Monday morning

I am sorry I made the crack about Chicago's weather. I woke up to a howling wind, 67% humidity and 58 degrees. Fall in Jiangxi Province, PRC.

I am posting a series of pictures of a two bridges.

In the first picture of the Bayi Chow I was facing east. This bridge has 8 lanes for all traffic. By all traffic I mean small trucks, three-wheeled scooters, cars and bicycles.


The second grouping are pictures of a two-lane bridge, it has a rail line separating the two lanes of vehicle traffic. Each traffic lane is about 15 feet wide, there is no separate lane for pedestrians or bicycles. It can be nerve racking when riding a bike across this bridge.








The final grouping is of the Bayi Chow and the surrounding area.

The pictures that appear to be under a structure were taken from under the bridge. People play cards and other gambling games, sell various wares (political signs to fruits) and simply relax. The garden is really pretty and is set just off the water and in the "footprint" of the bridge.

Note the lady with the child on the bike. She could have taken the bike up to the sidewalk but, they don't seem to protect their children the way westerners protect theirs. It is not uncommon to see a child, in fact it is a common sight, standing on the floor board of a scooter as it moves in and out of traffic.













Have a good week, Terry.

This is a copy of a posting by another blogger in China, it is interesting, the link is: http://carolenchina.motime.com

China's role as a world leader....China's booming economy.... All kinds of things are written about China in the news....makes one think that it has caught up with the rest of the world and is a modern country.... but don't sell the farm to make a bet on that. Let me tell you about my merry adventures with banking in China. First of all, personal checking accounts are all but unheard of. Travelers checks are not accepted except maybe in the eastern corridor, being Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. I dont know of anyone in Xiangfan that has been able to cash one. Visa and Mastercards are only accepted at a couple of the hotels here and maybe (newly opened) Walmart. You don't go out to dinner and put it on a card. China is a cash society and everything must be paid up front.

The school I last taught at in Guangzhou used Bank of China...Bank of China, Guangzhou. The agency I write for wanted to wire my earnings to me. First of all, the gentleman who does the paying thought I should open an US acccount. After all, that bank could send me a visa debit card and things would be easy. I explained, I cannot use a atm card from the US in China. I know of foreign teachers that traveled all the way from Wuhan to Shanghai just to use their USA bank atm card at Citibank. And since I live in China, why not just Western Union wire it to me? It would be immediately available and I could get it anywhere in China. Well, he doesn't like Western Union. It never accepts his credit card and the fees are high. I said, bank fees are high. I am paying the fee, so that shouldn't worry you. No, he didnt want to deal with Western Union. So finally he decided that he would wire the money to Bank of China, Guangzhou. I was able to get him the swift codes, and told him I was leaving soon to go to another part of China. And if the funds could not be there before I left Guangzhou, I had no access to them. He put off wiring it for a couple days, and I had to leave Guangzhou.

This all started back in July. Now it is almost November. I should have had the money months ago. I went to Bank of China, Xiangfan. They politely told me that I could not get information on my B o C, Guangzhou account here. They suggested I write a letter asking B o C, Guangzhou to let my friend have my banking information. I did that. My friend went to the bank and they told him the money had arrived and I had to come and get it. Now, isnt that fun. I am half a continent away...I dont know who I feel more frustration with...the man sending the money or Bank of China. The money does not show up on my balance...because it is in US Funds. My friend is suppose to call the manager tomarrow and see what can be done to get the money out and posted to me. I am not holding my breath waiting for the money. Bank of China, anywhere is not known for its customer service. I appreciate my friend's efforts. As far as the agency that I write for sending funds to me again, I will ask that they be sent to my family and they can Western Union wire them to me....The irony is I cannot put my BofC atm card in the Bank of China machine here and get anything, it rejects my card. I have a card that can be used for purchases, so I put my Bank of China card in another bank's atm and it shows my balance. I think People's Bank of China needs to bring itself out of the days of Mao and into the present. The bank manager here said point blank, "Oh we are not linked together......"

Missing pictures

Late October

October 28, 2007

In this area and probably most of China, 6’ by 4’ wooden carts haul all forms of refuse. The cart is pulled by two 4’ wooden handles mounted on each of it’s’ sides. The beast of burden stands between or is harnessed to them. A majority of the time, the beast of burden is a man over 60 years of age. In one shape or form, these carts have been in use for thousands of years.

Last night, while walking towards my apartment I was approaching a man going in my direction, he was pulling a wooden cart. During this portion of the walk I pass the pond and on the other side of the roadway are dorms, there is very little light in this area. As I approached, I noticed the man was wearing a long blue janitor type coat and dark heavy corduroy pants. Then reached into his pocket, pulled something out and started talking on a cellular phone. What a dichotomy.








The step up from the cart is the three-wheeled scooter.

They haul any number of items. They deliver cooking gas canisters, bottled water, food for the canteens and, beer.

