Baby, It’s Cold Inside OR Even My Candy is Cold

Chrysanthemums on my window ledge

I bought some candy from the supermarket, a peanut milk candy out of curiosity and a Starburst knock-off for something familiar. Everything Chinese that tries to be American has this slight twist of oddness to it. When I popped the peanut milk candy into my mouth, I wasn’t surprised that the texture was weird … somewhere between hard and squishy. Do I chew? Do I suck? Do I chomp? I tried the Starburst knock-off … same questions.

Bam! Then it hit me. The candy was supposed to be soft but it was hard because it was cold, INSIDE MY APARTMENT!

It’s now winter in Tongren. Trees still have green leaves, chrysanthemums still boast sunshine yellow and dusty mauve flowers, and snow or ice hasn’t appeared. Daily temperatures average 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit, and nights dip to 40, or 36, or maybe even 32 degrees. These temps aren't bad, if they are outside. Those outside temperatures are also the inside temperatures, inside my living room, inside my bedroom, and yes, inside the bathroom.

The southern half of China does not have central heating. Back in the day, a revered leader (cough, cough) decided that anything north of the Yellow River could have central heating. Anything south of the river would not. Tongren is south of the river. So, it’s cold inside my apartment, inside the classrooms, inside most restaurants, and so on. 

I hate the cold.

I wear four or five layers of clothing all of the time, including two or three layers of smart wool. I often wear a stocking cap, and they are itchy! I have a pair of thin snowpants-looking pants that I wear inside. (When I bought them, the female clerk giggled and pointed out the penis hole to indicate they were men’s pants. I knew that, but I didn’t mind. I only cared that they were warm and long enough for my legs.)

A heating unit graces the bedroom, so I can easily heat that room, but who wants to spend the whole day in the bedroom? It’s just plain annoying. I wrap myself in a blanket in the living room and point a small space heater at my feet. My pink fleece blanket is now melted in a few places when I nearly caught it on fire. That space heater has some uff-da!

One unique invention is heated gloves. The small gloves conveniently plug into your computer via the USB hub, the same way you plug in your iPod. A small wire pulls energy from your computer and into the gloves. In some ways, it’s brilliant, but I haven’t tried them. I am afraid of blowing apart my computer.

Here are some questions I now ask myself:

• How important is that shower?
• Do I really want to get naked?
• How quickly can I strip and get under the hot water?
• How efficiently can I dress to avoid getting naked so often?
• Can I wear my running clothes as my first layer until I go for a run?
• Do I really care if my “inside snowpants” are on backwards?
• If I already have on five layers, do I really need a bra?
• How bad do I really have to pee?
• Do I really want to get out of this warm bed to plug in my computer?
• Are these jeans drying on the clothesline just cold or still damp?
• Is it warmer outside?

Sometimes, it’s warmer outside than inside. Thank you, concrete buildings!

The funny part is that I have just gotten used to the cold. Harder candy just takes a bit longer to eat. After all, right now, I still have my sunshine yellow and dusty mauve chrysanthemums! Right now, I happily type with warm fingers, but that space heater has been of for a while. It might be a whole 55 degrees!

(In the Chinese mind, it is wasteful to heat entire apartments when you only occupy one space at a time. And, it’s not exactly freezing here, so plumbing or fruit on the kitchen counter isn't freezing. I sort of get it. More posts about how people in China deal with the cold are coming soon!)

Babies in Baskets

Grandmother and grandchild

Babies, babies everywhere,

Babies, babies -- hello, there!

Babies, babies bundled tight,

Babies, babies quite a site!

Babies tucked in baskets are the preferred method of baby transport in this area of China. Bundle up your baby, stick him in the basket, and pop the basket on your back. Off you go.

Mom, dads, grandmas and grandpas carry the babies in these baskets all over the city. Their hands are free to carry fresh greens and other veggies from the market or push their food-vending carts to that day’s street corner. Babies stay safely inside, even those old enough to know how to jump out. As winter nears, the babies are wrapped in many layers of clothing and blankets … and yet this little one still isn’t wearing any gloves ...

 

Implosion, Chinese Style

It’s time for a new building. How do you get that pesky old one out of the way? It’s simple. You call in your work crew, give them mallets, and tell them to begin pounding.

