I tried posting a special Thank You blog last week (when I received certain goods in a yellow box) but this website didnt seem to like the idea of me uploading photos ... sorry, Mariamelia, I got your parcel, the coffee and card were both very warmly accepted! Now all we need are some filter papers for our cups, we don't have a machine or anything fancy for this non-instant (ie: proper!) stuff ... I'll email you photos when I dig your address out - I've hidden it somewhere, oh no! The Rio card is on my wall though - my collection is growing (thanks Mum, Lucy, Sheila) and it really takes attention off the filthy walls (which I am NOT cleaning because they are covered in some kind of plaster and it will just come off). I've rambled. The point is, THANK YOU :)
In other news, I can't remember where I got to last time with this blog, so apologies for repetition.
* The heating came on - yay! - the evening of October 14th the pipes finally started to warm up and by the 15th they were well and truly hot. Now we've kind of got used to the ambience, the temperature varies depending on the time of day, the pipes will be hot at one point and drop down to just warm at others, though we're not really sure how it is determined ... sometimes it's tropical (especially in my room, which is very small) and other times it's just NICE. I like nice. Sorry mum I know it's a silly word, I shouldn't use it, but I just have, twice. Anyway, we're not freezing yet!
* The weather on the other hand is definitely pushing that way. Frost in the mornings on some of the plants and the ground, puddles that ice over a bit, a distinct chill in the air, and a certain need to wear layers of clothing and keep moving in an attempt to stay warm. I've even bought gloves! Yeah, it took me that long. But there was no need to worry about prices, as usual Xinjiang came through with some mega-cheap stuff, in fact of the two pairs I bought the cheaper one is probably the warmer (though made of woolly stuff, so not great when it gets wet) - these are basic winter gloves, not going to stop the supercold temperatures we will face later in the year, but great for now. RMB 7.50 (that's something like 70p, my how the pound has fallen, but still it's cheap) - in fact there are some I have considered getting for other people ...
* I've started my Tai Qi classes at the university - I enjoy them way more than learning Chinese, but I suppose I know why I am here (grumble mutter groan complain) ... still, it's nice to have this break for an hour or ninety minutes on a Thursday afternoon. The warm up is the worst bit, I don't mind the gentle jog or the basic stretches we do, but some of the more advanced stretches are beyond me at this early stage. Having jogged a bit, and stretched your legs and back sufficiently, stand upright with your arms at ninety degrees to your body, hands all the way outstretched, parallel to the ground. Now walk along but as you "walk" be sure to kick your outstretched hand with the foot of the same side. A real kick, a nice smack sound. I can barely touch my hand and that's with leaning forward a bit. My teacher (and his student of three years) can both kick their hands really quite hard and walk ten paces like this while making it look easy and graceful. And if you thought that was going to be a long way to come, try kicking the opposite hand while doing this "walk" ... it's HARD. Once that's over with though, we can learn Tai Qi, forms, movements, etc. I think breathing will follow soon, but I'm guessing you need to know how to stand and move a little before you can add breathing in (please, people with experience correct me if I'm wrong). I'm adding advancing in Tai Qi and general fitness / flexibility to my list of things to achieve before coming home.
* I bought slippers for the house. Despite the heating being on, our floor is COLD. Also it's dirty and this saves my socks getting covered in dust ... can I have a pipe now?
* Every time I go to the shops and read the Chinglish on the front covers (and insides) of various notebooks and paper, I crack up. I need to take a camera, some of this is priceless. My favourite today was either the one that read something like "I am XXXX, this is my friend, XXXXX, together we are the Piano Rabbits" (I'm as baffled as you are!), or the book which had lots of soppy stuff about love written on the front, along with a picture of a couple of love-heart sweets containing the words "YOU SLUT". Saw one for you two Lucy, but I thought you might be a bit upset they'd misspelt something terribly famous.
* I came top of my class for a recent test. What makes this worse though, is (a) "top" was only 81% (and there are some people there who must be better than I am) and (b) I didn't even know we were going to have a test, whereas some of these people DID. Oh, and (c) the teacher was going round helping people (wtf? it's a test!) - to my credit I wasn't among those asking for help, but she did come over and just force it on me. Oh well. I think if I score higher on the next test (which I KNOW about) they might consider moving me up a class, at least for grammar. I can hope.
* I've not written anyone letters for a while. This must be amended. Hopefully by Monday I will have something to put in the post for a number of people ... no promises though!
That's it for now I think. Anything else happens, it'll just have to wait.
Friday 24 October 2008
Thursday 9 October 2008
Various Happenings from the Last Few Days
i've given up trying to remember what happened recently and when, if it was that important i'd be writing about it ... here's some events from the past couple of days though.
My Residency Permit
Getting this piece of golddust was like ascending Everest, or attempting to find Nirvana. Seriously, the Chinese system is shit. About two weeks ago we applied for our permits (this was after getting the temporary permit from our LOCAL police station) from the main office in Urumqi. This took two days, because on day one we were turned away at 1330 when everyone buggered off to have lunch. At the same time. I got annoyed about it in a previous blog, so I'm not going to waste breath here. The receipt they gave us said to come back on the 30th of September, no problem, so we did. Only it was closed. So we went the whole of our week off school without our main form of ID. What would have happened had we needed to leave the country in a hurry for whatever reason, I don't know. We went back the other day (October 7th) to get them ... easier said than done. First we needed to take a ticket to determine our place in the queue (and hope the chinese would play nicely!) - but which one? Miss Stone-Face on the desk was very little help but she did show me which ticket I needed, and so Marta and I got numbers 4007 and 4008. Fortunately the queue was at 4003, and moving relatively quickly, so we didn't have too long to wait. While sitting there Tanya turned up and took ticket 4011, so at least she wasn't too far behind us. Approaching StoneFace I handed over my receipt. She didn't seem in a good mood, so I didnt bother with pleasantries, I'm growing quite calloused to public service officials here, if they're not interested in being polite, neither am I. She found my passport and then motioned me to her colleague at the next counter (literally 6 feet along the desk), who took my receipt, ran it through a machine, stamped it, and gave me two of the carbon copies back before telling me I needed to pay the 400 RMB fee at the bank next door. WHAT?! Do it over the damn counter, woman. (Tanya said the last time she did this, she just paid over the desk, none of this bank malarky). But that's how it works, so off we went and got one ticket for the three of us at the bank. It didnt take too long to get to our place in the queue (about 15 minutes) and there was minimal fuss with the actual payment. Back to the PSB, where the bank-charge woman stamped our receipts AGAIN, and then motioned us back to StoneFace. This is a really good example of Chinese stupidity. Finally we got our passports pretty much chucked at us by this unpleasant dour woman, and with that we were free to go, legal residents of Urumqi, Xinjiang. At last.
