, which went quite successful in my opinion. So far I heard that my new neighborhood close to the university is in general quite expensive, especially for foreigners. However I still think it’s a bit strange to bargain over the rent, that’s just impossible to do in Amsterdam. Though it’s a lot harder to find a room in Amsterdam as well.

View from the other window. Outside the photo on the right is the university.

On a side note, from my balcony you can even see the statue of the Chinese hero Koxinga, who is standing on another small Island (Gulangyu). They have a very big statue of him, because he defeated the Dutch colonists in Taiwan and reoccupied Chinese land. Therefore he is a Chinese/Taiwanese hero and one of the landmarks in my new city.

All in all I’m quite happy with my new room, although I’m not sure how long I will live here. Opposite one of my big windows, there is an empty piece of land, which will most likely turn into a construction site very soon. So maybe I’ll need to find another room again in a few weeks…
But until that happens I’m quite glad to have this place and I will first see how everything will go with the university. Tomorrow is already the registration date!

My new room

Shanghai

2009-08-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

Shanghai on a distance of only 6 hours with bus from Wuhu, is very different than Wuhu, but not so different as I expected it to be. Of course the city is far more bigger, crowded, richer, developed and international, which all together might make a huge difference, but apart from those differences, the city is still so Chinese. When I first got here I compared it to Hong Kong, but the difference with Hong Kong is a lot bigger in my opinion.

Shanghai might actually have more old colonial buildings than Hong Kong does, but despite those old European style buildings the people and the city’s atmosphere is so Chinese. There are quite a lot of foreigners here as well, but the difference with Hong Kong is, that here they all seem to be temporary residents or tourist, while in Hong Kong those other foreigners are also locals. Maybe people from Hong Kong disagree with me on that point, but if they live there for more than 20 years, they are just as local as anyone else who lived there 20 years.

There are probably some foreigners living for more than 20 years in Shanghai as well, but they are a very small minority. Compared to a cosmopolitan city like Hong Kong it’s nothing. The foreigners here look like lost expats or tourists like me, which is the same as anywhere else in China. Another big difference with Hong Kong is the attitude from the local Chinese towards foreigners, they don’t stare at you anymore like in the more remote parts of China, but they thread you far from equal. While in Hong Kong the locals thread foreigners the same way like in Amsterdam or London. In Shanghai foreigners are living in a different world. Certain bars are only visited by expats, while there are Chinese clubs who are only visited by wealthy Chinese and some lost tourists. It’s the same situation in other Chinese cities, but I guess in the city with the most foreigners in China it’s more visible. It also seems to be a rule that foreigners need to pay more here, while in most parts of China it happens more occasional. Shanghai is a bit more expensive than the rest of China, but compared to Hong Kong it’s still very cheap.

A disappointment in Shanghai was that they are busy with construction works everywhere, including the famous Bund, which made it impossible to walk there. A useless but interesting fact about Shanghai I heard is that at some point in time, 75% of the worlds construction sites where based here. I haven’t checked whether it’s true or not, but seeing them building everywhere in this city makes me believe it is. It’s impossible to walk here for 10 minutes without seeing a construction site. The new subway line in Amsterdam is nothing compared to this. Another disappointment has been the weather here, which was not very good. As good as every day it was cloudy with a few days some rain as well. Still it’s quite hot, so walking around in Shanghai is not so pleasant.

Ferrari on the Bund next to one of the many construction sites.

Despite the construction sites, the weather and the hawkers (Which I haven’t mentioned yet, but they are approaching foreigners everywhere here, which is a bit annoying sometimes) I had a nice week here. This afternoon I’ll travel to Hangzhou, less than 2 hours with the train and next weekend I’ll already be arriving in Xiamen. Time is going very fast.

A half year

2009-08-08T02:15:00.000-07:00

Today I’m exactly half a year in China. It’s the longest time I’ve been away from home. And in what kind of country! It’s a different world on this side of the world that’s for sure. After half a year I thought of writing some kind of evaluation about the last half year. First I tought of writing something about China or Chinese people. But when I was on the train towards Wuhu, I had to think about how many different opinions foreigners have about this country, and how many different experiences other foreigners have over here. The last couple of weeks I heard so many stories and opinions about China and the Chinese from other travelers, and they were all so different. Fellow travelers said that Chinese people are so friendly, rude, racist, conservative, curious, disinterested, helpful, funny, stupid, intelligent, uneducated, poor, rich, etc. I found the viewpoints so different that it’s almost like they all went to different countries. The only thing which everyone agreed to was that China is so big.

For me that might be the only thing which is undeniable. This country is just so big with so many people, that it’s possible to have so many different experiences over here. In half a year I had a lot of different experiences over here. I’ve met a lot of very friendly Chinese people, but of course there are also unfriendly people. They can be pretty rude, especially around train and bus stations and they usually spit without any shame, although in Beijing I only saw it a few times and I also know Chinese people who find this behavior very uncivilized. After half a year I’m not really sure what to think of China and the Chinese. This country has just too many different faces, as a figure of speech, though for China it’s true literally as well.

Yesterday morning I arrived back “home” in Wuhu. The place changed quite a bit since I left two months ago, things are changing very fast in China. Despite the changes it feels very familiar to be back again. Maybe it’s just that I know where I am and that I can go to places without looking at maps or thinking which way I should go. Or maybe after almost 4 months this place has become my home in China, although I wouldn’t really call it home cause it’s still so different than where I’m from. I have to admit that I’m getting used to the way things are around here, though off course I still miss my real home now and then, but not enough to make me go back yet.

The last half year past very fast, so fast that I can still perfectly remember the last day and night I was in Holland. Of course I also remember the first two weeks I had in China, when I just arrived, when everything was still new. When going for diner was still a complete surprise. Yesterday when I walked through the underground tunnel of the train station I had a déjà vu of the first time I walked through that tunnel at 5 in the morning, when I started my teaching job here, hoping that there would be someone from the school to pick me up outside the station. The teaching period was very interesting and it was nice to get to know this city in more detail. Very different than the travelling I just did, cause I saw a lot more places in China, but the idea I have about all those places is not very detailed to say the least. Well I enjoyed both periods and that’s the most important. Overall it has been a great adventure so far.

A little bit less than 2 weeks traveling left, before I finally go and search for a new home in Xiamen, where I will be studying very soon. Monday I’ll get my new visa and then Tuesday I’ll leave to Shanghai. After enjoying Hong Kong I’m curious how the economic metropolis of the mainland is going to be.

Travel update

2009-08-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

More than two weeks back in China already, so it’s about time for an update again. So first things first, I finally went to the great wall of China! It was a very impressive place to be. Definitely one of my highlights in China. I walked over a less touristic part of the wall together with three French girls and an Canadian couple. It was a really good part of the wall, with nice views and even some parts which were not restored. All together it was a very nice walk from about 4 hours.

In Beijing I Also went to the Summer Palace, but this place was quite disappointing, because there where far too many people there. It proves me that Chinese tourists want different things than Western tourists, cause they seemed to love this place, while I found it one of the most disappointing places I’ve seen in China. On the other hand the Chinese also know more of the history about this place, while I have no to little idea.

After Beijing I took a night train to Hohhot, the capital of inner Mongolia. Now I’ve been on night trains before in China, and so far my experience with them has been great (Yes, even the train ride of 32 hours was quite good.) Let me quickly add, that so far I’ve always had a nice hard sleeper, which is not a great bed, but good value for the money your paying. This time however I had a hard seat… and I was one of the lucky ones. There were also people who didn’t had a seat, and just stood or sat on the floor the whole night long. Even though I might have been luckier than others, I still had a horrible night on the train, and didn’t slept for one minute.

I went to Hohhot to visit the grasslands of inner Mongolia, who turned out to be a circus for Chinese tourists. Another sign that Chinese tourist really want different things than me. It reminded me a little bit of Centerparks in Holland, a kind of holiday resort where you can imagine to be staying in real nature. There are big camps of tents with Chinese tourists, including karaoke and “real” Mongolian restaurants. Another thing which disappointed me here, was that I didn’t feel for one second that I was in Mongolia. The people were Chinese and the ones who looked a little bit different, where still very Chinese. Maybe I would have liked it more when I went here, when I just got to China. But now after my travel experience in the west of Sichuan to the Tibetan towns, this was just simply disappointing.

After Hohhot I moved on to a very ugly city called Datong. This city was poor and polluted and made me very happy that I lived in Wuhu instead of this place. The reason however why I went here, where the Yungang caves with big Buddha statues and these were happily enough quite impressive. From Datong I took another hard seat in the train (daytime though) towards a small city called Pingyao. This is about the only Chinese city which inside the town walls hasn’t got any new buildings. All the buildings inside the city walls are 18th and 19th century. Yes, that’s quite a big change from the main Chinese cities. I really liked this place, it was nice to see an older more historical part of China.

