Ok, We're Back…Hopefully We’ll Catch Up

Ok, so it has been about eight months since our last post. We had a great excuse at the beginning—censorship—but now with the help of a little technology to deal with technology, we're back online. Much like the "Great Wall", the "Great Fire Wall" does about as much to keep China is as it does to keep others out.

Since we've last reported, our adventures have taken us to various points throughout Asia, as well as within China. We were warned about living abroad and how when you first get there, you're in the "tourist mode" and loving every minute of it. A few months into it, everyone goes through the "why are we here" period. If you can't get through this in a few months, pack your bags and give up…you're never going to come out of it and it's time to go home. There is a saying in Shanghai expat community that you have your Shanghai days, and your Shang "Low" days. We've had our share of both, but we can say that there are more highs than lows and we're loving it.

After this summer, it really helped to have a stream of visitors coming through, starting with Brennan and Lily on their tour of China. Then followed a vacation, Mom and the Aunts, Larry, and then Ian and we're happily looking forward to our big trip—Australia. More on these in a bit.

But, let me reflect on the overall experience so far in my opinion…

You either love China or you hate it. There is no in between. This very much reflects, well, just about everything about China. It's a country of such diverse extremes, that just when you think you've figured it out, you experience something that…there really isn't a superlative that describes how opposite things can be.

You get such a feeling of whiplash trying to draw conclusions on what you see that you just get dizzy after a while. The best analogy I can compare is like watching a professional ping-pong match, however you're not in the stands, but right at the side of the table at the net, and trying desperately to keep up with the ball going back and forth.

Below is one of my favorite photos that I took during a solo expedition I made throughout the city of Shanghai this summer before Holli and the kids returned.

This guy is delivering about 26 cases of beer, and a half dozen packs of bottled water, while a Mercedes not-so-patiently waits for him to get out of the way.

As far as our updates, well, we have no excuse other than we're just trying to live our lives here, embrace the world around us (being mindful to not get whiplash) and enjoy ourselves…oh, and stay out of the way of taxi cabs. Hopefully, the following posts give you a glimpse of what we've gone through in both the good times, and the not-so-good times.

It's good to see you all again.

Oh, almost forgot, when my mother and aunts visited this Fall, they blogged about their stay with us. While it does not capture it all, it's definitely a good glimpse to what our first six months (and then some) here….an adventure. Check out their blog here.

The Great [Fire] Wall

Ok, back from a rather extended hiatus... Seems with world events going on right now, access will be limited. The World Expo should "reopen" blogs to give the perception of free and open media. So, we'll have to chronicle the past few months retrospectively in the next few days before we're back on the other side of "The Wall".

Anyway, we made it back home from a long 14.5 hour flight from South Korea, through customs and immigration in record time...nothing short of a miracle. Given the draconian measures taken in Asia to either contain H1N1 or give the appearance that it was under control, we're lucky to have not been stopped anywhere. It was touch-and-go through the Seoul-Incheon airport in South Korea when approaching the health screening area and Veronica breaks into a coughing fit about 20 feet away from the examiners...really bad timing on her part.

Immigration and Customs in Dulles Airport in Washington was oddly easy, all in less than about 20 minutes from when we stepped off the plane to when we came through immigration, baggage claim and all! Here we come!

Updates Suspended... Temporarily, I Hope

For those of you following our blog, it appears that outward communications from here are... umm "experiencing technical difficulties" for a while. I assume the technical difficulties will be resolved sometime after the current medical crisis... If this is posted, then maybe there is a loophole... We'll be back in the USA by the end of June, so we hope to catch up with all of our friends and family.

Hong Kong March 2009

Ok, I'll rewrite this one... The video below is the original entry from our trip to Hong Kong. We visited a friend and colleague of mine who until recently was on an assignment in Hong Kong. He invited us to stay with him for the weekend and adventure out to see a bit of Hong Kong. The video below was taken in Sai Kung, a small fishing village in the Northeast section of Hong Kong in the New Territories. This town is known for its seafood, fresh from the fishing boats each day. It's part market, part seafood restaurant, and part boardwalk. You walk up, pick your fish type, quantity and cooking style, and minutes later, you have a very fresh meal on the table.

