First Entry

July 3 2007 Tues 12:40AM in China

I'm one of the late ones to start a blog. But better late than never.

Note: exchange rate: 1dollar = 7.6RMB
Also note that my first entry is rather lengthy, so I tried to separate it by days, and there is a lengthy commentary section towards the end of random thoughts, just separated by paragraphs.

Week 1 (week of 6/24/07)

Sun/Mon

I'll start with the flight to China. I woke up around 3:30am, get to LAX by 4:45, and caught my flight with about 25 minutes to spare. The international terminal at LAX was really packed. I get to SFO, met up with Hsing and Alex, and flew to Tokyo. Then we transfered to Beijing. By the time we found our luggage, hosts, and checked into the hotel, it was already 10:30pm. Then I had to get ready for my presentation the next morning at 9am...

At this point I was already exhausted, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet and do the work. So I made a decent ppt presentation, and got three hours of solid shuteye.

Tues.

My presentation went well. So did Alex, Hsing, and Ryan's presentations. After the launch meeting (introductions, etc) we found our cubicles at CNIC, tested the connection, and went to lunch. Boy, the cafeteria near CNIC is very cheap. I spend on average 6-8RMB ($0.80-$1.00) on lunch there. We took the rest of the day off, mostly to catch up on much needed sleep. At this point Hsing and Ryan's dorm didn't have working AC yet, but our hotel does.

Wed.

After waking up the next morning I get a msg from one of the hosts saying that they want us to take the entire day off to settle in and get well rested. So after sleeping in, we got some lunch and went to Walmart.

I like China's take on Walmart. The shelves and entire store is very organized, in contrast to the Walmarts I've been to in the States, where many things are thrown about and just cluttered. A distinct scent I will remember from Walmart is the bakery section. The little breads and pastries smell so good. I always want to buy something whenever I walk by those pastry stores on the street as well.

The tap water is not healthy, so I got a couple of 4L water bottles (even that's questionable..) and some other things.

Thurs.

It rained. And when it rains, it pours. It also seems like whenever it rains in Beijing, expect lightning/thunder. However, the day after the rain, the weather is actually tolerable. It's a lot cooler and less humid than usual (but not cool).

Anyway, the first day of actual work. I find my desk, sit down, and basically don't know where to start or what to do. So obviously I ask my host where my mentor is, as he wasn't sitting in the same area any of us were. Once I find them all four mentors stand up, and as it turns out we had a meeting. The meeting was really helpful, as I got a lot of supplementary reading material for specifics on what I will be doing. Then they suggested to have a weekly meeting, but didn't specify when, so I guess it's to my discretion...

We ate at the cafeteria again for lunch (its really cheap but the food is really good, and it various everyday somewhat), finish work, and decide to check out the tech district. It's about a good 10-15 minute walk, but there's so many shops and gadgets that are really interesting.

Fri/Sat/Sun

The weekend was a blur, but we played a lot of mahjong, cards, checked out different parts of the tech district again, and ate at a Thai place for dinner on Sat. The food was really good, on the expensive side in China, 74RMB = $10.00, and it solved some of our diarrhea problems. They even had entertainers who would sing classic American songs like the Beatles, etc which was pretty cool. Also, their menu was huge. Not only that, but each item had a picture next to it. The menu book itself took 10 minutes just to run through it once, before we would go through and decide what to get. My favorite dish was the chicken fondue. It's like a cheese fondue where the bowl is white bread, and they fill it with chicken curry. Yum. This will be the place we go to clean our system if need be again. We all had diarrhea at one point or another, before the Thai restaurant. I think our stomachs were just getting used to the food here.

Sometime during the weekend we also went to a bookstore to get some DVDs and shop around. It was about a 30 minute walk. It was springkling so of course we brought our umbrellas. We get to the bookstore, find what we want, and before we step outside, it was pouring cats and dogs, with the occasional lightning. We wanted to see the other shops, but decided it was best to just take a taxi back.

On Saturday we went to walk around near Tienanmen. We took the subway there, which was also an interesting experience. We checked out the shops and food. At one outside food vendor they sold "on a stick" food. Basically it's food on a skewer, and if you want something they put it on the grill and you eat it. They had scorpions on a stick! They were live, as the legs were moving. I didn't try it, and neither did anyone else. They have the standard chicken skewers and other meat. Also they had cicada skewers and seahorse skewers, but these were dead (obviously).