Mallets start swinging. Bang! Bang! Bang! Floor by floor, the building comes down with people power and hard labor. There are no wrecking balls, wheel loaders, or other heavy equipment. Men and women start on the top floor and work down, smashing each floor one by one. Other workers fill baskets with debris, swing the baskets onto their backs, haul the pieces down the stairs, empty the baskets and head back for the stairs. I’m convinced that Chinese workers are like ants that can carry loads many times their body weight. Efficiency rules; in two days, this building was half gone. 

With the world’s largest population of 1.3 billion people, China has no shortage of people for jobs. Why implode a building with explosives when people need jobs to survive?

SIDEBAR: The U.S. population is 313 million people. Do the math. China has one billion more people. Just think about all the implications of such a massive population.

Safety regulations are non-existent in China. Workers have zero protection. Concrete dust clouds the air, but no one wears a mask. Hard hats are rare. In fact, if you look closely at the second picture, top left, you will see a hard hat … hanging from a pole, not sitting on someone’s head. This building isn’t fenced off. Common sense must be your guide to safety in China. If you don’t want to get hit by falling concrete chunks, don’t walk near this building. I could easily scramble up a remaining staircase to get a closer view, even when workers are pounding away. No one would stop me.

Squatty Potty 101

“What’s the bathroom like?” That’s the most common question I get. People are really asking about the toilet. The squatty potty is the norm for most of China, although some places, like higher-level hotels, have Western toilets. All public bathrooms and most homes have squatty potties. My apartment is no different.

The squatty potty does take a bit of practice. You don’t want to pee on yourself, right? You have to squat and position yourself so that you hit the potty, not the floor next to it or your jeans. Getting cocky is pointless. Just when I thought I had my method down pat, I was careless, and I peed on my sweatpants. Laundry day came a bit early. I also NEVER keep anything in my back pockets anymore. Your treasured items slip out and right down the potty hole. Trust me ... you don’t want to stick your hands down that hole. A friend has lost two cell phones this way.

Men have a distinct advantage for the squatty potty, most of the time. All they have to do is stand, aim, and pee. Women must squat every time they want to pee. We can try to stand, but that usually misfires, and we pee on ourselves. Our “stream” isn’t as direct ... one of life's unfair things. 

People in China think Western toilets are kind of gross. “You sit, naked, on a seat that other people sit on?” they ask. That doesn’t sound very appealing, when the question’s posed that way. It does sound nasty.

A Chinese friend said that the squatty potty is actually better for your body because the action of squatting keeps your body and bowels in better alignment. Your system functions and “flows” more naturally. I don’t know if this is true or not. I do consider it when I am "in position." Everyone has an explanation for everything, Eastern and Western.

The squatty potty sits right under the shower. One hole equals one drain for everything. Every time I shower, my potty gets a bath, too. Yay! My toilet is cleaned more in China than in past homes. There's a drawback -- I really don’t want to drop anything in the shower. That washcloth or bottle of shampoo will well end up in the potty, followed by a series of colorful curse words. I also wear flip flops in the shower. Pee splatters, and I don't want to stand bare foot in it, even if it is my own.

It’s a given in China that you only use public restrooms in emergencies. Avoid them at all costs. They really are the worst China has to offer. Simply put, they are disgusting. One thing Western toilets do well is direct all waste in one place, in one direction, and out of site. Squatting leads to misfires of all kinds. Your imagination can ponder this. Also, you must always bring your own toilet paper. Forget once, and you learn your lesson.

East Versus West: The Happy Family, Part One

I love this scene, and it’s one that I see often. A few weeks ago, this grandfather and grandson enjoyed the sunny fall day. I watched them while I read. The very patient grandfather spent two hours in the park with his grandson, following the child from the bench to this railing to a tree and back to the bench. The boy would toddle away from his grandfather while the grandfather kept a watchful eye on him. Time did not matter.

The familial ties are one of many ideological differences between American and Chinese cultures. In Tongren, and in traditional Chinese belief, your family is the most important element in your life. Everyone takes care of each other. There are no daycares or nursing homes. Several generations share the same home. Babies hang out with their parents at work. Grandparents help bathe and feed their grandchildren. Children are raised knowing that they will provide for their parents as their parents age. Everyone is needed for the family to succeed. It is simply the way things are done, and it is not questioned.

