Is this the Real China?

             Start ‘em young.  The picture above probably horrifies some of you, but its sort of the sad reality of cigarette smoking here in China.  Fortunately the cigarette was not lit, but for most kids it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference because everyone in China is subjected to second hand smoke everywhere and at all times.  For example, our Thursday afternoon Econ class with Ju Heng, which is pretty rough to sit through just to give you a heads up, coincides with our Chinese roommates’ English class.  So we often see each other during class breaks and inevitably, Jackie, one of the Chinese roommates, is perched out “Smokin’ in the Boys Room.”

           The aforementioned example might seem China-like but the next thing makes me question if I’m actually in China.  The International Financial Center Mall (IFC Mall) is one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen.  Every luxury brand you can imagine has gone to great lengths to design these elaborate stores. Below you can see the custom line-up Ferragamo made for China.  And with Cartier watches going for well over 100,000 Yuan (thanks to a 30% tax on pretty much any legitimate good), you’d think the place would be empty.  Well think again, the place is always packed with people who are more than happy to pay those prices.  China’s 1% is a very wealthy market.  In the same token it is funny to see the conflict between “going green” and marketing.  Below is a video of an escalator that only speeds up when it detects someone has stepped onto it in order to save energy.  I hate to be a cynic but it almost seems like why bother slowing down the escalator, when every second the exterior Louis Vuitton light display consumes 10X as much as energy as those escalators!  China is very new money, like yesterday new, and it intends to flaunt it in every way possible.

^Energy efficient escalators at the IFC Mall.

           Also, considering buying a cup of coffee or a snack while you’re at the IFC mall?  Head downstairs to city’super and take advantage of their samples.  I think I had a shot of espresso from the Nespresso display, three cups of tea, two strawberries, peanut butter, almond butter, and the list goes on.  Not only that, you could leave that store with a buzz if you drank all the wine and whiskey samples that they had to offer!  Beyond that, if you’re looking for some organic foods, specialty food imports, and most of all, safe products, its all there, but be warned in advance, you’re going to pay some serious prices.  My jar of organic peanut butter was 92 Yuan, yeah, that’s even worse than Whole Foods.

           Another thing I’ve noticed during my stay in Shanghai is that the Chinese don’t mess around when they are building something.  Wang Kai, our resident director, recently took us to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center on one of our weekly trips.  It was interesting because on all the model skylines, there was one building that towered over the rest, and I thought to myself, “I definitely haven’t actually seen that building.”  Well sure enough it is the new Shanghai Tower and the Chinese will build it so quickly that they pretty much already consider it built.  Also, one night Saturday night as I was riding by a construction site, I saw that all the lights were still on, and in the background I also saw that the cranes were still moving.  The development going on here really makes you question weather you’re in China or some future world.

^The Shanghai Tower being built.  View from the Thai Restaurant on the top floor of the IFC Mall.

            Another example of two extremes was a trip I recently made with my roommate and his mother.  She took me to the ancient Chinese city of Zhujiajiao, about an hour outside of Shanghai, in the morning and then a luxury shopping center in the afternoon.  I’m still not really sure what China is.

^Releasing fish into the ancient river in Zhujiajiao is supposed to be good luck according to ancient Chinese tradition.

^Luxury good shopping center.

China still is still in touch with its roots in terms of its food though.  I love watching the guys at the noodle shops make noodles with their hands.  Below is a quick clip of the whole process.  You know the guy is pretty good if he gets two or three good “FWAPS!” on the board before he tosses it in the pot.

^Jiaozi and noodle shop on the back street.

That's Shanghai!

^My Chinese roommate Jeff and I practicing pronunciation

           As you likely just saw, every night my roommate蒋竣亦，or Jeff, and I share different Chinese and English colloquialisms and practice pronunciation with one another.  Sometimes we’ll go for a half an hour just practicing one or two words, but living with a Chinese roommate has been one of the best experiences of this study abroad so far.  I will also add that being so close to my roommate and his friends has also posed its challenges because I’m sort of stuck in limbo between my American counterparts also here studying abroad here and my Chinese friends.  I know it’s probably hard to imagine an American college student going abroad just to party, but if you can believe it not everyone came to China to speak the language every waking moment, and understand every nuance of Chinese life.

