Some random thoughts and observations about life in Zhuhai
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A few days ago, I witnessed an event which I think exemplifies one of the many paradoxes of daily life in China that we expats encounter on almost a daily basis.
About 5:30 in the afternoon I was waiting for a bus to take me to Wanzaisha at the bus stop in front of Hita Plaza shopping center. Of course, there was a larger than normal (whatever “normal” is) number of people waiting there as well. As far as I could see, I was the only “laowai” in the crowd.
Within a very few minutes a nose-to-tail procession of three #2 busses pulled into the stop. Each bus was separated from the other by about 10 to 12 meters. This was enough separation for me, and anyone else who cared to look, to easily see that all three were #2 buses.
Before the first bus in line, which was quite full, came to a complete stop, a group of about 20 to 30 people, many carrying full shopping bags and/or infants in their arms, surged towards the front door of the lead bus. Before the driver could get the front door open, the group were pushing, shoving and trying, by whatever means, to be the first one to board a bus on which, obviously, there were no unoccupied seats.
Here’s the paradoxical part of the story. The other two #2 buses were virtually empty! I leisurely walked to the second bus in line, boarded, and settled easily into my preferred seat (the one immediately aft of the rear door). There were no more than five people on either the one I boarded, or the last #2 bus in the procession. The #2 bus that I boarded, and the one immediately behind, after waiting with the front doors open for a reasonable amount of time, during which not a single passenger attempted to board either one, pulled out of the stop while the first #2 bus was still loading.
My only regret is that I did not have a camera with me at the time to record this uniquely Chinese phenomenon.
My apartment is located on the 19th floor of a 27 story building in Wanzaisha. I really like this apartment. It has a balcony with a great view, and provides about every convenience that I or my wife could ask for in a Zhuhai apartment. The only problem (if you could call it a problem) is that there are only 2 lifts to service the whole building, and about 15% of the time one of these lifts is out of service for one reason or another.
When these out-of-service conditions occur, (and other “normal” times as well) attempting to get either in or out of the building can be somewhat of a frustrating ordeal. The outward bound (down) half of the journey usually goes something like this.
After waiting for 5 to 7 minutes for the one functional lift that is headed in the correct direction to reach my floor, the door opens to reveal 7 or 8 people already inside. The doors close, and the downward journey begins. Of course, because this is the only functioning lift, it stops at every floor on the way down. At each floor more and more people get in until the lift is now packed beyond capacity.
When it finally reaches the ground floor and the doors open, there are about another 20 people wanting to take the lift up to their apartments. The instant the doors open, those waiting to go up (there are, many times, one or two who have their bicycle with them) begin pushing and shoving their way into the lift before the people already inside can get out. This practice makes for an interesting scene.
Why do they do that? Don’t they realize that there are no seats to be had in the lift, and whether they are the first one or the last one into the lift, it’s still going to take the same amount of time for them to get to the desired floor?
The inbound (up) half of the journey is no less eventful. As I mentioned earlier, there are sometimes one or two people waiting in the ground floor lift lobby with their bicycles, and another with two overflowing buckets of some unknown, very odiferous, fishy-smelling, semi-liquid substance; but, more often than not, there is at least one, 6 year old “nosepicker” dressed in his playground-soiled, yellow white and red primary school uniform, with one of his index fingers buried firmly in his nose up to the second knuckle.
As soon as he boards the lift, he squirms his way to the control panel where he then removes his freshly booger-coated digit from his nostril, and gleefully applies it to every floor button that he can reach on the panel. He can usually reach up to about floor 22 or 23. All the while, his minder (usually his grandmother) looks on approvingly.
Little Mr. Nasal Excavator and his granny exit the lift on the second floor, secure in the knowledge, or perhaps oblivious to the fact, that the lift is now going to stop at every floor on its upward journey. They don’t seem to have too much concern for the unfortunate, sweating delivery man in the lift who is trying to juggle the two large and cumbersome bottles of cooking gas that he is attempting to deliver to an apartment on the 24th floor, or for any of the others in the lift for that matter.