People from China are appalled that Americans lets strangers take care of their babies. Why put children in daycare when the grandparents are available? They also cannot believe that children would disrespect their parents by putting them in a nursing home. Aren’t you supposed to take care of your parents just like they once took care of you?

On the flip side, children are raised to think first of their families, not themselves. Decisions are made with the whole family in mind. What’s best for everyone? Family bonds and responsibilities are very, very strong. To think of what’s best for yourself, as an individual, is an American ideal. Welcome to East versus West.

Scenes: Vegas Tower

This tower is one of two that overlook the city. I affectionately call this Vegas Tower. At night, two strobe lights flash over the tower onto the city, just like you see in Las Vegas.

A thirty-minute slightly-strenuous hike (by my standards, and remember that I run) gets you to the top of the mountain. It sits on one of the taller mountains in the city, perfect for an overlook.

Many people climb up to this tower daily as a spiritual practice or an exercise venture. Early in the morning, a few men scramble to the top and yell at the top of their lungs at 6 a.m. I’m sure that is a very pleasant alarm clock for those who live near the tower. I don’t know much more than that. It’s just something people do.

The tower is Buddhist in nature. Before the tower itself, there is a small shrine where people honor lost loved ones and some element of Buddhism. Erase any conception you have of religion, for that does not exist in China. Officially, the Chinese government does not accept formal religion, and speaking of Tibetan Buddhism is a no-no, but “Buddhist-like” elements are still woven into the culture and daily life of the people. (Many minority groups also continue to practice their faiths, under the radar, so to speak.)

If you want to read something interesting about Buddhism in China, check out this story in yesterday’s Huffington Post.

Back to those strobe lights. The collision of the old (tower) and the new (strobe lights) is very, very common in China. That tower is a couple of hundred years old, and the city of Tongren is thousands of years old. The strobe lights? One year.

Scenes: View From the Top

The Karst Mountains surround Tongren. The city is tucked very neatly and tightly into one mountain valley. Geographically, the city is very small. What you see in these photos is what you get.

The haze in these photos reflects the thick humidity that settles over the city. The humidity can be so heavy that I often cannot see the mountains from the street, even though they may only one mile away. Also, it's not uncommon for clouds to cover the city, and those clouds claim the mountain peaks as their own in their cover. (It's often cloudy here in the Fall. I haven't seen the sun's full rays in at least two weeks. The pictures were captured on a rare sunny day where I could see all the mountains in every direction.)

Some have asked if this haze is really air pollution. No. Air pollution is not a big issue here. Yes, it does exist but is equivalent with what you expect in any city with cars, buses, people, etc. This area is fairly rural. The oppressive air pollution we hear about in Western media does exist in the larger Chinese cities, such as Beijing. The massive industrial areas in Southern China, where all of these Made-in-China factories are located, are also a different story.

What we hear about growth in China is indeed true and is apparent even in my small city. In the second photo, center right, the row of tall buildings with the greenish strips are all under construction, as is the building smack dab in the lower center that looks like it's entirely wrapped in gauze. One day I counted eight construction cranes slowly adding stories to their growing buildings.

Construction is somewhat limited in Tongren. Nature does have her boundaries of where building is possible, as shown in the third photo. For this image, all I had to do was turn around, with my back facing the city. See the difference?

Language Barrier: Learning the Body, From Tǒu to Jiǎo

I am aware that Pepper isn't a fully-developed person.

Meet Pepper! She teaches me Chinese words for the body. She is my new friend, even though she doesn’t say much.

Chinese pronunciation requires two elements, the sound combination of the letters and the proper tone. One word can have four different tones. Change the tone, change the meaning. With one slip of the tongue, lotus becomes puke, which changes the “tone” of your conversation a bit.

Pepper is helpful, but I was learning words based on their relationships with each other. Head is tǒu, so hair is tǒu fà, so then eyebrow is méi máo, and then mouth is zuí, and so on. If I start at the top of the body, it takes a loooong time to get to foot, or jiǎo. Learning words independently of each other is key for their usefulness. I must know jiǎo as quickly as I know tǒu.

Also, because Pepper doesn’t speak, it’s up to me to master my tones. Those tones add a complicated layer to learning.