     

^Jeff and I at the Subway Station.

         I’ve also had to come up with a solution for my coffee addiction.  If you’re like many other expats, myself included, you haven’t quite jumped on the tea train and you still enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning.  Unfortunately, it comes with a pretty hefty price tag.  I was lucky enough to get a coffee machine from my roommate’s parents so that saved me approximately 300-500 Yuan on a machine.  However, I’m spending approximately 100 Yuan on ground beans from Starbucks (‘Merica), 10 Yuan on the jug of water needed to fill the coffee machine with clean water for the week, and then over 60 Yuan on milk because China pretty much entirely uses boxed milk.  This is what I’m paying every week.  Now it may not sound like my much when you divide all those numbers by approximately 6.3, but compared to local prices it’s almost a luxury good!

^My coffee machine and Starbucks beans, beside Jeff's tea pot.

             A few of us had some close calls while eating Chinese food too.  Genevieve, another study abroad student told me a story about finding a full-on razor blade in her soup.  She showed me a picture and it was a legit razor blade with tape wrapped around the end to act as a make-shift handle.  My only question for her was, “Did you finish the soup?”  She smiled and said, “It was 10 kuai!  Of course I finished the soup.”  What a champ.  I guess I thought I was immune to it, and while eating a piece of fish, I just thought I had a found a small fish bone so I decided to continue chewing, until the “fish bone” cut me.  I slowly pulled out a metal pin about the size of a sewing needle, which likely broke off of the metal wire brush they used to clean the fish with.  Fortunately, I didn’t swallow that one.

^The needle that I pulled out of my fish.

         There are also so many more impressions that actually living in China has afforded me.  For example, western men: don’t get overly excited.  The Asian women don’t actually think you’re a sent from heaven.  In fact, maybe it’s more of a Shanghai thing, but there are so many westerners here that the Chinese have really become pretty immune to seeing westerners.  There is some irony in that though, because although some of the Chinese won’t pay you much attention, they’re all walking around talking to Siri on their iPhone, wearing their Levi jeans, and staying up to date on the latest western trends.

^Shi Liu Pu Fabric Market.

           

            I’ve also come to love the local expat magazine, “That’s Shanghai.”  If you’re looking for great suggestions on places to shop, an insider scoop on Chinese cultural trends, or even advice on conducting business in China, this is a must read magazine.  The February edition led me to the ShiLiuPu Fabric market and to stand 116 and 248.  My buddy James, just as Chinese as he is American, and I had been planning to get some suits tailored, along with a few other guys.  So James wanted the rest of the white guys to hang back while he and I went to negotiate some prices at stand 248 because his theory is that the Chinese would rather make no money by not making a sale, rather than give a good price to a white guy.  Needless to say, I was proud to be selected for the negotiating team and I settled at approximately 550 Yuan for a three-piece suit and approximately 400 Yuan for 4 custom tailored shirts (100 Yuan each).  Of course, I went one step further and went to stand 116 for some beautiful silk to line my suit with.  Who wouldn’t walk into a business meeting with confidence if their suit was lined with red silk and golden dragons?

^The crew at Stand 248.

            Just some additional info to anyone who might be curious, after going to the South Bund fabric market, we couldn’t help but feel like they were all colluding on a set of prices, so its worth checking out, but you might find better prices elsewhere.  Another great place that is often overlooked is the Shanghai Science and Technology Metro Station.  Not only do they have an unreal assortment of knock-off goods, but they also do custom tailored clothing and the price only keeps dropping.  My friend Doug and I would jokingly toss out outrageously low prices thinking the merchants would just say no and we could walk away scott-free.  Well, the merchants more often than not took the prices and were outraged that we still didn’t want to buy the goods.  One merchant really went off on us in Chinese, half joking, half serious, and I understood a good portion of it so I couldn’t help but start cracking up.  Then as she stormed off, we told her that we’d come back to visit her next time, and she snapped around with perfect style and a big smile and said, “F!@# you!”  I hope that’s not the only English she’s learning from foreigners.