Now, before some of you climb my frame about my “China bashing” let me say what I have said several times before. I have made the conscious decision to make Zhuhai my home. I can think of no other place in China (with the possible exception of a sun-soaked beach on the southern tip of Hainan, where an endless parade of smiling, bikini-clad local girls would bring me an endless stream of gin and tonic) that I would rather be.
Ah...good 'ol "ma mu"
Ah...good 'ol "ma mu" (麻木) raises it's (black, cow-licked) head once again...
Its called Culture Shock
Its called Culture Shock !
Yesterday, I drove along the river on the potholed,(already put my wheel down one manhole which had cover stolen) It was there for 5 days before they filled it (guess someone went down it on a bike and died ) ) dangerous surface they call a road. I was returning on the right side blue fence road, when all of a sudden ...chaos, horns, fists, cars all ways.The powers that be , decided to just put a blue tin fence over the road and close it, because they were doing something connected with the overhead railway thingy...No turn around space, no security soldier to direct you, no detour ,no sign, nothing..So we got out of the maze eventually and doubled back and came back to the river, further up ...same bloody crap!! Drivers pay heaps of fees for this and that and get 5th rate roads.What is their mindset?...to just ignore the driver and virtually say....work it out yourself !!!! i am glad now , that i didn,t have a bulldozer yesterday !
The lift thing is a common
The lift thing is a common gripe; imho i dont think it is related to culture shock but more to the fact that sense is'nt really that common in some places. Best stop there before the post disappears and i am branded a racist (again).
Nicely put orrin. It made
Nicely put orrin. It made good reading and lots of nodding from me ... I have moved to a place where 2 out of 2 elevators work all the time, and what a joy it is.
Alright.... here is the
Alright.... here is the kicker..!!! Going through customs at Gwan Ko... between Macau and Zhuhai...
Ok so when you wait in the long lines to get to the other side...
You don't need to stand 5mm from the person in front of you... It won't get you through faster...
Plus aren't people worried about getting a cold or something by standing so close to other people?
So once I am past the barrier part.. I purposely put one leg on one side and my arm on the other side so people behind me can't cross....
Then I let about 5 feet of space between me and the person in front of me...
And its freaking hilarious... the people behind me get so aggitated!!!!
I mean like in their head its like:
"go go go" "there is space! go go go!!!!" and when they try to cut... I yell in chinese: "Ni zai gan ma!!!!?"
And then look at them straight in the eye!!!
They usually back off... but then I am nice and explain some physics to them that even if I was in that open space I still won't get to the other side faster... and I prefer to have some space as not to let someone catch a very severe flu that it took me 3 months to get over puking everyday and shitting chocolate milk shakes every 20 minutes....
And smile.. then I usually get 5 feet to either side if not more...
:)
Is that the name of the
Is that the name of the crossing at Gonbei ??
I went through there yesterday and got to see the charge of the Light Brigade re enacted several times.
The central station that overviews progress made an announcement that x lane was free, (I had been observing a lack of patrons at x lane for a few minutes whilst other lines were busy). It created a stampede of people from other lines, and in many cases people ended up further back than where they started. It was the speed and ferocity of the charge that was surprising. If I was in the west I would have called it stupidity - here I just had a quiet chuckle and was grateful for the entertainment.
At the same time the foreigner line seemed unusually relaxed and with plenty of space (for a change). The tip here is to select the RH side as it's always got less people and also processes foreigners.
True, but often they let
True, but often they let Chinese into the line for foreigners as well !
Hey the elevator thing is
Hey the elevator thing is not confined to ZH. They do it in Macao too, every day! If the capacity of the lift is 10 and there are already 10 inside waiting to get out when the lift arrives at the GF for sure 10 more will try to cram on before the first 10 can exit. If I happen to be at the doors when it is time to get out I will tell them to move or I won't let them in!
