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8 August 2007 Well, the Old Codger has made another major move in his life - another new adventure - and is now to be found in China - Nantong China to be specific. If you are interested in all the boring information about Nantong, go ahead and click on the link. I arrived in Beijing on Saturday morning (4 August 2007) after a 4 and a half hour flight from Bangkok that took off about 2:30 in the morning. This was the first major airplane trip that I have taken in about 2 years - and it reminded me of why I hate flying - especially night flights that arrive at the destination early in the morning. Difficult to sleep on an airplane, especially for a relatively short flight. The flight was educational in one aspect - it taught me that flying on a Chinese airline is not a wise choice if you are taller than 5'5" (167 cm). Leg room is totally non-existent from that point on. Add to it, seats that hard as hell and you have the makings of a less than enjoyable flight. I could add to the tirade that there wasn't any in flight entertainment, but that may be a pointless complaint. I am quite confident that any entertainment would have been in Chinese. During the flight, one of the passengers became ill - so upon landing the Chinese Authorities were quite concerned and seemingly quite prepared to quarantine everyone on the flight. That was a scary proposition to be sure! We deplaned out on the runway, and there to greet everyone was a whole contingency of Chinese with large plastic bags, wearing plastic and latex gloves. Interestingly enough, only one of the contingency was wearing a face mask.Going through immigration and customs was a breeze. I had expected that customs would be looking at everything very closely - but didn't see them open a single bag for anyone. Kind of made up for the quarantine threat. Needless to say - I was rather tired - and the weather was very overcast. The weather, combined with the smog which Beijing is apparently famous for, made visibility very limited - it was like walking in the fog without any moisture. So, I made a decision to simply go to the hotel and get some additional needed sleep. The next day the weather was even worse, if that can be imagined - visibility was even lower than the previous day - so I took things easy until I went to the airport for my next flight to Nantong. The Beijing Airport is quite an experience. Both the domestic and international terminals are in the same building which is quite unusual as far as international airports go. How the airport is going to cope with the 2008 Olympics is quite a wonder given it's relatively small size and capabilities. But, that is another topic I am sure. Anyway, I was standing there trying to read the flight schedule board to figure out where I needed to go next when I was suddenly "accosted" (no better word for it in reality) by a girl who demanded my ticket and passport. I did have time to verify that she appeared to be an employee of the airport before she just grabbed everything from my hand and instructed (ordered???) me to follow her. Off we went to a ticket counter - only to be told that I had to wait another hour before I could check in. She then ordered me to follow her - and off we went to a waiting area where she sat down and told me to sit down next to her. It was clearly her intention to remain with me until I was able to check in for my flight. Now, I must admit that I did wonder momentarily if my reputation of getting into trouble and gone international - but decided that couldn't be the case. Naturally, I then began to question whether I had been as well behaved the previous night as I thought I had. Was I dreaming that I had spent a relatively quiet night and gone to bed early? I then noticed others doing the same as she had done and realized that my paranoia was getting a bit out of hand. Hence, I told her that she didn't need to stay with me and that I could figure things out from that point on. I must confess that it was a very nice service being offered to foreigners (easy to spot here in China) but it could be done with a bit more finesse. The flight to Nantong was delayed for an hour, which appears to be common for Chinese flights. We then got out on to the runway and were held there for an additional 90 minutes waiting for congestion to thin out. Again, I wondered how the airport is going to handle the Olympics in 2008... Might be a good idea to book your flight to Beijing a day or two early to make sure that it can land in time for the opening ceremonies... Unlike other airlines that I have flown, Air China did do their best to take care of the passengers during the delay. During the waiting period they came up and down the aisles with drinks twice. Once we were able to get off the ground, the flight was uneventful to Nantong. The airport in Nantong is very small, with minimal services being offered. However, there were plenty of taxi drivers available and one quickly grabbed a hold of me and drug me to his taxi without any fanfare. Now, if he had spoken any English at all, it would have been ideal, but that was not the case. The only thing that he understood me to say was Nantong (about 20 km away) and off we went. My experience with taxis in Asia has not been all that good in the past. Typically, they will try their best to avoid turning on the meter - or when they do turn on the meter they will quickly add extra charges. Here in China that simply does not happen. They automatically turn on the meter without being asked. You know the meter has been turned on because it begins to print your receipt automatically at that point. Now, the ride is not all that much different than that provided elsewhere in Asia - except it is considerably faster, more "dare devilish," and comparable to a crazy white knuckle ride here in China. Here in Nantong especially everyone seems to drive with their horn blaring - and these must be specially manufactured horns because they are extremely loud, even on motorcycles. Whilst I was fearing for my own safety - anticipating it to become terminated or maimed in some sort of road carnage - I was wondering where I was going to eventually end up in Nantong - assuming that I really was heading to Nantong. None of the road signs are in English, unlike in Thailand where most signs do have some English on them, so one is truly at the mercy of the driver. We entered a city and just by chance I happened to notice that we passed the University that I am going to be teaching at. Half a block down there was a hotel, and I was able to quickly convince the driver that is where I really wanted to go. Success! With the horn blaring, we cut across 5 lanes of traffic to pull into the hotel property all in one piece and without causing any damages to anything or anyone in the process. On the way to the hotel from the airport, we had gone through a toll booth - and I mean that quite literally. The man in the toll booth simply waved my taxi through without collecting the 10 Yuan toll. Having lived in Thailand where corruption is somewhat rampant, I figured that this was one of those deals. When I was presented with