Maybe you’ve never really thought about it but, are bathrooms the same everywhere on earth? Of course not. So it shouldn’t surprise you that in China one must often squat to use the toilet. There are western-style toilets around, usually for the handicapped, or in western-style places, like hotels, KFC, McDonald’s, etc. I guess if you wanted to, you could probably manage to visit China and never use a squat toilet, but why miss out on the fun? Shortly before the 2008 Olympics and my first trip to China, my dad forwarded me a silly email, (clearly written by someone like this guy (not my dad)), ridiculing China for having squat toilets. I think my dad was trying to scare me or at least just jesting. Personally I wasn’t afraid of squat toilets per se, but afraid of using them incorrectly. Like what happened if I uh,..went to the bathroom, on my pants? That’d be a shitty situation. (har har!) Long story short, that never happened and I learned it wasn’t all that difficult, in fact now I’m totally okay with it. All it took a little practice, and remembering to bring a package of tissues with you wherever you go.
I had,in fact, considered writing a blog post about toilets in China, but this post from the Lost Laowai Blog covers it pretty well so I’ll share it with you.
The Year of the Tiger is here, and I was in Xi’an to celebrate with my Chinese family. Tyler and I rolled into the Xi’an train station at about 8:30 AM and immediately decided we needed to find some breakfast. Unfortunately, due to the holiday, this wasn’t the easiest thing to do as many of the street vendors who sell wonderful breakfast foods were shut down for the holiday. We decided to take a couple quick bus hops to my buddy’s favorite Hu La Tang place for breakfast. Hu la tang is a spicy beef-stew with a slightly slimy consistency due to the corn-starch added to it. We both enjoyed a nice bowl with bread and a bottle of bing feng (a local orange soda) for breakfast. Soon after we caught the 336 bus back to my school in north Xi’an. Upon arrival, we got settled, made up a bed for Tyler and showered before going out in search of some lunch.
Later in the afternoon my dad came to pick us up from my school and take us downtown to my grandparent’s home where we’d be spending the holiday. Along the way we stopped at a small fireworks vendor on the street corner. The amount and size of the fireworks was quite impressive! Sure, I’ve seen a lot of fireworks at warehouse sellers around July 4th, but these fireworks, they were huge! Apparently the biggest fireworks vendors are able to legally sell, at least in North Dakota, are 500 grams or less, due to safety concerns. Well, China has none of that. There were very large items for sale, many large canister-style munitions weighing in at 3000+ grams were for sale, for less than 200 Yuan (about $30). We bought a few big ones, and a large string of firecrackers for later in the evening.
Over the past week or more, I’ve had a lot of time on my hands. There was the usual surfing the internet, watching a movie or catching up on my favorite TV shows, running and reading the news. I’ve also been shopping around for a nice sized internal-frame backpack for my travels. I came here with a large suitcase, but that’s pretty inconvenient when traveling on trains and buses and staying in hostels. You just can’t roll around that big box everywhere you go.
Earlier this week I went out for a few drinks with the British friends I met a few months ago. We started off at the Park Qin, a popular expat bar in Xi’an where I was introduced to a friend of theirs, Jackie. I think I complimented Jackie pretty well actually, she’s Chinese, looks Chinese, but speaks English like she was born in the U.S. I actually asked her “are you actually Chinese or are you an ABC?” She was surprised to say the least, but her English speaking is just so polished that it sounds very natural. We hung out at the Park Qin and put back a few while a few more friends joined in, bringing the crew to an even six, three guys, three girls. One of the girls, another Brit, suggested we check out another bar down the street. I’d never been there and this was a night to have a good time so why the heck not.
I don’t know if this bar has a name, and if it does I certainly don’t know it. But I do know where it is, and that’s all that matters. When I first walked in I didn’t know what to think. There was a room, not much larger than my living room with a long coffee-table type thing in the middle of the room. At each end of this table was a small fire pit made of bricks where small pieces of anthracite burned to keep the place warm. Around this table was two concentric rectangles of benches and lastly furthest from the door was a stage just large enough for 2 guys with guitars. The dark and smoky feel to the place just reminded me of a sweat lodge.