Buying a Mattress (YAY)
I think everyone will be pleased to know that I finally found time (and could be bothered) to go and buy a mattress. I didn't think it would make THAT much difference - given that I've got used to sleeping on my makeshift bedding for the past 5 weeks - but it really does. And it was worth the slight hassle involved. In Urumqi there is a GIANT SHOPPING MALL - more of a market place but I digress - it's ridiculously large, the building from the outside is impressively massive in itself, and inside it stretches on as far as you can see ... not just this, but the site is split over two sides, it's incomprehensibly huge. Our first attempt, we went in the wrong side, and spent a while browsing what looked like very upmarket stores, not at all what we had been led to imagine it was like. We tried the other side however, and found an emporium of low-cost high-quality goods, all of which can be haggled over (joy). Although I found a mattress stall very quickly, I didnt have the exact measurements for my bed (d'oh!) and I couldn't risk it being too long, since my bed is a TIGHT fit in my room ... So we had to come back the next day, except I left my measure-strings (I dont have a tape measure, so I cut lengths of string, one for width and one for length, clever eh?) at home, which necessitated an extra taxi journey. Oops. Finally we made it, and I found a mattress I liked - in retrospect I could have had the cheaper, slightly more compressible one, but I didnt think it would fit on my bed, and this one felt nice so I just went with it. Like I say, my back is much harder and stronger than when I came here. They didn't hike the price up massively like friends said they would - actually they seemed really quite nice. There was some mild haggling, but I actually asked first if I could negotiate, and the owner of the store agreed, but within reason. We came to 550 RMB including delivery. Fair enough really. I was prepared to pay more than that overall!!! :) Getting it in the house was a struggle, because there was some car jam created by my driver arriving outside my flat, so he had to leave sharpish (in fairness I told him it was okay and I could manage) - but I underestimated the weight of this thing! I was struggling it inside when an old man came in the stairwell and offered to help; I turned the offer down because the guy was OLD, we're talking late 70s early 80s here ... but he insisted and together we got this thing inside my house (he offered to move it to the bedroom but I said a firm no, because my room wasn't tidy enough to get it in there, and also because he had more than helped!) - but the surprise came when I went to the stairs to get my water bottle, and picked up his bags for him. The old guy gamely walks with these HEAVY bags of shopping at least twice a week from what I can work out. Each carrier bag must have been about eight kilos, minimum. And this guy is not even uncommon around here - certainly the older generation in China knows how to look after itself!
Long story short, my room is now a lot more comfortable, the mattress is covered, I have a second, Chinese style thin mattress, also covered on top of it to make it cushy, and a duvet on top ... it's all bright colours (orange bunnies on the duvet and bright pink flowers on the Chinese mattress) so my room feels a lot warmer, and of course I now enjoy spending time in here. Viva Winter.
Settling Down A Bit
I sometimes got really homesick being here. It's never happened before, so I'm quite unused to dealing with it. But anyway, yesterday I had a wonderful day, which made me forget (mostly) about not being with people I love in England. As I went to my first class, a Chinese girl stopped me and asked if I spoke English (I love it when they ask that, as if they think I'm not a native speaker, I get a kick out of saying that not only do I speak English, I AM English) ... she wanted help with something, so I said okay (not even sure what she needed help with!) but please meet me after my class. 1200 and she was there, almost on the dot, thanking me in advance - haha, I didn't even know what I was supposed to be doing! We found a classroom that wasn't being used, and she introduced herself (Ava) and explained the situation. She's an English student, and there's a national English competition taking place, but to select people from each province there are obviously local rounds to take part in. Makes sense really. There are 3 parts to this competition - a prepared speech delivered from memory, an impromptu speech (not sure how it works), and a Q+A session at the end. Everything is done in front of an audience (both Chinese and native English speakers), and a panel of judges (of course!). She needed help tweaking her prepared speech before the competition (at the weekend!!! So soon!), and would I please assist? Haha, sure! I thought I was going to have to translate an email! Phew! Turns out there are no native speaking foreign teachers at XNU this year / semester, so unlike other universities she'd desperately been trying to find a foreign student. I spent an hour sorting her stuff out - her topic was nice and abstract so there was a lot of imagery to work around ... and finally it was done and she was happy, but would I also do her friend's work? Yeah, alright. Fortunately her friend (Annie) had chosen a much more literal topic and the writing was more straightforward, I only had to spend about 30 minutes smoothing it out and making sure she understood why I was changing bits and bobs. Mint, job done. They thanked me and I've now made 2 new Chinese friends (yay) - I hope they do well this weekend!
I then had lunch with another Chinese friend, a guy I met in a mobile phone store when I was buying my Xinjiang SIM card, who I had given my number to (wasn't sure about it but I figured I needed friends!) ... and so we met for the first time in a month and a half, and it turns out I made a really good decision giving him my number. The guy (Fei) is really nice. He's local, so I'm guessing he knows all there is to know about Urumqi, he's patient with my Chinese, and he's easy to get along with, which is good since I'm meeting up with him partly to improve Chinese and partly to help him with his English ... We had a really good lunch, and have plans to make this a weekly thing, with some topics to discuss so we can focus our learning. After this, as if I'd not done enough already, I went to the gym, had a good workout, and generally felt much better about being here. So maybe I'm settling in after all.
Thanks and General Appreciations
I'd like to thank some people without whom my trip so far would have been pretty much unbearable. Sorry if I miss you out, this is being done off the top of my head:
Mum - for the numerous letters, photos and aid parcels (more on that next post). I've not received your cake yet, but I live in hope!
Lucy - for writing at least 10 sides of A4 every time you send me a letter, which comes at the ridiculous cost of £1.22 each time (I wonder how the recession will change that?!), for the emails, texts, and long phone calls, even the ones that wake me up in the morning.
Nana - I know you don't read this, but your letters and that phone call are all very much appreciated. :) I've replied too!
Mariamelia - for the comments and postcard that now forms part of my growing wall decorations! My regards to your daughter, wherever she's got herself now ... !
Fiona - who would have thought I'd still be in touch with someone I lived with for just 3 months in first year at uni? And who would have thought the same person would be sending me coffee and chocolates from Northern Ireland to China?! If I've got money next summer (and I hope I do), I'm coming over NI for sure, let me know if there's something Chinese you want! I can't wait for your parcel :)
My Postman
- Zhou Qi Ming is a godsend. The guy calls me when there's a package for me, arranges a time to meet me at the depot, has a chat, speaks nice and slow, helps my friends out when they don't know where their depot is (because the postmen scribble Chinese on their missed-call slips), and seems easy going with a sense of humour!
Anyone Who Is Going To Send Me Stuff - I can't wait! Thanks in advance!
My Residency Permit
Getting this piece of golddust was like ascending Everest, or attempting to find Nirvana. Seriously, the Chinese system is shit. About two weeks ago we applied for our permits (this was after getting the temporary permit from our LOCAL police station) from the main office in Urumqi. This took two days, because on day one we were turned away at 1330 when everyone buggered off to have lunch. At the same time. I got annoyed about it in a previous blog, so I'm not going to waste breath here. The receipt they gave us said to come back on the 30th of September, no problem, so we did. Only it was closed. So we went the whole of our week off school without our main form of ID. What would have happened had we needed to leave the country in a hurry for whatever reason, I don't know. We went back the other day (October 7th) to get them ... easier said than done. First we needed to take a ticket to determine our place in the queue (and hope the chinese would play nicely!) - but which one? Miss Stone-Face on the desk was very little help but she did show me which ticket I needed, and so Marta and I got numbers 4007 and 4008. Fortunately the queue was at 4003, and moving relatively quickly, so we didn't have too long to wait. While sitting there Tanya turned up and took ticket 4011, so at least she wasn't too far behind us. Approaching StoneFace I handed over my receipt. She didn't seem in a good mood, so I didnt bother with pleasantries, I'm growing quite calloused to public service officials here, if they're not interested in being polite, neither am I. She found my passport and then motioned me to her colleague at the next counter (literally 6 feet along the desk), who took my receipt, ran it through a machine, stamped it, and gave me two of the carbon copies back before telling me I needed to pay the 400 RMB fee at the bank next door. WHAT?! Do it over the damn counter, woman. (Tanya said the last time she did this, she just paid over the desk, none of this bank malarky). But that's how it works, so off we went and got one ticket for the three of us at the bank. It didnt take too long to get to our place in the queue (about 15 minutes) and there was minimal fuss with the actual payment. Back to the PSB, where the bank-charge woman stamped our receipts AGAIN, and then motioned us back to StoneFace. This is a really good example of Chinese stupidity. Finally we got our passports pretty much chucked at us by this unpleasant dour woman, and with that we were free to go, legal residents of Urumqi, Xinjiang. At last.