the taxi bill, the driver began demanding an additional 10 Yuan for the toll. I told him - through one of the bell hops that spoke a bit of English - that I wasn't going to pay it because he had not paid the toll going through. He is insisting that he did pay it, and I am insisting the he didn't. Of course, the bell hops that had gathered around were all loving this exchange, and were giving the driver hell for trying to "rip" off the foreigner. At least that is the impression I got from their animated conversations with the driver. The driver finally ran around to the driver's side of the car and produced a card that he showed to me - somehow trying to convince me that it was some sort of a "toll card." The bell hops seemed to agree with him and I was informed that it was "legal" so I paid the 10 Yuan. I tell you, it ain't easy being me. After checking into my room, I decided that it was time for a well deserved beer. So, I headed down to the lobby to ask directions to a bar in the vicinity. Upon receiving vague directions which consisted of someone pointing in a general direction across the street, I headed off for a beer or two. The first bar I went into there was another foreigner sitting at the bar. He happened to be an Australian - those bastards are every place you go anymore. :-) Anyway, he had been here for about two weeks and he filled me in on what he knew over a few beers. Turns out there are very few foreigners here in Nantong - about 10 at the last count. All but myself seem to be working down at the ship yards. While there at the bar, got to talking to some of the girls in the bar and one of them offered to show me around town the next day. Her English was "passable" - and is getting better as I get used to the Chinese accent that creeps into the spoken English language. Turns out that she is also possibly going to be one of my students at the University - so professionalism has to prevail with that one. Anyway, I told her that I would take her up on her offer to show me around and help me get settled here until the following day as I wanted to try to figure things out myself. On Monday, 6 August, I did try to figure things out myself. That turned out to be an exercise in futility though I did get a bit of exercise in walking around town. Turns out that very few people here - very, very few - actually can speak any English. First thing that I did was buy a map of the city. Smart move except that I didn't realize that I would need both reading glasses and a magnifying glass to be able to read it. After about a half an hour, I finally was able to figure out where I was. Unfortunately, the map didn't give enough specific information about many things other than the location of some hotels, government buildings and such. First thing that I had to do was buy a new SIM card for my telephone that was China specific. My SIM card from Thailand still worked - but calls to and from the phone were going to cost me too much money. So, off to the telephone shop. I couldn't find anyone there that could speak English sufficiently enough to assist me. Stopped into 4 other shops - all owned by the same company - with the same results. Next mission was to try to find a drug store. Again, another exercise in futility. I then realized that an interpreter / tour guide was going to be a necessity. People here in Nantong just don't speak that much English. Some will try - bless their hearts - but they just can't seem to make the grade. The difference between here and Thailand are enormous in many respects. For starters, tipping is something that is totally alien to some of the service people. In the restaurant, I tried to give the girl a 5 Yuan tip - about 65 cents - and she kept on giving it back to me. Now, that does appeal to me! Later on, I stopped in a shop that sold lighters and cigarettes and showed them a disposable lighter. They quickly realized that I wanted a new one, and they pre-tested 3 or 4 different lighters before handing one to me. I tried to pay for it, but they just smiled, laughed and waved me away. With that attitude, they can be my friends for life.
After that, we toured the mega stores where you can find anything and everything under the sun. I really was amazed at everything that is available here. The choices are amazing and without limits. What was really amazing was the popularity of KFC - Kentucky Fried Chicken. In a two block area there are 6 different KFC restaurants! Two are across the street from each other. Trying to find a seat and table in any of them around lunch time was impossible. They have the standard menu along with variations of that menu - all Chinese oriented and flavored. Six KFC restaurants and only one McDonalds (two floors) - which was also nigh unto impossible to find a table in. They also had a Chinese oriented menu. Given that the food that I have seen here appears to be traditional Chinese - meaning not too spicy - I suspect that I will be eating more of that than the western style food. Besides that, it is a lot cheaper - one can get a full meal for about 20 to 40 Yuan. To put that into perspective, USD $1,000 equals 7,500 Yuan. I did have a bit of a shock when I went to the hotel restaurant and read the menu. All of the prices had a $ sign in front of them, naturally leading me to believe that the prices were being quoted in US Dollars. I choked and sputtered when I saw something as simple as sweet and sour pork being priced at $30. Even the waitress, in her limited English admitted that would be way too expensive. Fortunately, it was all a misprint, and the meal was only 30 Yuan! So, as I begin my 5th day in China, I must admit that I am quite impressed with what I have seen and experienced so far. Even though the region is home to some 7 million people, the city of Nantong is home to only about 300,000. Traffic - despite being chaotic in an orderly manner and noisy due to the blaring horns, really isn't all that bad. I do believe that it would be much safer to drive here than it was in Udon Thani. The streets are extremely clean. The people, despite the language barrier, are friendly and congenial. It is a bit strange to walk around town during the day and realize that you are the only foreigner around. One can only hope that no one yells out in Chinese "get that foreigner" because no one would have to stop and ask "which one?" It is difficult to decipher everything since it is all written in Chinese - but I suspect that will give me the incentive to learn a lot of Chinese in a relatively short period of time. Fortunately, I can call upon Mei Jia for assistance when needed. (Hard to relinquish my independence - but survival instincts can prevail from time to time.) Given the number of falangs (foreigners) in Thailand, it was rather difficult to learn Thai as they seemed to congregate together and go to places that were owned by Thais that could speak relatively good English. So far, that has been difficult to find here in this part of China. That's about all for this time around. More will certainly follow. Life is an adventure to be lived and that is what I am doing! The Old Codger
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