The next morning, we woke up early to go see a bit of Hong Kong. Starting our day with a bus ride followed by metro and taxi, we found our way to Ocean Park, a kind of Sea World / Disneyworld (but much smaller) theme park on the south side of Hong Kong Island. There, we found the An An and Ling Ling, two of the rescued pandas from Chengdu province where the earthquake was this past year.

The park is located on either side of a mountain peak with a cable car ride with a beautiful view to connect the two park sections. It was amazing how quiet it was up there, away from the noise, and well...noise.

After finding our way through the park, which we thoroughly enjoyed, we made our way back to the bus stand for the ride back to Victoria Harbor and headed up to the peak. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day, and the view was bascially just the surrounding fog, but the kids got a chance to play for a while on one of the playgrounds at the top. A short trip back down the mountain on The Peak Tram at about a 45 degree incline and we headed over to the Star Ferry for a trip across Victoria Harbor at night to see the famous Hong Kong skyline all lit up. The girls enjoyed the ferry ride... They held up pretty well for being on the go for about 10 hours straight! Here they are at the end of a long day, still smiling.

Daddy Daughter Dance

This Saturday night was our first Daddy-Daughter Dance here in Shanghai. The event was sponsored by the girls' Daisy, Brownie and Girl Scout troops. Held at the Radisson, Pudong the party was done right with a buffet style dinner (complete with chicken nuggets, french fries, hamburgers, rice and noodles...oh, yeah, and fish, beef stroganoff, salad, etc.) Kendall was a little shy at first, and clung to daddy for a bit. Once her friend Tiffany showed up, however, off she went...leading the congo line, and a walk-like-an-egyptian dance. Veronica, from the beginning was off finding friends, new and old alike. For a while, the dads were wondering what happened to their dates. Eventually, they both showed up and actually wanted to dance with me, so I felt like I wasn't stood up afterall. My two girls looked absolutely beautiful in their silk dresses. We were all decked out in our new clothes we bought the week before from one of the many local fabric markets where you can get custom made clothes at very, very good prices...if you haggle enough for it. Anyway, we had fun, and the girls enjoyed themselves. Wasn't the same without MacKenzie, Uncle Shane (pinch-hitting as #1), Grandpa and Pap, but we still enjoyed ourselves. Have a look at some of our photos...more to share once we get the official photos from the photographer. Click on the link below to see more. http://picasaweb.google.com/Brian.Stephen.Smith/20090306DaddyDaughterDanceShanghaiDaisyBrownies?feat=directlink

The Asian Workday

I really didn't know what to expect when we moved here. One thing that I guess didn't dawn on me was the length of the workday. Yes, I was usually on the other end of our conference calls early in the morning in the USA, and new our Chinese colleagues were staying late, but I didn't realize the extent that this seems to be the norm. Ok, I thought that given my situation of being away from the family most of the week, would result in my spending more time at the office, but I had no idea. During business trips visiting here, it's usually a late evening in the office followed by dinner, so naturally you expect that people are working a little longer while the visitors are present. The reality is, that just like in the USA, you might find yourself working through lunch on occasion, the same thing occurs here, but you also run the risk of also working through dinner. If you're not paying attention, you might miss dinner to find that you have to get on a conference call at 7 or 8pm, and not be likely to find a bite to eat for another couple hours. Of course sitting here typing this message at 20 minutes after midnight, thinking that I have to make a call or two to the USA is not helping...it seems that the workday blends in with the evening conference calls. And, even on nights when we don't have a call, I know people are staying until 10-11pm working, sometimes on Saturdays. It's a different world... Anyway, for the fun of it, I thought I'd share an image of dinner the other night...in the "cantina". If you're a fan of, or ever watched, M*A*S*H, think of one of the scenes in the mess hall where the food servers are taking a big ladle full of something and slapping it on your tray. Same goes for here. This meal was rice, steamed bread, steamed egg, some type of vegetable and tofu mix, some type of beet and other stuff mix, breaded pork (bone in), and fish (entire fish). A Chinese colleague has explained to me some of the finer points of Chinese eating. He explained that the Chinese like to eat the meat closest to the bone for the taste--most would agree. This is why when you have bite sized portions of meat, you have to be very careful when you put it in your mouth, because it's probably half bone, half meat. The interesting part is, if you want to buy meat, it costs more with the bone than without. I've been hoping they realize the cost reduction opportunity soon before I lose a tooth!