I love the sound of the wind through a stand of trees. It is very windy today.

Recycling occurs here. You pay a deposit on plastic and glass bottles. Numerous people have scavenger rights or rights to harvest the abundance of plastic and bottle disposed of on this campus. The three-wheeled scooters are used to take the recyclables to the recycling center.

Windy does not get in the way of these people driving the scooters. They have to make money whether or not it is windy.









That is it for now. Over the last few days, I have taken over 200 pictures. I need to catalogue and caption them all. I should post a bunch of them this week.

It is in the 70’s and windy here; what is it like in Chicago?

Pictures

I purchased a camera and hope to regularly post pictures. The ones I am posting today are of two classes I teach, the canteens where we eat most meals (remember bad college food) and the sign identifying the office as the "Electricity Office", no one can tell me the significance of the risque pictures of a woman. There are also pictures of my old apartment building, students playing basketball and some canteen food.

The picture of the man is a Chinese graduate student, his uncle is an administrator. I am too teach him english, really it is to improve his english skills. The administrator made it clear that I am doing him a favor and that he will help me with any problems I have with the administration. That problem may be soon, I have to fly to Hong Kong to get my full-year visa and some in the school have balked at them paying for it. My contract say they pay for all visa expenses incurred in China, to me this is one of them.

The picture of clothes hanging demonstrates how EVERYONE on campus must dry their clothes. There are no dryers.

That is it for the day, except for one last thought.

Being here is making me more introspective. I hope/think I am learning more about myself. Maybe, just maybe, this experience will make me a better person and friend.

Miss you all.

From the heart.
Terry

A boring couple of weeks

October 17, 2007 UPDATE

I began this on 17 October, when I post it, no one knows.

These last couples of weeks have not been boring, but slow. Since the trip to the ancient villages, I have gone nowhere else. Next week, the week starting October 22 is what they call sports week. That means we get three days off, with pay. I will teach one class that week. Now it is time to figure out what to do with all that time. I am thinking of traveling to Shanghai.

The trip to Shanghai will be like going to Memphis from Chicago by train. I do not know what to expect and will have to do some on-line research to figure out what to do and see. I do know one thing I will seek.

I have concluded (I was told this many times by other foreign teachers) that the students in my class are well off and spoiled. They do not think the rules apply to them and, I am not sure that the administration really tells the students what the rules are and that they have to follow them. Enough of that.

The weather has finally changed it is now fall. One week it was in the 90’s the next week it is in the low 60’s. Mind you, that is what I think the temperature range was, I have not had instant access to the internet to know everyday and, frankly, I do not care. I cannot change it so I live with whatever the temperature is that day.

From what I am told, I do not expect the leaves to change colors. Some change and fall off but most just stay the way they are, unless there is a frost then I think they fall off without changing color. Frost is 0 degrees centigrade and it does not hit that temperature here often.

Crime has struck the western teachers. Chrystal had $100.00 U.S. stolen from her new apartment then, someone opened a window in her old apartment and left it blocked. I do not know what is up but it seems crime is everywhere.

Attached to this Blog are pictures of students, mostly female, standing in the woods practicing their English before class. There is a picture of what they call a lake; I think it is more pond size. Notice the green color. Because of the sewage, it does not get enough oxygen and turns this color.

I took a long bike ride, well not long, only 10 kilometers but it was into the northern portion of Nan Chang. To get to the village I had to cross part of a river, the bridge that spans this portion of the river has a rail line down the middle. There is one lane for traffic on each side of the bridge; the lanes cannot be more than 15 feet wide. Large trucks, not semis, use this road. At one point, I pictured being struck from behind and the headline would have read; Stupid Lowaii uses Rail Bridge to cross River Guo and Dies. If I had been knocked over the rail I would have fallen in front of the many improperly and unbalanced barges that travel this water below.

I wound up on a village situated between two forks in the river Guo. It has dirt roads and many small commercial businesses. Because of the rapid growth here, shops that cater to tradesmen are everywhere. They run the gamut, compressors to conduit to roofing materials.

This village has poultry running through the streets, cats and dogs scavenging for food and many restaurants. At first, I did not see the commerce in this area, but it exists. I stopped and purchased water and smoked cigarettes with the locals. We did not understand each other but I think they appreciated that I was on a bike and stopped in their village to hang out with them.

The other pictures are of the campus and some students. The guy is my student helper, Oscar, he has a real good looking girlfriend, she tries to control him but he has at least two others in his back pocket. Guys are the same everywhere.

Well that is an update of what is becoming a typical week in my China.

TTYL Terry

More pictures

Sorry

For some reason I thought I would be able to place comments by each picture, I can't. Next time I will write something about each pic in order. For now these are all pictures of the ancient villages, the picture of what appears to be a girl in red is in fact a Chinese teacher at the university. Her height though not common is not uncommon. There are a couple of mountain pictures, rice paddies and a lady washing clothes.

