Do you really like it there?

A lot of people have been asking me, “So, Amber, how do you like China?” I suppose I haven’t clearly answered that question anywhere… until now.

China rocks! I will say that the entire culture has several ‘quirks’ that take a bit of getting used to and you can’t be in a hurry to do anything. But once you get over having to stand in line everywhere, it’s actually pretty fun.

Well, I should clarify… You don’t really stand in line, you stand in mob and gently elbow your way to the front. At the major stores, Rainbow, Walmart, etc, people are fairly organized. But at the smaller stores, like the grocery store across the street from my hotel (it’s really more like 7-11 with a produce department), whoever has their stuff on the counter first is next in line. During busy shopping hours, if you stand there holding your stuff behind the person currently being rung up, it’s very likely that some small person will eek their way in and set their things on the counter which then signifies that they are next to be rung up.

It only had to happen twice for me to understand this. Now I make sure to set my stuff on the counter and slide it as close as possible to the cashier without actually touching the other person’s stuff. This strategy has been working well for me to date.

Speaking of grocery shopping, this may be the first time in my life that I’ve shopped mainly according to weight and size of products. Since I usually walk to/from the store, I don’t really want to be carrying 2 gallons of juice the 3 blocks home from Rainbow or the 7 blocks home from Walmart. So I usually end up buying the light stuff, noodles, nuts, cheese, bread, etc. at the nicer stores, then pick up milk and soda at the ‘7-11.’

Getting back to the quirkiness or China… I’m still getting used to the belching and spitting. It’s totally acceptable to let out a low, rumbling belch at the table. No ‘excuse me’ necessary. Nothing obnoxious, just letting out some built up pressure. I don’t have much issue with this as long no one blows it my direction. The spitting on the other hand…

Picture a college frat boy who’s part of a luggie hocking contest, something like the scene in ‘Road Trip’ where they are stuck in the woods, the bridge is out and EL launches a giant luggie across the river. Now picture EL as a short Chinese guy in the middle of a city spitting onto the sidewalk at your feet. That’s what it’s like here. And it’s fairly consistent. I prefer to blame it on the pollution, rather than a lack of manners.

Yet another amusing quirk of the Chinese culture is their aversion to diapers. Instead, many small children and babies wear crotchless shorts and do their business… well, anywhere they want. I can’t even tell you how many kids I’ve seen squatting on the side walk or next to a fence (still in plain sight, of course). I saw one kid standing on the railing over the river holding his dad’s hand while raising the water level ever so slightly.

And still, the worst I have ever seen was in the evening walking home from class. I walk along a main street past several small shops and noodle nooks. Every week I see the same little kid, he’s probably 3-4 years old, playing outside a noodle nook. Last week he gave me an extra special show. His mom laid a few pieces of paper in the middle of the sidewalk, and the kid, completely naked, squatted over the paper and took a dump. I’m not sure what he had for lunch, but it stank almost as much as the river.

The random smelliness is another quirk that haven’t gotten used to yet. The whole city smells, some parts worse than others, the ‘river’ in particular. They call it a river, but it’s really a standing body of untreated and polluted water. You can smell it half a block away, further on a hot day.

At this point, I’m sure you’re thinking, “Wait a minute, I thought you said that you liked this place?” And I do. It’s so different here compared to the Detroit ‘burbs, it’s mind bottling (yes, that is a ‘Blades of Glory’ reference). And me being a people watcher, there’s plenty to watch. Mostly it’s watching other people watch me, but it’s still entertaining.

The organized chaos of driving here intrigues me as well. I really wish my company would let me drive, but the corporate policy says no. In the book Amoy Magic (a guide for living in and traveling to Xiamen), it talks about the Darwinian driving in Xiamen. It’s all true! If you’re there first, you win. This means when you’re turning left across 3 lanes of traffic, if the first lanes is clear, you turn into the first lane and wait for the second lane to clear. When the second lane clears, you pull into the middle of traffic and wait for the third lane to clear so you can finish your turn. If you happen to be waiting in the first lane when someone else comes along driving in that lane where they should technically have the right of way – according to US standards anyway – they don’t get mad, instead, they simply go around you in the oncoming traffic lane. The best example of driving here is on youtube. It’s shows a major Xiamen intersect on a good day (no really, it’s a good day): Xiamen Traffic. I wish I had a video of a major US intersection for comparison.

I will admit that the massive amount of people in the city can be a bit annoying at times, but I’m quickly learning the skills required to deftly navigate the sidewalks and shopping malls. My first week here, I went to the SM, a huge, 5 story shopping mall. I wandered around a bit, then decided to go upstairs.

In the US, I’ve successfully utilized hundreds, maybe even thousands, of escalators. Seeing one in China, I thought the process would be the same: walk to escalator, wait half a second for full step to expose itself, step on, ride to top, step off. What I didn’t anticipate was 3 tiny, little people jumping onto my half exposed step while I stood there for a split second, foot in the air, ready to mount the ride. They didn’t actually push me out of the way, but if they had been any bigger, they would have had to. There just wasn’t space there for a normal size person to get in front of me. Now I’ve learned my lesson and keep my elbows slightly out so I take up as much space as possible. Or I just go shopping at non-peak hours (which are still really busy).

All that being said, the people here are extremely friendly. Even as I struggle speaking Chinese, they try so hard to understand what I’m trying to say so that they can help me. And, most of them are reasonably good at charades.

Everyday living here brings its own little adventures. I’ve now successfully taken a taxi home without using the hotel business card to show the guy where I needed to go. I bought bread at the bakery without needing the lady to pull out a calculator to show me the price. (That’s the back up plan when I don’t understand what numbers someone says.) As far as I know, I haven’t severely offended any random people. I had clothes made at a tailor. (After I pick them up this weekend, I’ll let you know if I was successful.)

But the short of the long is that this has been a great experience and I’m already glad I came.