Our Cultural differences

Shanghai in NY

I had a friend visiting here in New York City from Shanghai this week, spend a day with him exploring the city is an eye opening experience, especially during the holiday season in the big apple.

On the first day of his arrival to NYC, I took him on a walking tour around Union Square and the Chelsea neighborhood. When he saw the Christmas village in the square, he was amazed that American was really into shopping for gifts during the holidays, which is a different type of shopping than in Shanghai it is all about self-indulgence.

If you recall a post 2 years ago on my first Christmas in Shanghai, I wrote that there is no Christmas spirit there. In the materialistic world of Shanghai Christmas means nothing more than open season for bargain hunters. Time to get a new outfit for less for the well to do Chinese. For most foreigners in that city is either time to go visit their family or party on all the Christmas specials offered by the bars and restaurants.

When my friend saw children waiting in long lines to visit Santa, he was shocked. He knew a little about Santa, which he recalls as “Father Christmas”, but it is not a common sight in Shanghai, and virtually unknown in the rest of the rural areas of china. I found it interesting that an English speaking young professional knew very little about the Santa tradition. Come to think about it, I did not recall seeing Santa images anywhere in shanghai either. Isn’t that interesting?

As we walk along the streets on Chelsea, he saw vendors everywhere selling Christmas trees on the sidewalk, I explain to him that Christmas trees is a very important part of the Christmas tradition, the center piece of Home décor in the west, no different than the peach tree blossom during the Chinese New Year adorn the Chinese homes, except in Mainland China, that tradition is dying. I did not see any live Peach blossoms for sale at all, there are some broken off branches in some of the florists. No wonder he did not really understand why we have a tree at home.

When my friend finally saw the tree at the Rockefeller Center, and the crowded scene just to get a glimpse of the tree, he said he never experience so many people in one place even on the most crowded street in Shanghai, he definitely think we are over the top.

Our Christmas and thanksgiving is almost equivalent to the Chinese New year in scale. However, we hold on to our traditions more dearly than the Chinese to theirs. I am not sure how it is like in the rural areas. I can only speak of my own experience in Shanghai.

Chance Encounter NYC

Journey to Dali Yunnanhttp://studioemptywall.blogspot.com/

Dali old town Erhai

In this blog, my journey continued from Kunming to Dali, Instead of 8 hours bus ride taking up time on my trip, it would be better to take the overnight train to go up to Dali. A few years ago, I had great experience travel from Beijing to Xian on the over night high-speed train. I am expecting it would be similar this time around.

The train on my previous trip had private compartments and clean and comfortable beds plus all the modern amenities like TV, radio, internet all surround the bed, so I did not hesitate to book the over night train to Dali on this recent trip, plus it will save me a night of hotel expenses, since I am a frugal traveler.

I thought it was strange when the hostel director told me all tickets were the same, there is no first or premium class. I booked on the midnight express so I could arrive at Dali early in the morning. Plus I was hoping that no one wanted to travel on a mid night midnight departure, when there was another slow travel schedule for 8PM departure, there may be less people on the train. That was my plan.

Little did I know when I arrived at the train station the terminals was full of young people. I was not worry then because I have assigned tickets with compartment and bed number. I was shock when I finally got on the train, it was like in a movies. The hallways were impassable. There were people everywhere. Pushing luggage to the overhead rack, or just seat on the floor. When I finally found me compartment, I was horrified that it was so small and narrow. The width of the compartments is about 7 foot wide, and 6 foot long with bunk beds 3 stacks up on both sides, these open compartments sleep 6 in each space, plus there were no doors or privacy.

There was no place to put luggage everyone was putting their belongings on the floor between the two bunk beds. There were fold out chairs line the hallway at the end of the bed. Everyone is sitting there because the space between bunks was so low no one can possibly sitting up. Some people seem very much at home they just took of their shoes and lay in bed, worst yet there is no gender separations, we all just hurtle into these space. I have never seen anything like this before I was horrified by the sight of the place, never the less if I wanted to travel and sample local culture. This is it.

There were more surprises as I reached my bed on the top bunker three stacks up. I found the bed is only 2 and half feet wide. If I made a sudden turn I would fell to the ground. No wonder there were no foreigners on this train, all Chinese locals most of then are just like me trying to travel the most economical ways. I don’t think you will ever imagine the scene here, and I was not in the mood to take any picture. Passengers were everywhere, there were lines outside the toilets, everyone was talking, moving around, it was noisy and stuffy, I lie down thinking it is going to be a long and sleepless night, then the train started to move right on time, people started settling down, they must have known what came next, needless to say I had no clue, 10 minutes after the train left the terminals all lights were turn off without any warnings. What this a prison? It felt like one

I was awoke by the loud announcement we were arriving our destination in 10 minutes, then the light came on and the entire compartment were on the move again, everyone was rushing to get off their bunkers gathering their stuff to get the hell out of the so call train.