After Pingyao I decided to go off the beaten (foreign) tourist route, and take a look at one of the not so many Chinese waterfalls. This place is visited by a lot of Chinese, but almost no foreigners go to this place. Mainly because it’s off the beaten track and it’s less easy to reach than most places in China. This trip turned out to be more interesting than I expected, it included Chinese people who wanted to see European money, a stay in two very small villages, who see very few foreigners and finally a stay in a city where most hotels didn’t accept foreigners, happily enough there was a Chinese woman who helped me to find a hotel, cause else it would have taken hours to find accommodation. Oh and of course the waterfall who wasn’t as impressive as I hoped, to be honest. But the trip itself through a more remote (poor) region of China, with sometimes a bit xenophobic, but most times very curious people, of whom most never even heard of Holland was worth it. Quite a change from the beaten track, Beijing, Pingyao, Yunnan etc, which made it very special to see.

Yesterday I arrived in Xi’an and although I enjoyed the last trip through mostly rural China, I’m glad to be back in a developed city again. Tomorrow I will go to the famous terracotta army. Hopefully I will be able to somehow put some pictures up any time soon.

Hong Kong

2009-07-15T01:39:00.001-07:00

Since I’m almost going back to China again, I wanted to write something about Hong Kong. Tomorrow I will leave to Beijing after staying in Hong Kong for the last 2 weeks. Of course I had heard about Hong Kong before I came here, I had met people from Hong Kong, and so I had an image about the place in my head, but still I was very surprised when I entered Hong Kong.

This is such an international city. The first time since I’m away that I see so many Muslims, Indians, black and white faces all at the same time, not coincidentally this is also the first time I’m not stared at the whole time. Which is quite a relief coming from the mainland. Although I have to say that Chinese people usually at least try to be polite, and normally they turn their head in a different direction as soon as they realize that their staring.

Apart from the staring it have been the first two weeks away from home that I’ve eaten so many different kinds of international food. Chinese food can be more varied than the food you get served in Chinese restaurants in Holland, the choice is bigger than just Noodles or Rice. But here I can finally eat normal salads, sandwiches, Indian food, Kebab and other kinds of international food, like Italian pasta!

Besides the food and the amount of foreigners, the Chinese people here also seem to be a bit different than those on the mainland. The biggest difference for me is that they speak a completely different language, being Cantonese, and that happily enough most of them speak some English. No funny Chinglish signs here. But it’s not only the competency these people have with English, the British influence is just very visible here. In my opinion it goes beyond the same voice in the subway, of the women who tells me to “mind the gap”, and the same road signs, driving on the left side of the road, and the same shops like 7eleven as in England.

Dancing Chinese women celebrating that they are part of China again.

The first day I got here was kind of crazy. Because it was the first of July, it was a free day for most people, and there was a celebration march of people celebrating the independence from the UK and joining the People Republic of China. After seeing this march with a lot of dragons, dancing and music I went to the park, where this march started. I had heard that there would be a second march without celebrations, but with demonstrators. Since demonstrations are unthinkable in the mainland, I thought this would be very interesting to see. When I got to the park it was completely crowded with people, who all joined the “Big Walk” through Hong Kong island. Apparently the protesters consisted of several groups with several goals, most were against the Hong Kong government and against closer ties with mainland China, for more democracy, for more critical media, but there were also a few from Greenpeace, some other environmental protection groups and even some migrant workers (Most of them from the Philippines, Thailand and other South-East Asian countries) joined, protesting for more labor rights. I Made one small video of the demonstration march, cause it’s not something you see every day and I would be very surprised if I see protesters again the next couple of months.

In the last two weeks I’ve seen most touristic spots here. The skyline of Hong Kong was impressive to see, the shopping malls a bit too crowded, though they were a great place to escape the heat, cause Hong Kong’s weather has been far too hot, and Macau’s casino’s full of addicted Chinese gamblers was entertaining. However one of the nicest places I’ve seen here, was Lamma Island. There were no cars on this small island and there were only two small villages, with a lot of fisherman and seafood restaurants. Between the villages there were two beaches, of which one of them was as good as empty. This one was a great spot for swimming, and a nice way to cool down from the heat.

View of Lamma Island, perfect to escape the big city for a day.

Finally I also met up with friends who went on exchange in Amsterdam the last semester I was there, and they brought me to some nice Hong Kong restaurants, which I would have never found on my own. A restaurant at the 3th floor of a normal building. Not a shopping mall or anything, how is anyone ever going to find such a place? It was very good to see them again, and I was glad to know some locals in this city, cause I ended up in places where I would have never gone to with other travelers.

Photo's

2009-07-08T01:06:00.000-07:00

So far I’m having a great holiday. Saw great nature, met nice people, have been surprised by the size and variety of this country, and finally I left mainland China on time. So now I’m in a big modern city with a lot of Chinese people, called Hong Kong. I’ll probably write something about Hong Kong the next time cause it’s a really different place than the mainland. For now however I thought it’s best to share a few photo’s, cause since Hong Kong is also something of a democracy, they are not blocking any sites on the internet, and I can finally share pictures again without any problems.

Litang, a Tibetan village in the west of Sichuan. A very special place at the attitude of more than 4000 meters.

Outside Daocheng, finally an empty China.

Close to Shangri-la, a very beautiful temple, were I drove my bike to.

The Tiger leaping gorge, very beautiful and the best hike I did in China and surprisingly enough very few tourist who are going there.

After a long day of walking/climbing a cold beer at the roof terrace of probably the best located hostel I stayed in so far. Just next to the gorge, with a great view.

Diner with new Chinese, Korean travel friends.

Next day we got all the way down into the gorge, which was exhausting, but definitely worth it.

The boat driver of a small bamboo boat on the Li river.

A very special landscape on the Li river.

The Chinese are very proud on this beautiful scenery so they put it on the 20 Yuan bill.

China's famous animal the Panda. He doesn't do anything more than eating and sleeping all day.

Finally, I also did some rock climbing outdoors on one of these strange mountains near the Li river. Tiring, painful and expensive (for China), but somehow geat fun.

Chengdu & the Wild west

2009-06-18T21:04:00.001-07:00

More to tell than time to write, so a short post today about some places I visited the last couple of days. To start with Chengdu, were I visited Bernhard, who’s studying Chinese there this year, and since the 10th of July was his birthday, my timing of visiting couldn’t be better. Apart from his birthday party he also showed me around Chengdu. Chengdu is the biggest real Chinese city in Western China. So my first impression was simple that this was just another big Chinese city. After visits to the famous teahouses, eating Sichuan hotpot outside and last but not least a look at China’s famous animal the Panda’s, I admit that the city does have its own character.

After Chengdu I took the bus more westwards to Kangding, which should be the unofficial start of Tibet. There were many Tibetans on the streets, but still a lot of Chinese as well. When I arrived, I first got a big disappointment. At the bus station I tried to buy a ticket to Litang, which is even more West and which was my purpose of going in this direction. At the bus station however the woman behind the desk simply told me that this was not possible. I could only understand that it was not possible, but my Chinese travel buddy (who I met on the bus) was kind enough to translate her words for me, “the situation in Litang is too complicated to allow foreigners”. So I just sat in a bus for about 7 hours, only to hear that I can buy a bus ticket back to Chengdu?

This disappointment aside I decided to make the best of the rest of the day and to decide at night whether to take a black minivan or not. Outside the bus station one of these cowboy looking guys already approached me, with the offer of bringing me there in his minivan. These black taxi’s are all over China, and their usually a bit annoying, but sometimes they are a good alternative. In Kangding I went to a big Buddhist temple with my new Chinese friend. This was a good idea cause it was nice to see the big temple and we even got a free diner which we could eat with some visiting monks together. Afterwards we walked through Kangding which is not really a special city in my opinion. Most Chinese know it because of the love song of Kangding, which I haven’t heard. What was interesting though was the amount of army guys on the streets. Chinese soldiers who are making sure that the situation is stable. It does make you wonder why there is a need for them. In Chengdu I also saw a couple of soldiers in front of the big Mao statue, but here there were a lot more, and at places which didn’t really seem to be that sensitive.

It did make me wonder about the situation in Litang, who was said to be too complicated for me to enter. It simply made me want to visit the place more, cause Kangding was apart from the presence of Tibetans still a Chinese city, in the sense that there are more Chinese people than Tibetans. After talking with some other foreign tourists who just came from Litang I decided to take the offer from the cowboy and to go to Litang next morning at 6.

