Hi all!! We are officially done with the third leg of the journey, the 3-night Yangtze River cruise. The cruise was amazing. It went through imposing gorges and hills all day every day. We also stopped at a 500/1600-year-old temple complex made and used by emperors in those two time periods, which was decorated with grotesque statues of blue demons and the punishments one suffers in Hell. Around midnight last night we passed through the five locks of the Three Gorges Dam, and this morning we disembarked to tour the dam. Almost no sign of the sun or sky yet, however. I'll put up pictures in a later post when we have down time at our next hostel. I'll also catch you up on Xi'an w/ photos in that one.
Before setting sail, we successfully met up with Scott Bressler, THE Scott Bressler,scott@scottbressler.com, whose huge camera, Jewfro, and unshakeable good mood were a critical ingredient of the cruise. We've just parted today but will meet again in Hangzhou two days from now.
(His itinerary, planned two days before departure with effortless panache and Jewfro blowing in that wind that graces the truly badass, involves meeting up with not just us but also two other friends and intersects ours for the cruise, part of our stay in Hangzhou and Shanghai.)
So now we're on a 4-hour bus ride from the cruise's end point to the nearest town with an airport with flights to Hangzhou. I thought I'd take this boring, hot, foodless, crowded and as always somewhat odorous moment to compile a List: The List Of Cultural Differences I've Noticed And Can't Quite Get Used To No Matter How Open-minded I Try To Be. Starting with the holes in the pants.
1. Pre-potty-trained kids up to the age of 3ish are invited to relieve themselves wherever the heck they feel like it- ok, I've only seen this outdoors- through gaping, intentional and permanent holes in the crotch of their pants. This has the (to Scott and me, extremely disturbing) corollary that children's genitals are often exposed to the whole world. The horror that Americans have of pedophiles seems not to be a worry to Chinese people. I think it's nice for them that they don't suffer such paranoia. But Scott and I (not Sally) shudder with reflexive fear whenever we see that. Like, Scott accidentally took a picture of a boy's you-know-what. And in the States, he could easily be arrested for having that in his camera.
Also, once I saw a mother holding a baby's legs open while the baby peed in an impressive arc in the general direction of a trash can, on the sidewalk, NEXT TO OPEN FOOD STALLS AND PEOPLE EATING. Just weird. (Nearby, other people were roasting bull testicles and centipedes. I just don't even. What. So actually, go ahead and pee all over the night market, kids.)
2. On the cruise, every meal was a buffet. First of all, the fried eggs were disgustingly oily and done over hard. Terrible disappointment. We suspect China, the entire country, just does not make their eggs over easy or even medium. How will they ever become a developed nation frying their eggs for ten minutes??? Everything else was oily too but that's probably just a cheap-cruise thing. Besides the oil and the eggs the food was fine--definitely not a main attraction. That would be the looming peaks that met us at every turn of the boat.
3. On the cruise it was also suddenly obvious that people spent their time differently than we did. Imagine you're working on a meal at a lone table of gringos amidst a sea of Chinese nationals. You're meeting the other English speakers you've been assigned to sit with, working on seconds, chatting, when suddenly you look around and notice that the ENTIRE ROOM has suddenly cleared like Mao Zedong showed up outside to give autographs. You haven't even started picking at the rest of the food you don't really want anymore, let alone lingering over coffee or dessert. What the h*** could be so urgent that every single Chinese person in the room had to shovel in their food in 20 minutes flat, you think? It's not like they're even going anywhere--as best you can tell they spend their days taking naps broken up by games of Mah Jong.
Every single meal, people swarmed into the buffet as soon as the doors open, with only the thinnest veneer of regard for the idea of standing patiently in line (pushing and cutting were common, but not ubiquitous). And they all emptied the room en masse, a good 15 minutes before we felt like it would be polite to leave the table. People rag on Americans for eating too fast... well, we ate at the same speed as the older Dutch couples we we with, whereas everybody else appeared to hold their plates up to their mouths and chug their meals.
And mealtimes weren't the only difference. When we had excursions, the three of us and the other white devils were inevitably the last ones to appear in the lobby. The rest of the time, there was practically no one to be found in the common spaces of the boat. And during one excursion by ferry through a series of narrower gorges, everybody seemed to lose interest in the scenery within an hour or so and spent the rest of the time napping in their chairs. At night, everybody showed up dutifully to the planned entertainment (dancing and karaoke by the staff...) but didn't drink a drop or eat anything and disappeared as soon as the last act bowed.
Thus, from what we could observe, they spent their time napping or sitting quietly in their berths, until it was time for a planned activity, no matter how lame. Then, they showed up punctually and left as soon as it was over.