Buying a Mattress (YAY)
I think everyone will be pleased to know that I finally found time (and could be bothered) to go and buy a mattress. I didn't think it would make THAT much difference - given that I've got used to sleeping on my makeshift bedding for the past 5 weeks - but it really does. And it was worth the slight hassle involved. In Urumqi there is a GIANT SHOPPING MALL - more of a market place but I digress - it's ridiculously large, the building from the outside is impressively massive in itself, and inside it stretches on as far as you can see ... not just this, but the site is split over two sides, it's incomprehensibly huge. Our first attempt, we went in the wrong side, and spent a while browsing what looked like very upmarket stores, not at all what we had been led to imagine it was like. We tried the other side however, and found an emporium of low-cost high-quality goods, all of which can be haggled over (joy). Although I found a mattress stall very quickly, I didnt have the exact measurements for my bed (d'oh!) and I couldn't risk it being too long, since my bed is a TIGHT fit in my room ... So we had to come back the next day, except I left my measure-strings (I dont have a tape measure, so I cut lengths of string, one for width and one for length, clever eh?) at home, which necessitated an extra taxi journey. Oops. Finally we made it, and I found a mattress I liked - in retrospect I could have had the cheaper, slightly more compressible one, but I didnt think it would fit on my bed, and this one felt nice so I just went with it. Like I say, my back is much harder and stronger than when I came here. They didn't hike the price up massively like friends said they would - actually they seemed really quite nice. There was some mild haggling, but I actually asked first if I could negotiate, and the owner of the store agreed, but within reason. We came to 550 RMB including delivery. Fair enough really. I was prepared to pay more than that overall!!! :) Getting it in the house was a struggle, because there was some car jam created by my driver arriving outside my flat, so he had to leave sharpish (in fairness I told him it was okay and I could manage) - but I underestimated the weight of this thing! I was struggling it inside when an old man came in the stairwell and offered to help; I turned the offer down because the guy was OLD, we're talking late 70s early 80s here ... but he insisted and together we got this thing inside my house (he offered to move it to the bedroom but I said a firm no, because my room wasn't tidy enough to get it in there, and also because he had more than helped!) - but the surprise came when I went to the stairs to get my water bottle, and picked up his bags for him. The old guy gamely walks with these HEAVY bags of shopping at least twice a week from what I can work out. Each carrier bag must have been about eight kilos, minimum. And this guy is not even uncommon around here - certainly the older generation in China knows how to look after itself!
Long story short, my room is now a lot more comfortable, the mattress is covered, I have a second, Chinese style thin mattress, also covered on top of it to make it cushy, and a duvet on top ... it's all bright colours (orange bunnies on the duvet and bright pink flowers on the Chinese mattress) so my room feels a lot warmer, and of course I now enjoy spending time in here. Viva Winter.
Settling Down A Bit
I sometimes got really homesick being here. It's never happened before, so I'm quite unused to dealing with it. But anyway, yesterday I had a wonderful day, which made me forget (mostly) about not being with people I love in England. As I went to my first class, a Chinese girl stopped me and asked if I spoke English (I love it when they ask that, as if they think I'm not a native speaker, I get a kick out of saying that not only do I speak English, I AM English) ... she wanted help with something, so I said okay (not even sure what she needed help with!) but please meet me after my class. 1200 and she was there, almost on the dot, thanking me in advance - haha, I didn't even know what I was supposed to be doing! We found a classroom that wasn't being used, and she introduced herself (Ava) and explained the situation. She's an English student, and there's a national English competition taking place, but to select people from each province there are obviously local rounds to take part in. Makes sense really. There are 3 parts to this competition - a prepared speech delivered from memory, an impromptu speech (not sure how it works), and a Q+A session at the end. Everything is done in front of an audience (both Chinese and native English speakers), and a panel of judges (of course!). She needed help tweaking her prepared speech before the competition (at the weekend!!! So soon!), and would I please assist? Haha, sure! I thought I was going to have to translate an email! Phew! Turns out there are no native speaking foreign teachers at XNU this year / semester, so unlike other universities she'd desperately been trying to find a foreign student. I spent an hour sorting her stuff out - her topic was nice and abstract so there was a lot of imagery to work around ... and finally it was done and she was happy, but would I also do her friend's work? Yeah, alright. Fortunately her friend (Annie) had chosen a much more literal topic and the writing was more straightforward, I only had to spend about 30 minutes smoothing it out and making sure she understood why I was changing bits and bobs. Mint, job done. They thanked me and I've now made 2 new Chinese friends (yay) - I hope they do well this weekend!
I then had lunch with another Chinese friend, a guy I met in a mobile phone store when I was buying my Xinjiang SIM card, who I had given my number to (wasn't sure about it but I figured I needed friends!) ... and so we met for the first time in a month and a half, and it turns out I made a really good decision giving him my number. The guy (Fei) is really nice. He's local, so I'm guessing he knows all there is to know about Urumqi, he's patient with my Chinese, and he's easy to get along with, which is good since I'm meeting up with him partly to improve Chinese and partly to help him with his English ... We had a really good lunch, and have plans to make this a weekly thing, with some topics to discuss so we can focus our learning. After this, as if I'd not done enough already, I went to the gym, had a good workout, and generally felt much better about being here. So maybe I'm settling in after all.
Thanks and General Appreciations
I'd like to thank some people without whom my trip so far would have been pretty much unbearable. Sorry if I miss you out, this is being done off the top of my head:
Mum - for the numerous letters, photos and aid parcels (more on that next post). I've not received your cake yet, but I live in hope!
Lucy - for writing at least 10 sides of A4 every time you send me a letter, which comes at the ridiculous cost of £1.22 each time (I wonder how the recession will change that?!), for the emails, texts, and long phone calls, even the ones that wake me up in the morning.
Nana - I know you don't read this, but your letters and that phone call are all very much appreciated. :) I've replied too!
Mariamelia - for the comments and postcard that now forms part of my growing wall decorations! My regards to your daughter, wherever she's got herself now ... !
Fiona - who would have thought I'd still be in touch with someone I lived with for just 3 months in first year at uni? And who would have thought the same person would be sending me coffee and chocolates from Northern Ireland to China?! If I've got money next summer (and I hope I do), I'm coming over NI for sure, let me know if there's something Chinese you want! I can't wait for your parcel :)
My Postman
- Zhou Qi Ming is a godsend. The guy calls me when there's a package for me, arranges a time to meet me at the depot, has a chat, speaks nice and slow, helps my friends out when they don't know where their depot is (because the postmen scribble Chinese on their missed-call slips), and seems easy going with a sense of humour!
Anyone Who Is Going To Send Me Stuff - I can't wait! Thanks in advance!