The next day I arrived in Litang after a long bus journey on a horrible road. This place was really different than Kangding, and it felt like I had left China. Almost all the people in this place didn’t look Chinese. Their skin was darker, they were bigger, their noses were almost my size, their hair was thicker and the clothes they wore were exotic. It was also clear that Mandarin Chinese was not their first language. Most of the time they didn’t seem to understand what I said to them and the other way around I mostly failed to understand them as well. Some also seemed to dislike to speak Mandarin, so instead they used all their English to have a conversation. This was usually not more than hello, one girl who really tried looked it up in here schoolbook and managed to say goodbye. The architecture of the buildings was also very different than that of normal Chinese cities, here they had beautiful Tibetan houses. The last thing which makes this city special, is that it’s more than 4000 meters above sea level, this makes the sun very strong and the night surprisingly cold. Finally I didn’t saw that many soldiers here, only a few at a government building, but that’s quite normal, so why the official bus refuses foreigners is still a big question for me. It was easier to spot foreigners in this small city than it was in Wuhu, which is mainly cause the city center only consisted of a main street and some small streets around it, but still.

After Litang I moved on to a similar city called Daocheng, where I met another Dutch guy and an American couple, who were travelling the same direction as me to a place called Shangri-la. Quite a touristic town with a lot of Chinese and foreign tourists. This is where I’m now, tomorrow I will move onwards to visit the Tiger Leaping Gorge, and after that Dali and Kunming.

Goodbye Wuhu

2009-06-07T20:24:00.000-07:00

My last post from Wuhu. Tonight I will be on the train to Chengdu. For more than 30 hours! I’m really looking forward to travel again, but ouch, thirty hours. Two nights, and one day, in a train. Guess I’m going to get back on a lot of missed hours of sleep… Apart from sleeping and reading, I really have no idea how I’m going to pass the time. Let’s hope there will be nice people in my cabin.

Today I’m also exactly 4 months in China. Which makes the perfect day for a new adventure. Wuhu was a nice city to live in for the past 3 and half month. It was an easy city to live in because it’s quite small, but still feels like a city and has most conveniences of a city. It has also been a great place to save money, cause live is so cheap here. Finally it has also been a very good introduction to China. I saw the fast economic development, the big contrast between the few dirty rich and the rest, fake copied Western brands, of which the best one has the slogan “Anything is Possible”, and of course the strangest kind of food. My Chinese improved drastically as well, mainly cause there are no people who speak English, except the other foreigners. I experienced the hospitality of the Chinese, some welcomed me to their home and offered me their food, for little in exchange. Dutch people could learn from their hospitality and hopefully I did. On the other side I also experienced their strong hierarchical society, which is in my opinion the biggest difference with my country, and something I will (hopefully) never get used to. Because it leads to very rude behavior towards people with a lower social position, and sometimes that's just not the right way to thread other people. In this aspect the Chinese can still learn a lot from the Dutch equalitarian society. Ironically the country is still lead by Communists.

Although I mostly enjoyed my life in Wuhu, it’s the first city I lived in which I wouldn’t recommend for a visit. This is simply because, despite Wuhu being an good place to live, it is an ugly city compared to places like Amsterdam, Enkhuizen and London. Of course this comparison is a bit unfair since Wuhu is a poor city without any places of interest, and there’s simply a lot more to see in the rest of China.

Evan, (the new American teacher) who is replacing me, turned out to be a really good guy, it’s too bad he didn’t came earlier. Although of course if he had come earlier, my point of being in Wuhu would have been gone. His situation is almost frightening the same as mine three and half month ago. Same apartment, same job, same misunderstandings with Chinese people, the same lack of a schedule, and finally as good as the same motivation of going to China. What’s not the same however is the salary. He’s going to do the same work for a thousand Yuan less! Ridiculous since he’s the native speaker with the real American accent, which is the kind of English all the Chinese want to learn, and which is why foreign American teachers are usually paid more. He’s also not promised a raise, and this suddenly makes me understand my boss, her decision of ending my contract completely. If she continued my contract she needed to pay me a thousand more each month, which would be two thousand Yuan more than what she’s now paying to Evan. I would have done the same in her situation, it’s crazy to pay so much more for a non-native teacher, if you can also get a native for less.

So tonight I’ll start my big trip, with a long train ride to Chengdu. Where I plan to stay for a couple of days. After I plan to go even more west, to a Tibetan town (Litang) outside of Tibet, but at more than 4000 meters above sea level, (according to my Rough guide it’s even 300 meter’s higher than Lhasa) so it will be very similar to Tibet. After this I’ll move on to the South, to see the Tiger leaping gorge, Kunming, and on to Guilin to take the river cruise on the Li river to Yangshuo. After that it will be about time to move onto Hong Kong to get a new Chinese visa, it expires the 2nd of July, so I really need to arrive there the 1st of July, which is coincidentally the day that the UK gave Hong Kong back to China. Hong Kong should be an amazing metropolis, even more so now that I arrive there after traveling for 2 weeks through the undeveloped, more isolated wild West and South west of China. In Hong Kong I will have a break for about two weeks, and after that I’ll continue my travels with a convenient only three hour flight to Beijing. Not sure if I’ll be able to update my blog every week from now on, but be assured that I’ll try my best.

Chinese kids

2009-06-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

Last week I finished my teaching career in China. I had the last class at the middle school and thought this would be a good time to write something more about those students. These kids are about 14 to 16 years old, so they are right in their puberty, which is everywhere an very interesting period. Although they are in their puberty, they look like they just started it, the first time I saw them, I guessed their age at about 12 to 13. It’s not only the way they look, it’s also their behavior. They behave a bit childish. I’m not sure if it’s just my perception, but I got the general idea that most Chinese students grow up a bit slower than those in Europe. I guessed the daughter of my boss at 15, she turned out to be almost 18.

My theory is that they grow up slower because of a lack of freedom, and responsibilities. Sometimes I feel a bit sorry for them, cause they have almost no free time, and they never have to decide anything. For them there’s simply no choice, they already have been told what to do. A normal day in the life of these students, starts with their first class at 8am, then they have a break and have lunch at 12, class starts again at 2pm until around 5:30, then they go home to their parents, have diner, which is followed by their homework, and then finally they can go to bed. In the weekends they usually have some other classes, or their parents put them on some kind of language or music school. And of course there is still homework to be finished for the next week. All in all, they have about one afternoon left of free time. Which made my question on the spoken examination, “What do you like to do in your free time?” a very difficult one to answer.

The students are also extremely competitive, which is stimulated by a list, which shows the best student of the class all the way to the worst students of the class. This list is based on the students performances on all the important examinations they have to do. Maybe I haven’t been a teacher for long enough at this school, but I do have the impression that the students don’t learn how to work together, or the value of cooperation. Which could be more important for some of them than the English language will ever be for them.

The teaching at the middle school reminded me of my own time at school. The contrast however seems to be quite big, cause at my Dutch school we had a lot of afternoons free, and the homework was often voluntary. We could usually decide for our own if we wanted to do the homework or not. After all it’s for our own good to do the homework or not right?
Because a lot of those students don’t want to learn English it also reminded me of my French classes at school. I really disliked those classes and in the end I failed the subject, and apart from about 2 sentences I am not able to pronounce or understand anything of it. Which I now think is a shame cause it would be nice to speak another language, but also proves me that it really doesn’t make sense to teach something to someone who doesn’t want to study it in the first place.

This last point shows that there are similarities as well, I’m just pointing out the differences in my post. The kids attitude towards school is more or less similar, both the Dutch and Chinese kids dislike some subjects. Like me not enjoying my French classes, a lot (most?) of Chinese students dislike their English classes.

Parents

2009-05-25T20:38:00.000-07:00

After last week’s frustration this time a much happier post about a nice small holiday with my parents. Off course it was really good to see them again and besides that we had a very special holiday.
My mom was happily surprised by China, I guess that after a lot of critical stories from me and my dad, her expectations might have been a bit low. But she found most Chinese people very friendly, despite having very different attitudes towards social customs, like spitting on the ground, not saying hello in the supermarket to the shop assistant and so on. They also enjoyed the Chinese food more than they expected. But for my dad this, might also because he was in much better company than he usually is in China.

I showed my parents around the city of Wuhu which took some more time than expected, cause for them there were still a lot of interesting things to see. Maybe that’s not really because of Wuhu, but will be the same with every smaller Chinese city, when you come from such a different country like Holland. My mom really loved the old traditional street markets, and both my parents were amazed by how fast the Chinese destroy old buildings and build some new ones. I remember that in my first weeks in Wuhu, this was also one of the things which made the most impression on me. For example the hotel they stayed in wasn’t even a year old, and the number of buildings being destroyed on the way from the bus station to the hotel were too many to count on one hand, or two. Maybe with the three of us we could manage. But simply said, in these smaller Chinese cities it just feels like there demolishing and building everywhere. It’s also because the way they destroy a building is very different than in Europe. In Holland they usually try to repair old buildings, but here they just destroy it and build a new one. It’s probably because it makes room for more jobs, and limits unemployment a bit. In Holland building like this would be impossible cause it would be way too expensive and there would not be enough people as well.