Outside the Dali terminals, the first thing that greets me was the fresh, cold, crisp mountain air clean streets and a beautiful morning sun. I decided that I must treat myself a taxi ride to my destination outside of the old town instead of riding the local bus. Luck was on my side that morning; I met someone to share a ride with. It was a 45 minutes ride thru the modern downtown of Dali on to the countryside. The streets were empty, after a night in hell, I was relaxed, and soon traditional dwellings and the sight of an imposing city wall of the old city greeted me. I knew I had arrived my destination.

The main reason bought me to Dali was the beauty of the Erhai Lake, which is the headwater of the Mekong River; water from the surrounding mountains irrigated the fields surrounding the lake from the well-developed ancient irrigated canals. Though out history she had been an important agriculture center and a part of an important outpost of the southern trading route, call Tea horse old trail. Therefore there are many important culture sites I wanted to visits.

I encountered many old traditions still in use today like the local backpack, which is made from Bamboo, used by women carrying everything on their back, carrying one of these on their back, they do not look out of place because in this part of the country, most people still wore their very colorful traditional customs on their daily life, even just planting garlic in the fields, they dress in these very colorful clothing unchanged for thousands of years as if they were going to a dinner party, especially their beautiful head dress.

My most notable encounter in Dali and Erhai Lake was how happy these villagers were, with very simple means in their traditional way of life. Even with the modern world is just a stone throw away. Inside the rampart of the old city gates there were numerous western style bars and restaurants, modern hotel is just 2 hours walk and yet they seems to be most at ease at their traditional ways of life.

I was captivated by a group of very beautiful older ladies, in a temple complex, some of them were cooking in a very large open air community kitchens, with nothing more than just a woks on many wood burning stove, line the far end of the wall, the others were sitting in a small circle all singing along or clapping their hand to the folk music broadcast from a small transistor radio. When I ask for taking photos of them, they were all so please and excited. I felt in love with these little communities, I would never forget the afternoon we shared in Dali.

This encounter made me reflect on our western way of life with so much baggage on our back, is that really necessary? Do we need all that in order to achieve simple happiness?

Chance Encounter Dali Yunnan, China

The Amazing Kunming, Yunann China

It’s been a while since I wrote the last blog. I had been traveling for the last two months hardly had a moment to myself, but had many interesting encounters. Now I am finally settled in a little it is time to do a little catching up

In Mid Oct 2013. I took a trip to the Yunnan province in China. The first city I visited was the capital of Kunming. If you ever visited this city you know the number one attraction there the Stone Forest (Shilin), known since the Ming Dynasty as the 'First Wonder of the World.

The forest is located in the Lunan Yi Nationality Autonomous County, which is about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Kunming and requires a three-hour drive or you can easily get there using the local bus which will cost you almost nothing, instead of spending some heavy green backs.

However the long distance bus station is not easy to get to, it is located 45 minutes way from the city, it will take first a local bus ride just to get there. There is no metro, so the other option will be Taxi, for a budget travelers like myself. That is out of the question. I rather suffer or you can look at it as experience the local ways. I do not understand why the government officials in Kunming decided to build an enormous long distance bus terminal at a place that is so inconvenience to get to. It is never logical and no need to question the decision either.

Visitors to the Stone Forest marvel at the natural stone masterpieces and are captivated by the intricate vista of the stone formation. The magnificent, strange and steep landscape creates countless labyrinthine and narrow passages; some of them are steep and so narrow that is barely passable. Therefore make sure you slim down before you go. (At least loose the spare tire.)  It would be funny to see a tourist stuck between two rocks. I never see a Park ranger around, so good luck if that happens.

However I am not here to write a travel journal, instead I wanted to share with you my frustration with tour groups. I know it is universal that all tour guides use loud speakers to manage their groups, however if the site is located in the crowded market place, or something big as the Forbidden City I can understand that, because their voices became background noise. However in this quiet natural park environment found it is unnecessary to use the device. These huge groups usually from Asia, or local Chinese group were huge and they are not interested in the history, the formation and the natural wonders, they are just interested in taking their pictures on some of the hot spots and then move on. That left individual traveler like myself trying to avoid them with all cost. In consequences it allow me to discover many remote part of the park that tour group will never take anyone there.

