Notes from the Other Side of the World. We are in our third year of living in Shanghai in the People's Republic of China. This blog is a journal of traveling 12 hours in the future.
Hello, dear readers and welcome back to this week's Yellow River Chronicles! This week we are going to yak about adventures in abnormal behavior here in the Big City. As a preface, many of our readers are world travelers, so it's seems safe to make the statement that everyone, everywhere, does not share the same values or do things the same way.
This is reflected in the culture, religion, laws and "normal" behavior of that particular culture. For example, even in the United States, what is considered "normal" in the northern Midwest (ice fishing) could be considered, "abnormal" or even "unusual" in most counties in Texas.
The Dragon roll is really good here, sir.
We here at the YRC have observed that there is a link between what people consider to be normal behavior and what they consider to be proper or "good" behavior. For example, in many Asian countries it is considered proper to remove your shoes before entering a household. This is standard procedure even in some restaurants.
However, this behavior is not observed in most of Europe, North or South America. The pre-entry shoe removal is neither right or wrong. But for example, if on her monthly Sunday visit, Aunt Mable flipped off her practical and comfortable clogs before heading to the living room to annoy the family with her casserole, the family would find it.....odd. Imagine a dinner party where each couple arrived and kicked off the pumps and penny loafer before tackling the buffet. It would be...different, yes?
In the interest of world peace and common understanding, the YRC has observed two common western behaviors that are not "normal" here in the 'Hai. Please Note: It is not our intent to label this as odd or rude. These behaviors are, in the humble opinion of the YRC staff, simply different, and are as follows:
I'll get it!
1) The holding of doors for other people to pass through. Generally, it is every citizen for themselves here in the Hai. Doors are neither held open to allow others to pass, nor are they held to prevent the door from smashing the person behind you in the nose. The behavior is universal: doors are held open for NO ONE, be it people carry large packages, old people trying to get into the elevator, shoppers exiting a store, or the Pope and his entourage, NO ONE gets the door held for them.
2) The picking up of one's own trash. It is fairly common to see folks just drop their trash as they are walking down the street. Shanghai has thousands of street cleaners working constantly to keep things tidy and that's the way things run. The normal behavior when cleaning out a car, for example, is to take everything unwanted and dump it next to the car. At fast food restaurants, folk leave their trays at the table as they walk past the clearly labeled trash cans on the way out. The street sweepers are there to keep things tidy on the street and the clean up staff in the KFC stands ready to clear your table after you finish your Family Pack.
It all starts so small and innocent. One busy Saturday afternoon, the YRC staff was headed into a large, high end shopping mall in downtown Shanghai. An older (one might say wizened) Chinese woman was coming through from the other side of the glass doors. Creatures of habit, we opened the door and stood aside.
This had the effect of bringing two streams of traffic to a complete halt. The older Chinese woman stopped to wonder. Why were were opening the door for her? As she stood there on the outbound side, the folks behind her piled into each other like a set of derailed train cars (note: NO Chinese train jokes here).
Meanwhile, on the in-bound side, the chair reaction was repeated as the folks behind the bizarre door-opening crazy foreigners confronted the yawning gap of a door being held open for them and hit the brakes. So, it is now the policy of the YRC staff to ALWAYS open doors on unsuspecting Shanghai residents. Always looking to help out, yes sir.
However, it is our fear that someday, a photo of us holding open a door will appear on a wanted poster, or an international sign, showing a door being opened and a cross over it as a warning against unsolicited door-opening...
The other behavior we have been practicing is the "Pick Up The Trash". Basically, walk down a crowded Shanghai street, see a drifting plastic bag or other relatively clean trash item and then pick it up and deposit it in a nearby trash can. This must be done on the move, step, step, sweep the item, step, step, slam dunk the sucker and keep moving like an NBA guard moving down the sidelines.
It seems to happen in slow motion. A plastic bag floats down a perfectly clean city street. All locals avoid it like a tax collector. Then, time slows as we go into motion. Music comes up in the background, maybe "I Like to Move It, Move It".