For the trip to Huang Shan, the Yellow mountain, I really need to figure out how to upload pictures on my blog. Cause this was definitely the most beautiful nature I’ve seen in China so far. Although I have to say that it was also the first time I’ve seen nature in China. However there are a lot of Chinese who believe this is the most beautiful mountain in China. We went two days to this mountain and we were extremely lucky with the beautiful weather those days. The weather was very clear and sunny which made up for a really pleasant trip to Huang Shan. The first day we were there was on Thursday, and it was not that busy (not for China that is), but the next day on Friday it was really busy and walking around was a lot less relaxed with all those big groups of Chinese tourist walking in front and behind us. So for anyone thinking of going to this mountain, I advise you to go between Monday and Friday.

Apart from the beautiful mountains we climbed, we were amazed by how the Chinese made this national park. They build stairs all the way up to the mountain, which might sound easy, but these mountains are very steep, and it should have been impossible to make those stairs using machinery, without destroying the original landscape. So that means it’s all handmade. How many Chinese people have worked building this park? The result is very impressive, it’s possible for the oldest Chinese people to climb this mountain, thanks to those stairs and cable cars.

All in all a really nice holiday, and now my last days as a teacher, before my big holiday. I’ll put the photo’s up as soon as I found a solution. Or as soon as, China lets me access this site in the normal way. I hope that will be after the 4th of June, although the first of October might be a bit sensitive as well, cause at that day the Communist party will celebrate its 60th anniversary.

Access denied

2009-05-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

This week I wanted to write something about the Chinese students I have. Last week I gave spoken English exams at the middle school, and it was interesting to talk with some of the students individually. However something else came up so I’ll leave the Chinese teenagers for another time.

This week someone decided that blogger, (which is a really nice site helping people like me host a blog for free on the internet, allowing for photo’s and video’s with as good as no advertisement) should be blocked. This means that I now have to use proxy sites to view my own blog here in China. Although I’m still able to read and update my blog, it does bother me. I don’t like it that someone just decides from one day to another that a certain blog-host is unwanted. Because on one of the blogs someone wrote something bad about China? It stops other bloggers to blog, and so there are less interesting things to read on the web. Besides that, it does stop a lot of Chinese people reading the blogs on blogger. This definitely doesn’t improve the understanding from China of the rest of the world.

The first time I experienced China’s authority on the web, was at the site hyves.nl, which is a Dutch social networking site like facebook. It’s really strange that they blocked this site cause, one it’s in Dutch and two there is nothing political about it. It would make more sense to block facebook, since there are a lot of support Tibet, Taiwan is not China and similar groups on it.
Since the end of March China is also blocking Youtube, and this one is really annoying me. This was (is, in most countries) one of the most useful websites of the internet in my opinion, and although I can access the site using the same proxy sites, somehow I can’t view the videos anymore. So this does make it impossible for me to view anything on Youtube, which indeed makes the site completely useless. They probably blocked Youtube because in March it was 60 years ago that China “liberated” Tibet, and Youtube has a lot of videos about protesting Tibetan’s being….. (I’ll leave that one to your imagination, oh no wait maybe you can go to youtube, if you’re not in China.)

Other sites which are most of the time blocked, include the BBC, CNN, Amnesty, independent critical political blogs, and pornographic websites. The last one is because pornography is illegal in China, although you don’t really notice that apart from the internet. Dutch news websites are not blocked, the Chinese seem to have forgotten that there are smaller languages as well. Or maybe they think that Dutch websites will not be harmful for the Chinese citizens cause they don’t speak it anyway. For me it’s an advantage though, cause it’s nice to be able to read the more critical Dutch news sites without having to use a proxysite. So far the only Dutch site, which I couldn’t access was Hyves, and I’m sure they made a mistake with doing so, cause I can’t think of one reason why they could have blocked it. It’s nice to appreciate my native language again and it does show me that it can be a real advantage to know a smaller language as well. The English and the French in China are forced to use those proxysites if they want to read news.

They’ve probably blocked Blogger because, another sensitive date is approaching. The 4ht of June. This year it will be 20 years ago that the Tiananmen demonstrations were cracked down by the Chinese government. I don’t want to be another foreigner complaining on the internet about China’s policy regarding the freedom of speech and the freedom of press. But briefly said, I think it’s sad and disappointing that China after the Olympics is still not able to allow for a more liberal policy on the internet and more important the media. Maybe now that China’s power is still rising they’re even less influenced by the West and will be even more strict about things like this. I’m not able to understand the Chinese media yet, but looking at the topics they are definitely avoiding some more sensitive topics.

A topic they are definitely not avoiding though, is the swine flu. I guess it’s because it’s only a couple of years after the SARS epidemic, but they really seem to be afraid of it. It really makes me wonder what is written in the Chinese newspapers. What are the newspapers telling them? The new American teacher is suddenly not coming, cause the boss thought he could have swine flu. He comes from a country with the most people infected, so it didn’t seem to be a good idea to hire him. I’m not sure to believe this though, cause it does sound a lot more realistic that the American just changed his mind, and doesn’t want to go to Wuhu. But since they are really afraid of the swine flu somewhere it does sound possible that the kindergartens don’t want an American teacher who just came out of the US.

Since the American is not coming the boss has asked me to keep working until the end of June. Since I already made travel plans for June, and I don’t want to change them, I told her I could work for her until the first week on June, but not longer. She was not very happy to hear that, but well it was her decision to end the probation period wasn’t it? The good news is that I keep my apartment in these last weeks in Wuhu.

So let’s hope that China stops blocking internet sites as soon as possible, cause using the proxy sites, is a lot slower than usually. Apart from that I'm not able to change the lettertype or to post images... I like to keep this blog, but I'm afraid I do need to find a better proxy site, else I'll have to move to another bloghost.

A few days off

2009-05-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

The sign in the elevator of my apartment. For 3 months I saw this sign every day.

Last week I asked my boss for 4 days off. My parents will come to visit me next week and they will only be here for about 5 days, it will be nice to show them around Wuhu and to travel with them to the famous mountain, Huang Shan, or in English the Yellow Mountain. Showing them around Wuhu won’t take too long, cause I have to admit that there isn’t that much to see here. Although on the other hand it’s so different from Holland that there is actually a lot to see and I’m sure this city will be full of surprises for my mom. My dad has probably been too often to China to be surprised. My mom has never been here, so I’m curious what she will think of it. She also doesn’t really like China, so I can be sure that they don’t use me as an excuse to have a far away vacation, but that they really come to see me.

Back to asking those days off. My assistant informed me, that she couldn’t arrange 4 days off. This would be impossible because those 4 days are normal weekdays, and our school has contracts with the middle school and the kindergartens. This means that they have to send a foreign teacher to these places on those days. I understood this problem, but that didn’t really change my situation. Cause I’d still rather go to Huang Shan with my parents than teach in the middle school. My assistant told me that the boss would probably be very angry with me if I would insist on those free days, and that she would not accept this.

With this in mind, I went to my boss and explained to her that I needed four days off. I was very proud that I could already explain this in Chinese, and looking at her facial expression she understood completely. Her first answer was simple “bu keneng”, I also understood this, “No, not possible”. Then she asked my assistant to come and translate for her and I heard the same story my assistant had told me before. It affects the image of our school if we can’t send you to the middle school and the kindergartens, so it’s not possible. I insisted on having those 4 days off, and revered to the contract, cause this worked before in an argument with my boss. Somehow she really respects the contract, which I think is a bit odd, cause the contract only exists on my computer and she hardly knows what’s written in it, besides the contract is only in English so she’s not even able to read the contract. Since I insisted on those free days, my boss understood that it was impossible to deny me those days off. So she gave me 4 days off, just like I asked. However she did warn me that, I should be aware of any consequences this might have, since I still am in my probation period.

This Sunday I had a formal meeting with my boss, in which she told me that she decided to end the probation period. She found a new American teacher and he will arrive in about one week, and will take over all my classes. I can’t say they didn’t warn me for this and I was not surprised to hear this because my assistant had already told me this in advance. Can’t say I’m too disappointed with her decision either, cause I was planning on working until the end of June and now I’m working until the end of this week. The boss has been kind enough to offer me accommodation for a longer time, so I’ll probably stay in Wuhu for about 3 more weeks.

It depends a bit on the accommodation though, cause I will now have to move to the dormitory room in our school. The new American teacher is going to live in my apartment, he really is replacing my live in Wuhu. I offered my boss to help him settle in the first few weeks, to give him some advice and to introduce him to some other foreigners. She appreciated that and I think, I can leave this place on good terms with her. I don’t like my boss, but she always paid my salary on time and the apartment she rented for me has been a very good place to live. Apart from that I do appreciate it that she offers me accommodation for the next couple of weeks, cause she doesn’t really need to do that.