What to do? How to learn? Good old-fashioned repetition. When I teach my students, we practice the same nine words over and over and over during the class. We yell them. We spell them. We dance a jig with them. We play games with them. We yell them again. To learn my Chinese, I follow the same method, only I don’t yell (I use my inside voice), and I don't jig. I write each word ten times, with the tone. I speak it ten times with the tone. I then write the English equivalent while speaking the Chinese version with the tone. Try speaking one language while writing in another at the same time! This brain-bender makes my mind work really hard to forge the connections into my neurons.

I move onto the next word, repeating the steps. The process looks like this:

Looks just like those third-grade spelling lists, doesn't it?

Finally, I quiz myself. I quiz myself again. I test myself again the next day. It’s tedious, but it works. Just ask me a word or two from Pepper's body!

Where Exactly Am I?

China!

I am in city of Tongren, in the province in Ghizhou, in the People's Republic of China. It is a capital city of the Tongren Region, or Tongren Prefecture.

Tongren is located in the Karst Mountains, and the Jinjiang River flows through the city. The city is five or six square miles square, and I can run across town in an hour, with a few steep hills along the way. You can see the mountains from anywhere in the city. Sometimes you have to peak between a few tall buildings or just move a bit to the left.

These bumpy, tree-filled mountains surround Tongren.

Between 250,000 and 500,000 people call Tongren home. No one really has a solid answer. People come and go; cities often have a large transient population. Everyone lives in apartments, and single-family homes do not exist. I think this in partially due to Communist ideology and the shortage of space in this mountain valley. There are many people in a small space.

Tongren is known for Mt. Fanjingshan, a very popular tourist destination, but it is still a few hours away. I'm sure that I will visit the mountain during my time here. I read that this city is also known for it's stature of Zhou Yiqun Martyr, apparently one of the generals of the Chinese Red Army. I did indeed see this statue, but because I can't read anything, I couldn't figure out why everyone having their picture taken next to this statue of some guy.

Instead, I took a picture of this:

Happy Buddha!

Language Barrier

What an interesting mural, the artist in me thought. What's this about? I wonder if there's some information. Oh, wait! There's a sign!

Oh, that's right! I CAN'T READ ANYTHING!

I spend 99 percent of my day having absolutely no idea what people say. I am trying to learn the language, one more thing I am figuring out in my new home. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed when trying to learn this language, but its starting to make sense -- albeit nominal sense.

The first few times I stopped at restaurants, I had no choice but to point to what vegetables I wanted in the stir fry and then point to the wok. On October 11, after nearly one month in China, I successfully ordered my first dish at a restaurant in Chinese.

"Wo yao yi ge qiezi." This is the pin-yin spelling for "I want one eggplant."

This sounds something like "Woh yeeow yee guh szche-eight-suh".

Here's the literal translation:
I (Wo)
want (yao)
one (yi)
(ge -- a qualifer with no Engish equivalent)
eggplant (qiezi).

First, I had to figure out what words Chinese words I needed. It took many conversations and flipping through my Lonely Planet Mandarin phrase book to get the right words.

Then I learned the pronunciation of each word and syllable. Pronunciation is hard because there are some sound combinations that we don't have in English, like this throaty "szch" sound for the first syllable in eggplant.

Now, add the the proper tones for each word:
Third low falling/rising (Wo)
Fourth falling (yao)
First high (yi)
Fourth falling (ge) (I think it's fourth falling.)
Second rising on the first syllable (qiezi)

Finally, I practiced this sentence over and over. I got enough of the the sentence correct because I ordered without having to point. They understood me, AND I could ask "Duoshao qian?" for "How much?" AND understand that "ba qian" meant eight qian (about $1.12 in American dollars).

Forget reading anything. Right now, I know the characters for people -- 人 -- and mouth -- 口. I can't yet recognize the characters for the city that I live in, Tongren.

It will be awhile before I can decipher enough of that mural sign to have any idea what the mural represents. Right now, it's a pretty picture.

Observations

During one of my first days in Tongren, I found a great walking path along one of the rivers.

Several bridges span the river, and all have a distinctive architectural element. I snapped this picture, trying to capture the strong upward curve of this bridge, and I realized there was some graffiti on its under belly. This is the one and only graffiti element I've seen in the city. I was quite curious ... what does Chinese graffiti look like?

Would the picture be really naughty or curse something? Uhm ... no ... [insert drumroll here]

It's Underpants Space Boy! Graffiti here is quite innocent!

Welcome!

Welcome to my experiences in the city of Tongren in China. Check back soon for updates!