Riders on the Storm

Tiffany and I had our first experience of the Shanghai death-defying act known as bike riding. We and a few friends signed up for a bike tour which we thought was to take place outside of the city. But no no no, we were sadly mistaken. Instead we got a 4 ½ hour tour of the city on wheels.

We were all completely terrified for the first 15 minutes of riding through the daily traffic madness, but after that, we actually figured it out, sort of. Basically the key to riding in Shanghai is to follow the masses. So we merged into the flow of scooters, motorcycles and other bicyclists and went when they went, and stopped when they stopped. It ended up being a lot of fun, and we pretty much got to see the entire city in one trip.

On the left is the ferry that we took to cross the Huangpu river over to Pudong to continue our ride. We then took another ferry to cross again to the north.

To the right is more proof of the Chinese total lack of self consciousness. This was on a main avenue trafficked by thousands of people, cars, bikes, and yet these two decided it was the perfect place for a nap. If a Chinese person is tired, they'll go to sleep most anywhere. We've seen people napping in a wheelbarrow, at their desks at work during lunch break, or just like these guys, out on the street.

Blurb

On another note: Now that I’m back with Credit Suisse, the internal mail system is again delivering my mail. That is to say, when I was with them in New York, I regularly got newsletters, convention invitations, etc. When I left the firm, there was nowhere for the mail to go, so presumably they threw it out. Now that my name is back in the system, though, they are actually forwarding my mail to me in the Shanghai office. So today I received information on the 75th National Housing Conference. The envelope was addressed to me in the New York office and was forwarded out here!

Miss Manners Takes on Shanghai

March 21, 2006- Tiffany

After living in China for 6+ months, the first words that come to my mind when describing a typical Shanghainese person's manners do not include courteous or refined. As China prepares for it's international debuts (Olympics and World Exhibition), the government is taking steps to correct the country's bad behavior, as highlighted in the following article. What Zach and I were most surprised about was the fact that the 'spitting' habit was not addressed.......

Shanghai Gets a Manners Makeover
Shanghai Daily, February 22, 2006

TEACHING local residents not to stare at foreigners and scream out laowai (translates to outsider/foreigner in Mandarin) will be one of the main focuses of an etiquette program that begins on Saturday. The program is also aimed at teaching people how to act in society, with family, in the office, and on campus. One million local families are expected to take etiquette classes as part of the program over the next five years so that they can politely welcome visitors from around the globe when Shanghai hosts the 2010 World Expo. "Shanghai is developing into an international metropolis. Accordingly, Shanghai people should also master international etiquette. It is an emergent and important task," said Qu Meng, an etiquette expert. The city is currently recruiting 400 volunteers to teach etiquette classes in neighborhood communities. A survey conducted by the Shanghai Women's Federation suggests most local women are eager to learn more about etiquette. The survey suggested some current faux pas include walking along the street in pajamas, and using vulgar language.

Ten Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Our Life In Shanghai

From Tiffany's perspective:

10. Online bill pay is not an option…….and for some reason unknown to us, we have to pay all of our bills in cash at local convenience stores.

9. People in China love to sing and aren’t afraid to do so in any public situation. You’ll often find people walking down the street singing their heart out or taxi drivers burst into solos (these people are rarely using walkmans or singing along with the radio). In ill-fated attempts to get me to join the trend, cab drivers often scan the radio channels to find American songs to play really loud for me when I’m riding alone in their cabs. They’re particularly fond of Air Supply and boy bands…….I haven’t succumbed to the music yet, but may at some point just to see how they react.

8 When you have your clothes tailor-made, there are no tags. It’s great, because you can always pretend you’re a size small!

7. China only lets 10-15 foreign films enter the country each year, but the DVD black market is a big business. We can usually buy a high quality version just about any US movie as soon as it hits American theaters for about $1/copy. We’ve learned the good shops to go to, and how to ask for the real copies, but even we get tripped up every once in a while and end up with the handy cam version (a la Seinfeld) with crowd noise and all.

6. Staring is considered a national pastime and not considered in the least bit rude. If you look different or do something out of the ordinary, be prepared for lots of rubberneckers.

5. Our local grocery store resembles more of a pet store than the local Safeway. While they rarely have skim milk or wheat bread, they, without fail, always have low, water-filled bins (with open tops) filled with living frogs, eels and crabs. It always surprises me that there are really no measures taken to ensure these creatures stay confined. I've learned it pays to tread lightly down the aisles.

4. Cash is king in Shanghai. Credit cards are not accepted anywhere (except for western hotels) so we’ve taken to carrying huge wads of cash around in case we need to pay our bills or stop by the grocery store.