More pictures to come.

Three ancient villages

Holiday Week

China just finished a week of celebrating its liberation by Mao. The first three days of the last full week in September are holidays. The universities take the entire week off, students who live far away have time to go home. This includes my student helper, Oscar. Soon I will write about him, he is an interesting sort. My first impression was that he was not very “quick”. I was wrong. Some students must ride a train 20+ hours to get home. To take the entire week off, classes are held on the preceding Saturday and Sunday.

In anticipation of the week off, we made arrangements to meet other westerners for dinner and a trip to a bar frequented by our types. The establishments are called Detox and Escape Club, respectively. We took a taxi into the city. It was the first time we traveled to the city at night.

Nan Chang is a large city and, at night it has the vibrancy of a large city at night. Many cars and a lot of neon lights. We drove past Bayi Square, the light standards are beautiful. Each standard is about 20 feet high and are adorned with, maybe, 30 individual lights fixtures The lights are pyramid shaped and give off a soft white light. I will get a picture of the lights and post it.

As this was the beginning of a holiday weekend, the square was PACKED and remained so until 2 in the morning. Kites. People were flying really cool kites. Some may ask how I know they looked cool because it was nighttime, some kites had lights, some of which were iridescent, and others reflected the lights from the city below. Again, pictures to come.

Back to the trip to the restaurant and bar.

The cab dropped us off about 3 blocks from where we were supposed to meet the rest of our group. Of course we had no idea where to go, so I called Andy. Our description of our location was no use to him: he asked if there was someone I could trust with my phone? Being the trusting soul I am, I gave my phone to the first man I saw. He spoke with Andy and then walked us to our meeting point. He refused the money we offered. This reaffirmed my faith in my fellow man.

Detox had been open 2 days. The food cannot be called American but, it has a definite American style about it. The owner, head chef and chief bottle washer is Kyle, another Brit. The food was not spectacular, just damn good. Why did it take coming to China for me to have rice pudding. It reminds me of risotto, but very sweet. Budweiser and Heineken are the same price, don’t try to figure it out. Our dinner party consisted of 8 people, three Americans, one Japanese and the rest were British.

After dinner we went to Escape Club. There our group expanded to about 15 people, including several locals. One is a pilot for China Eastern Airlines. One-hundred Juan buys 8 bottles of local beer. After several hundred Juan were spent we began a drinking game, the pilot lost. The owner knows the foreigners and spoke with us for quite awhile. I learned that there is graft in the police, building and fire departments. I also learned that there is a lot of drug usage at the night clubs in Nan Chang. I knew drugs and graft existed here, however, it seems that it is more pervasive than I thought. Unsafe clubs stay open and the younger crowd goes to the club and get wasted on cocaine, sound familiar? People are the same everywhere.

After Escape went to a dinner companions bar. The pilot had beer muscles and wanted to arm wrestle me. He is about 5’8” 175 pounds and sort of muscular. He lost, repeatedly. He even lost left-handed. He also suffered because we bet shots of Jack Daniels. My head hurt the next morning, he later told me he was in serious pain the next day. He did not have to fly Monday, they have the same rules about that as do we.

The Japanese guy was so wasted he passed out at the bar. The entire night he may have had four beers. We finally wandered home at about 3:00 in the morning. I had to practically carry the Japanese guy to his apartment.

Later in the week we had lunch in the city at a pretty good Chinese restaurant, afterward Rodney and I went to Metro. Metro is a store that has a large foreign food section. It is nothing remarkable however, 69 Juan for 6 ounces of maple syrup reflects the cost of bringing foreign food into this country. The purpose of the trip was to get the makings for spaghetti, I had a birthday party for Christol today (10/6). The clerk was rather rude. This is an example of Chinese customer service: The package of pasta would not scan and the clerk looked at me as she said something I did not understand then she tossed the pasta in the bin to be returned to the shelf. This happened to be the last pasta on the shelf, I needed it. I took it out of the bin and told her to pickup the phone and get the price. Five minutes later, no price had been provided. I took all of the things for the pasta and told her to take it off the bill. She was VERY put out but, I did not need them if I was not going to make spaghetti. I wound up making chili. The point is that customer service in China is poor. Chinese people are used to being told what to do, what they can’t do or have and accept it.

The next day we went to a village called Anyu (Iee). Anyu is the portal to three ancient Chinese villages. They are 1000 to 1400 years old. They manage to stay in existence by being a tourist attraction. I have posted some pictures of the villages. The villages have restaurants. These places serve everything from eel to dog. We did not eat there.

This is getting long and by the time I post the pics it will be very long so I am stopping now and will rethink this posting to see if I can elaborate on last week with interesting information. Two of the subjects will be Oscar and Elic (Elic is a religious organization.)