Before setting sail, we successfully met up with Scott Bressler, THE Scott Bressler,scott@scottbressler.com, whose huge camera, Jewfro, and unshakeable good mood were a critical ingredient of the cruise. We've just parted today but will meet again in Hangzhou two days from now.
(His itinerary, planned two days before departure with effortless panache and Jewfro blowing in that wind that graces the truly badass, involves meeting up with not just us but also two other friends and intersects ours for the cruise, part of our stay in Hangzhou and Shanghai.)
So now we're on a 4-hour bus ride from the cruise's end point to the nearest town with an airport with flights to Hangzhou. I thought I'd take this boring, hot, foodless, crowded and as always somewhat odorous moment to compile a List: The List Of Cultural Differences I've Noticed And Can't Quite Get Used To No Matter How Open-minded I Try To Be. Starting with the holes in the pants.
1. Pre-potty-trained kids up to the age of 3ish are invited to relieve themselves wherever the heck they feel like it- ok, I've only seen this outdoors- through gaping, intentional and permanent holes in the crotch of their pants. This has the (to Scott and me, extremely disturbing) corollary that children's genitals are often exposed to the whole world. The horror that Americans have of pedophiles seems not to be a worry to Chinese people. I think it's nice for them that they don't suffer such paranoia. But Scott and I (not Sally) shudder with reflexive fear whenever we see that. Like, Scott accidentally took a picture of a boy's you-know-what. And in the States, he could easily be arrested for having that in his camera.
Also, once I saw a mother holding a baby's legs open while the baby peed in an impressive arc in the general direction of a trash can, on the sidewalk, NEXT TO OPEN FOOD STALLS AND PEOPLE EATING. Just weird. (Nearby, other people were roasting bull testicles and centipedes. I just don't even. What. So actually, go ahead and pee all over the night market, kids.)
2. On the cruise, every meal was a buffet. First of all, the fried eggs were disgustingly oily and done over hard. Terrible disappointment. We suspect China, the entire country, just does not make their eggs over easy or even medium. How will they ever become a developed nation frying their eggs for ten minutes??? Everything else was oily too but that's probably just a cheap-cruise thing. Besides the oil and the eggs the food was fine--definitely not a main attraction. That would be the looming peaks that met us at every turn of the boat.
3. On the cruise it was also suddenly obvious that people spent their time differently than we did. Imagine you're working on a meal at a lone table of gringos amidst a sea of Chinese nationals. You're meeting the other English speakers you've been assigned to sit with, working on seconds, chatting, when suddenly you look around and notice that the ENTIRE ROOM has suddenly cleared like Mao Zedong showed up outside to give autographs. You haven't even started picking at the rest of the food you don't really want anymore, let alone lingering over coffee or dessert. What the h*** could be so urgent that every single Chinese person in the room had to shovel in their food in 20 minutes flat, you think? It's not like they're even going anywhere--as best you can tell they spend their days taking naps broken up by games of Mah Jong.
Every single meal, people swarmed into the buffet as soon as the doors open, with only the thinnest veneer of regard for the idea of standing patiently in line (pushing and cutting were common, but not ubiquitous). And they all emptied the room en masse, a good 15 minutes before we felt like it would be polite to leave the table. People rag on Americans for eating too fast... well, we ate at the same speed as the older Dutch couples we we with, whereas everybody else appeared to hold their plates up to their mouths and chug their meals.
And mealtimes weren't the only difference. When we had excursions, the three of us and the other white devils were inevitably the last ones to appear in the lobby. The rest of the time, there was practically no one to be found in the common spaces of the boat. And during one excursion by ferry through a series of narrower gorges, everybody seemed to lose interest in the scenery within an hour or so and spent the rest of the time napping in their chairs. At night, everybody showed up dutifully to the planned entertainment (dancing and karaoke by the staff...) but didn't drink a drop or eat anything and disappeared as soon as the last act bowed.
Thus, from what we could observe, they spent their time napping or sitting quietly in their berths, until it was time for a planned activity, no matter how lame. Then, they showed up punctually and left as soon as it was over.
Perhaps we just don't understand what elderly Chinese people do for fun.
Plus, we were the only 20-somethings on the boat, for some reason, so I guess we should have expected to have different ideas of a fun time...
4. The smells. Everything smells funny and none of the smells are familiar. Some of the smells belong to delicious food, which is a novel and fun sensory experience. But other everyday smells include:
-Smoke
-Urine and sewage
-Body odor
-Exhaust
-Fish
-Fish food (this overlaps tragically with the "new types of food" smells...)