Desert Tripping in Tulfan - A Short Photo Sequence
i wanted to include a shot of the wind farm, but blogspot had a hard time understanding me, so i gave up. here are just a few photos from our day out in turpan (tulfan) and the surrounding area. sorry the quality is a bit low, i had to compress them for uploading. if you desperately want to see more (and i have some really good ones, i might upload them specially later) in hi-res, let me know, and i'll see what i can do about sending some e-mails.
vineyard
comic donkey picture. no idea why.
raisins, very popular in this region and famed for their quality, along with the grapes from which they are made.
houses cut into the hillside, really impressive stuff.
hillsides in the afternoon autumn sun, slight editing with the use of a camera mode, but otherwise authentic
sunset, a beautiful end to the day
vineyard
comic donkey picture. no idea why.
raisins, very popular in this region and famed for their quality, along with the grapes from which they are made.
houses cut into the hillside, really impressive stuff.
hillsides in the afternoon autumn sun, slight editing with the use of a camera mode, but otherwise authentic
sunset, a beautiful end to the day
Monday 6 October 2008
So Much Has Been Happening Part 2: Discovering Urumqi and a Trip to Tulfan
Okay, a lot of other stuff happened in the last 14 days or so, but unfortunately I've been so lazy I didn't write down even snippets of what went on, so I've forgotten a lot of events. Oh well, here's some stuff I CAN remember!
We've just been on an 8 day break (back to school tomorrow, supposedly, more on that later), and one of the things we wanted to do was go to Tulfan (aka Turpan), the lowest point in China and one of the hottest summer destinations (literally, they recorded a temperature of 59C there once, that's one of the hottest temperatures on earth let along China), but in autumn and spring it's supposed to be very nice. How convenient for us that it's autumn now (though some days it really doesnt feel it, far more summery). However, we had thought we might want to stay a night there, and see the place properly, so maybe having our passports back from the PSB would be useful. That and they were supposed to be ready for collection on the 30th, which is quite long enough without my main form of international ID thank you very much! So on the 30th we went to collect them. Now to his credit, the taxi driver did try and tell us when we got into his vehicle that the office was closed, but we had our receipt and we were sure this meant they'd be open to return our passports. After all, why issue a returning date on the receipt if you'll be closed? Banks don't tell you to come in on Christmas Day or a Bank Holiday do they? It's stupid. So off we went; when we got there however, the place was clearly closed. Despite Anniwar's sage advice that "the 30th is not a holiday, but you have the day off uni", we were once again disappointed and appalled with the Chinese system. The lesson to be learnt here is NEVER TRUST THE CHINESE ON ANYTHING THEY SAY, DO, OR PRINT. What made it worse is some people from Marta's class had been back before their due collection date (knowing that the place would be closed) and their passports had been ready for them. This is a seriously messed up country.
With not a lot else to do, Marta and I took a wander around the local area, the PSB office is not in our neighbourhood and we were curious to see what was to be seen ... not a lot really, what with it being a holiday and all. Drat. We did find a nice restaurant though, and it was exceedingly cheap (I'm going to be used to having meals for about 5 RMB and find myself totally out of my depth when I get back to England - "what? that costs how much? i'll have you know in CHINA i could eat for a tenth of your price, good day sir!") ... and then we went for a stroll. But quickly wished we hadnt. We took a gander down a small alley kind of road, hoping it would lead out the other side to another main road to see what there was, but no, it was a dead end. And this was kind of awful because it meant coming back down the same alley to get out. The alley that contained seriously dilapidated run-down buildings, small shops selling tatty looking veg, TV and electrical goods shops thrown in there too (as if to highlight the difference in the quality of goods, the veg being poor, the TVs looking actually very nice), animals in dire states (the treatment of cats and dogs in China is for the most part abysmal - the 2 cats in this alley were tied on cords that wouldn't even let them get off the box they sat on unless they wanted to be hanged, and the rabbits down the end of the alley were in a cage that just about kept them off the ground which was covered in their urine stains), but the worst sight was probably the man with disfigured hands (a lot of people seem to have strange mutilations, most likely from some kind of radiation poisoning) dejectedly sifting his way through a skip of raw throwings-out and general crap (literally in some cases). It was disgusting.
We left the alley quite quickly, but it didn't get better. To one side of us was a restaurant with a load of dogs chained up outside, and as we walked by it was obvious that (a) they were on chains all day long, poor things, (b) the restaurant was most likely one that served dog, and (c) a beautiful large dog was being taken inside the restaurant. We got a taxi home and didn't feel so much like exploring again that day.
Later in the week we took a trip down to Da Bazaar (the Grand International Bazaar to give it it's full title), on the recommendation of previous students and also because we wanted to see where we could get some delightfully cheap stuff for winter, even if we didn't buy on the spot. Well, Nikki, I have to say I'm disappointed. This isn't a dig at you by the way, but maybe you and I get our kicks out of different things, possibly the fact you never left Europe before you came to China the first time gave you different perspective. Also I don't know if you've ever been to the Middle East (or indeed WHERE in the Middle East you might have been to get the impression that it was akin to the Bazaar) ... well anyway, I digress. I personally didn't like it so much. It just felt like every other damn place I've been to in China where they have a large market. Lots of people, lots of shouting, lots of haggling, lots of watching your wallet and phone, rows of shops selling the same old stuff that you probably don't want to buy anyway, and lots of people using their halting broken English to attract your attention. It was like ShangYang market in Shanghai but ... dare I say it ... worse?! True, they had some good stalls, the mens's clothes section on floor 3 will get another look later in the year for winter clothes, and the alcohol store will also be revisited because of it's ridiculously cheap foreign imports (assuming they are real! but they look it) ... but in general the atmosphere was horribly samey, just like all the other large Chinese shopping places I have been to recently and in 2006. Worse though, was the proliferation of beggars. I thought beggars in other parts of China were bad, with their approaches and touching (nay grabbing) you, but here it's not their approach (which is actually non-existent) but their appearance. These people REALLY NEED HELP. Deformations and disabilities abound. It's horrible, and shocking to see a society that just doesnt care, especially in this area because I always had this view of Muslim communities that there's a sense of just that - community. Sticking together a bit in your area. Charity laws in Islam. Who knows, whatever I thought, I'm not seeing it here. And what's even worse is that my giving these people any of my money isn't really going to CHANGE anything for them. It might make things better for a brief moment but it isn't going to lift them out of their misery and poverty-stricken lives. Really, I came away from Da Bazaar with a very negative impression of things.
To break up this slightly negative tirade, I also found a couple of DVD stores this week. Thank god. I was wondering where all the fake DVDs in Urumqi had got to. Now I know at least 2 places where I can waste some cash on some semi-decent copies of movies of TV series' I may want to see. Anyone want anything? I can have a look for it and maybe get you it if you pay me. It's silly-cheap though. Around 8 - 10 RMB for a DVD, usually this DVD will have anything from 4 - 12 films on it, not all of them in great quality, but hey, you are only paying about 80p what do you expect! In Shanghai a lot of the DVDs were similar price and perfect quality, but this isn't Shanghai :P
Ah where was I, yes, negative things ... our trip to Tulfan wasn't REALLY a negative experience (actually very positive) but some ASPECTS were less than good. Tanya made the bookings for us all, through some company whose brochure she had acquired from somewhere - 220 RMB for a day trip to Tulfan, excellent. Meet at 0820 by her gates, where we will be collected? Great. So at 0820 we're standing there and no one has phoned. We call the company and they said something about meeting later. Er, right? How about now? 0845 someone turns up and takes us to some buses, about a mile away. Why not just tell us to meet you there?! We pay our 220 RMB and get on a coach. It drives to the Sheraton and we have to get off and board another coach (so why not tell us just to meet at the Sheraton?! Idiots, we could have had another hour in bed!) ... We set off on this coach and the tour guide comes round and says it'll be another 110 RMB each if we want to go INSIDE the attractions we are due to visit today. Sorry what? 220 wasn't enough? And what's this about attractions, I thought we were just going to Tulfan?! Ah no, we have it all wrong, this is a day out seeing various sights AROUND Tulfan. And to get into those sights we ... yes yes we need to give you 110 RMB. Thanks. So now we have bugger all money left to do anything else with all day, and I ended up lending Marta ANOTHER 100 RMB. That's not a complaint by the way, Marta's Mum, it's just a statement of fact. For anyone planning to come to China, read what I said above about NEVER TRUSTING THEM ON ANYTHING, THEY WILL RIP YOU OFF AND THEN SOME. THERE IS ALWAYS SOME STUPID HIDDEN CHARGE, SOME COST YOU DIDNT KNOW EXISTED, SOME THING THEY JUST "FORGOT" TO TELL YOU ABOUT. That's a complaint.
