Earthquake

It’s been nearly two weeks since the massive earthquake hit China, and the country is still appropriately in mourning. Much like America, China is quick to band together for nationalistic causes, and this is no exception; however unlike the blind irrational fervor raised over the Olympic torch protests, I have nothing but admiration for China’s response to this disaster.

I was at work Monday May 12, when the quake struck, but despite being over 1000 miles from the epicenter, the building I was in shook enough to cause the evacuation of our entire school for close to an hour. Personally, I didn’t feel anything, nor did any of our students, but other people in Shanghai in taller buildings said they felt an unexplained queasiness. Other than a brief inconvenience, Shanghai was unaffected.

In the week following the news covered the disaster exclusively, revealing more graphic images than I would expect. In fact, the Chinese seem to revel in these graphic images, as we have a wall of photographs from the disaster sight in our school. The aim is to raise money through fundraising, but pictures of hands reaching out from underneath piles of cement seems unfit for a school.

The following Monday thru Wednesday was declared the three national days of mourning. Concerts were cancelled and every TV station showed the same feed of news and memorial services. At my school we observed the three minutes of silence in memorial one week after the earthquake, and students still are eager to discuss the quake, yet sad when the subject is broached. To my knowledge, none of my students had families affected, and those with families nearby said nothing much happened to them, thankfully.
Yet as you may have seen in the western media, China’s response has been tremendous. Charity is new to China, so in addition to the cold efficient military, there is now the more human touch of giving and unity throughout China. Perhaps a sign of better things to come, the Chinese people are eager to help out. I can’t help but be encouraged by this generosity and I can’t help but enjoy admiring China’s response to this devastation.

Tsingtao

It’s been a little while, but not much has changed really. Life in Shanghai, much like life everywhere can fall into being routine, but that routine can also be a busy one.

The most expensive endeavor of my trip to Qingdao, as well as the most famous factory in the city, is the Tsingtao beer brewery on Beer St. The brewery is much like other breweries I’ve been to, they tell you about themselves, they tell you about their history, they tell you about how to make beer, and then they give you some. All and all, it’s a pretty good way to pass an afternoon.

Typically I do not enjoy Tsingtao beer; it’s a pilsner in the true German style (they occupied the city from 1900-1915). However I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the beer in Qingdao on tap is much better than the skuzzy bottles they have in Shanghai. Plus the beer was cheap.

At lunch before the brewery we were seated at a table with 2 other Chinese gentlemen who spoke very little English. We quickly struck up a relationship as they insisted that the bottles we were getting were inferior to their large pitchers. We took them up on their challenge for the second round and indeed the liter plus pitchers (which cost less than a dollar, oh and were bigger than the one pictured above) were superior to the green bottles. These men, pleased with their ability of persuasion, proceeded to toast us with ‘gambe’ regularly with us for the rest of the meal. When toasting in Chinese, the word ‘gambe’ translates literally to ‘finish it’ – and with us trying not to be rude, you can imagine the result. After our very cultural lunch we stumbled to the brewery.

Culture like yogurt

If there is one good thing about traveling away from Shanghai, it’s the extra kick in the pants you get to go see some culture. In Qingdao there was plenty of it (and not just at the Tsingdao Brewery!) Between the food and street performances, I got to see quite a different side of China.

The food fulfilled all of my wildest fantasies, or at least some of the ones I’ve had about good Chinese food. Once the weather got better and we were more adventurous (and less cold), we had feast after feast. There were probably 4 highlight meals, each more astounding than the last. As you’d expect being on the ocean, Qingdao had some great seafood. Though negotiating the menu was darn near impossible, pointing at different meat until we found something we liked got us some green shoots and squid fried up deliciously, with a side of spicy garlic clams. Not to be out done, that night for dinner I finally had authentic Peking duck, with a side of fried fresh shrimp and oddly delicious cabbage. To the horror of those around me, I single handedly saw to every last piece of that duck finding its way into my belly. Look how happy I am and how full that plate is… the duck was gone by the end of the meal, but the smile still remains.

We also stumbled across a wedding reception, which was great news because they had dancing dragons!!! As you can see from the clip, the dragon dancers were really athletic and knew what they were doing. Even though the crowd sometimes pulled back in horror as the flailed about in front of the bride and groom, I was rooted where I stood, unable to take my eyes off the dazzling spectacle.

Qingdao

I spent my past week in the ocean side city of Qingdao. Qingdao is famous for the three B's: Beaches, Beer (birthplace of Tsingtao beer) and Bavarian architecture (it was run by the Germans for 20 years at the turn of the last century, hence the beer). For much of our time there, the weather was cloudy and the city seemed dirty; we wondered why it was so highly touted and why we came. Then the last day the sun came out and as we strolled along its seemingly endless ocean side walk, getting a wicked awesome sunburn (its quite a feat to do in China), the city revealed all its reputed beauty.

The most 'German' thing was the old embassy, which apparently cost so much that the German Chancellor fired the local governor when he received the bill. It was a little odd walking out of dirty China into a clean, kept and old luxury home.

When the sun came out, Qingdao was as pretty an ocean side city of 2 million people you could ask for. With over 6 beaches and clean(ish) blue(ish) water, the city really is a little escape from the gigantic cities in China. By building a long ocean side park, the city is a lovely place to stroll and will only become nicer as it is slated to host the Olympic sailing events. We walked around the near complete facilities, and they certainly are pulling out all the stops. The statue pictured is a bit of modern art (China doesn't usually do good art, but I give them credit for this one).

After wondering why I'd come to a bleak, dirty city for the first few days, Qingdao turned out to be a great escape from Shanghai once the weather turned nice. Hard to believe I 'escape' to a city twice the size of Boston.

Hot Water

May I start by extolling the virtues of hot water? How many things are possible because of hot water? Tea, pasta, hot chocolate, bread and beer all require hot water to make. And we’d never have clean clothing without it. Plus who doesn’t love a good warm shower in the morning? Or snuggling up with a hot water bottle at night? I could go on, but man’s discovery that putting regular water over a flame to make it ‘hot’ is up there with the wheel. That said – I hate it.

In China, drinking hot water is not only acceptable and encouraged, but darn near mandated! One time when expressing delight that the water from the fountain was cold for a change, a co-worker suggested I mix some hot water to make it better… Make it better? How could destroying the sanctity and refreshingness of my cold, condensation causing water be an improvement? I understand this may not come as such a shock to you, especially if you’ve never faced the evils of hot water, but believe me the reality is more terrifying than you dare to imagine.

In the winter I found it appalling but eventually came to an understanding. Initially I asked how a country known for basically 5 things (tea, rice, communism, fireworks, and ping pong in some order), could fail to deliver on one of its most famous idioms – ‘all the tea in China’. If there is so much tea, why did I get a pot of hot water at the restaurant? Why couldn’t they throw a leaf or two in for some flavoring? These were hard questions, but eased over time as the pathetic ‘it costs too much money’ excuse seeped into my battered mind.

Yet as summer nears and I’m still surrounded by hot water drinkers, I shutter to think that the hottest summer I’ve experienced to date may also be my least refreshing! Of all the water coolers in our office only one delivers slightly cool water, meaning it’s a mission to get cold water. Then in stores the ‘coolers’ like you’d see at any 7-11 aren’t actually on and why should they be? It would cost money to make drinks cold and people here don’t want that anyway. I guess I’m resigned to lukewarm water until I get back to the states. At least the beers cold.