So a long story short, I’m fired after 3 months already. Which is a new experience for me, cause I don’t remember ever getting fired before. Although let me put it differently, after a minor conflict with my boss, she decided not to prolong my probation period. This week is already my last working week here in Wuhu. My summer holiday is starting early this year. So I will stay in Wuhu to see parents, to travel with them to Huang Shan, to say goodbye to the friends I made here, and to prepare my travel plans. Planning to go traveling for almost 3 months around China, and then finally arriving in Xiamen at the end of August to enter university. Xiamen should be a really nice place, I’ve heard really good things about this city. It should be a bit bigger than Wuhu, but still not a big city (not for China), and it should be a lot more developed than Wuhu. I want to go there cause it’s supposed to have the best climate of China and it has a beach. Which made someone describe it as the Barcelona of China. Which sounds attractive right? Even though I’ve never been to the real Barcelona.

One last thing I have to tell about my very soon to be ex-boss is that I have no idea what her name is. Everyone calls her headmaster or boss, unless they use some bad word to describe her. Which they now do quite often, cause she also decided to cut down the salaries of my Chinese colleagues, which already wasn’t that high. She did introduced herself to me when we first met in February, but since then I never heard her name, so I guess for me it’s just the boss.

Nanjing

2009-05-04T21:04:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the Chinese celebrated labor day, and most Chinese had 3 days free from work. In China people are rarely given days off, so for a lot of Chinese this is one of the few times a year, they can visit their family or do some touristic traveling. One of my Chinese friends invited me to join her and her friends to travel to Nanjing, and so I also did some traveling this weekend. Just like the Chinese.

I already went to Nanjing once and I found it a really nice city, although I also thought it was a bit too big and crowded. But I’m afraid I will have the latter with a lot of Chinese cities, cause I guess most cities here are just very busy with people. It was quite exciting to join the Chinese students on their trip to Nanjing, cause the ones I knew spoke very poor English to say the least. It’s a good thing my Chinese is improving a lot faster than I expected cause else communication with them would have been very difficult. Now it’s ok, as long as they speak slowly and use very simple words, I’m afraid they feel like talking to a child though. However I was glad to see that one of the students who I hadn’t met before spoke some decent English.

The first time I visited Nanjing, I went to the touristic old center of the city, a small Buddhist temple in a park and the 1912district to have diner. The 1912 district is a district with a lot of bars, restaurants and clubs, and this is the kind of district which doesn’t exist in Wuhu. Nanjing is only 2 hours by train from Wuhu, but the city feels very different from Wuhu. I think it’s simply because Nanjing is a lot richer and bigger than Wuhu. In Nanjing people dress themselves a lot better, there are traffic rules, there are Western restaurants, there are even a few other foreigners visible, at the train station you hear an English voice and the foreign language bookstore actually sells foreign books instead of English, Japanese and Korean study books, like the foreign language bookstore in Wuhu. Although I was happy to buy a few very handy Chinese study books at this store. Basically Nanjing is one of those big modern Chinese cities, while Wuhu is one of those provincial Chinese cities which desperately tries to be a modern city. They do this with naming everything modern, my apartment is called Modern long river and I work in the Modern foreign language training center. But calling everything modern does not really make it modern.

This Saterday we went to the Zhongshan national park, which is a scenic area in Nanjing. Actually the place consist of three scenic areas, of which we only visited two. Not much to my surprise this place turned out to be crowded with Chinese tourists and even a few foreign tourist. The bus ride to the park was horrible, I had the feeling that we were together with 200 sweating Chinese on one bus. Needless to say that it was impossible to sit. Unfortunately Nanjing is very big and this park is not very close to the train station, so this bus ride took about one hour. Which makes up for the most uncomfortable moment in China so far.

Chinese friends taking pictures.

Happily enough this horrible bus ride was more than worth it. The national park turned out to be a very nice place to visit. The first place we visited, the Ming tomb scenic area was nice and peaceful. It was nice to walk around there and to take photos. Yes that’s something Chinese tourists like to do. This meant that we were not walking that much, cause there had to be taken pictures about everything which looked interesting. And in my opinion also a few times at not so interesting places. The second scenic area we visited included the tomb of emperor Sun Yatsen on a hill, and this one was more impressive. It was a long climb on the stairs to his tomb, but I liked the architecture and it was really good to see something more historical in China. And the view of Nanjing on top of the hill was nice as well. Although this should be better when the weather is less cloudy. Because one of my Chinese friends had some connection with someone who is in charge of this national park, we didn’t had to pay the entrance fee. Which is just one of the advantages of traveling together with Chinese friends.

On Sunday we went to the Nanjing massacre memorial, which was interesting to see, but not really a nice place to visit. I had mixed feelings about the place, it was nice to learn a bit more about the 2^nd world war in China but I found it all a bit too one sided. The museum showed the unsatisfied attitude of China towards recognition of the massacre from Japan. At almost every sign in the museum you could read who was responsible for these cruel inhuman actions, and those signs were in Chinese, English and Japanese. The last one is useless in my opinion, cause Japanese people should know better than to visit this place.

I had a great weekend and I enjoyed my second trip to Nanjing a lot. I like to live in Wuhu, but sometimes it’s good to get out of Wuhu and see something of the more developed China. It was also very interesting to travel together with Chinese students and I got more than enough practice with speaking Chinese for this week. I guess now it’s time to learn some new words, cause my vocabulary level is just too small to get to the real interesting conversations.

Chinese football

2009-04-27T22:57:00.000-07:00

Saturday I watched a football match at the Olympic stadium in Wuhu. Yes, Wuhu has an Olympic stadium with a surprising capacity of about 25 thousand seats. I had been to this stadium once before on a Monday afternoon to see how it looked like, and to my surprise I could just walk inside and take a look. Which surprised me because I expected a big stadium to be closed for visitors without any purpose of being there. The stadium looked a lot better than I expected and I decided that I wanted to see at least one match here, just to see what it was like in China. In China football is not very popular, so I couldn’t really imagine how a match would be.

The stadium is quite new and I guess it’s been build to hold the regional qualification matches for the Beijing Olympics. Wuhu is the second city of the Anhui province and has a central location in Anhui, so it makes some sense to put a big stadium here. Although it seems that this stadium was very useful for those provincial qualification matches, the stadium seems a bit useless today. Today this place is only used a couple of times a year as a football stadium, a few times to hold a concert and on a as good as daily basis to play golf. (the last thing I still have to see, but I’ve been told that they use it as place to play golf in.) Golf is quite popular among the rich Chinese, so it could be. But personally, I do think that a football stadium is not really a place to play golf in. Didn’t you need very short grass to play golf?

We were extremely early at the stadium, because I was together with Peter who speaks even worse Chinese as I do, so none of us could figure out what time the match would start, which implied that we were at the stadium 3 hours prior to the match. This didn’t really bother us cause now we had more than enough time to check out the surroundings and to have lunch before the match started. When we got back to the stadium one hour before the match, the ambience outside the stadium was a bit disappointing. It made me think that I finally found a place which was not completely crowded with people in China.

One hour before the match there were a few fanatic fans, some police and a some volunteers around the stadium. The fanatic fans were quite friendly and there was even someone who could speak a little English. Because they had two tickets left they invited us to join them in the stadium. Their tickets were half the price we paid for our tickets because their seats where in the sun and ours where in the shadow. However I’m very glad we went with them, because the rest of the stadium was quite boring. And since the match was very bad as well, now at least we had something to see. The stadium was like I said a nice place and it would definitely not misfit in the Dutch competition. In my opinion it was a lot better looking than the one they have in Eindhoven. But the problem is that it was very empty during the match. The stadium has about 25 thousand seats, but I guess only 5 thousand people turned up to watch the match, if not less.

The fanatic supporters were with only about 50 man, and they seemed like a bad copy of European supporters. They wore the blue Anhui jersey and they song a lot, but all in all it felt a bit sad. I’m not sure if it was because it felt like copied fan behavior or if it was because the football itself was so bad, that I can’t imagine them having any real feelings for it, but it was just strange to see despite their enthusiasm. Being a fan of Ajax I thought, I had not really been spoiled with great football nor prizes the last couple of years. Well, compared to this, I was wrong. It was very bad football and I was glad that we choose to sit with the fanatic supporters cause their behavior was a lot more interesting than the match itself. It was also interesting to see that there were no stewards in the stadium, there were only volunteers, who were students and I wonder how voluntary they actually where. Apart from them there were police officers, who didn’t seem to do anything, they placed a camera towards the fanatic supporters, but apart from that they just said down, smoked cigarettes and made calls on their mobile phones.