3. Pedestrians never have the right of way, even on the sidewalk.

2. One of the favorite street foods here is called Chou Doufu (literally translated to mean stinky tofu). The delicacy is served in squares on a stick and has a nauseating smell that is somewhat like sweet smelling, gamey meat gone bad. One of our friends was shocked, yet a bit relieved, to find out the smell was due to the Shanghainese delicacy and not just a really bad form of air pollution.

1. I know we’ve brought it up before, but it still blows my mind. Spitting in the street is considered a way to stay healthy during cold and flu season, as it clears your lungs of all the germs.

Our New Home!

Tiffany and I are officially moved in to our new place now. This is the first blog entry from the new apartment! This weekend was pretty hectic. We packed everything up Friday night and Saturday and moved in Saturday. It’s not too bad, since most apartments come fully furnished, so we’re not moving any furniture. But for two kids who came over to China with only two suitcases each, we’ve done a remarkable job of accumulating, over the past six months, STUFF (for lack of a better word). I guess it’s understandable, given that we had to buy a lot of basic goods, like food and sheets and cookware. But still…

In China you can call for a moving van the same way you call for a cab. And in fact, they are run by the same companies. So we called the number for a moving truck and sure enough, it came with the same cab meter and charged us a little more of a base fare, but was free of charge both for the time it took us to load up our stuff, and the time it took to unload at our new place. Since there’s only room for one in the truck cab, I rode in the back with the stuff the first time. That made Tiffany nervous, though (like those movies with illegal Chinese immigrants packed into trucks to get to America, but in reverse?), so the second time she took a separate taxi and trailed us. All together, for two truck rides and one taxi, we paid about $10. A lot better than I ever got with U-Haul!

Today (Sunday) we’ve had the front door open all day, with random Chinese service people coming in and out. For as crude as they can be spitting on the street every few steps, they can also be surprisingly civil. Around 9:30 this morning we got a knock on the door and a Chinese man in a sports coat and briefcase introduced himself as the dishwasher installer (and not the encyclopedia salesman he appeared to be). He made sure to take his shoes off and leave them at the doorstep so as not to track any dirt from outside into our mess of a half-moved into apartment. A few minutes later, the suit-clad internet technician arrived, installed some wires and played around with our computer for a bit, ensured that our internet access was all up and clear, and politely excused himself. We also have a balcony that was enclosed in glass today. And while that guy kicked up a bit of dust (well, he was drilling holes into the walls), he had an assistant who came in to sweep up behind him. He also conducted his death defying work with such nonchalance (as you see him lifting a beam while balanced on our 16th story balcony, secured only by a rope that looked like one of my Boy Scout lanyards). Right now the TV cable man is here, in his black button down shirt and matching slacks. It’s like having the Chinese Tony Soprano walking around your house, making sure that you have HBO. We pay a one-time fee for the satellite dish and then it’s yours for life, and you don’t even have a monthly payment. Of course it’s frowned upon for Chinese to have (not that it stops them), but it’s apparently ok for foreigners. All very friendly and courteous, indoor-slipper-wearing folks, all checking with you to make sure that you know what they’re doing (we don’t, but we watch their hand gestures and nod at their Chinese).

Anyway, it’s been one, long, crazy weekend, but we are sooo happy to get everything set up in our new place. Tiffany already noticed that it is much quieter here than our old place. She hadn’t heard a cowbell or bike-mounted public announcement rider all day! And we’re much closer to work now. Just in time for Spring, Tiffany will be able to walk to work in about 20 minutes, and we’re only 5 minutes from the metro line which I take to work. And since we now have a guest room with two, double beds, we are throwing out an open invitation to come and visit us whenever you happen to be passing through Shanghai!

To the left is the dining room and the kitchen is through the paned glass door. On the right is our new study. We're also on the lookout for a big, comfy reading chair to throw in the corner.




Below on the left is the new guestroom, just waiting for visitors! And on the right is our bedroom, with a great 270 degree view. Tons more light than our last place, which had darker woods and a much heavier feel. I think we'll like this place better :)

Here is our living room. You can see Mrs. Chinese Cablewoman on the left. They just drilled some holes and hung satellite wires down from the roof. Very practical. On the right you can see our new favorite vegetation spot on the sectional couch in front of the tv!

And here are two pictures from our apartment. On the left is a shot to the south of the gardens that run through the middle of our complex. There's a lake and some nice little waterfalls, a big kids playground and a fitness center which we have yet to check out. On the right is the view to the north from our newly glassed in porch (or greenhouse now, I guess!). It's pretty amazing to see the patches of old, red roof two-story homes of Shanghai's past that still pocket the city, surrounded by the glass high rise office buildings that represent today's Shanghai.