As for the kids with the fast dirty fingers... one well place angry sounding HEY!! will get his, and GrandMa's attention. You might get a dirty look from Granny but who cares. If she had any control over Jr. you wouldn't need to raise your voice right?
The bus thing is a hoot! Seen the same many times over.
China bashing... I don't like to do it either but you gotta vent some steam sometime otherwise the lids gonna blow off!
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Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday... So get on with it and have some fun!
Yesterday I was walking down
Yesterday I was walking down x road (don't know it's name) to find maybe 20 or 30 trucks, buses and assorted other things all lining up for the petrol station. On both side of the road and blocking several access roads. They have been doing so for about a week or 10 days, so somethings up. It seems to be the diesel supply has a problem. Anyone know anything about this ?
I can live with the congestion, it's the noise. Without warning (and just when my ear was about 1m from the louded horn on the planet), every single vehicle decided to have a full on blast - plus some. It was so loud it hurt. Lucky for them they were heaps bigger than me !! God knows what the local residents think, it must be driving them crazy.
well it is a yearly
well it is a yearly event...you find this "event" whenever the petrol prices in the international market goes sky high!
I was gonna rant about my
I was gonna rant about my nightmare trip back to the States, but as I sat here with sand between my toes and a Corona in hand, I thought....
Aw, f. it. Seems like a lifetime ago (until I'm inevitably back in six months, heh). ;)
Aw! Cummon! We all love
Aw! Cummon! We all love "nightmare trip" stories.
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"I can't get no respect.............. no respect at all!"
Yeah, it's even nicer to
Yeah, it's even nicer to know I am not the only one to have them. Was it the 120kg fatty alongside, the smelly unclean, the constant howling of a baby, the horrible food, the non working entertainment system, the seat alongside the toilet or the last seat in the plane, the wild turbulance, the missed connections or the missing luggage. If you can get all of them into 1 story, I will buy you 2 beers (when that teacher mate of mine ever pays up).
The truck thing is this
The truck thing is this ...there is a shortage of diesel fuel till the end of the month. So the trucks...taxis who have diesel power are fighting to get in line first. The taxis cut in...which is causing the blaring horns from the trucks, who are pissed off... upset with them. They are only allowed 100rmb which isn,t much, if you rely on your truck for an income. Some drive long distance and it is same shortage all over.Poor buggers are waiting 3-4 hours...talk about stress !!
I would relay my travel
I would relay my travel experiences (not to mention that scam of the backpacking 'college girls' that I got hit up for three times the day before I left Zhuhai) but I'm in a kind of "My name is Earl" sort of place at the moment. Give me a few days of fresh air, blue skies and orderly queues and my brain will most likely revolt and I'll be needing to vent once again. ;)
It's been a few days- out
It's been a few days- out with it- I can't stand the suspense!
Backpacking College girls
Backpacking College girls Scam? Please relate... I have never been scammed or tried to be scammed by college backpack girls.... was this in China or in the States? Were they wearing green outfits selling cookies?
they are not really college
they are not really college girls
technically, they belong to unidentified organized begging group co., ltd.....lol
You mean the girls writing
You mean the girls writing their life long story on the street?
They have been crawling all
They have been crawling all around the Jida Duty Free for the past two weeks.
And the underpasses on
And the underpasses on JiuZhou Road
I love the people who see a
I love the people who see a bus comming and run down the station to meet it - only to have the bus pull up to the other end (where they were in the first place)... they look like yo-yos going back and forth, They need to relax, they seem so tense in situations like this... guess that's why I use my bike most times!
"They have been crawling all
"They have been crawling all around the Jida Duty Free for the past two weeks."
Yep...same ones. They look quite respectable so that's part of the scam.
Canrun, a mate and offered
Canrun, a mate and offered to buy them noodles instead of giving them money and they kinda just looked at us not sure how to react.. don't think they realised we were on to thier little scam.. in the end one of them cottened on and said ok! It cost us 6rmb for the noodles but it was worth the fun!!! Sometimes you just gotta have fun with these people.. if you know what I mean!!!