Many eyes on the street turn as the trash is picked up and heads turn to track the movement. Someone has picked trash up instead of throwing it down? Is it valuable? Are they collecting bags? Is there something IN the bag? Are they going to set fire to it? And then, Ya CHA!, the deed is done, the sinister volunteer street cleaners move on. Another normal day in the 'Hai. We like to move it, move it.
Greetings and welcome to this week's Yellow River Chronicles. This week we are going to finally answer one of the questions that is frequently asked of the Yellow River Chronicle staff. We are going to take a swing at: "How much do things cost in the 'Hai?"
While generally this column has taken a strong stance against informative content, plausible story lines, coherence, good documentation and other foibles of "good writing", there is certainly quite of bit of curiosity about the topic by our respected and loyal readers, so we thought we would give this a try. So expect facts here!
Paris in Shanghai (photo courtesy USAToday)
The general notion is that living in the PR of C is either extremely cheap or, it is quite expensive, as in Paris Hilton expensive.
This being the land of harmony, consensus and balance, both statements are accurate. There is the old adage that a cynic is a person who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Whereas, a non-Chinese resident of Shanghai knows the value of everything and the cost of nothing.
The best way to explain this is to first discuss parallel universes. According to good ol' Wikipedia: The multiverse (or meta-universe, metaverse) is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes (including the historical universe we consistently experience) that together comprise everything that exists and can exist: the entirety of space, time, matter, and energy as well as the physical laws and constants that describe them. The term was coined in 1895 by the American philosopher and psychologist William James.[1] The various universes within the multiverse are sometimes called parallel universes.
It is based explained in a columnar matter. There are four separate price universes in Shanghai with different price structures. Different universe, different price, even for the same thing.
First, there is the internationally-indexed price universe. These are the common, published price venues that charge everybody the same price for the same quality item. They are usually international fast-food chains or department stores. A Big Mac, with fries and a medium Coke, will cost about $4.00. A large, multiple topping pizza is about $20.00. Everybody pays the same price. There is no negotiation, though we have seen it attempted.
How much for the bananas?
At the other end of the spectrum is the second universe: Shanghai the cheap. This is the local, unpublished, street universe. A bowl of noodles is 30 cents. A pork or vegetable bun would be 15 cents. A watermelon in season is 30 cents. A bottle of tea is 45 cents. A bottle of beer is 45 cents. A made to order, custom suit is around $100, and a made to order shirt is $15.00. A DVD or CD is $1.50. A bottle of Stoli vodka (street) is $10.00. Dinner for four with beer and four or five entrees can be well under $60.
Note: A foreigner can generally expect to pay higher prices, simply because of not being Chinese. There is a laowai premium and negotiation is expected most of the time, with the worst markups being in the tourist areas.
Good deal if the meter is running
An example of this is cab fares. Cab drivers are generally supposed to use a meter and fares are regulated. The fare is flat rate whether you have one rider or four. If the meter is used, cab fares are extremely cheap--you can get almost anywhere for around $2 to $3.
UNLESS you get a red cab. Or if it's raining. Or if its Chairman Mao's birthday. Or a national holiday. Or if you have two or three suitcases and look like you are in a hurry. Or if it's Friday night and it is raining. Or if you get a blue and white cab and he's in a bad mood. Or if you're at the airport and it's you first ride into town. Or, if you are wearing large sweatshirt with "Who Farted?" on the front...and it's after midnight.
The Most Expensive Cheerios in the Universe
The third price structure is internationally branded luxury goods. These generally have extremely high prices and have about a 40% to 50% premium over the exact same item in New York. Handbags and watches (real ones) are good examples. Electronics and cameras are in the same structure, with I-phones and I-pads being near the top of Apples international price structure. These premiums also apply to imported specialty grocery items, such as cheeses, wines, beers and yes, breakfast cereals. A box of Cheerios, for example, in a import-specialty store costs...(drum roll) about $14.00.