Well, to cut things short, so I can get back to complaining again, the day out was marvellous. We didnt understand the guide very much (hence us overstaying 20 minutes at the first location, a big vineyard with underground tunnels, much to the annoyance of the rest of our group), and she did talk A LOT - all the way to Tulfan she was reeling off information over a microphone, while the coach (which had no suspension at all) bumped its way for 2.5 hours from Urumqi to the vineyards. She was actively encouraged (I'm sure) every time she finished a massive speech about the area, by the Chinese people on board clapping enthusiastically at her fluent knowledge. Oh well, it's her job, it's a tour bus I suppose we ought to have expected this! The weather was very good - blue skies, 30C, could have done with more breeze, but made for spectacular views, and I think an excellent time was had by all. Not to labour a point though, but I would like to return to the whole not trusting the Chinese tour people thing. We were having lunch at some place, a very basic affair that couldnt have cost more than 3 RMB each, and for which we probably paid 20 as part of our package deal, and the guide started to kick up some fuss about us 3 eating. We hadn't paid or something. Tanya was busy with some problem that had arisen on the phone concerning some Russian students in another part of Xinjiang, Marta didnt know what was going on, and I had only the vaguest of ideas but I was hungry and just kept eating despite the guide. She rang her boss and put him on the phone to me, so I asked him what the hell she was on about? Not being allowed to eat when we paid the same 220 as everyone else. Well you should have seen her face change as soon as I said "not allowed to eat" - "oh no no no no, that's not what I said", she started out with ... "well what DID you say?", I queried, but was unable to understand her answer. Anyway, this Australian professor was there with a former student (Chinese) and they said the guide was just being stupid and that we'd all paid the same money, and not to worry about it, they didnt understand what she was on about either and they were fed up because there'd been talk of honeydew melon that hadn't shown up (there was a reason for this we found out later, but not a great one, and the guide said she'd buy us all some later, but that never happened either) ... tsk.
I took my pleasure that day in the landscapes and the times we were allowed off the coach to get away from some of the Chinese (except this one kid who took to trailing me a bit and talking some English, though a lot of the time it was hard to understand him). The sunset was brilliant. The ruins out in the desert were delightful. With the exception of the tour company attempting to rip us off, the day out was well worth it, however next time we do something like this we're going to get a group of five and hire a jeep plus driver for the day - which apparently can be got for about 400 RMB total, as opposed to the 990 RMB we ended up giving as a threesome going on this tour - and having a customised day out to ourselves. But you live and learn and as experiences go it was a good one. I've now seen Asia's second largest wind farm, some vineyards, underground tunnels, gorgeous sandy orange mountains against powder blue sky, clear night skies (wow), and houses cut into the landscape like I wrote about in an essay back in Newcastle but never actually SAW before
It really was fun.
EDIT - i tried to upload pics, but it wasnt liking it. maybe i'll post just a picture blog as my next entry.
We've just been on an 8 day break (back to school tomorrow, supposedly, more on that later), and one of the things we wanted to do was go to Tulfan (aka Turpan), the lowest point in China and one of the hottest summer destinations (literally, they recorded a temperature of 59C there once, that's one of the hottest temperatures on earth let along China), but in autumn and spring it's supposed to be very nice. How convenient for us that it's autumn now (though some days it really doesnt feel it, far more summery). However, we had thought we might want to stay a night there, and see the place properly, so maybe having our passports back from the PSB would be useful. That and they were supposed to be ready for collection on the 30th, which is quite long enough without my main form of international ID thank you very much! So on the 30th we went to collect them. Now to his credit, the taxi driver did try and tell us when we got into his vehicle that the office was closed, but we had our receipt and we were sure this meant they'd be open to return our passports. After all, why issue a returning date on the receipt if you'll be closed? Banks don't tell you to come in on Christmas Day or a Bank Holiday do they? It's stupid. So off we went; when we got there however, the place was clearly closed. Despite Anniwar's sage advice that "the 30th is not a holiday, but you have the day off uni", we were once again disappointed and appalled with the Chinese system. The lesson to be learnt here is NEVER TRUST THE CHINESE ON ANYTHING THEY SAY, DO, OR PRINT. What made it worse is some people from Marta's class had been back before their due collection date (knowing that the place would be closed) and their passports had been ready for them. This is a seriously messed up country.
With not a lot else to do, Marta and I took a wander around the local area, the PSB office is not in our neighbourhood and we were curious to see what was to be seen ... not a lot really, what with it being a holiday and all. Drat. We did find a nice restaurant though, and it was exceedingly cheap (I'm going to be used to having meals for about 5 RMB and find myself totally out of my depth when I get back to England - "what? that costs how much? i'll have you know in CHINA i could eat for a tenth of your price, good day sir!") ... and then we went for a stroll. But quickly wished we hadnt. We took a gander down a small alley kind of road, hoping it would lead out the other side to another main road to see what there was, but no, it was a dead end. And this was kind of awful because it meant coming back down the same alley to get out. The alley that contained seriously dilapidated run-down buildings, small shops selling tatty looking veg, TV and electrical goods shops thrown in there too (as if to highlight the difference in the quality of goods, the veg being poor, the TVs looking actually very nice), animals in dire states (the treatment of cats and dogs in China is for the most part abysmal - the 2 cats in this alley were tied on cords that wouldn't even let them get off the box they sat on unless they wanted to be hanged, and the rabbits down the end of the alley were in a cage that just about kept them off the ground which was covered in their urine stains), but the worst sight was probably the man with disfigured hands (a lot of people seem to have strange mutilations, most likely from some kind of radiation poisoning) dejectedly sifting his way through a skip of raw throwings-out and general crap (literally in some cases). It was disgusting.
We left the alley quite quickly, but it didn't get better. To one side of us was a restaurant with a load of dogs chained up outside, and as we walked by it was obvious that (a) they were on chains all day long, poor things, (b) the restaurant was most likely one that served dog, and (c) a beautiful large dog was being taken inside the restaurant. We got a taxi home and didn't feel so much like exploring again that day.