Finally, classes are completed, exams are done and graded. We’re on winter break. Most of my friends in the states have finished their break and are back in school already. We on the other hand are just starting our break. If you read my post about Christmas, you’d already know that it’s not a big holiday around here, so they don’t make it a point to finish fall semester before Christmas. But the great thing about our winter break is that it’s six weeks long! Amazingly most students I talked to said that over the break, they simply stay at home. I don’t know what they do there, watch TV, hangout with family or friends. But staying home for six weeks sounds pretty boring. So I’m going to make the best of my 6 weeks and do as much traveling and cool things as I can. Prepare for some great posts and pictures in the coming 2 months! Before that happens, I’ll reflect a bit on the last couple weeks.
Final Exams: There’s only one word I can use to describe these and it’s pretty blunt. Clusterfuck. I have no idea who organizes them, or sets the guidelines, or what, but they need their head examined.
First of all, I am told a month before finals that I need to prepare a final for my class, that’s cool, a month notice is plenty of time! Except the exam is to be turned in on Tuesday, not cool, Tuesday is three days away.
The exams must be in some magical Chinese format, which consists of putting them on A3 piece of paper and then messing up my formatting and fonts so that the questions don’t make sense.
When should I give my exams? No idea. We’ll let you know. Cue me not knowing until a week or two before. Fine, I had to cut my lessons back, but it was enough time to get in a review.
Three weeks of exams. How do normal universities manage it in one week? Clearly it’s magic. For some reason, students need to hangout on campus for a week or more just waiting to take an exam. Can’t take it early so they can go home and they certainly aren’t studying for a week. The students aren’t busy, the teacher isn’t busy, but they can’t take their exam? What the hell.
Planning Trips: Now that school is finished and most of the students have gone home, this place has turned into a ghost town. All the vendors I’m used to seeing, gone. Restaurants in the backstreet, closed. Supermarket, closing in a few days. Pretty soon, I’m not sure where I’m going to eat!
Fortunately I’m getting out of here. I am ironically heading up north to see some great snowy sights, and eventually down south for some warmth. My friend Tyler will be joining me as well, so it’ll be nice to see an American friend in person rather than a picture or video chat. I’ve spent many hours, researching and trying to organize my vacation, it’s basically all I’ve been doing. So, I’ll post in a couple more days a quick outline of my trip, as soon as I get some things ironed out. Bringing me to my next point.
Planning trips in a language you know is painful. Planning trips in a language you’re very unfamiliar with and can’t really read is excruciatingly painful.
The Google Tubes: Many people have been asking me what’s going on with Google and China. Truth is, I don’t really know. According to China they have a “very open” internet. But to most non-Chinese, the internet here is quickly becoming an intranet. There are hundreds of blog posts out there speculating on what might happen. But no one really knows. All I do know is that the Great Fire Wall (GFW) is seriously a pain in my ass. It basically blocks popular English sites, ones that most normal Chinese people wouldn’t venture to anyway, as they have their own Chinese clone of the exact same thing. So it really feels like it’s there to isolate the foreigners in the country rather than to protect the citizens.
For instance, the other day my iPhone mail app stopped downloading mail from the Gmail IMAP server. Okay, I’ll troubleshoot it. After a few days, I seriously can’t figure out the problem. Is it my phone? Is it my internet connection at home? Is it my router? Or is it the GFW acting silently in the background? I’m led to believe that its the GFW causing problems, but it’s hard to know, they don’t exactly come out and tell you “hey, the GFW just blocked your data!”. Fortunately I’ve got a free VPN that’s been working well for me, as well as a few work-a-rounds but when those go down I won’t know what to do. Time will tell.
While the U.S. has been inundated with Christmas decorations, and sales since at least Halloween, if not before, China (at least in Xi’an) has been quite the opposite. In fact, most shopping malls, and restaurants didn’t start putting up Christmas decorations until less than one week before the holiday! By about the 23rd of December, when I went downtown, it finally felt like Christmas was near, minus the snow.