The Chairman likes his luxury digs...
Finally, there is real estate. Pricing of real estate in Shanghai is near the top of the international scale. Due to tremendous speculation in Shanghai real estate, the average Chinese cannot afford to own a house or apartment in the city.
Hotel prices are near the top of the scale, with rooms in the $250-$500 a night range for international standards. For apartments in high end neighborhoods, prices of $5,000 to $10,000 a month are not unusual.
And we hope you will return for more of the unusual at next week's Yellow River Chronicles! Thanks for tuning in and keep those cards and letters coming!
Do you have a brochure on the "Tattoo Parlor Tours?"
Refueling Stop
Hellloooo, and welcome back. Pack up your kayaking gear, kids, because today we are headed on a kayaking trip to the world-renowned Phang Nga Bay. As an introduction, while Phuket offers many of the benefits and wonders of a Southeast Asia beach destination (tailor shops, "I Pooed" t-shirts, girl bars and street markets), much of the fun of southern Thailand is on the water.
A caveat of travel is that any adventure trip, be it multi-sport, kayaking, mountain biking, hiking, or purse shopping in Hong Kong, will involve a long, long mini-bus ride with a bunch of people you don't know. The wonder and magic of travel is that by the end of the ride, everyone in the group will be dirty, wet, sunburned, dehydrated and will still be strangers. However, everyone tells some spectacular lies in the freedom of knowing you will never, ever, see each other again.
You should know that the YRC staff occasionally introduce ourselves as Canadian. We have many Canadian friends and they don't seem to mind that we have moved in with them. Most people like Canadians. American foreign policy, (whether you agree with it or not), tends to cast a long, chilly shadow in certain parts of the world. Being Canadian just makes it easier to remain...sociable.
The Kayaking Route
We were therefore startled and thrown off track when the couple with us in the mini-bus introduced themselves as Canadians, (The dreaded Vancouver Gambit). We fell into disarray and confusion. We quickly learned that she was Canadian of Dutch origin and he was Canadian of Icelandic origin. We shared that we were American, reviewed the Canadian victories during the War of 1812, and left it at that.
On to the journey. The staff of the YRC is of the opinion that sea kayaking is one of the truly great sports. It is right up there with mountain biking with no brakes and nude cave tubing. As it turns out, Phang Nga Bay is one of the most transcendent sea kayaking destinations.
Outbound by cave from Hong. And, the bats are fruit bats, not blood bats. Serious.
The YRC staff was bound for Phang Nga Bay for night sea kayaking, exploring several cave/hong systems, and a Kratong launch. Hongs are circular karst formations that have an open middle, sort of like a volcanic cheerio. The central area is reached by kayaking through caves that are open at low tide. There was wildlife aplenty, turquoise waters, ambient temperatures, peaceful paddling and the YRC staff was startled to find that we were experiencing a strange but rare travel experience.
Phang Nga Bay
Let me preface this experience with the statement that, as the loyal readers of the YRC may know, The YRC staff have had a...um...diverse...um series....of adventures...usually involving some sort of loss of skin, dignity, bodily fluids, credibility, patience, currency or time. When we travel, we are now generally prepared for the worse....we carry five or six currencies, two medical kits and large amounts of chocolate. We have maps and cellphones. We have multiple redundant security checks and code words. We are equipped like the NAVY SEALS, people. However...we were totally unprepared for what was to happen.
Our Kratong was the BEST Kratong...
Here's what happened:
The two buffet meals were good and no one elbowed anyone out of the way in line. The food was fresh and there was plenty to go around.
The guides were pleasant, informative, and went swimming around the boat during the "free kayak time". They seemed to be relaxed and playful. They knew quite a bit about the area and wildlife and were willing to share it.
The Kratong launch went on schedule in luminescent waters and the group was actually silent during the ceremony.
As the evening progressed, The YRC staff became aware that everyone on the trip...was having a good time. It was a very unfamiliar sensation, but we are pleased to report, there was only one small injury and it was not a member of the YRC staff. As the saying goes, "and a good time was had by all." On that cheerful note, see ya next week!