Later in the week we took a trip down to Da Bazaar (the Grand International Bazaar to give it it's full title), on the recommendation of previous students and also because we wanted to see where we could get some delightfully cheap stuff for winter, even if we didn't buy on the spot. Well, Nikki, I have to say I'm disappointed. This isn't a dig at you by the way, but maybe you and I get our kicks out of different things, possibly the fact you never left Europe before you came to China the first time gave you different perspective. Also I don't know if you've ever been to the Middle East (or indeed WHERE in the Middle East you might have been to get the impression that it was akin to the Bazaar) ... well anyway, I digress. I personally didn't like it so much. It just felt like every other damn place I've been to in China where they have a large market. Lots of people, lots of shouting, lots of haggling, lots of watching your wallet and phone, rows of shops selling the same old stuff that you probably don't want to buy anyway, and lots of people using their halting broken English to attract your attention. It was like ShangYang market in Shanghai but ... dare I say it ... worse?! True, they had some good stalls, the mens's clothes section on floor 3 will get another look later in the year for winter clothes, and the alcohol store will also be revisited because of it's ridiculously cheap foreign imports (assuming they are real! but they look it) ... but in general the atmosphere was horribly samey, just like all the other large Chinese shopping places I have been to recently and in 2006. Worse though, was the proliferation of beggars. I thought beggars in other parts of China were bad, with their approaches and touching (nay grabbing) you, but here it's not their approach (which is actually non-existent) but their appearance. These people REALLY NEED HELP. Deformations and disabilities abound. It's horrible, and shocking to see a society that just doesnt care, especially in this area because I always had this view of Muslim communities that there's a sense of just that - community. Sticking together a bit in your area. Charity laws in Islam. Who knows, whatever I thought, I'm not seeing it here. And what's even worse is that my giving these people any of my money isn't really going to CHANGE anything for them. It might make things better for a brief moment but it isn't going to lift them out of their misery and poverty-stricken lives. Really, I came away from Da Bazaar with a very negative impression of things.
To break up this slightly negative tirade, I also found a couple of DVD stores this week. Thank god. I was wondering where all the fake DVDs in Urumqi had got to. Now I know at least 2 places where I can waste some cash on some semi-decent copies of movies of TV series' I may want to see. Anyone want anything? I can have a look for it and maybe get you it if you pay me. It's silly-cheap though. Around 8 - 10 RMB for a DVD, usually this DVD will have anything from 4 - 12 films on it, not all of them in great quality, but hey, you are only paying about 80p what do you expect! In Shanghai a lot of the DVDs were similar price and perfect quality, but this isn't Shanghai :P
Ah where was I, yes, negative things ... our trip to Tulfan wasn't REALLY a negative experience (actually very positive) but some ASPECTS were less than good. Tanya made the bookings for us all, through some company whose brochure she had acquired from somewhere - 220 RMB for a day trip to Tulfan, excellent. Meet at 0820 by her gates, where we will be collected? Great. So at 0820 we're standing there and no one has phoned. We call the company and they said something about meeting later. Er, right? How about now? 0845 someone turns up and takes us to some buses, about a mile away. Why not just tell us to meet you there?! We pay our 220 RMB and get on a coach. It drives to the Sheraton and we have to get off and board another coach (so why not tell us just to meet at the Sheraton?! Idiots, we could have had another hour in bed!) ... We set off on this coach and the tour guide comes round and says it'll be another 110 RMB each if we want to go INSIDE the attractions we are due to visit today. Sorry what? 220 wasn't enough? And what's this about attractions, I thought we were just going to Tulfan?! Ah no, we have it all wrong, this is a day out seeing various sights AROUND Tulfan. And to get into those sights we ... yes yes we need to give you 110 RMB. Thanks. So now we have bugger all money left to do anything else with all day, and I ended up lending Marta ANOTHER 100 RMB. That's not a complaint by the way, Marta's Mum, it's just a statement of fact. For anyone planning to come to China, read what I said above about NEVER TRUSTING THEM ON ANYTHING, THEY WILL RIP YOU OFF AND THEN SOME. THERE IS ALWAYS SOME STUPID HIDDEN CHARGE, SOME COST YOU DIDNT KNOW EXISTED, SOME THING THEY JUST "FORGOT" TO TELL YOU ABOUT. That's a complaint.
Well, to cut things short, so I can get back to complaining again, the day out was marvellous. We didnt understand the guide very much (hence us overstaying 20 minutes at the first location, a big vineyard with underground tunnels, much to the annoyance of the rest of our group), and she did talk A LOT - all the way to Tulfan she was reeling off information over a microphone, while the coach (which had no suspension at all) bumped its way for 2.5 hours from Urumqi to the vineyards. She was actively encouraged (I'm sure) every time she finished a massive speech about the area, by the Chinese people on board clapping enthusiastically at her fluent knowledge. Oh well, it's her job, it's a tour bus I suppose we ought to have expected this! The weather was very good - blue skies, 30C, could have done with more breeze, but made for spectacular views, and I think an excellent time was had by all. Not to labour a point though, but I would like to return to the whole not trusting the Chinese tour people thing. We were having lunch at some place, a very basic affair that couldnt have cost more than 3 RMB each, and for which we probably paid 20 as part of our package deal, and the guide started to kick up some fuss about us 3 eating. We hadn't paid or something. Tanya was busy with some problem that had arisen on the phone concerning some Russian students in another part of Xinjiang, Marta didnt know what was going on, and I had only the vaguest of ideas but I was hungry and just kept eating despite the guide. She rang her boss and put him on the phone to me, so I asked him what the hell she was on about? Not being allowed to eat when we paid the same 220 as everyone else. Well you should have seen her face change as soon as I said "not allowed to eat" - "oh no no no no, that's not what I said", she started out with ... "well what DID you say?", I queried, but was unable to understand her answer. Anyway, this Australian professor was there with a former student (Chinese) and they said the guide was just being stupid and that we'd all paid the same money, and not to worry about it, they didnt understand what she was on about either and they were fed up because there'd been talk of honeydew melon that hadn't shown up (there was a reason for this we found out later, but not a great one, and the guide said she'd buy us all some later, but that never happened either) ... tsk.
I took my pleasure that day in the landscapes and the times we were allowed off the coach to get away from some of the Chinese (except this one kid who took to trailing me a bit and talking some English, though a lot of the time it was hard to understand him). The sunset was brilliant. The ruins out in the desert were delightful. With the exception of the tour company attempting to rip us off, the day out was well worth it, however next time we do something like this we're going to get a group of five and hire a jeep plus driver for the day - which apparently can be got for about 400 RMB total, as opposed to the 990 RMB we ended up giving as a threesome going on this tour - and having a customised day out to ourselves. But you live and learn and as experiences go it was a good one. I've now seen Asia's second largest wind farm, some vineyards, underground tunnels, gorgeous sandy orange mountains against powder blue sky, clear night skies (wow), and houses cut into the landscape like I wrote about in an essay back in Newcastle but never actually SAW before
It really was fun.
EDIT - i tried to upload pics, but it wasnt liking it. maybe i'll post just a picture blog as my next entry.
Thursday 2 October 2008
So Much Has Been Happening Part 1 : National Day Awards
I've done it again - I've left blogging for so long that I don't know where to begin any more ... damn. I'm currently in the middle of an 8-day break, which is really strange because: (a) in order to give us this break we had classes at the weekend, to make up for what we would "lose" during this holiday, (b) we've only been at uni for a month and already we're having some kind of half-term time off, and (c) perhaps most annoying, our next proper break isn't until January 15th. I don't count the one day that we get off for New Year's Day. What this adds up to is that this weeklong holiday (for National Day? The PRC is 59 years old now) is our last break for the next 14 weeks. By UK standards that's a ridiculous length of time not to have a break while in education. By the standards of other countries close to China, however, it's pretty normal, as my friend and classmate Tanya (she's Russian) confirms. Anyway, while I'm on this holiday I thought I should update the blog, and see what's been happening in the past 10 days or so (from memory, so things might not be totally chronological). Also, it's quite long, so I think these updates will have to be in sections.