The foreign star of the Anhui team comes from Brasil and is called Renaldo, I'm not joking you.

The match was between the Anhui team and a team from Beijing. The Anhui team won the match 3 - 2 so everybody was happy, because there were no fans from the Beijing team in the stadium. The difference could have been bigger, but the Anhui team scored an own goal in the last 5 minutes and wasted a lot of good opportunities to score. All in all it was an entertaining day at the stadium and it was very interesting to see a football match in China.

Teaching life

2009-04-20T21:29:00.001-07:00

Since I’m now working for exactly two months in Wuhu, it’s about time to tell something about the teaching experience. To start with my students, I teach children (some just out of the baby stage) from 3 years old to adults from about 28 years. However most students I have are middle school students, I teach about 650 of those students between the age 14 to 16, divided over 11 classes.

So let’s start with this middle school. This one is definitely the most difficult and after 2 months I’m still not completely sure how to deal with this school. The difficult thing is one, that the classes consist of 50 to 60 students and two, most students don’t understand what I mean if I’m speaking English to them. This makes the students lose interest before the lesson has started and makes the classroom a bit difficult to control. Apart from this there is a third problem in this school and that’s a different perspective on teaching and learning. In these classrooms I have encountered several cultural clashes. I’ll not get into much detail in this post, but let’s just say that I expect different things of the students than the Chinese teachers do. The students on the other hand expect a similar teacher to their Chinese teacher, with only a different background. One small example; one student beats another students with an plastic bottle on the head, I call her to explain herself, she stands up and looks down outside the window. I want her to look at me cause I think it’s very rude not to look at the teacher if he asks a question, so I ask her again to explain herself to me. My assistant explains it to her in Chinese, but her behavior doesn’t change. So I send her out of my classroom. The rest of the class thinks this is unfair, but doesn’t protest. One of the students explains to me that looking down for Chinese students towards the teacher, is supposed to show respect for the teacher. It sounds strange but I think it’s true cause I noticed it more often now, actually it happens about every time I ask a question to which the student doesn’t know the answer. This is just one small example of the cultural problems I encounter at this middle school.

Ok, let’s go the small ones. The kindergarten’s are the places where probably the most money is involved, parents send their precious only child to these places to make sure the 3 year old will be ahead when he starts his real education. In China this is almost always an only child and that makes the parents willing to spend/waste/invest a huge amount of money in this child. These kids are learning English from when they are 3 years old! In a city were basically no one speaks any English at all. It’s crazy if you ask me.

So what do I do in these classes? Well I wasn’t looking forward to these classes at first, but these classes actually turn out to be to most easy of the teaching. Well teaching might not be the right word for it. Usually I review some easy words they have learned before and after that we’ll do a game and then class is over. These classes are only 20 minutes and there are always a few girls who accompany the children, and who are quite helpful, which sometimes makes me feel like I only have to be present and think of what to do.

Finally the adult class. This is the only class I am completely on my own, without any assistance. This class is quite easy as well and a bit more serious than the other ones, this is about the only class where, I feel that I’m teaching and where the students can understand most of what I’m saying as long as I speak slowly. My class is spoken English so I don’t need to explain any difficult grammar issues. This class is also a lot smaller and is the only class where I know all the English names of my students. This makes it possible for me to get to know the students and because their English is a bit better than that of those at the middle school, it’s nice to get a little more interesting conversations than the usual “Do you like China?” and “Do you like Chinese food?”

All in all the teaching has been worth to try. I learned a lot here and although it can be difficult sometimes it can be enjoyable on other times. It’s just sad to think in numbers; about 650 or more students at the middle school and only about 10 which I can have a nice conversation with. I’m not sure how long I will stay here, it’s not completely up to me I’m afraid cause they can fire me when there’s no work anymore. However if it’s up to me I’ll stay here until the start of the summer. At least that’s the plan for now.

Frustration

2009-04-14T01:31:00.000-07:00

Going abroad is just as exciting as it can be difficult. Because I thought of this before I went to China, I thought it would be a good idea to read some things about Chinese culture and about common difficulties Westerners encounter when they go to China. I’m very glad that I did these readings and happily enough I also studied a bit of Chinese before I came here. Of course the real experience is very different from reading about possible difficulties, but things like, last minute changes in my work schedule are easier to accept because I’m already counting on things like this to happen. And it’s good to know that in certain touristic places in Beijing, there are people who will try to get money out of you in an unpleasant way. These infamous teagirls and art students don’t exist in Wuhu though.

So far my stay in China has been relatively easy and so far I haven’t experienced any major difficulties. Which is partly thanks to some good preparation and probably for a greater deal thanks to some luck. This said there is just one thing which simply frustrates me here and which was not mentioned anywhere. I’ll probably be the first to write about this small problem with live in Wuhu. I’m not exactly sure if this is a problem I only have with Wuhu or with China in general.

So what is it? Well as you know one of my hobbies is football and I’m quite a big supporter of the Football club Ajax. In March they still played in the Eufa cup and sometimes it wasn’t that easy to get up in the middle of the night to watch the match in bad quality on my computer. But on the other hand it was great that I could watch the match live all the way in China. So although I did encounter a small amount of homesickness during some matches this is not which leads to my frustration. No, but you have to understand that in Holland there is another footballclub which is the big rival of Ajax, and this rival manages to frustrate me more in Wuhu than it did in Amsterdam…

The first week I was in Wuhu I walked past a Kappa store. Which is not so strange because there are a lot of shops from the big branches like Adidas, Nike, Kappa and so on. However what was strange, was that when I walked past this shop, I looked in the window and was shocked. I use the word shocked to indicate that I was more than surprised and to add some negative feeling. (Because in China there are more than enough surprises.) At first I couldn’t believe my eyes, but in the window I saw a Kappa sporting jacket. Ok this still makes sense, it was a Kappa store after all. But, wait… on the jacket there was a certain logo… of a certain Dutch football club… feyenoord… How on earth could that happen to be in a shop in Wuhu? And how on earth could anyone ever think of selling the ugly thing? And finally would there actually be anyone that stupid to buy it???

In my first week in Wuhu I did not see these clothes and I almost forgot about it. Until I saw the first Chinese person wearing this jacket. It was weird, I felt some anger towards him, but I didn’t show it and tried to ignore him, although it did get me wondering if he had any idea of what he was wearing. At the moment I have seen several Chinese people wear this jacket and although this might sound as a minor thing, for me this is one of the biggest frustrations of live in Wuhu. A lot of things which I’m not used to and not too pleased with, I can accept because I’m a guest here and I can be glad that it’s different back home. But this is hard to accept for me, mainly because they really have no idea of what they are wearing… They really don’t have any clue, I asked two of them and they told me that they had no idea what it was.

So finally a small suggestion from me, please don’t buy anything from Kappa in the future. You can stop buying any products from puma as well from now one, cause in the near future, only a few months from now, this will be the new sponsor of that other club. Happily enough puma is not doing so good in China, at least not in Wuhu, even though Usain Bolt showed his golden puma shoes a lot longer than his race lasted at the Olympics. On the other side, I’m afraid that since Wuhu is lacking behind a bit, these kappa clothes that frustrate me will be sold long after I leave this place.

I just wish there where more Chinese wearing jackets like this, and actually knowing what they're wearing.

Fuwuyuan

2009-04-07T00:36:00.000-07:00

Another observation mainly made in restaurants, but it’s the same in a lot of shops, hotels, bars and even a place like the gym. Not that I go to the gym, but I did take a look there, cause a lot of Chinese people see this as a new modern thing, and the gym promoters have given me about 10 flyers of the two competing gyms this city has.

When I enter a restaurant in China, at the door there is usually one, two, or even a line of waitresses standing to open the door for me and to welcome me. The amount of people at the door depends a bit on how expensive the restaurant is and how many guests they have at that moment. This means that if we eat in a more expensive place (for Wuhu/China, this is close to the price of junk food in Amsterdam) and we happen to be the only guests, that it’s not uncommon to be welcomed by a big group of waitresses. This is kind of amusing while at the same time a bit intimidating sometimes.

Somewhere the behavior of the waitresses reminds me a bit of restaurants in America. In America the waiters are very welcoming and friendly but they have to be, because their salary is made out of tips and of course they only get a good tip if they do a good job. In China however there are no tips and I’m sure that if you try to give one they will give back the money. How they do get their salary is a very good question, cause the food and especially the drinks are sold in restaurants for only a few kuai more than the cost price. If I buy a beer in a normal restaurant it will cost me about 5 kuai, which is almost 60 eurocents. This bottle will cost about 4 kuai in the supermarket and I’m sure the restaurants can get it for less, but there’s no need for math to figure out that they earn far less with drinks as the restaurants in Holland do.