Howdy ho, and welcome back to the well-rested and tanned Yellow River Chronicles. First, apologies for the two week "miss" on the YRC. As a way of explanation and general excuse making, let the YRC staff just say that the time was well spend and we'll tell you ALL about it in the future weeks. And, as a part of that, today we're headed for southern Thailand and the famous island of Phuket.
For those of you not familiar with Thailand, there is a strip of the country shares a peninsula with Burma. Once you get past that, its Thailand all the way until you run into the northern part of Malaysia. Phuket is noted for its beautiful beaches and also for being ground-zero for the 2004 Tsunami. The coastal areas seem to have recovered well and it's back to beach business on Phuket.
View from window of hotel in Montepulciano
We had an experience in Phuket that is similar to something the YRC staff have been experiencing more and more in our travels, particularly in Southeast Asia. Every once in awhile, we step through a portal into an alternate universe.
No this not the "free pour" Sangria night at Maya's on Julu Lu. This is the classic "I don't think we are in Kansas anymore" moment.
These are not the historical moments, when one goes back in time (Kyoto and parts of London, Rome and Paris) and has an overwhelming sense of history. They are not the lyric moments as in the hills around Montepulciano or in the Sea of Cortez where the beauty of the moment rolls over you like a warm wave.
Would you like to try our Padd Tai Burrito special?
No, these are the moments where you step through a doorway and enter what seems to be an alternate universe. A bizarre, alternate universe.
It started with a 2 a.m. flight from Shanghai to Phuket and then hurtling by hotel car through the late night Phuket scene to arrive at a hotel that was so big it should be a separate country. The place was so big (How big was it?) that they had caches of food and water on the paths in case you were lost and starving to death while trying to find the Spa. (Where is "C" wing? C WING!!!)
On a late-night taco walk to a Mexican restaurant on a Thai beach..it happened. The YRC staff stepped past the statues of frogs dressed like Mexicans, the unique Thai/Mexican motifs (Thai colors, Mexican patterns) on the tapestries, and the three-piece Thai band singing mariachi songs in Spanish. We reclined at a two-top with beach view, ordered up a couple of Caribbean margaritas (??) and scanned the room. There was something strange and familiar about the people in the restaurant with us...something familiar....and wrong (cue sinister Thai Mariachi music in background).
No amulets for you here, Tovarich
And as we opened the menu, the feeling became stronger. Where were we? Who are all these large, pale, rude people? Where is our basket of Thainachos with lemongrass salsa?
The menu was in three languages....english, spanish and....can you guess the third? It was Russian...tovariches (rhymes with um...witches).
What is russian for taco? It is лепешка! The alert YRC staff surmised that we had not escaped Moscow! The Russian zombie-cab drivers and friends had stalked us along the Trans-Siberian, lurked in the borscht-joint alleys in old Shanghai, and then POUNCED like a poached sturgeon in Phuket!
The restaurant was full of Russians, singing Russian songs with the Thai band, ordering Mexican food in Russian and generally being....Russian.
Courtesy of Business Report Thailand
The next day as we strolled in search of amulets and other sacred trinkets, we saw Russian signs everywhere, Russian prices, Russian bus tours, Russian kayaking trips (Row Tovarich! ROW!) and, yes, Russian restaurants and bars. What was going on? Why had the Russians invaded? You can Google it (or check out this link: click here for the background on Tovariches on the Beach)
But the YRC staff does field research, people. Investigative journalism. Ya CHA! We decided to ask a local, and the conversation went like this.
Tailor outside one of the many tailor shops in town.
"Excuse me, I notice you have signs in Russian." "Yes, you want suit? I'll make it for you, top quality." "No, thanks. I live in Shanghai and the tailors there basically make suits for free. Do you do a lot of suits for the Russians?" "The Russians. Ha. They are too cheap. Money. Money. Money. That's all they care about."