On Sunday we went to the tech district again (the place is huge, spanning a few blocks). I got a 1GB memory stick for my camera for cheap ($17.00?) although I desperately need to improve my haggling skills. It turns out I did the wrong things at first. I wanted to ask them how much it was and to bring the price down, then go to other shops and find out how much I can haggle it down there, etc, and eventually make my decision and buy the cheapest one (the so-called US "smart buyer" right?). No! Once you haggle them and they bring the price down, you cannot walk away. Otherwise you will loose the deal. For instance, I got the price down, then told them I'll come back in 5 min to buy it. Once I came back they told me they won't give it to me for the previous haggled price anymore, basically no matter what I said or did. Anyway, now I know how haggling works in China!

We ate at a Korean restaurant for dinner on Sunday. I found out Koreans use metal chopsticks which is pretty cool. I thought everyone who used chopsticks used wooden ones. (Besides, isn't is cheaper?) But from what I understand is that metal was cheapest for Koreans back in the day, that's why. I'll post up the pix next time.

Week 2 (week of 7/1)

Mon.

Work again, lunch in cafeteria. After work we were all pretty tired so we just played some more mahjong. I think things may begin to get routine now until the weekends. For dinner I had cold noodles. This is a Chinese dish and it was cheaper than I had before, 5RMB instead of 8 at the restaurant near my hotel. It actually was tastier, but the portion may have been a little smaller. Then I got some baozhe. They give you 9 small bao zhe for 4RMB. The place outside of Ryan and Hsing's dorm sells these, and they are very scrumptious. Hsing and I also got a haircut for 10RMB. I like it better than supercuts actually, as they pay attention to detail. Also the hair wash before and after the haircut is included. It's a lot cooler now with my haircut.

The weather is always just hot and humid. You want to stay indoors as long as you can. At work today the AC broke, and my legs were sweating (while wearing shorts). They're pretty lax on our dress. They pretty much said we can wear whatever we want, so sometimes I just go in with flipflops/shorts/t-shirt, although you have to walk everywhere so I think I'm going to wear my jogging shoes all the time.

Commentary

The streets smell really bad. Pretty much the air is polluted, and stinky. Usually you walk down the street and random wafts of stinky air just get into your lungs. It's really unpleasant, but that's just the way things are in China. I don't know if its the sewer system or just the air outside, or both. There is also a lot of construction going on, and even now as I am writing this at 1:10am I can hear some construction going on outside. This makes the pollution worse, as it kicks up a lot of dust in the air, and coupled with the already hot and humid weather, makes things worse.

Many things don't make sense in China. From the way the traffic signals work, to the poles being in the middle of the sidewalks, etc just don't make sense. I was even talking to one of the employees at CNIC and he agrees. I guess they just want to get things built, up and running as quickly as possible, since the demand is so high and there's just so many people in China (reference to what Hsing said in his blog's first entry.)

Another cultural difference is the traffic. Cars follow the signals, but everyone jaywalks. When in China, do as the Chinese do. So of course we jaywalk. In China, the right-of-way is whoever got there first basically. Either that or the cars have the right of way since they are bigger and would do more damage to you than you to the car. It's amazing how close the cars can get to a jaywalker and just drive how they drive normally. Even Hsing didn't want to jaywalk at first, but I think he's used to it by now.

It turns out that the bathrooms at CNIC are all squatdown bathrooms. They have urinals for #1, but basically a hole in the floor for #2. My first day of work I had to use it, and I must say I almost puked. For some reason, I felt like an animal, because I was picturing in my head what I look like going #2. Anyway, I had to use it another day and I guess I got over it. Luckily the toilet in my hotel is a regular sitdown (regular) one.

One problem that I did not foresee were the power outlets. In China, all the outlets are 240VAC, while in the US everything is 120VAC. I realized this after I blew my alarm clock. So I went to Walmart and got a 240 to 120 converter. I don't think it works though, since Alex plugged in his cell phone charger with the 120converter, but it blew. Luckily everything else I use is 240 compatible, so it shouldn't be a problem.

The people in China are generally nice. Maybe this is because we're being taken care of by our hosts, but people at the outside shops are nice too. The only place is at the places where you have to bargain. First you ask "how much". Then they tell you a price that you can tell they just made up in their heads right then and there. This price is usually at least twice what you can bargain it down to. The rest is up to the haggler.

So far I've had a very interesting experience in China. It's interesting to see a completely different culture's thinking, attitude (also in certain situations), actions, and many different customs are. I also found out that it's actually rude to tip in China! That just blows my mind, because you would think "more money = better service".. but apparently this is Western thought (it would be interesting to find out the roots of tipping/no-tipping).

That's a good gist of what I have to say. I will try to add an entry at least twice a week.