National Day Foreign Experts Award Ceremony
When I was brought into the corridor during a lesson-break to have a chat with one of my teachers, I really had no idea what he was on about when he said that a few of us foreign students (one from each country?!) would be having a party ... I thought maybe Xinjiang Normal University had finally got its act together and was organising something for its foreign guests to do so they would get to know one another ... well, I was wrong. But as it turns out it wasn't entirely bad. The downside to being invited to this party was the question of attire. I was told I couldn't wear casual clothes at all, it was a formal thing. Damn, why did I leave all my smart clothes back in the UK - oh yes that's right, because I am a STUDENT and not some kind of ambassador businessman. Smart people will say I should always have at least one set of good clothes with me, and pedantic people will add that I am an "ambassador for Newcastle University", but to be honest, when I was packing these were not on my mind. More pressing was how I would lug my life around Shanghai, on a train, and across Urumqi. And to that end I kept things as light as possible. So, cue me having 24 hours to find "good" clothes, having just decided on a weekly budget, which would now get shot right down because of this impromptu party that I wasn't so much invited to as told to attend.
I'll cut my frantic searching short by saying that I tried the "normal" shops first, and didnt see anything I liked especially and that it was all quite expensive by Chinese standards (though cheap as chips by Western views). I wandered desolately home and on the way I saw a building I'd never been in (but passed many times). Turns out it's a huge indoor market, so I spent some time trawling round there - they had everything, jackets, coats, gloves, shirts, food, crockery, you name it. Eventually I found a stall with some good quality trousers at a reduced price (which meant the owner wasn't willing to bargain over them, which I thought was a shame because they could have been cheaper - yes, China has made me that tight already), but two pairs of good trousers (sort of thick, like denim, but not quite like jeans), one brown and one black, for 100 yuan (about 8 quid). Not the best deal in the world but not the worst either, and look I was pressed for time here, I still didn't even have a shirt or good shoes!
The shirt I acquired from a supermarket, for 40 yuan, yes yes it's most likely a phenomenal rip off, but I didn't have the time to be running around markets or whatever finding the "best deal". It took about 30 minutes to buy it though, because there's no place to try on the item you want to buy, and the store muppets were so gormless they didnt measure me until right at the end, when all I had been asking them to do before was measure me, so I could see what Chinese size I was. Really, shopping in this stupid country gets me down. It did in 2006 and it does now. I really hate it. The shoes were a story in themselves, after trying some local stores and not getting anything I wanted (I actually had to argue with one shop assistant who kept giving me sizes smaller than UK 9 that I COULD NOT FIT IN THE SIZE 8.5 SHOES BECAUSE I AM AT LEAST A SIZE 9 AND STOP GIVING ME SMALLER SHOES THEY WILL NOT WORK), I took a bus about three stops further than I'd ever been before, just to see if there was anything I could see, a bit of an adventure and also because my local area wasn't offering anything decent by way of shoes. I ended up in a place called Bei Men (北门) or Northgate if you want a literal translation. I wandered around a bit there, not seeing anything great until I chanced on a military surplus store. Heck, if theyre anything like in England, you can surely pick up something half decent looking which will also double as casual shoes AND be alright for the beginning of winter (ideally I wanted a pair of Converse (or lookalikes) but they didnt have my size in any stores) - I was trying to save money here, I don't need / want three pairs of shoes for different things, I just wanted one all rounder that would stop me using my gym trainers as casual wear. Anyway, I went into this store, and they had some alright looking stuff, and it was all dead cheap compared to my budget and what I had seen in other places. They didn't have smart shoes in this first store, but they had boots, and I was thinking ahead for when winter comes, should I just get some military boots, slightly large so I can whack two layers of socks in them, and be done with the funny looks I might get? So I asked to try them on ... and the woman had to (oh no) get off her arse and go out to a storeroom and come back with a pair of boots for me to try. Well, they fit alright, but I suddenly realised they weren't quite what I wanted for a formal dinner, and also they would need some breaking in, which is fine but takes time and hurts and I didn't want to be doing it now. But for 185 RMB it was worth bearing them in mind. I said I didnt want to buy them. Or rather that I wanted to buy them but I had no money on me, I was just looking. This SERIOUSLY PISSED OFF the women running this shop, but I've become quite callous when it comes to shopping in this damn country - if you run to "assist" me when I enter your store, I will leave. If you get offended at something trivial, I will leave. I HATE "customer service" in the UK, I've worked for companies where you have to "greet" (even if this is just acknowledgement, like "hey") the customer within X seconds of them entering the store, and then approach them for a sale after a couple of minutes. They at least had some "research" behind their methods, but it was still annoying as hell for both us and the customers I'm sure. Here it's a bit like that, but there's no slowly slowly approach, it's full on pouncing on the customer the minute they enter. Or, as with this case, feeling really put out if the customer doesnt want to buy after you've helped them find something in their size. What? Like you were doing so much before? I came in your shop and you were SAT ON YOUR BACKSIDE WATCHING TV. I think that's what annoyed her most, is she had to get up. So I left, because I couldn't be bothered with her attitude, and if I want the boots maybe I'll go back there.
Maybe. Except when I got out of the shop I looked down the street and it was another case of Chinese idiocy - they don't put one store selling an item and then the next store a distance away so there is some kind of competition and maybe someone will make a profit. No, they take a store selling an item / type of item and then put seven of them right next to each other. So I basically had my pick of all the military surplus stores, right down this road, and I felt really not bad at all about ditching the first one because in some of the others the people were a lot nicer! It actually happened that in the second store I found a pair of shoes that would have been good, but the bloke didnt have my size (shame, because he was really nice). And it was actually the LAST store I got to that said they had my size, but fetching my size came with a strict proviso. If they fit me, would I buy them? (the implication being that they wouldnt go fetching them for me just to try on, maybe the store down the other end had telephoned everyone to say watch out for the white bastard). By this point I was quite sure I liked these shoes, and I NEEDED some for this dinner, so I said yes, they got my shoes, they fit, and I bought them. 85 RMB for a pair of shoes that feel like slippers on the inside, look smart enough on the outside, and will probably be fine until the weather gets much wetter and then I'll need something a bit more waterproof and above the ankle, like boots.
So now I had my "formal" wear, it's a shame we don't have an iron so the shirt had the lines from where it was in the box, and I didnt have a smart jacket or jumper but you can't win them all. I went to the dinner with a shirt that had box-creases, trousers that were brand new, and shoes that passed at a glance for formal wear. Was it worth it? Sort of. The award ceremony itself was OKAY (it was the Tian Shan awards for outstanding contributions by Foreign Experts for the economic and social development of Xinjiang Region), the reason we were there was because one of the lecturers at XNU was receiving an award, and we were foreign students (so, maybe they thought the next generation of people to potentially receive this if we helped Xinjiang later in life), but there were some rather simpering speeches made, notably by one of the award recipients (a Brit I think, though his accent was strange), who has either been brainwashed, had a VERY PRIVILEGED look at Xinjiang, or was simply paid to say some nice stuff, who knows, he sounded sincere anyway. That aside, it was really the entertainment and food that got me. This meeting was held in the Sheraton, and it didn't disappoint - courses upon courses came to our table, tea and wine flowed freely (though they kept filling the glass only about 1/3 of the way up, which was annoying because if I'm going to have wine I want a full glass, not to have to keep asking for more), and there were several Uyghur dances and songs performed. All the while I was chatting with newfound foreign student friends, and it was actually a very good night out (Nikki I know you are reading this, Gregg says hello).
I didnt have my camera, so I cant put photos up, but maybe there'll be a couple from the night, because one of our teachers was there with a v snazzy camera and he took some group photos while we were at the table together. It was interesting, and kind of worth the rushing around buying clothes ... well I think that's enough to write about for the moment, I'll keep updating throughout the week.