"So, the Thai's don't like Russians much?" The Tailor stops and stares. "I am not Thai. I am from Burma. All tailors here are from Burma." "Oh...do you like Mexican food? ...never mind."
For a change, we will start this week with something interesting: a startling image from a faraway place like, well, the Yunnan province in southern China. Yunnan is the most southwestern of the provinces and features some of China's most spectacular scenery, including the famous Leaping Tiger Gorge. The intrepid YRC staff were there on business. In a bizarre twist of events, on this trip, the slacker contingent in on the staff was working and the working contingent was...well, slacking. But it was there that we learned the ways of the Chinese Tour Group, which we will share with you in this week's missive.
Karst, Schmarst in Yunnan
Wikipedia on Yunnan Tourism: Yunnan Province, due to its beautiful landscapes, mild climate and colorful ethnic minorities, is one of China's major tourist destinations. Most visitors are Chinese tourists, although trips to Yunnan are organized by an increasing number of foreign travel agencies as well. Mainland tourists travel by the masses; 2.75 million Chinese visited Yunnan last October during National Holiday.
Photo Opportunity!
Are you with us, people? The October holiday week is a national holiday (all holidays are national, the Chinese go on vacation TOGETHER). So for the SAME week, around 3 million Chinese descend upon Yunnan to experience the beauty and wonder in the fall.
And they do it in buses, in tour groups, with the same colored hats.
The group is lead by a tour leader who indicates leadership by carrying a brightly colored flag or umbrella for recognition and a megaphone to communicate.
Please stay on the trails...
Why the guide? Because you don't just wander
around in a park, people. There are things to see, moments to experience and of course, photos to be taken. And these are done in a sequence, from point A to point B to point C and then back to the bus for drinks and snacks and a chance to show each other the pictures that were just taken.
The YRC staff had an excellent opportunity to see The People's Tourism first hand in Kunming at two of the People's Wonders of Nature parks. The first was the Shilin Stone Forest (Shilin (Chinese: 石林; pinyin: Shílín). The park contains "a notable set of basalt formations located in Shilin Yi Autonomous County." According to the guide book, "The tall rocks seem to emanate from the ground in the manner of stalagmites, with many looking like petrified trees thereby creating the illusion of a forest made of stone."
What we discovered was, if you are solo travelers on "the route" through the park, you are in danger of joining the forest made of stone. Large tours rocket along the trail at precise 3-minute intervals, going the same direction in the same sequence to stop at the same points to hear the brief explanation of "Elephant Rock" and then snap the required picture at the well signed and marked "photo point". As the YRC staff attempted to "wander" the park, we were nearly trampled and crushed by the advancing tour groups. We were very out of sequence and very in the way. Then, we learned the rhythm and could get around safely. It works like this: When you hear an advancing megaphone, dive for cover. Look like a tree. Avoid eye contact or sudden movement. Camouflage is the sniper's and the lauwai tourist's friend. Stay still. As the crowd moves on, dart into the gap between the groups. Keep moving and never, never, go against the flow. There is no turning back in the Park, comrades...
Cool and Comfortable
Our second stop was The Jiuxiang Karst Caves which encompass sixty-six caves of all sizes. They include Wolong Cave, Baixiang Cave, Fairy Palace, Dasha Dam Cave, Sanjiao Cave, and lots and lots of neon. In the words of the brochure (and the YRC staff's all-time favorite quote):
When in rainy season, it seems like a sensational giant dragon under moist vapor like to kiss you cool and comfortable.
No Turning Back!
Nature is Better with Neon
After our training in the Stone Forests we felt we could confidently handle our second
Chinese Nature Tour. But we were overconfident. We had forgotten the famous Second Law of Travel in the Peoples Republic:
"You Do Not Find the FUBAR. It Finds You!"
The trail was...in a cave. There was no place to duck in and out of traffic. There was no place to hide. We advanced through a glowing series of caves on a pathway like a set of rails through an underground Las Vegas. Your YRC staff were like a pair of small rabid squirrels caught between packs of eagerly advancing Panda bears. Megaphones to the front of us, megaphones behind us, we could only keep moving forward.