Christmas in China, however, is not like the holiday I’m used to. It’s quite a bit different. There’s really no religious aspect to it at all. They’ve stripped it of all religious meaning and left it to simple Christmas trees, Santa Claus, and other agnostic cheer.
“Christmas has never been this important to me before” – Jinfei
Sunday morning I naturally woke up at about 6:30 AM, which was fortunate since I had forgotten to plug my phone in and it had died overnight, meaning no alarm. After showering and putting on the best clothes I had with me, my father and I headed down to the lobby to meet up with Yu Yang. She made me repeat to her at least four times (in Chinese) the night before as to when and where I was supposed to meet her. Tomorrow, 7:30 AM, hotel lobby. She was there waiting when we came down the stairs. We walked north a few blocks as I listened to her and my father talk about what our hotpot dinner and KTV the night before (at least that’s all I could understand anyway). About 10 minutes later we stopped off at a small cafe of sorts. The cafe was really just a large garage type area with the typical short tables and stools spread out amongst the area, it was the only place open that I could see and therefore quite busy! I had a bowl of noodles and a 肉夹馍. We even saw a few other people there that I recognized from the previous day, this was clearly a popular place!
I found out why the cafe was so popular amongst the family. It’s literally less than 100 yards from the bride’s parent’s home and that’s where everyone was converging. It was 8:15 AM and there were already a 8 or so friends and family of the bride at her home, and the crowd was growing steadily. Yu Yang introduced me to the bride, as she was getting putting her make-up on in the bedroom. The bride actually said she we had met before, and that she remembered me. I felt a little bad, I’m certain she met me at the big family dinner right before Tianyu left for America, but I didn’t really remember her. I said hello, congratulations, and told her I was pretty excited to be here for this. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect in a Chinese wedding, but I’d soon find out. I relaxed for awhile, drank some tea, and my mother showed me some extended-family pictures that were around the house. A picture of my mother and her sisters 20 years ago, a picture of the cousins maybe 10 years ago, as well as a picture of laolao as a young woman. We took the downtime as an opportunity to take our pictures with the bride-to-be dressed in her white dress before the groom would arrive. The men of the family were relaxing in the living room, drinking their tea, smoking and watching TV. Shortly before 9:00 AM we heard a loud explosion, and then many in quick succession. Everyone streamed out to the balcony to look down at the street where a 20 foot string of firecrackers was going rattling off, creating a billow of smoke and echoing off the surrounding buildings. This was the groom telling us “I’m here!”.
The younger cousins then ran to the apartment door and closed and locked it tightly. The groom wasn’t getting in here! At least not without a little bribing. It’s Chinese tradition that the grooms family brings gifts for the brides family when the groom comes to take her from her home. The gifts start with the “hongbao”, little red envelopes with money inside. We opened the peephole slot, it was just big enough to talk through and shove small red evelopes through. The male cousins taunted the groom and his friends, telling them we needed more hongbao, all the cousins gathered in front of the door, including myself, received at least 3 or 4 evelopes with money inside. Generally it was only 2 yuan, but occassionally ten, always a multiple of two. After everyone received some hongbao the groom was finally let into the apartment, his friends and family streaming in behind him, carrying gifts for the family. The brides’s family was gifted with 2 large boxes of baozi (Chinese steamed bread), 2 bottle of baijiu, 2 boxes of chocolate, 2 boxes of tea, and 2 cartons of “Double Happiness” cigarettes. Everything in pairs. The groom ran into the apartment, only to find the bride’s bedroom locked. He carried a bouquet of flowers, looking a little anxious he knocked on the door asking the bride to come out. She didn’t come out, and he kept knocking. He slid a couple hongbao under the door to the bride’s close friends, and shortly thereafter the door opened…enough to get his foot in. Finally after pushing (and a little help from his friends) the groom managed to get inside the bride’s bedroom.
