Sunday, August 26, 2007

Random Beijing

Sorry for the delay in posting. We have both been really busy with work, and I just recently figured out how to view our blog from China.

I read a quote in the English version of China Daily. It stated that as a Westerner, "the moment you think that you understand Asia, you are fooling only yourself. You will only understand 90% of Asia." We think it is more like 20-30%...

Here are a few observations of westerners in China; things foreign to us, but do not raise an eyebrow to our hosts...

One perplexing conundrum is the vast array of luxury vehicles. Based on the conversations we have had with our Chinese friends, there is no lease (due to a problem with selling of the lease vehicles in other Providences), only very affluent people posses credit cards, and there is no financing/bank loans. Most pay cash! I understand the unprecedented amount of millionaires created by year over year GDP growth, a burgeoning middle class, and a stock exchange that increased 300% in one year. The staggering quantity of quality is astonishing: BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, Audi, Buick, Porsche, Donkey Carts, Cadillac, Range Rovers, Ferrari, etc. Audi especially (given the early entrance of VW in China). These luxury vehicles litter the roads with the less expensive domestic brands. It is like driving through Birmingham (affluent Detroit suburb).

Clearly the Yuan continues to valuate against the USD ($ is used as baseline for all global currencies in terms of growth/valuation/devaluation), inflation is steady yet rising, and the demand for goods within the middle class of China is increasing. The fact remains that salaries in China are significantly less than those in the USA. In addition, the expectation within the culture is your retirement plan is your kid. Meaning, as a child, you are expected to take care of your folks. When your kid gets married, your portfolio has doubled. Your parents either live with you, or you furnish their apartment (at least you don't have to pay for child care or an Ayi -maid/cook/errand lady). Considering all this, it is baffling to me how so many people can afford such expensive cars. It may be simply as a lesson in normal distribution.


A mule car shares the road with a $60k Lexus

Food is a major part of the Chinese culture in many ways. During the week I spend my time in Changchun, in the rust belt of northern China where my supplier is located. I enjoy three squares of dim sum a day while there. Nadia also enjoys Chinese cuisine for lunch every day at school. HOWEVER, on the weekend, we try to enjoy a little slice of home. Another tidbit of random China is the interpretation of western food:

  • For instance, yesterday I ordered a club sandwich. On my club sandwich came on three pieces of toast bread, ham, bacon (so far so good), tomato, carrot, fried egg, thousand island dressing, pickles, lettuce and onions.
  • Chicken breast sandwich = chicken meat loaf. Your basic meatloaf ingredients minus beef plus minced chicken.
  • Peanut bread = white toast with peanut butter.
  • Chicken burger = a Big Mac (two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, all on a sesame seed bun) minus beef patties, plus chicken patties.
  • Cheese pizza = thin crust like a baked tortilla, stewed tomatoes, cheese and carrots.

Lastly I thought I would insert a few new pictures, enjoy!


Children, run and play with hazardous nuclear waste




My office when not on the road... Chimo's cafe



Mmmm, eel surprise, what's the surprise??? IT'S EEL!

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Apartment Pictures - UPDATED

I apologize for the dreaded red X!

Actual pictures hopefully below...

NOTE: We cannot view the blog, only edit (thanks to The Republic). If something does not appear correctly, please let us know!


As promised... this is what our apartment looks like...


In the first picture, you will see the building from the outside. It is 24 stories. We live on the 3rd floor. A lot of the apartment buildings in our neighborhood are taller then ours. Including three enormous high rises that appear to have halted construction in the middle of the project.
UPDATE - Come to find out, the reason for the stoppage in the project was/is because the builder did not gain a "license." All the rooms were already sold!

When you walk in the door, the first door on the left is a storage room (which includes a professional looking ping pong table - yes, ping pong).

Second door on the left is the bathroom. Please notice the height of the shower head , about chest level. This is probably the only downside of the apartment. The bathroom is tiny and not very nice, at least to western standards. You can barely see on the left the free standing washing machine. It of course is completely in Chinese, so we have no idea how to work it. We anticipate our Ayi (sounds like I-E) will be doing all of our laundry. She is basically our cleaning lady that will come 3 times a week. She will also do dishes in addition to cleaning and laundry and the bargain basement price of less then $2/hour. We have no dryer, the are expensive so we bought a drying rack instead. We look at it as a way to be more environmentally conscience.


Bedrooms at the back of the apartment are both really nice and good size. The guest room also has a desk in it. Surprisingly adequate, at least to my expectations.

Alright, now the kitchen. It is like a elongated closet that smells like 10 day old Chinese food. We have scrubbed it, and plan on having the Ayi deep clean every crevice. We just cannot get used to the smell. Thank goodness the kitchen has a door to it and the restaurants in our area are abundant and inexpensive. We don't anticipate doing a lot of serious cooking.

Nadia is very happy that her Mom had the intuition that our apartment was going to have strange smells, we packed scented candles accordingly.

Despite both of our surprise to the generous size of the apartment, Nadia's second reaction was why the hell did we leave our newly remodeled house in the country sitting on a beautiful acre, with full mature trees, for an old apartment in the 10th most polluted city in the world? A trip to Ikea, a little Guitar Hero, and some deep scrubbing by the Ayi's have begun to ease the culture shock and make our apartment feel more like home.

More to come...

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

In Beijing

After a 21 hour journey, we made it! We flew from Detroit to Tokyo to Beijing. We actually managed to stay awake most of the flight, aided by the constant feeding of NWA. It helped us to absolutely CRASH when we finally arrived at our apartment.
It is approximately 90 degrees and 90% humidity. Apparently, we arrived during the hottest time of the year. So not only was I the biggest guy at the airport, I was also the sweatiest. Lovely. We have AC in the apt, THANK GOD! I haven't seen one National sweat. And most wear long pants and shirts. I hope we eventually get acclimated, but in case we don't, I stocked up on Right Guard. We heard it was hard to come by, which makes sense if you don't sweat!
Sorry we don't have pictures yet, still trying to get the computer set up (logging in from Nadia's office).
We will post pictures of the apt soon. It is bigger then we both expected, just not as nice as we had hoped. Our first experience of "lost in translation" was discovered with the word "furnished." We expected our "furnished" apartment to have a shower curtain, dishes, maybe a few clothes hangers would be nice. However, we did receive a 100 gallon fish tank, a very nice hard wood desk, and a ficus tree that stands about 6 feet tall.
Tune in later for pics...