The trail went down, down, down, down, into the depths of Chinese Underground Neon Land. We descended deep into the caves in a series of steep inclines and drops through ravines. At the bottom, there was a rest stop and dozens of tour groups resting for the next big push.
It can be said that only in China would they find a way to get hundreds of Chinese senior citizens to the bottom of a cave and have no way to get them out. Yes, fellow travelers, we had reached the end of the descent. The wonders of the Fairy Palace were behind us and before us was...The Long Leap Upward.
The Great Leap Upward
Return to the Surface
You may be pleased to know the YRC staff did not dishonor our nation. We took our place on the stairs and advanced slowly to the surface. The Park administration had thoughtfully provided first aid stations along the way for those who collapsed along the way. At a halfway point, they also had thoughtfully provided a large group of bearers with sedan chairs for those willing to be carried up a narrow, winding trail. However, anyone foolish enough to use the chairs was roundly derided and abused by those of us on the trail.
A senior couple who had been keeping pace with us for the last few hundred yards commented to us that those who rented the chairs and took the easy was out were probably "from Shanghai and thought they were better than the rest of us." Indeed, we nodded sadly, those lazy wretches from Shanghai...
When we last left you, dear readers, the fireworks were rattling the windows of Shanghai as the residents of Shanghai began blowing...well, everything up.
Chinese New Year is actually a fifteen-day holiday, but the core of the celebration is New Year's Eve and the following four days leading up the return of the God of Wealth. But before we proceed, please view the instructional video on handling explosives safely.
The Rundown on Chinese New Year fromWikipedia (edited):
First day
The first day is for the welcoming of the deities of the heavens and earth, officially beginning at midnight. Many people, especially Buddhists, abstain from meat consumption on the first day because it is believed that this will ensure longevity for them. Some consider lighting fires and using knives to be bad luck on New Year's Day, so all food to be consumed is cooked the days before. On this day, it is considered bad luck to clean.
Most importantly, the first day of Chinese New Year is a time to honor one's elders and families visit the oldest and most senior members of their extended families, usually their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.
For Buddhists, the first day is also the birthday of MaitreyaBodhisattva (better known as the more familiar Budai Luohan), the Buddha-to-be. People also abstain from killing animals.
Some families may invite a lion dance troupe as a symbolic ritual to usher in the Chinese New Year as well as to evict bad spirits from the premises. Members of the family who are married also give red envelopes containing cash to junior members of the family, mostly children and teenagers. Business managers also give bonuses through red envelopes to employees for good luck and wealth.
Incense is burned at the graves of ancestors as part of the offering and prayer ritual.
The second day of the Chinese New Year, known as kāinián (开年, "beginning of the year")[16], was when married daughters visited their birth parents, relatives and close friends. (Traditionally, married daughters didn't have the opportunity to visit their birth families frequently.)
During the days of imperial China, "beggars and other unemployed people circulate[d] from family to family, carrying a picture [of the God of Wealth] shouting, "Cai Shen dao!" [The God of Wealth has come!]."[17] Householders would respond with "lucky money" to reward the messengers.
Some believe that the second day is also the birthday of all dogs and remember them with special treats.
The third day is known as Chìkǒu (赤口), directly translated as "red mouth". Chìkǒu is also called Chìgǒurì (赤狗日). Chìgǒu means "the God of Blazing Wrath" (熛怒之神). It is generally accepted that it is not a good day to socialize or visit your relatives and friends.[18][19]. Hakka villagers in rural Hong Kong in the 1960s called it the Day of the Poor Devil and believed everyone should stay at home.[20] This is also considered a propitious day to visit the temple of the God of Wealth and have one's future told.
In those communities that celebrate Chinese New Year for only two or three days, the fourth day is when corporate "spring dinners" kick off and business returns to normal.