Prep for the Daddy-Daughter Dance

Next weekend, we have a big formal affair, with the Daisy-troop daddy-daughter dance...black-tie affair. In preparation for the big event, of course, it was a weekend of shopping. But, this wasn't your normal go to the mall and pick out a dress and rent-a-penguin suit type affair. No, this was an adventure in shopping at the fabric market. In this our-story building, jam-packed with small 10'x10' sized booths (some were maybe 10'x20'), you can find silks, furs, leather, denim, cashmere, any fabric you could think of, and have your dress, suit, tux, pants, shirt, etc. all custom tailored and designed to fit. And the fun of it was the haggling for price. It's an art form, and the more you buy, the more fun it is (you kind of lose track of the actual amount, but just focus on a number). Well, a tux, two shirts, two cashmere coats, two dresses, and a raincoat later, all Holli could say was, "That was fun. I can't wait until we go to the pearl market." Ahhhhh. Shanghai is a shopper's paradise, where you can find high-end anything real or fake, and anything you could possibly need or want. Oh, and don't forget to dress warm in the winter...many places are not heated! The kids had to stay active to keep warm, and they found a way!

Cultural Challenges: Buying a Train Ticket

Our posts are becoming a little more sporadice... I must say that is not a matter of having enough material to post, but more a matter of finding the time to sit down to do it, not to mention select exactly what to write about; there is plenty of material. Anyway, as many of you know, one sacrifice that we've had to make with our move to China is my commuting to the not-so-nearby town of Wuxi which is a 2-3 hour door-to-door commute for me twice a week. This is taxi ride to the train station, high-speed train ride at over 150 mph followed by another taxi.

[Note, in and around Shanghai, distances are best expressed in time and by mode of transportation... 10 km = 1 hour by car in traffic = 20 minutes by reasonable taxi without traffic = 10 minutes white-knuckled ride in taxi in traffic as well as some short distances up on the sidewalk...Veronica, our more thrill-seeking child seems to always want to ride in a taxi]

Anyway, if you have read up on our previous posts, we recently started our first Chinese New Year experience. I say "start", because even though it officially ended yesterday with the Lantern Festival, Fireworks are still going off even after the holiday has officially ended. This marks the 5-6th straight week of fireworks in Shanghai; a little less in Wuxi.

During the holiday, the family thought it would be nice to get out of Shanghai for a change of scenery. A colleague invited me to visit Wuxi for dinner and some sightseeing. Sounds great, but one problem... How do I actually buy a train ticket?

The foreigner SOS hotline is a service to help foreigners (us, that is) find things around town, tell a taxi driver where we need to go, etc. A very helpful service I must say. Anyway, they helped me locate the nearest train ticket office, so I promptly got in a cab and off I went.

So, doing my initial surveillance of the place, I walk in and locate the schedule...all in Chinese character, except for the time (in 24 hour format) and the train number. "D" trains are good and high-speed (reserved seating only). All others, not so good...slower, many stops, and standing tickets are avaialble (very crowded). For a first excursion in China, I wanted to avoid anything that involved the family crowded into a train, standing for a 2+ hour train ride. A long train ride increased the likelihood that the children would need a potty break on the train, and well Eastern-style toilets (hole in the floor) also presented another potential pitfal (no pun intended).

I figured out the train schedule because fortunately I had a previous ticket stub (I would have been done for from the beginning had I not had this on hand), so I could find the characters for Wuxi. This allowed me to find the trains that had stops in Wuxi.

Now, I'm ready... the place has emptied out, so I won't feel pressured by a crush of people behind me when I know we'll struggle through this. I approach the booth, and ask for four first class round-trip ticket from Shanghai to Wuxi at 17:05 on the same day, or the next. Here is where language lessons tend to be a challenge...you first learn to say and hear specific questions. Unfortunately, lady in the ticket booth did not know the correct responses from the Berlitz Virtual Classroom text and subsequently used different responses. Because whatever she answered, it did not sound remotely like anything familiar.