The cousins and friends of the bride all packed into the room to watch the show. The groom was on his knees, begging the brides friends to let her come with him. They said they’d let her go, as long as he could answer a few questions. So they quizzed him while one of the other friends hid one of the bride’s shoes. “Tell us 10 reasons why you love her.” was one of the requests, so the groom, on his knees did his best to appease the bride’s friends. Once the friends were happy, they rleased the bride to her groom, but she couldn’t go anywhere without her shoe! A couple hongbao to the bride’s friends and the shoe magically turned up, how lucky! It was now the responsibility of the bride’s brother (or oldest male cousin) to carry her out the car waiting outside. By that time I had grabbed my coat and was prepared to follow along. The bride’s cousin carried her down the stairs at a break-neck pace, I could hardly keep up, let alone manage to get a picture! I finally got a decent picture as her cousin placed her in the backseat of the car. What happened next, I didn’t really understand. The groom arrived at the bottom of the stairs and his friends just attacked him with silly-string, and some kind of red paint. They did their best to just harass the shit out of him, spraying him, tearing his shirt, and ripping his pants before he managed to get in the car. I mean, it was all in jest, but it just seemed really overboard. This was just the beginning.
A 15 minute cross-town drive in the motorcade and we arrived at the home of the groom’s family. There was a large assortment of fireworks exploding in the courtyard in front of the apartment to signify the arrival of the bride. Once again, as soon as the groom got out of the car he was assaulted. The sprayed him with paint, silly string and practically ripped the clothing off of his back. I followed my cousins inside where we all sat around the dining room table. There was about 14 members of the brides family, including my father, my cousins, some other aunts and uncles, and the bride’s parents. We were served 2 poached eggs in a very sweet, surgary soup. It definitely wasn’t bad tasting, but a little too sweet. Then we were all given larger red envelopes, “da hongbao”; the big payout. These larger red evelopes were given to everyone in the bride’s family sitting around the table, incluing me, and contained 200 yuan each! The cousins were all pretty happy about this, I mean, poor students like free money, right? Seeing the groom eat his eggs and soup was almost appalling, his clothing had just been torn to shreds and his upper body and parts of his face painted red. I didn’t get it, but clearly this was okay with everyone else. Twenty-minutes after we arrived at the groom’s home, we left, and the motorcade proceeded to the Mandarin hotel in Xunyang, the same place I had just left 3-4 hours earlier.
Upon arriving at the hotel I saw that the groom had cleaned up a bit, and changed into a new suit. He looked respectable now at least. Well, funny thing, that didn’t last too long. Quickly after stepping out of the car, he was quickly assaulted with the silly string and red paint. This time I was prepared, so I took a video of it so everyone can see what kind of assault I’m talking about here. Definitely not something I’d ever expect to see at a wedding in America.
Finally the groom was allowed to go into the hotel, where I hoped he had another suit to change into as this one had also been ripped apart in the span of two minutes. Once inside the wedding hall, we simply relaxed and discussed the mornings events while waiting for the rest of the bride & groom’s family and friends showed up to the banquet hall.
The wedding ceremony started shortly before noon; in northern China its good luck to start the wedding before noon. The only people on the stage in front were the bride & groom, and the master of ceremonies. The groom had clearly changed into a new suit again, his third one of the day. I was sitting right in front so I had a great view of everything that was going on. Which was pretty good for me, because I certainly couldn’t understand anything they said. So instead I took a lot of pictures. Every once in awhile there’d be someone shooting confetti at the couple, as well as some bubbles floating around. At one point, the groom’s parents came up on the stage, where it beame quite apparent that the even the groom’s parents weren’t safe from the red paint and silly string. In fact, as soon as the bride and groom said I do, there was a flash mob headed to the stage with more paint and silly string, now spraying the groom AND his bride! Talk about crazy. Near the end of the ceremony a few family members came up to say something about the couple, including my father. I’ve no idea what he said, but it must’ve been good, as everyone clapped.