This small and amusing restaurant observation leads to the biggest problem China has, and which is the main reason for almost all the other problems this country has to face. Whether it’s pollution, unemployment, poverty, human rights or social unrest, it’s all because of the massive population. Everywhere you go there are people. Too much people. I come from one of the most populated countries in the world, but it feels empty compared to China. Numbers are overrated in my opinion and they are not much more than a indicator. However just to think about, for every Dutch person on this planet there are almost (unofficially 1.5 billion Chinese) a hundred Chinese people. So one Dutch person equals 9 Chinese football teams plus coach. In comparison, one Dutch person would only equal about 20 Americans. Not even two football teams! China is about the same size as the United States, maybe a little bigger.

A normal evening at Nanjing train station.

Paradoxical this population problem is also the cause of the whole China hype, and the main reason why the rapid economic growth is possible. Employment is extremely cheap because there are too much people to do the job, this makes it possible for employers like restaurants to have more staff than guests on some days. This makes service in restaurants in general very good, because the waiters and waitresses have a very high interest in keeping their job and in China there is usually someone to watch them doing their job.

The Boss

2009-03-27T02:12:00.000-07:00

My boss is a typical Chinese boss. Except that she’s a woman. Maybe it goes a bit far to generalize her behavior to all Chinese bosses, but she’s the only one I’ve met so far, so it’s not possible for me to compare her with another Chinese boss. Apart from that her position in our office is definitely similar to those of other Chinese bosses. Because it’s absolutely clear who is the boss in our office if she’s there. If you would walk into our office you would immediately point her out, there is just no mistake about her authority. I’ve seen this at other places in China as well, most of the time you can just see it by the clothes. In restaurants you have to be blind not to be able to point out the man in charge. Although he’s not always present, happily enough for the staff.

In our office my boss stands out by her clothes, and its obviously that she has the highest salary. But that’s not all, apart from her clothes her authority is extremely visible. Chinese people don’t bow for their boss, but me colleagues seem to do everything for her without asking any questions whatsoever. Asking questions to people who have a higher position than you is just not done here. The boss doesn’t inform me or my colleagues on most things, and changes in class schedules are usually told to me the evening before. I complained about this to my assistant, but well she’s not able to do anything about this because, the boss is the boss and she is the one who changes the schedule. Happily enough she does not change my schedule that often and it are always minor changes, but she could inform me a bit earlier.

Meanwhile everyone in the office seems to hate her. Ok they don’t hate her, they just don’t like her; “She’s a good person, but you know we just don’t like her.” The first week I was a bit surprised about how disrespectful they talked behind her back. Of course I couldn’t really understand everything because it was in Chinese, but they translated some things for me, and well some things are just easy to guess even if they are said in Chinese. Small jokes about her husband, her business contacts and finally her age. “How old do you think she looks like?” Maybe I’ve never been in a office with almost only woman (except two other guys sometimes) but I haven’t heard this kind of gossips in Holland. Of course in Holland we also talk and sometimes laugh at our boss, but we do this in a much more respectful way, and not really behind his/her back either. It could be that she’s just a special boss, but I think this is quite common in China. I got this idea mainly because I see this strict hierarchy at almost every restaurants I eat.

Finally my boss does not speak English whatsoever, and I can honestly say that my Chinese is already a lot better than her English. (Most of the other colleagues do speak some English.) So if I really need to talk about something seriously I’ll always need my assistant to translate for me, which is not the most ideal situation. Apart from my boss my own position in the office is a bit strange as well. I’m the special teacher in our office because I’m a foreigner and this means that I get a special treatment, which includes half the hours my colleagues work for at least double the salary. Which I’m very glad to receive although this does place me in a rather strange position…

Me with the boss.

Dutch restaurant?

2009-03-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

Behind my school’s main office there is a street with all kinds of restaurants and a lot of street food. One of the restaurants has these two characters in the name of the restaurant; 荷兰. You pronounce them as; he lan, which means Holland. (a very small Chinese lesson) My Chinese colleague said it meant something like Dutch barbeque, I really wondered what Dutch barbeque could be, cause I’m quite sure that barbeque came from America. So we decided this would be a nice restaurant to have dinner, together with her husband and two of their friends. Maybe there was some Dutch connection? Another Dutch person in Wuhu? Dutch Cheese maybe?

When we got at the table and I saw the grill which was on our table I understood why it was called Dutch barbeque, or why my colleague said that, that was what it said outside. It looked a lot like a gourmet grill. And although I rarely eat gourmet in Holland, and although it is a France word, it’s a Dutch way of having a more special diner. I understand why she translated it too Dutch barbeque, cause the word Gourmet doesn’t seem to mean the same thing in English as it does in Dutch.

So… did I eat gourmet in China? Well, the grill was the same. After that the similarity ends because well, the Chinese just have a bit different mindset about eating. It’s still strange to me that in a country where most people’s first goal in life, is simply surviving, they value food so much. Ok it sounds obvious that if your first goal is to survive, your first target will be to get some food. But it sometimes feels like there is more food here than there is back home, or at least more variety. Not all their food is that good though, the quality also really varies, but somehow there doesn’t really seem to be correlation with the price.

At this restaurant we started with pork and immediately the hole grill was loaded with meat. There were some onions too but they were definitely a minority at the grill. One of the guys who had been to the restaurant before took the responsibility for the meat, and he turned the meat when it had to be turned and checked if it was ready. Under the grill we also had some really good chicken wings, which took a bit more time. After two rows of pork and the chicken wings it was time for vegetables and finally pieces of octopus with some spicy peppers on them.

The octopus was a bit too spicy in my opinion, even my Chinese colleagues thought it was spicy. Which means that it really was spicy, but apart from that the diner was really good. And I have to say it was a bit better than most gourmets I had in Holland. But the Chinese take their food just a bit more serious than us. I guess there’s some truth in; we (Dutch people, maybe the English as well, definitely not the France or Italians though) eat to live, but the Chinese live to eat.

On a final note, for the people who are wondering if I never miss European food in China. I’ll admit that I do miss normal bread and cheese, especially in the morning. However so far I’ve only been to the McDonalds once and that was, apart from the price a disappointment. In the French supermarket Auchan, they have all kinds of imported food and I had a piece of Dutch cheese in my hands, but when I looked at the price, I saw that it was about twice the Dutch price, and well for that money you can have a really good meal in a restaurant here. Which on its turn would be quite expensive in Amsterdam or anywhere else in Holland.

Stereotypes

2009-03-09T04:37:00.000-07:00

In Holland there are a lot of stereotypes about Chinese people. I don’t really want to write about them because some of them might be a bit offending to some of my Chinese readers, and some of the these possible offending stereotypes are true, at least to a certain degree in my opinion. Well, I’m not so long in China yet, so maybe I’ll write about this another time.

Where I do want to write about is the stereotypes Chinese people have about Dutch people, or not really stereotypes about Dutch people, but the things that come to their mind, when I tell them that I’m from Amsterdam. For a lot of Chinese in Wuhu I’ll probably be the first Dutchman they meet, so far I still haven’t met any other Dutch person in Wuhu. I’m still sure that I will, cause Dutch people are everywhere around the world, just like the Chinese. (With a small difference that we don’t open restaurants everywhere.)

So actually this post is just about the (lack of) knowledge Chinese have about my country. Which is actually not so surprising cause I come from a very small country on the planet, and most Dutch people don’t know too much about China either, while China is a very big country. However I wanted to write about this, because on most of my traveling in Europe, and once to the US, people always have the same idea about my country. Especially if I say that I come from Amsterdam… Yep, drugs, weed, red light district and happily enough sometimes they mention great football.

But in China none of these is mentioned. In one month I’ve only spoken to one Chinese guy who mentioned the red light district and that was a tour guide of a big group of western tourist in my hostel in Beijing. In Wuhu however I still haven’t heard it from a Chinese, the other foreigners mentioned it of course. So far the idea most Chinese have about Holland, is a country full of flowers, clumps and windmills. Maybe it’s not so surprising, but for me it’s a bit strange that most Chinese get this idea at school from teachers who most likely never have been in Europe.

I guess it’s a lack of knowledge about my country, or are the Chinese too polite to mention anything which they view as a bad thing, about the place I’m coming from?

Wuhu

2009-02-26T19:34:00.000-08:00

Wuhu is a small city according to most Chinese. Outside of China almost nobody has ever heard of it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a lot of Chinese who have never heard of it either. After one week in Wuhu I’m quite sure this city isn’t small, it’s only relatively small if you compare it to Beijing. One of my colleagues said that there lived only 600 000 people in Wuhu, Amsterdam has around 750 000 citizens and is the biggest city of the Netherlands. Just checked Wikipedia however and there they counted over 2 million citizens of Wuhu, I assume my colleague talked about the central area of Wuhu only.