So, I looked at her in my I-have-no-idea-what-you-are-saying look, shrugged my shoulders and repeated, using every possible hand gesture and body language, plus holding a calendar and pointing to the dates and train schedule, I tried again... She types on the computer and turns it around showing me what looks like the same type of train, but at a different time. I responded "shi" which essentially means "yes" and show four fingers indicating four tickets. She goes on again...nothing from the Berlitz script, so I don't understand her.

As we're having a lovely conversation using words that mean nothing to each other, I get the realization that I'm not going to walk out of here with any tickets regardless of how long I try. So, even though she's showing me a screen with what seems like an acceptable ticket to me...

...she's pointing at the screen showing the train number and time,

...indicating four tickets saying "su yao jin tian" (meaing "four for today"), shaking her head up and down,

...I'm shaking my head up and down,

...and I'm trying to hand her money for the ticket,

...it doesn't seem like she wants to sell them to me

(I am thinking, "this is your job, why won't you sell them to me?"),

She seems to keep wanting to confirm that I accept whatever it is that she said. I keep nodding my head up and down feeling like a bobble-head, and she keeps repeating herself and pointing to the screen (once again, the only thing I can read are the train numbers, the time and the date...everything else is in Chinese script) and I'm not getting much of what she's saying besides the words for four, today, and train.

For those of you that have been to India, I compare this to when you ask a yes or no question, and you get the "head bobbing" response...does this mean yes or no? I need to find out if head shaking up and down means yes and side-to-side means no in China, because she didn't really use either, and I was relying on head motions to help reinforce my yes/no (or shi/bu) responses.

Next enters a nice young Chinese gentlemen who elbows his way up to the counter. He looks at me and says something to the lady behind the bars, and he then explains to me that there are no seats. "Ah-hah!" I respond and ask him "are there any tickets available to get to Wuxi by train for four people?" and he repeated that there were no seats. "Oh...", now I'm confused again.

So, I asked him why she keeps pointing to the screen, and he explains to me that there are no seats...just standing tickets. "Ah-hah." [again, hesitating thinking there is more, but there isn't] Now, we're getting somewhere. Now, I know the best option is to give up, thank them for the time, and walk out...which I did.

So, a lesson for any visitors to China, if it's around Chinese New Year, most of the normal rules are "out of the window" given the overload on the train and other transportation systems (see my previous post on the travel situation on Chinese New Year).

During Chinese New Year, D-trains also have standing tickets...

Moral to the story, "avoid train travel in China during the New Year holiday if at all possible". [and it is safe to assume that you want to avoid busses as well...I'll go on faith that is sound advice]

I'm Not Illiterate, I Just Can't Read

Decided to mix it up a bit this evening for dinner...tonight, Japanese. The last couple nights have been Subway...not because it's American food. It's right across the street from my apartment complex here in Wuxi, it's fast, and it's NOT KFC.

No, but tonight, before I get on yet another teleconference (and subsequently three other calls after that as it's now 2am) I'm going to venture out and grab a bite at a local restaurant. The neighborhood where my apartment is could easily be called the "Little Korea" or "Little Tokyo" of Wuxi. There are about 10-15 of each Korean and Japanese restaurants within a couple blocks of my apartment. Now, if it's not hard enough to understand Mandarin script, throw in a few signs in Korean and Japanese...what's the difference, I can't read any of them.

So, for us Western illiterate types who can't read any of the signs, some restaurants have figured out that we can generally figure out what the food is by pictures. So, many restaurants add photos to their menus so we can go. Some are even so kind as to put photo menus outside of their restaurant to help us avoid the embarassment of getting all the way into a restaurant, sitting down, handing us a menu with no English words or photos, and wondering why we promptly close the menu, shrug the shoulders, and walk out.

So, upon my second attempt at feeding myself dinner, I give up and go to a Japanese restaurant that I have been to with some locals, and know that the menu has pictures. Aparently, the translator of the menu was not as wild about the cook or Japanese (not sure which), because I found this meal on the menu...

[text is "Japanese Rotten Cook"]

Happy New Year!

