China Musings

I just added my feed to feedburner, cause Wordpress was doing funny things to my RSS feed. (ie it was non-existant)

Anyway, http://feeds.feedburner.com/ChinaMusings

Check it out! I’m going public with this thing!

As many of you know, Karaoke ??OK is very popular in many Asian countries. I have managed to miss out on this particular leisure activity for quite a while, but my streak ended Friday night. Alison and a friend she had been dining with got an invitation to join some other co-workers in a hotel’s karaoke floor(? I don’t know what quite to call it). In the US, karaoke is often a very public thing, where people go up on stage in front of a lot of people, and they are expected to be good. In China, and I assume other places in East Asia, this singing sensation is far more private. Groups of friends or business partners rent a room and order a boatload of drinks - everyone sings, drinks, and makes merry. It doesn’t matter how bad you are, ’cause you are all friends anyway. I think this set-up makes a lot more sense, since everyone can get into the spirit of things and relax without worrying about getting booed off-stage.

So we went up to one floor of the hotel that had maybe 10 seperate rooms for people. They were already partying when we got there, and I am sure they carried on for a while after we left. We had a good time. I even sang the current pop hit “Mice Love Rice” ?????, whose chorus states:
I love you! I’m loving you ???????
(wo ai ni, ai zhe ni) [woh ai nee, ai juh nee]
Just like mice love rice ???????
(jiu xiang laoshu ai dami) [jiu sheeang lou-shoo ai da-mee]

A-a-anyway - it was a nice time. I didn’t know anyone, and I think Alison didn’t know most of them very well, but that didn’t stop them from sharing their drinks and snacks with us. The group we joined were having a great time, and it was fun just to see them bond and let loose.

CM#15 Karaoke Night

I got a new phone today. After a week with no mobile pone - it was like a vacation - I finally went out and let Alison splurge on a new one. We got the Motorolla RAZR v3, and despite my rather pointless opposition to the entire affair, the phone is really cool. And yes, the phone is much cheaper now than when it came out a year ago.

The backstory is the phone that I have had for the past 1 year and 1 month (warranty was of course, 1 year) completely died. It had been struggling for months, but nothing horrible. It would just shut down unexpectedly while in my pocket, and I would have to turn it back on. Finally it stopped turning on, or would only stay on for 1 minute. So I took it to a local phone store to ask them to fix it since the warranty was gone anyway. They said no prob, pick it up in a couple of hours. So when we came back, they told us they could not fix it, take it to the service center. Ok, no problem. I took a morning and went to the Siemens service center here in GZ. They took my 20RMB and asked me to wait.

When they returned, I was informed that since a third party had opened the phone and attempted to fix it, and the evidence of their clumsy attempts were quite obvious, I had no alternative other than to replace the phone’s “motherboard.” On a cellphone, the motherboard is basically the phone without the plastic, and of course costs almost as much as a new phone.

I argued with the lady, but ultimately gave up and just stewed on my way to the office.

Well, if they are still selling these phones, beware of the Siemens CX65 or its descendents. Piece of CRAP! I had really liked the phone and actually wanted nothing more than to have it simply usable again , but alas I cannot. So I have moved on.

Rest in peace CX65.

A week or two after the shot in CM#13, we were back on our neighboorhood pedestrian commercial area when we happened upon a festival of sorts. I hastily threw Alison onto my shoulder, much to the bemusement of the folks around, and got her to tape the show from her vantage point.

Turns out it was a part of the Guangdong Tourism Festival that seems to have been going on that week. They had a big stage set up in the square, and a crowd of people were trying to get a closer look. By the time we arrived, the crowd had gotten so big that even I could hardly see what was happening, which is why I got Alison up on my shoulders.

The dance itself was pretty wierd, nothing that I would have assumed was a traditional folk dance. The costumes were a little fancy for that, but who am I to speak of it.

This is one of the reasons why we like living so close to this street. Even though it is not the main shopping area in GZ - there is Beijing Road, which I will get to later, and the Tian He shopping complex, which you saw in CM#5 - Shang Xia Jui is a vibrant place and there is always something going on.