Wuhu is only briefly mentioned in the rough guide and in most tourist guides this place is not even mentioned. It’s about the only city located at the Yangtze river which is not mentioned. The first hour I was guided through the big shopping mall I noticed that a lot more people looked my way when they saw me, than it was the case in Beijing, and I was a bit relieved to see another foreigner (Laowai) walking when we got outside.

Wuhu is located in Anhui province, which is known as an underdeveloped piece of land just next to the “rich” eastern provinces of China. Its only 4 hours by train to Shanghai from here. People from Anhui are known for their migration to the real (even for China) big cities, to work there as cleaners, construction workers, restaurant staff and in all kinds of other unwanted jobs. Although Wuhu is located in the poorest province of Eastern China, it does have a strategic position at the Yangtze river and with a some imagination it could have a bright future ahead of itself. I’m not completely sarcastic about this, because it might be a poor city at the moment (it does have its rich parts of course), but it’s developing like crazy.

From what I've heard and seen Wuhu should be a typical Chinese city. It’s a lot more chaotic than Beijing, traffic seems most of the time without any rules, they haven’t put stopping lights on half of the crossroads. So far I’ve seen three traffic accidents and it’s only my first week here. Half of the buildings here are going to be knocked down next year, and the other half is not even a year old or not even finished. There are young people addicted to online gaming in internet bars, (which are opened 24 hours a day, which was perfect cause here I could watch Ajax since I didn’t had internet at home yesterday) and there are old people who still go shopping in their pyjamas. There are big shopping centers including all the big western fast food restaurants like MacDonald’s, KFC and Pizza hut, the only thing missing is a Starbucks, and in the alley behind the shopping center is a cheap traditional but dirty market.

At this moment I met only three other foreigners, a Japanese a Cuban and a guy from Ghana. These were the other foreign teachers at my school, however one of them is also studying Chinese at the University of Anhui. So I plan on visiting his university today, because I’m thinking of following a Chinese class and because it would be nice to meet some other foreigners. Most people in Wuhu (except those at my school) don’t speak a word of English so it’s kind of essential to improve my Chinese. With that said and with Wuhu being said to be a “typical” Chinese city, Wuhu might be a perfect city to learn Chinese?

Ajax Amsterdam

2009-02-16T04:40:00.000-08:00

One week in China, but it feels like I have been here for weeks cause I did and saw too many things to write down on this blog. Yesterday was a great day, Ajax won 2-0 against some team which doesn’t need to be mentioned;) and I was able to watch this very important match in China!

Thanks to my dear friend Lulu in Amsterdam I know a few fellow Ajax-fans in Beijing, and because last Sunday was a very, very important day for Ajax, we were going to watch the match together. The match started at half past 12 in Amsterdam, so with a seven hour time difference it started in Beijing at half past 7. This meant for my Chinese friends that there was plenty enough time to have lunch, karaoke and diner before the match. For Dutch people there would only be time for diner and beers before the match. Ajax really reminds me of home and watching them play in the Amsterdam Arena, which is where I used to work, made me look back at the first week away from home.

This Sunday was not only a really great day because Ajax won one of the most important matches of the season, but for me personally as well. Because I gained a lot of insight in the sometimes big differences between the Dutch and Chinese culture. Food is one of the most important things in live for most Chinese people, and that’s why I have to write about Chinese food for the second time in a row. Yesterday it was the first time I’ve eaten at a round table in a private room, in a restaurant. We were already in the restaurant at 12 o’clock Beijing time to eat hotpot with beef, various vegetables, of which some I really didn’t know before and still don’t know an English name for, some snacks and some beers. Dining in a private room is something which is highly unusual for Dutch people, just like eating hotpot so I’ll explain it shortly. Hotpot, consists of a pot of boiling water or soup in this case (a hot pot) and in this pot of boiling soup you can put beef and vegetables, after a while its ready to eat and then there is sauce to dip it in. All together it seems a bit like Gourmet and with some chicken wings and other various snacks, which barely look like spring roles in Holland, is a very good and tasty lunch.

Karaoke or ktv is a bit different than it’s in Holland. In China this is very popular, more popular than football and they take this a lot more serious as well, they actually want to make a good performance. This made me a bit embarrassed cause I’m a really bad singer and have only done karaoke two times before yesterday, while almost all the Chinese could sing really good. Happily enough karaoke was also in a private room and so I was not the subject of the laughter for a big group Chinese people, only a small group:).

Yesterday I experienced a lot of Chinese hospitality and it made me feel a bit guilty in some way. Because in Amsterdam and most western cultures, but especially in the Dutch culture (going Dutch) everyone pays for his own expenses. If you go to a bar you’ll give beers to your friends but you know they will give you beer back in return so you still pay your own share in the end. But in China if you are a foreigner and you are seen as a guest you are not allowed to pay anything at all… Which is nice, but this is quite a big cultural difference and for me the first real culture shock I experience. Cause to be honest I’d rather pay for my own food… (some people reading this will not believe this, but it’s true)

Finally watching the match through internet in Beijing instead of in Amsterdam wasn’t that much of a difference as I thought it would be. In China there are the same emotions to a football match as they’re in Amsterdam, although I admit that I felt a slight feeling of homesickness, cause after all I could have been in the stadium if I wanted to be there. But on the other hand it didn’t really bother me cause I was quite happy and relieved that Ajax managed to win the match.

Oh one last newsflash as things are looking now I’ll probably move to Hefei in the province of Anhui on Friday. So let’s see how that works out… Can’t say that I can’t wait to go, but well the offer seems good so I should try it at least.

First impressions

2009-02-11T03:02:00.000-08:00

My first real post at my blog about my first impressions of Beijing. To be honest it feels kind of unreal to be here, I feel a bit like walking in a movie set and somewhere expect to walk out of it very soon. This metaphor doesn’t make any sense at all since I have never been on a movie set in my life. However it does describe my feelings for this new world and it’s not completely rubbish to think that those charming hutong streets will only belong to movies in ten or twenty years. Happily enough at this moment the hostel I stay in, is located just at the border of one of those hutongs. I won’t be too romantic about it, and I know that the CCP has a few good reasons to break down most of the hutongs, (The citizens of those lovely neighborhoods have a really small home and have to go to a public toilet and shower, which is a bit outdated, even in China.) but these hutongs are the best part of China I have seen so far. Although the Olympic area with the Birds nest was very impressive as well.

Those first few days made me think back to those first days in London when I started my time as an exchange student there. In some way it’s the same experience I guess, a completely new situation, new people, big city etc. Well the similarity with London kind of stops with my experience for going abroad for a longer time, although both London and Beijing are extremely big cities, and both cities have hosted the Olympics (just like Amsterdam!), and both the English and the Chinese drink beer with less than 4% alcohol, but then tend to drink an awful lot of it. Apart from that the difference between London and Beijing is just as big as the difference between Beijing and Amsterdam. Anyway so far I have a very good time, I like to order breakfast in the charming hutong (which in 10 years will probably not exist anymore) in Chinese which is just good enough for some really basic communications and because this are my first days here there are just too many things to see.

Last but not least a nice anecdote. When I stood in the elevator in the hostel the first day, a Chinese guy asked me “Are you from the Netherlands?” Which is really surprising cause so far most Chinese think I’m France, German, Russian, American or English, basically they just name all the big foreign countries they know of. I can’t lie about a slight feeling of pride by being recognized as a Dutch person, although it sounded a bit gay when he said he could see it because of my eyes.

Another memorable thing is the amazing amount of fireworks they fired on Monday, the first full day that I was in Beijing. This is probably one of the reasons why the new CCTV building was burned down. I haven’t seen the fire and I will never see the building… Happily enough the CCTV tower from Remco Koolhaas survived the fire so I will take a look there sometime, before there is another fire.

Finally the last thing which is absolutely fantastic is the food, it’s extremely varied, it’s cheap and so far I have only eaten delicious! So that’s it for now, my first impression about this new city is in a small summary: very chaotic, fascinating and exciting.

Introduction

2008-12-29T08:48:00.000-08:00

Because I plan on staying one year in China I have created this blog, in which I want to share my experiences with friends, family, and everyone who is interested in my adventures far away. This blog will mainly be about my personal experiences in China, but I will try to put my stories into a more global or cultural context. However my viewpoints are completely subjective, but if you disagree with anything I write, you should feel free to leave a comment. If you have any suggestions to make this blog better I would be pleased to hear them too.

This blog will be updated on a weekly basis, but if you want to read my stories twice you are more than welcome to visit my blog every day of the week. I’ve chosen to write about my experiences in English so that it’s possible for almost everyone I know to read them. Hopefully you enjoy reading this blog and will I be able to write an weekly update every week.