Chinese New Year Traditions (most of the information from this blog is taken from an article written by Jingbo Wu in Shanghai Family, Jan/Feb 2009 issue). We are so very excited to be in China to welcome in the New Year. The Spring Festival or Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday here in China. Imagine rolling together Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July into one holiday and that's how big this holiday is for the Chinese and it all starts tonight--New Year's Eve, January 25th. Unlike the West, Chinese New Year celebrations will last for 15 days, and preparing can begin up to a month before. The actual date of New Year's day changes from year to year because the Chinese calendar is based on the lunar calendar. It is divided into 12 months of 29 or 30 days; it is synchronized with the solar year by adding extra months at certain intervals. We just know that New Year's Day corresponds with the first day of the lunar calendar and this year it lands on Jan. 26th. The week preceding New Year's Day is called “Spring Welcome Week" or “Spring Cleaning Week”. Families will use this time to clean the home inside and out. Kitchenware is scrubbed, linens are washed or aired, and EVERYTHING is dusted. Once the New Year starts, no brooms can be used until the fifth day because it is believed that cleaning during the holiday will sweep the luck out of the family. I was told that if a family needs to sweep they will sweep into the house rather than sweeping outside of the house. Decorations are a huge part of the celebration which leads back to a legend regarding the New Year's eve monster or "Nian"--meaning "year". There are many legends about this monster but one which I have heard is that each year the monster would come to villages and eat all of the crops and villagers, especially the children. The villagers would put food outside their doors to appease the monster. One year they saw that the monster was afraid of a child wearing red. So, from then on the villagers would hang red banners with spring poems around their doors and they would light firecrackers off to scare away the monster. They also hang red lanterns EVERYWHERE. You can see a picture of our door which is decorated. In the middle is what is called a "fa", meaning luck. This symbol is hung upside down showing that luck has arrived. There are so many things which are symbolic of good fortune and prosperity here in China and you will see these hanging everywhere on stores, restaurants, and homes. Some of them are red peppers and fish. Much of this relates back to the large rural farming villages outside of the cities. But, these traditions are brought with those who move out of the smaller villages and seek work and a "better life" here in the cities. On New Year's Eve, celebrations begin around dinnertime. Families share big plates of food with each food symbolizing a quality or wish for the New Year. In particular, fish and hotpots are traditional "must-haves". Apparently, fish sounds like "extra" in Chinese so it symbolizes that the family will have sufficient money in the coming year. Other special foods are noodles, symbolizing long life, sticky rice cake symbolizing that the family's bread winners will be promoted, and dessert which represents sweetness and love. There are many toasts which are made by all of the family members throughout the evening. After dinner the family makes enough dumplings for the next 5 days. Having many dumplings symbolizes that the family will make a fortune. People stay up all night to guard against the eve monster. Over the night the family plays games and eats lots of snacks. (All but one of the Smiths made it to midnight, none of us ate any dumplings, but we had enough movies to keep us going for a few hours). This night is special and fun for the kids because the adults aren't allowed to yell at them even if they have too much chocolate or break something expensive--this will be the difficult part. Only lucky and auspicious words should be used and anything unpleasant should be avoided or it is thought that this can bring bad luck in the New Year. Phrases such as “Boy, you were lucky to not blow off your hand with those fireworks”, or “You were fortunate to not catch on fire!” are probably very commonplace. From our apartment (31st floor) we could see fireworks as far as the eye could see, and everywhere. They have been going off for the past few weeks. At 12AM the explosions start everywhere across the country at the same time—some where right outside of our window [be sure to check out the photos we’ve posted here]. These are believed to fend off the eve monster—and any helicopter pilots…fireworks everywhere!!! The first day of New Year's is spent visiting the father's side of the family, the second is for the mother's side, and the third is for other family and friends…well not for us. The older generation will give the younger generation "hong bao" or red envelopes with money to buy candy. Kendall and Veronica found these under their pillows in the morning. We've had so much fun learning about this amazing holiday with its amazing traditions. It's really about family and being together and good fortune in the coming year--whatever that may look like for each person, but at the heart is the family. This is just such a limited description of the richness of the traditions, we really hope you will look into this holiday more on your own. Of course, there is so much on the internet to explore, but you can also find the closest Chinese friend and sit down over a cup of coffee or tea and just ask them about it. I am sure they will be thrilled to tell you all about it. Blessings and prosperity in the coming year. "Gong xi fa cai" [roughly sounding, gong-she-fa-tsai]. Love, The Smith's Other Sites to read up on Chinese New Year (sites in English):

Wikipedia University of Canada

Chinese New Year...The Prequel

Holli has a good write-up on Chinese New Year and what it is all about, so I'll leave that to her. I got to experience the first bit of "Chunyun" (春運), the time period around the Chinese New Year. According to Wikipedia, this is the largest annual human migration with over 2.25 billion passengers travelling in this two week period--approximately 1.75 trips per every Chinese person in China or 7.5 trips for every American citizen. Talk about traffic!

