Hello and how are you?

My friend Kathleen arrived on Thursday from London.  That is the same day that Theresa and Martha returned home. 

Last Sunday Worldlink had a trip to the Hutongs.  This word actually means "alley" but is the general word used to describe the old style housing.  These are one-story buildings with tiled roofs.  They are always painted gray and used to have communal courtyards in the middle.  They are rather quaint until you realize they have no plumbing and thus share the public facilities on the street.  The government was systematically tearing these down and putting up ugly high-rises until recently when they realized they are a tourist attraction.  Also some of the new middle class Chinese has been rehabbing them into really expensive condos. 

The tour was not so great but we also went out on a boat on the lake in Hoa Hai area.  This is the area behind the Forbidden City where a lot of the workers used to live.  We took a boat trip across the lake and it was meant to be romantic.  However, the guitar player on the boat was much more concerned with sending text messages on her mobile than playing - until I took a photo of her in the act.  They give you little paper boats and candles to send off into the lake.  If it floats and the candle burns your wish is supposed to come true. 

Monday I met Martha, Theresa and her boyfriend at a shopping street that has Ming Dynasty architecture.  I am getting better at my bargaining skills.  However, I'm sure I would do better if I were a little more fluent.  After the stores closed we headed off to the Forbidden City concert hall.  This is actually not in the Forbidden City - a slight bit of confusion there.  It is in a park near by and is very new and modern with pinewood and steal decor.  We saw a Jazz band.  Apparently, the Chinese do not adhere to the Soviet belief that Jazz is coercive and anti-communist.  They were filming the performance and spent about 1/4 of the time focusing on us.  I just know that we are going to be used as to show that the band has "an international following" on some CCTV documentary.

Wednesday was the last day of class.  They just went over the exam (which I decided to skip) and then we had a big luncheon with the professors.  The lunch was in a brand new convention center on campus.  I have no idea where the money is coming from, but the school has 4 huge brand new buildings.  It may be coming from the Olympic funds since they are teaching English there.  The lunch was a typical Chinese banquet.  This means at least 3 times more food than you can eat with the rice and soup as the final course.  

The banquet was nice and had 9 dragons elaborately carved out of cantaloupe.  My professor got drunk and nearly broke my hand when I went to say good-bye.  Martha said this is not any Chinese custom I was unaware of.    He had been doing Wei . . . ganbai (cheers - literally "dry your glass") with several of the Americans in the class. 

One of my frustrations is when they just chop up the food bones and all.  This is just a pain to eat with chopsticks.  I have gained weight here.  I know this seems impossible but it is actually difficult to order non-oily food and all they really eat is meat.  One of the speakers at my business class said that by 2025 they predict that 8% of Chinese will have type 2 "adult" diabetes.  The statistic in Hong Kong and Singapore is 10 or 11% right now.  No one really knows, but they suspect it has something to do with having a lifestyle change that takes place over just one generation.  The speaker was from a Danish company that makes diabetes products called Nova Nordisk.  Technically, the WTO ! rules have not kicked in yet to allow wholly foreign owned enterprises.  But the government was so interested in having them come in they have been here since 1995 and are 100% foreign owned.  

That night Theresa, Martha, Mark and I had our "farewell dinner" at a different Peking Duck restaurant.  This one seemed more popular with the Chinese (but the other one did is where Nixon ate).  Unsurprisingly, the food was much better.  We then headed out to this bar that is atop one of the old city walls.  We kept passing it in the taxi and finally figured out how to get there.  It was quite obvious that this is not a tourist destination.  Nine very drunk Chinese who were mesmerized by Martha's Chinese ability soon surrounded us.  Karaoke machines were blaring and more and m! ore drinks kept being sent over to us.  By this point some Chinese friends of Theresa's had joined us and things were starting to get ugly.  So we called it a night. 

Thursday, I picked up Kat at the airport and we hit the Lama temple.  A few people were actually worshiping but I am not sure they were Chinese.  It is one of the few functioning temples and has one of the largest Buddhas I have ever seen.  Friday we just ran errands and then met up with some classmates to go clubbing.  Last night we met up with the roommate of the French guy who helped me buy my mobile phone the first day I was here.  He called out of the blue and invited me out with a bunch of his friends.  They were very nice - half were Chinese and half from Grand Rapids Michigan. ! ; I am not entirely sure of the connection, but I think Jilles thought we should be friends since this guy is going to law school next year. 

Sometime earlier in the week our cab it a bicyclist.  Accidents are very common here as rules of the road are optional.  It was not the taxi driver's fault at all.  It was unclear if the man was hurt as he stood up but then just started to shout.  However, the bicyclist was older thus the taxi will be to blame.  Once an accident has occurred you are not allowed to move from the spot until the police arrive. 

Apparently, people do drive a little better in Shanghai.  Kat and I are going there for 4 days/3 nights next week.  Also Shanghai just announced the first ordinance allowing people to sue for poor quality interior decorations, plumbing, electrical work etc.  This is huge as things are built terribly here.  They might use good materials but then the work quality is terrible.  Most buildings only last 5 years.

Oh, another big change here.  Three weeks ago they started to allow personalized license plates - truly a sign of a modernized country.  I really think they needed to change that policy before they attempt to host the Olympics without being able to accept credit cards or have toilets that can handle toilet paper.  I just can't see how they expect to host the Olympics and have all these tourists use cash.  Most ATMs also are not on the Plus or Cirus system and will eat foreign ATM cards.  Also, only a few banks will cash travelers checks (minimum wait time of 45 mins.).  So this really is a big issue.

Kat is still sleeping.  We are going to hit a couple of the markets today.  Also thinking of going to see the tunnels.  During the cold war they build tunnels under the entire city and claim they could fit the whole population down there in 3 mins.