5. The inevitable "the food is weird" post (fried eggs are a whole 'nother issue): We've had an incredible variety of amazing food. Delicate steamed dumplings filled with lamb and broth and dipped in spicy & sour sauce, noodles of every kind, more noodles, Peking duck, hot pot (the fondu thing, NOT an illegal substance, Mom), and also other kinds of noodles.
Plus, we were the only 20-somethings on the boat, for some reason, so I guess we should have expected to have different ideas of a fun time...
4. The smells. Everything smells funny and none of the smells are familiar. Some of the smells belong to delicious food, which is a novel and fun sensory experience. But other everyday smells include:
-Smoke
-Urine and sewage
-Body odor
-Exhaust
-Fish
-Fish food (this overlaps tragically with the "new types of food" smells...)
5. The inevitable "the food is weird" post (fried eggs are a whole 'nother issue): We've had an incredible variety of amazing food. Delicate steamed dumplings filled with lamb and broth and dipped in spicy & sour sauce, noodles of every kind, more noodles, Peking duck, hot pot (the fondu thing, NOT an illegal substance, Mom), and also other kinds of noodles.
But I've been unmoveably close-minded about two things I've been called upon to eat. One, a Northern specialty variety of tofu called "stinky tofu" that reeks of fish food. Exactly like fish food. You just know it's flavored with the same crappy dregs of the sea that fish food is made of, and you can't help but gag when it reaches your lips. Will never do it again.
Two, organ meat. I gave Sally the hard-and-fast rule that neither she nor her family can order me any meat that isn't muscle. I reason that I got that out of the way with the duck brains on Day 1. I know I'm missing out on things they find delicious, that do actually have caloric content and are not toxic or bad for you, and it doesn't make sense to refuse to eat them. Sally made a pretty convincing argument to this effect yesterday, and I'll try to be brave if her grandma cooks any organs for me in Hangzhou. But I just can't get it out of my head that intestines and stomach and cartilage and brains _just aren't food_.
Plus, intestines have poo in them. I don't care how long you boil them.
6. Last one: Waiting in line. Obeying right of way. Slowing for pedestrians. Saying "excuse me" before you elbow someone aside (the Chinese phrase is more like "get out of my way", btw!). Staying in your own lane in intersections. Staying on the right side of the road, even at intersections. Keeping two or fewer cars abreast on _left turns_. (Seriously, I've seen groups of cars pile up in a jumble in busy intersections, three abreast, vying for spots in the one or two lanes they're turning into. Is the middle of the intersection really the best place to sort that out?!) Running anything straightforwardly, without the need for nepotism, price bargaining or sly inquiries on the part of a knowledgeable native. Stocking toilet paper and hand soap, keeping bathrooms and restaurants clean, not urinating or defecating in public.
These are all things Chinese people are not good at.
On the bright side! Public places are usually almost as clean as their U.S. equivalent would be, except the bathrooms. Way less smoking than expected, too. And, thank God, the habit of hawking lugies on the sidewalk and even indoors seems to be fading away (likely due to government pressure during the 2008 Olympics and public health campaigns after the SARS issue.)
Although, you are not going to believe this, but I saw a guy spit INTO THE TERRACOTTA WARRIORS EXCAVATION. Seriously, dude?
The thread linking everything under this bullet point is that Chinese culture runs with
a decided disregard for orderliness. "Whatever works" seems to be the organizing principle. And it does work. It's just a bit less pleasant than things in the U.S. (And that's not just my whiny opinion. The Dutch people agreed that the U.S. runs better than anywhere else they'd been, and Sally said Chinese people who travel to the States also say that it's "like heaven", because it's so much more organized and pleasant to navigate.)
7. Thought of another one! So many buildings are decorated or built with colorful lights. It's like they're going for Times Square but overshoot and end up somewhere between there and Christmas. It may be a tad tacky by our standards, but it's way fun and gorgeous.
So, before you go telling everybody "Becca is such a dang whiner," please remember this is an aggregation of all the things that seem *weird* to me. Not the things which were totally freaking fantastic (including: everything else!!!). And notice how few things there are on the list (discounting the traffic violations, which are too many to be counted)! The country is almost shockingly Western in infrastructure, and increasingly so in its habits. "It's actually kind of a shame how they've shifted from glorifying traditional culture to idolatry of American culture," Sally just commented.
Whew! Long post. We arrived in one piece (two pieces?) to the airport and are sitting at a restaurant with wifi while we wait. This airport is in Middle-of-nowhere, China, and yet it's as shiny, pretty and clean as O'Hare, and pretty big too. Perfect illustration of Westernization.
Leaving soon for our next destination! Much love,
Beker
2 comments:
Was your airport Wuhan?
Yes, it was. -- Becca
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