Link to Culture and Tourism Festival and schedule

CM#14 The Shang Xia Jiu Chicken Dance

This video was taken one saturday night about 2 weeks ago. My original aim was to just do a single shot walk through, but I had to splice some stuff together. I hope this gives some idea of the retail/shopping aspect of Guangzhou. We really live right down the street from here, and although it is not the best place to shop - especially for me since nothing fits - there is always something going on and plenty of restaurants and tasty treats.

CM#13 Shang Xia Jiu Shopping Street.

You may have noticed if you have tried reading this blog that I have trouble finishing stories. So, I have decided to get around that problem by going straight to Audiobook. Also, this is for my dad since he complained that he couldn’t put my podcast on his iPod. So here you go, you can take this and listen to it on the way to work.

The music in this podcast is Uyghur music from The Red Rose CD , available at The Camel’s Back.

After a little bit of research, I have found the name of the town I talk about. It’s Yuanyang ??? in the prefecture of Gejiu ??. The nice lady we met was named Nayue ??, but that’s all I can remember.

Here’s a website about the Hope Project in Yuanyang, if you can, perhaps think about a donation.

[Ohio State University]

CM#12 Culinary Adventures in Southeast Yunnan

Live from the Pazhou International Convention Center in Guangzhou, China, we bring you the latest in automotive innovation. Or is it just motive innovation…

Alison shot this movie as she was with the party from Nissan inspecting the booth before it opened to the public. What you see is apparently a rehearsal. The show will last thoughout the week, Alison might deem to take me this weekend.

CM#11 Nissan Booth at the GZ Car show

OK, I know you have all been waiting for this. Where do I actually live? Is it a thached hut, a mansion? Well, you are about to find out. This was shot yesderday afternoon, Sunday.

We have been living here for almost 3 years, and we like the house a lot. Alison is not so crazy about the location or the fact that we are on the 8th floor, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices. Just to give some perspective, we pay 1300RMB per month. That’s about 150USD. For most of China, this is really expensive, but in GZ, a place like this at this price is a steal. Many of our friends live in dirtier, smaller, and less well appointed places for much more. Of course, many of them have elevators too…

CM#10 Tour of 17 Duobao Jie Apt. 801

From the archives comes this gem of a clip taken on Langkawi Island, Malaysia, May, 2005. This was our first full day on the island, and we hired a car to take us to the points of interest. The Island was pretty small, but it had some wonderful scenery. The best view by far was this beach, called Tanjung Rhu. It looked like something out of, well, The Beach (I know, wrong country, but if you squint, you can actually see Thailand from that very beach). Pristine white sand, forested islands… There was noone there, maybe one or two other couples. This was more due to the fact that only 5 months had passed since the tsunami, as the beach was bracketed on both sides by fantastic and expensive looking 5 star hotels.

The problem was that we were paying our taxi driver by the hour, and so after a stroll and some photos, we were off to the next stop on the tour, something I already can’t remember. I really wish we had rented our own car. But all’s well. The taxi driver also dropped us off at the Night Market, where we had I believe the most pleasant afternoon in Malaysia in the company of a group of local kids. We most likely would not have found that on our own.

Salamat datang! (That may mean “good afternoon”…)

CM #9 Tanjung Rhu in Langkawi, Malaysia
Malaysia Trip 2005 Photo Album

This movie was taken over two nights eating out at a local restaurant. Last year we were regulars at this place, coming at least once a week until suddenly they shut down. The place used to look horrible, with un-adorned walls, plain wooden bench seats, and dirty floors. But 2 weeks ago, they re-opened as the restaurant anchoring a brand new hotel that was renovated into the building above it. Now it looks great, the food is the same, and the prices have not gone up too much. We ate there both nights for about 36 kuai, not the cheapest food available but certianly a bargian. And for Alison it is heaven, she gets to eat spicy food anytime she wants.

The restaurant, called ??? (Fisherman’s Home | The Fisher’s Hut | The Place for Fisherpeople to Return to After a Long Trip), is styled as a Chongqing ?? (formerly known as Chungking) hotpot place, and they have a lot of normal dishes as well. My favorite is something called Gan Bian Tudo Si ?????, which are basically french fries, with chili peppers thrown in. Although I can’t breath fire like Alison can, I still enjoy spicy food.

I have gotten to figure out how to use the Quicktime sotware to paste movies together. I know, the editing needs work, but until someone can get me a real editing program for windows or linux for free, this is what you’ll get.

CM#8 Dinner at the Chongqing place