This day is the God of Wealth's birthday. In northern Mainland China, people eat jiǎozi (simplified Chinese: 饺子; traditional Chinese: 餃子), or dumplings on the morning of Pòwǔ (破五). In Taiwan, businesses traditionally re-open on the next day (the sixth day), accompanied by firecrackers.
It is also common in China that on the 5th day people will shoot off firecrackers in the attempt to get Guan Yu's attention, thus ensuring his favor and good fortune for the new year.
Back to our regularly scheduled missive:
You may remember from last week's column that the intrepid YRC staff were sternly warned to abandon the city during Chinese New Year. So, counter to that sage advice, we decided to stay and experience The Big One, the Year of the Dragon. The bombardment on New Year's Eve started around 4:00 pm and ran until around 1:00 am, and it was rather intense as the video demonstrates. Yada yada.
We were prepared for the holiday. We carried no knives or matches and were planning on cooking no food. We would kill no animals and would not clean the apartment. It was sounding like a fun holiday, really. But then, in the heart of the Big 'Hai, we encountered one of Life's Great Mysteries. As we left the apartment on the morning of New Year's Day, we were startled to find something we had not prepared for.
Shanghai streets, like most mainland cities, are extremely crowded and ...noisy. Chinese drivers have their horn connected to their gas pedal. When the driver's foot is removed from the gas pedal, the horn starts to honk. To add to the cacophony on the street, there are the loud cell phone conversations, the migrant junk collectors with their speakerphones doing the Mandarin version of "Bring Out Your Dead", the street vendors enthusiastically communicating the availability of tasty and inexpensive snack foods, the incessant construction noise, usually lead by jackhammers, and the constant buzz and whine of the thousands of scooters competing with pedestrians for a pathway through the chaos.
But on this New Year's morning, we emerged blinking into the day to find...nothing. A great tsunami of tranquility rolled over us. Our Shanghai friends and neighbors were all gone! No bus travelers, no buses, no vendors, no crazy Chinese cat ladies, no..body.
And, then, it struck us...Chunyun. No, not the God of Empty streets. Chunyun, the time of travel.
This from Shanghai Expat:
Train Station, Shanghai. Photo courtesy of Shanghai Expat
China’s population is the largest in the world, estimated at 1.4 billion people, and the ramifications of this number constantly ripple through every part of daily life. There are always lines at every turn, transportation is crowded, and of course, there is limited personal space. Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, falls on January 23rd this year, and is a time when many Chinese return to their hometowns to be with their families and friends. During this time an impossibly large amount of people board planes, trains, busses, and boats in what is known as Chun Yun. Chun Yun is often referred to as, “the largest annual human migration in the world.” It is estimated that some 700 million Chinese people will travel making an estimated 3.1 billion trips over the 40 day travel period. Trains are running around the clock and still overcrowded.
Bwwwwwwwwuuuuuuhhhhhhahahahahhahahaha! Our fellow Shanghaiese were not in Shanghai. They were all on a train to the provinces, going home to play mahjong and snack on niangao,( 年糕, niángāo).
The YRC staff has planned for the travel challenge of a lifetime. Instead, lot's of personal space and harmony. To illustrate, imagine a great city, like....Paris. What is the one thing that would make a visit to Paris truly wonderful? No Parisians, of course! Or, imagine London without the Brits or New York without the Yankees! Now, what if....even the tourists were gone?! In Shanghai, the expats had fled the city, well ahead of the madness of Chunyun. Most of the Chinese also had left, going home to the provinces, leaving....the YRC staff to wander the city in search of wisdom or, even a bar that might be open.
The city was ours! The Year of the Dragon brought the one thing impossible to find in Shanghai...serenity. And we hope your Lunar Year will be serene as we wrap up this week's column. Next week the YRC visits the wilds of Kunming and the famous Siberian gull migration! Thanks again for stopping by.
Well, here at the YRC there still is the distant crackle of fireworks as the Chinese New Year/Spring Festival winds down. The city folk are all back at work and by the end of the week the migrant workers will have returned and Shanghai will be in full swing.
Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!
The week we will continue the YRC tradition of wandering: wandering physically, wandering in the narrative sense and of course, wandering in the logical sense in our report on the YRC staff's first Lunar New Year in the City of Hai, faire Shanghai.
Our loyal readers (not the rest of you ne'er-do-wells and reprobates) should be forewarned that the advice from every expat/visitor/non-mainland resident of Shanghai was to "run screaming to the airport" before the Lunar festivities began. After their descriptions of the horrors of remaining in the city, the YRC staff was left with an image of large numbers of terrified families streaming away from the city. This terrified exit would be similar to the scenes in the old Godzilla movies when the Giant Lizard began to crush tanks under his feet and wrestle with power lines. True, it was Tokyo, not Shanghai, but there is always hope he will someday visit here.
Supplies, Tovariches!
So, armed with that information, we at the YRC originally adopted what could be considered a bunker mentality. We stocked up on key supplies...vodka, DVDs and butterscotch and chocolate chips, loaded up our Kindle accounts and prepared for the Chinese Apocalypse.
It was to be the Year of All Years, after all. Best to be prepared. The Dragon is a particularly auspicious sign, so the celebrations were to be even more over the top than usual. The Dragon, according to Wikipedia:
Dragon – 龍 / 龙 (辰) (Yang, 1st Trine, Fixed Element Wood): Magnanimous, stately, vigorous, strong, self-assured, proud, noble, direct, dignified, eccentric, intellectual, fiery, passionate, decisive, pioneering, artistic, generous, and loyal. Can be tactless, arrogant, imperious, tyrannical, demanding, intolerant, dogmatic, violent, impetuous, and brash.
The Dragon is also the only imaginary member of the Chinese Zodiac and so is the only member of that elite team that is not consumed on the mainland. This is something that gives one pause. If dragon was available, how would it be served? I will have the Old Dragon Stewed with Bamboo Root & Ham (笋干老 龍 煲), please.
But, as advertised, we wander. Here you have, in honor of the new year, a YRC chronicle FIRST!! Yes, we have actual YRC video footage of the Wild Rumpus of fireworks from YRC headquarters South. This was taken by alert YRC camera persons at midnight. Check it out:
Background on the Lunar New Year's Eve from Wikipedia:
The biggest event of any Chinese New Year's Eve is the Reunion Dinner. A dish consisting of fish will appear on the tables of Chinese families. It is for display for the New Year's Eve dinner. This meal is comparable to Christmas dinner in the West. In northern China, it is customary to make dumplings (jiaozi, 餃子, jiǎozi) after dinner to eat around midnight. Dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape resembles a Chinese tael. By contrast, in the South, it is customary to make a glutinous new year cake (niangao, 年糕, niángāo) and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives and friends in the coming days of the new year. Niángāo [Pinyin] literally means "new year cake" with a homophonous meaning of "increasingly prosperous year in year out".[14]
After dinner, some families go to local temples hours before the new year begins to pray for a prosperous new year by lighting the first incense of the year; however in modern practice, many households hold parties and even hold a countdown to the new year. Traditionally, firecrackers were once lit to scare away evil spirits with the household doors sealed, not to be reopened until the new morning in a ritual called "opening the door of fortune" (kāicáimén, 開財門).[15] Beginning in 1982, the CCTV New Year's Gala was broadcast four hours before the start of the New Year.
You will be pleased to know that your YRC staff, adventurers to the end, decided to participate fully. Bunker we not! We had Reunion Cocktails and then bundled up with scarves and flasks to head to Jing'An Temple for the festivities. We were prepared fight the crowds at the temple, light the incense, torch off a mountain of fireworks and even watch the CCTV New Year's Gala on CCTV One (which for some reason, is not available in our apartment).
But what actually happened (dramatic music in background) was quite different that what we planned...and will be covered in PART TWO of Chinese New Year in the Year of the Dragon! See you then, and thanks for tuning in to the YRC!!