I climb to the highest point in the park and took in a vista more amazing than anything I ever I saw. While struggling up these steeps to get to the top, I was surprise to encounter an old woman sitting in the shadow of the rocks selling water and sodas. This little old lady must be at least 70 years old short and small. How can she carrying all those heavy loads of water up hundred of steps is beyond me. Especially at this part of the stone forest hardly had any visitors every get there. She asks me to buy a bottle from her, although I had my own water I can’t hardly refuse her request. It is a hard way to make a living, and winter is approaching fast I wonder what kind of livelihood she is going to have when the park close.

Another amazing encounter while I was I still in Kunming was meeting a young man from France. I notice him on the first day I arrived at the hostel, in the dinning room, I saw him finished his plate of rice, the plate look like just been washed it. He is minding his own business, and was reading a book in the middle of the day. I found it odd, because everyone will be visiting the sites in the city. On my return to the same restaurant that evening, again in same the dinning room I saw at this young man sat at the same place reading his book again. I sat down and strike up a friendly traveler’s conversation, it turn out that he is on a world tour on his bike. How can he do that, he got my full attention, wont you? He told me he decided 4 months to the day that he was very tire of his well paid software development job back in Paris, decided that life experience worth more than wealth, he took all his savings and one year off to travel the world on Bike.

In most of his journey he told me he camp on the countryside after dark, eat local food, get water from the streams, never took the main road, instead he ride on the country paths. He told me some locals may invite him for a meal and offer a bed for the evening, but that does not happen too often, therefore when he check into a hostel, he is resting for a couple of days, sleep, do his laundries, and some time wait for visa or permit to enter another country.

What a fantastic ways to really see the world, he won me over, what a brave 25 years old. He inspired me to travel on a totally new level on that Oct evening while we share a beer at this strange town. You will hear some other amazing stories and people I met along my two months journey in the later blogs

This young man’s trip according to him, he started from Paris, rode to Turkey, by way of Bulgaria. From there he went thru Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, then go north to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to avoid the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He turned south at Kazakhstan to enter China. He basically stays on the western park of China to avoid big cities, when I met him in Yunnan, he was waiting for visa to cross over to Laos, then go down to Thailand and Malaysia before flying to Sydney, then Melbourne, then turn west to Argentina south America. Work his way up north and finally in NYC before heading home to France. He told me he does not have a plan which he visit next, his plan changes according to weather and political climatic. He had no computer only a mobile with him at all time. I admire this young man; it took a lot of disciplines to undertake such a trip. Everything he had is on the four boxes that mounted on his bike. I only wish I can do that.

Chance Encounter Kunming, Yunnan China

Another lesson learned in China

To be honest, I wanted to write this blog for a very long time out of frustration, but I wanted to wait for more encounters to be sure my observation is not pure accidental. It happened repeatedly over a period of many months on similar circumstances. In another word, I did my research.

This week, I decided that I couldn’t wait any more, my patient just ran out, instead of running to my masseuse to relief my frustration (ok, no dirty thought here. I know you are naughty and thinking about…), I did the next best thing write about it, it is great therapy, you should try it, and spare your pets from your abuses.

This is how it begins…

People in this country generally pay little attention to details. I don't know what is the cause of it. The water? Perhaps it is the air? It is very frustrating to deal with them. I am not here to making any judgment only by observations. I remembered two years ago I wrote about the youth in China that never pay attention on what you teaches them. It felt like information flowing through their brain like water in the river, never stop for a minute, just keep on moving downstream.

I often show my staffs on how a certain task can be perform more effectively if they follow a certain procedure. At the time it seems everyone was understood. The fact is no one ever follows through or even remembers what I told them time and again.

I was on a on a business trip earlier this year to US, I encounter a fellow manager, He start telling me how frustrated he was with his factory managers. He made many trips to Asia in a year to check on the progress and quality of the goods because some time at states side, the quality control have to reject the entire shipment, wasting time and money. He told me the same thing happen to me is not unique. His encounter to his staff is no different than mine. All the factory mangers seem to listen and understood his instruction on improvement that had to be made, as soon as he is out the door, business as usual.

That is only one example out of the many stories I had heard, established the undeniable fact that majority of the Chinese are not very attentive to details, and they are not interested in knowing beyond what is on the surface, everything is about “getting by” is good enough. Unfortunately they even fail to accomplish that. Of course there are many exceptions, especially those return home after an overseas education, they are smart, but those are in very small numbers, most of them once they are out of the country, they try not to return home, so where China is going to lend their weight on in the next 20-30 years?