National Day Foreign Experts Award Ceremony
When I was brought into the corridor during a lesson-break to have a chat with one of my teachers, I really had no idea what he was on about when he said that a few of us foreign students (one from each country?!) would be having a party ... I thought maybe Xinjiang Normal University had finally got its act together and was organising something for its foreign guests to do so they would get to know one another ... well, I was wrong. But as it turns out it wasn't entirely bad. The downside to being invited to this party was the question of attire. I was told I couldn't wear casual clothes at all, it was a formal thing. Damn, why did I leave all my smart clothes back in the UK - oh yes that's right, because I am a STUDENT and not some kind of ambassador businessman. Smart people will say I should always have at least one set of good clothes with me, and pedantic people will add that I am an "ambassador for Newcastle University", but to be honest, when I was packing these were not on my mind. More pressing was how I would lug my life around Shanghai, on a train, and across Urumqi. And to that end I kept things as light as possible. So, cue me having 24 hours to find "good" clothes, having just decided on a weekly budget, which would now get shot right down because of this impromptu party that I wasn't so much invited to as told to attend.
I'll cut my frantic searching short by saying that I tried the "normal" shops first, and didnt see anything I liked especially and that it was all quite expensive by Chinese standards (though cheap as chips by Western views). I wandered desolately home and on the way I saw a building I'd never been in (but passed many times). Turns out it's a huge indoor market, so I spent some time trawling round there - they had everything, jackets, coats, gloves, shirts, food, crockery, you name it. Eventually I found a stall with some good quality trousers at a reduced price (which meant the owner wasn't willing to bargain over them, which I thought was a shame because they could have been cheaper - yes, China has made me that tight already), but two pairs of good trousers (sort of thick, like denim, but not quite like jeans), one brown and one black, for 100 yuan (about 8 quid). Not the best deal in the world but not the worst either, and look I was pressed for time here, I still didn't even have a shirt or good shoes!
The shirt I acquired from a supermarket, for 40 yuan, yes yes it's most likely a phenomenal rip off, but I didn't have the time to be running around markets or whatever finding the "best deal". It took about 30 minutes to buy it though, because there's no place to try on the item you want to buy, and the store muppets were so gormless they didnt measure me until right at the end, when all I had been asking them to do before was measure me, so I could see what Chinese size I was. Really, shopping in this stupid country gets me down. It did in 2006 and it does now. I really hate it. The shoes were a story in themselves, after trying some local stores and not getting anything I wanted (I actually had to argue with one shop assistant who kept giving me sizes smaller than UK 9 that I COULD NOT FIT IN THE SIZE 8.5 SHOES BECAUSE I AM AT LEAST A SIZE 9 AND STOP GIVING ME SMALLER SHOES THEY WILL NOT WORK), I took a bus about three stops further than I'd ever been before, just to see if there was anything I could see, a bit of an adventure and also because my local area wasn't offering anything decent by way of shoes. I ended up in a place called Bei Men (北门) or Northgate if you want a literal translation. I wandered around a bit there, not seeing anything great until I chanced on a military surplus store. Heck, if theyre anything like in England, you can surely pick up something half decent looking which will also double as casual shoes AND be alright for the beginning of winter (ideally I wanted a pair of Converse (or lookalikes) but they didnt have my size in any stores) - I was trying to save money here, I don't need / want three pairs of shoes for different things, I just wanted one all rounder that would stop me using my gym trainers as casual wear. Anyway, I went into this store, and they had some alright looking stuff, and it was all dead cheap compared to my budget and what I had seen in other places. They didn't have smart shoes in this first store, but they had boots, and I was thinking ahead for when winter comes, should I just get some military boots, slightly large so I can whack two layers of socks in them, and be done with the funny looks I might get? So I asked to try them on ... and the woman had to (oh no) get off her arse and go out to a storeroom and come back with a pair of boots for me to try. Well, they fit alright, but I suddenly realised they weren't quite what I wanted for a formal dinner, and also they would need some breaking in, which is fine but takes time and hurts and I didn't want to be doing it now. But for 185 RMB it was worth bearing them in mind. I said I didnt want to buy them. Or rather that I wanted to buy them but I had no money on me, I was just looking. This SERIOUSLY PISSED OFF the women running this shop, but I've become quite callous when it comes to shopping in this damn country - if you run to "assist" me when I enter your store, I will leave. If you get offended at something trivial, I will leave. I HATE "customer service" in the UK, I've worked for companies where you have to "greet" (even if this is just acknowledgement, like "hey") the customer within X seconds of them entering the store, and then approach them for a sale after a couple of minutes. They at least had some "research" behind their methods, but it was still annoying as hell for both us and the customers I'm sure. Here it's a bit like that, but there's no slowly slowly approach, it's full on pouncing on the customer the minute they enter. Or, as with this case, feeling really put out if the customer doesnt want to buy after you've helped them find something in their size. What? Like you were doing so much before? I came in your shop and you were SAT ON YOUR BACKSIDE WATCHING TV. I think that's what annoyed her most, is she had to get up. So I left, because I couldn't be bothered with her attitude, and if I want the boots maybe I'll go back there.
Maybe. Except when I got out of the shop I looked down the street and it was another case of Chinese idiocy - they don't put one store selling an item and then the next store a distance away so there is some kind of competition and maybe someone will make a profit. No, they take a store selling an item / type of item and then put seven of them right next to each other. So I basically had my pick of all the military surplus stores, right down this road, and I felt really not bad at all about ditching the first one because in some of the others the people were a lot nicer! It actually happened that in the second store I found a pair of shoes that would have been good, but the bloke didnt have my size (shame, because he was really nice). And it was actually the LAST store I got to that said they had my size, but fetching my size came with a strict proviso. If they fit me, would I buy them? (the implication being that they wouldnt go fetching them for me just to try on, maybe the store down the other end had telephoned everyone to say watch out for the white bastard). By this point I was quite sure I liked these shoes, and I NEEDED some for this dinner, so I said yes, they got my shoes, they fit, and I bought them. 85 RMB for a pair of shoes that feel like slippers on the inside, look smart enough on the outside, and will probably be fine until the weather gets much wetter and then I'll need something a bit more waterproof and above the ankle, like boots.
So now I had my "formal" wear, it's a shame we don't have an iron so the shirt had the lines from where it was in the box, and I didnt have a smart jacket or jumper but you can't win them all. I went to the dinner with a shirt that had box-creases, trousers that were brand new, and shoes that passed at a glance for formal wear. Was it worth it? Sort of. The award ceremony itself was OKAY (it was the Tian Shan awards for outstanding contributions by Foreign Experts for the economic and social development of Xinjiang Region), the reason we were there was because one of the lecturers at XNU was receiving an award, and we were foreign students (so, maybe they thought the next generation of people to potentially receive this if we helped Xinjiang later in life), but there were some rather simpering speeches made, notably by one of the award recipients (a Brit I think, though his accent was strange), who has either been brainwashed, had a VERY PRIVILEGED look at Xinjiang, or was simply paid to say some nice stuff, who knows, he sounded sincere anyway. That aside, it was really the entertainment and food that got me. This meeting was held in the Sheraton, and it didn't disappoint - courses upon courses came to our table, tea and wine flowed freely (though they kept filling the glass only about 1/3 of the way up, which was annoying because if I'm going to have wine I want a full glass, not to have to keep asking for more), and there were several Uyghur dances and songs performed. All the while I was chatting with newfound foreign student friends, and it was actually a very good night out (Nikki I know you are reading this, Gregg says hello).
I didnt have my camera, so I cant put photos up, but maybe there'll be a couple from the night, because one of our teachers was there with a v snazzy camera and he took some group photos while we were at the table together. It was interesting, and kind of worth the rushing around buying clothes ... well I think that's enough to write about for the moment, I'll keep updating throughout the week.
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