Following the ceremoney everyone began to enjoy their wonderful wedding lunch, with many courses ranging from pretty typical to pretty delicious and expensive. The bride then came to our table giving Yu Yang the bouquet, it was then that I found out that her boyfriend is actually her fiance and they plan to have their wedding on May 10, 2010. (another wedding? Hell yeah!) The lunch continued with much livelihood, people talking, laughing, as well as coming around to toast their friends with a shot of baijiu. I even toasted laolao with a shot of baijiu and she was happy to have one with me.
Following the wedding we stopped by laolao’s home to collect some things and say goodbye. It had been a wonderful weekend and I had met quite a few great people! On the ride home we took a different route to avoid the 6 Km from hell. My ride was filled with some beautiful scenery, a nice nap, and telling some really lame jokes. I seriously can’t wait for the next wedding!
Sunday morning I naturally woke up at about 6:30 AM, which was fortunate
The Happy Couple
since I had forgotten to plug my phone in and it had died overnight, meaning no alarm. After showering and putting on the best clothes I had with me, my father and I headed down to the lobby to meet up with Yu Yang. She had made me repeat to her at least four times (in Chinese) the night before as to when and where I was supposed to meet her. Tomorrow, 7:30 AM, hotel lobby. She was there, waiting when we came down the stairs. We set out walking north a few blocks as I listened to her and my father talk about what our hotpot dinner and KTV the night before (at least that’s all I could understand anyway). About 10 minutes later we stopped off at a small cafe of sorts. The cafe was really just a large garage type area with the typical short tables and stools spread out amongst the area, it was the only place open that I could see and therefore quite busy! I had a bowl of noodles and a 肉夹馍. We even saw a few other people there that I recognized from the previous day, this was clearly a popular place!
I found out why the cafe was so popular amongst the family. It’s literally less than 100 yards from the bride’s parent’s home and that’s where everyone was converging. It was 8:15 AM and there were already a 8 or so friends and family of the bride at her home, and the crowd was growing steadily. Yu Yang introduced me to the bride, as she was putting her make-up on in the bedroom. The bride actually said we had met before, and that she remembered me. I felt a little bad, I’m certain she met me at the big family dinner right before Tianyu left for America, but I didn’t really remember her. I said hello, congratulations, and told her I was pretty excited to be here for this. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect in a Chinese wedding, but I’d soon find out. I relaxed for awhile, drank some tea, and my mother showed me some extended-family pictures that were around the house. A picture of my mother and her sisters 20 years ago, a picture of the cousins maybe 10 years ago, as well as a picture of laolao as a young woman. We took the downtime as an opportunity to take our pictures with the bride-to-be dressed in her white dress before the groom would arrive. The men of the family were relaxing in the living room, drinking their tea, smoking and watching TV. Shortly before 9:00 AM we heard a loud explosion, and then many more in quick
Watching The Fireworks Below
succession. Everyone streamed out to the balcony to look down at the street where a 20 foot string of firecrackers was rattling off, creating a billow of smoke and echoing off the surrounding buildings. This was the groom telling us “I’m here!”.
On my way to check out a "big" shoe store. Thanks to all the Chinese with tiny feet, I'M the freak who can't find shoes that fit.about 16 hours agofrom dabr
Maybe you’ve never really thought about it but, are bathrooms the same everywhere on earth? Of course not. So it shouldn’t surprise you that in China one must often squat to use the toilet. There are western-style toilets around, usually for the handicapped, or in western-style places, like hotels, KFC, McDonald’s, etc. I guess if you wanted to, you could probably manage to visit China and never use a squat toilet, but why miss out on the fun? Shortly before the 2008 Olympics and my first trip to China, my dad forwarded me a silly email, (clearly written by someone like this guy (not my dad)), ridiculing China for having squat toilets. I think my dad was trying to scare me or at least just jesting. Personally I wasn’t afraid of squat toilets per se, but afraid of using them incorrectly. Like what happened if I uh,..went to the bathroom, on my pants? That’d be a shitty situation. (har har!) Long story short, that never happened and I learned it wasn’t all that difficult, in fact now I’m totally okay with it. All it took a little practice, and remembering to bring a package of tissues with you wherever you go.
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