Unfortunately, on Thursday night when I came up out of the railway station into the plaza in front of the Shanghai Railway Station, I did not have my camera. Of course, I would have stood out even more snapping photos in what I can only describe as a sea of people. In any direction, all I could see was people, nearly shoulder to shoulder. I would guess it was probably what Times Square is like on New Years Eve...not that I would want to be there.

So, in preparing for our first holiday here, we've been given some advice from others around on what to expect, and how to prepare. First, get plenty of cash out. China is still mostly a cash society with people often carrying around significant amounts of money. Few smaller shops accept credit cards, some accept only local credit cards, while large stores, major chains and shopping malls will accept Visa, Mastercard, Amex, etc. So, as we found, everyone else got the same advice, and many ATM's were empty...it reminds me of the run on milk and bread at the grocery store when the weatherman is calling for snow.

Second, don't go to the train station, and stay out of the city... For the holiday, public services are limited, and as we've found, it is common to wait in a taxi stands for 30-45 minutes.

Despite the warnings, we may throw caution to the wind and go for it. What's the worst that could happen? In the words of the famous Alfred E. Neuman, "What, me worry?"

Look what's for dinner tonight honey!

Just one of those funny photos you have to take. Sounds good.

Oh yeah, and you can't help but think these eggs were fresh. Couldn't they wait until the egg was out to take this one?

liăng zhī xiăo zhū

Veronica has been practicing her Mandarin, and doing very well (as far as we can tell).

The song is about a couple of fat pigs. She learned it at school, and we can only hope that it's a nice song, and not something she learned on the playground. Now, if she could only read the labels on the dish soap, washing machine, dryer, microwave, stove, and Holli's mobile phone.

"Man vs. Machine"

There seemed to be a lot of you that enjoyed our episode with the dishwasher. Well, in the epic battle of man-vs-machine, machine leads by 2, with a score of 2-0. It appears that while the emphasis on learning the spoken language is key, there are a few daily tasks that do require at least a basic level of reading ability. Of course, these incidents give further justification for having an "Ayi" or nanny/housemaid to help around the house...the good news is, we figured it out long before we ran out of underwear. Enjoy!

Shanghai Skyline

Not much to write...just had a few requests about our view of the Shanghai skyline. This is the view from the kitchen in our apartment. We're about a 15-20 minute cab ride from the Huangpo River and the skyline you see here. It's lit up like you wouldn't believe on the weekends, and definitely a must-see. The tall building in the background towards the left is the tallest building in China, the Shanghai World Financial Center...also referred to as "the bottle opener". If you look down from our building, I personally think the view is even better...

Also, it's less likely that the smog will obscure the second view!

Immersed in the Culture

Ok, so we've celebrated our first seven days of survival here with only a few minor bumps and bruises along the way. The eighth day should be lucky, right? Hope so!

So, we had our cultural training and orientation, started our language lessons, had numerous people give us tips for what to do and not do...but...can anyone tell me which one is laundry detergent, which is fruit cleaner and what is meant for dishes? And, once you tell me which on is for dishes, which one is meant for the dishwasher and which is dish washing liquid? None of the training prepared us for this.

Many have done this even in their own country, but this is just one small example of how a routine, simple daily task can become a major undertaking. What is not shown in this video is the time spent at the "hyper"-market trying to reason which is which.

If this is what the Berlitz language method meant by "total immersion", I'm not sure we want anymore of it.

Oh, and by the way, we got a new tip from another expat regarding Carrefour...to help defend against the continual onslaught of stimulation (LCD's, Christmas music in Mandarin, constant crashing of carts into anything and everything, etc.), many people walk around in their own little world listening to their iPod's in an attempt to drown out the noise around them. Now, if only they had bumpers to stop people from ramming into you or your cart...

Really, though when it comes right down to it, a bit of patience and a good sense of humor, and the daily struggles can be a huge bit of entertainment.