However this is just a little background I try to establish. In stead I really wanted to talk about the expats. That is when the story gets interesting.

Majority of my friends here are expats. We are a tight knitted community, we reliant on each other for support in a country that the language is not easy to learn, and the custom is foreign. Therefor we usually had a lot of communication between us. For example if we decided to have a pool party on the weekend everyone is invited let say about 20 people. What gets interesting is that I found these expats beginning to show the same annoying behavior like the locals does, lack of attention paid to detail.

You can announce a get together on text message, followed by an email, with information on direction using the metro, some times even with a location map, follow by an updated text message a couple of days before the event, in both English and Chinese languages for taxi instruction and more chats on the chat line up the date and the time of the event. That is full proof correct?

Unavoidably three days before the event someone will ask where and when the event going to take place? What to bring, what kind of event, who else going to be there etc. As if all the information being sends out never happened. The worst, it never failed that some one will ask a bunch of same question, other may already ask or answered over and over again.

All 20 people trying to be helpful, answering with out even read who else already send out the responses, no exaggeration some time I will get up to 80 messages in any hour. The worst, the person started it all may response saying that “Sorry, Can’t make it, I have another event promised to attend.” Why ask all the questions when you know there is a scheduling conflict. What would you do to that person, that is personal, I do not want to know in this blog.

The fact is these expat are starting to acting like the locals, they only read there is an event, and skip all the details, in the end they do not know what time, and when the event is going to happen, on the other hand too lazy to go thru the message to find out the details, because it is too much work

In the office many time people set up a meeting and skip to tell you where and when it is going to happen, especially why, and what we are going to talk about. They think that the organizer knew it that is good enough you could just sit there and listen in. Therefore detail is not needed. I f it is a client meeting, that is OK too, you just need to sit still like they do let the client talk and keep on knotting their head as if they know what all the points the client wee making, in my case it is even worst these meetings are in Chinese, I only catch half of the point, even with that I am doing better than most.

Back to the expats; I don’t know why give the order that calling the host at the day of the event to ask for detail and information is acceptable. There was time I saw many of my expat friends would send the same info to the same group 5 times in one week. Some time to get matter worst, I will join the chat and told everyone event canceled. Never mind, I am the bad guy. What would you do?

Mysteriously some one might have tip of my friends, they all somehow find their way to the event, may not be on time always late, because that is another annoying things here, being an hour late is acceptable for anything. Except at my dinner, when I am ready, I start serving, if it is in a restaurant, I ordered.

I waited in restaurant like a fool for an hours before, after I learn my lesson, I started sending out text messaging every 5 minute after the time set for our meeting time, demanding to know their estimated arrival time and location. Although I know they are not telling me the truth. There is no traffic after 8:30 in Shanghai.

I am not afraid to share this direct attack to my friend in the public because to prove my point none of them will ever read it, even if it is sending to them in the form of email, and the blog address is on the bottom of each email had been for years. No one notice it is there and active.

Some of my friends here ask me so may I have the address of your blog? I love to read it. I send them a blank email and the subject is blog address. It has fail once to get an email back asking me where is it?

What about you, my US friends? Are you guys the same? Not too far from it actually, that will be another encounter, I am experiencing it now with my New York friends.

Time here had been fun for the last two years. I made my announcement last night my phone was ringing non-stop for hour. My best friend on holiday back home in Italy called and asks if I were joking. I told her, read the text, and the email, and the chats.

Some one ask me recently why did you wanted to stay in China, from the encounters on my blog, she thought I do not like any of the experiences.

The matter of the fact is that I felt in love with this country the city, my friends from all over the world, the neighborhood, and the energy. I wrote the blog out of love, passion for the encountered. Not trying to penalize the country, her customs and her people. It is their way of live, we live in their world, we should learn to adopt it, but my expat friend find the worst example of bad behavior and adopted it like a pro. That is what worth writing about. It is not a melting pot situation, rather a bad imitation.

If I am misleading all of you, I apologize. I wanted to share with you what I saw, and whom I met, All so foreign to me, and yet so familiar human behavior.

Two years ago when I had my first holiday here, I told you that China do not have turkey, they do not sell it, my boss felt so bad, he ask my colleague to buy me a roast duck instead for the Thanksgiving holidays. But now, I knew where they are hidden in the expat grocery store, believe me, they even have butterball turkey for sell. However the problem remain that most household does not equipped with an oven, Chinese do not bake food, on the other hand they have plenty of deep fryer. Cheers, I am going home soon.

Chance Encounter Shanghai