            But seriously, with all of this new clothing, you’ll probably need it dry-cleaned so make sure to check out the third Laundromat on the “back street” behind campus (Guangling Yi Lu).  Make a right out of the back gate, walk over to the opposite sidewalk, and continue walking along Guangling Yi Lu, pass the intersection of Guangling Er Lu, and you will run straight into three Laundromats side by side.  If you don’t like one’s price simply walk next door.  It’s almost like communist China is more capitalistic than the State’s sometimes!  I brought them two and half weeks of laundry and it was all cleaned and folded for 45 Yuan.  Love that.  More stories from the Middle Kingdom next week.

It's Cold

^Our 4th year Chinese class.  We're all still wearing our jackets.

            Probably the most defining characteristic of our stay so far has been the frigid cold.  What I mean to say is, its really cold, both inside and outside.  There is no escaping it.  Our Chinese marketing teacher told us about an old Chinese law that essentially says, the Chinese government will subsidize heating systems in buildings to north of the Yangtze River, but public buildings to the south of that river cannot legally install heating systems for an entire building.  So in short, the temperature inside is roughly the same as it is outside.

            However, that is about the end of any concern I might have.  Shanghai is a beautiful city.  I really can’t say I’ve seen much in the United States that compares to its beauty and it definitely puts New York to shame in some respects.  Considering everything was essentially built in the last 10 years, the entire city has the most modern technology from the accessible metro system to stunning architecture.  I have a few stops to make this weekend such as Nanjing Lu, The Bund, and The World Financial Center, but here’s a quick rundown of the past week!

            At the end of last week, our wonderful Resident Director, Wang Kai took us all across the city, got us set up with cell phones, and introduced us to the neighborhood.  We ate at some awesome local restaurants, and I’ve really been enjoying the food, especially the Enoki Mushrooms (金针菇) and XiaoLongBao (小笼包), both of which my friend, Sunny Shih, would be jealous about.

^Enoki Mushrooms and beef

Recreation

            We went to a local park and it was amazing to see how the Chinese enjoy their parks, from using an exercise area, to playing cards at a picnic table (obviously everything is a life or death situation with these card games).  If only we had a few more parks like this back in the states.

^Chinese playing cards at a local park.

            We also went to the beautiful Shanghai Theatre, located at the Ritz Carlton, to see an acrobatic show.  Our buddy Cong got up to participate in the show by getting strapped to a board and then blind folded.  Cong was told that the guy on stage would throw a knife and pop the balloon between his legs, but once blind folded they simply stuck the knife in the board.  Cong was so scared that he actually unstrapped himself and got off stage.  We all vowed not to tell him, so maybe he’ll eventually read this and know what happened.

^Cong on stage at the acrobatic show.

            In China, you can find pretty much anything we have in the states, some things legit, while others a little more like a knock-off good.  Take basketball for example.  We went to see a Shanghai Sharks basketball game (the team owned by Yao Ming), and the whole experience had a high school-ish feel to it.  However, one funny thing did happen.  JR Smith was playing for the other team, and the one black guy in our Alliance program, Mudhi Sharif, called out to him from the crowd saying, “I’m from America, I’m from Minnesota bro!” and then JR acknowledged him.  So after the game, Mudhi convinced the security guards he was JR’s rich cousin and got into the locker room!

Culture

            Everything has a set of ears on it.  iPhone cases, headbands, shoes, belts, keychains, cars; they all have animal like features, and I guess it likely has to do with how much the Chinese love animals.  A lot of this cute and cuddly culture was probably adopted from Japan though.  Below, you can see the entrance to the local HongKou (虹口) mall, which also has bright colors and animals.

^HongKou Mall

We also went to YuYuan (豫园) Garden to see the lantern festival (上元节) on one of the last nights of the Chinese New Year.  The red lanterns absolutely blow you away, and in addition to that, there was a huge display with dragons, fish, Chinese men and women with traditional clothing, and then… a Pepsi logo in the waterfall.  Bad marketing move Pepsi, that was a no-no, this is the most traditional time of the year.

^YuYuan Garden for the Lantern Festival, Pepsi logo in the waterfall.

Prices

The local shops pretty much have any daily item you could need, and the local prices tend to be a little less expensive than Walmart (沃尔玛) or Carrefour (家乐福).  But I know that before I came to Shanghai, I had the misconception that you could live the high life in China, while paying prices that are a fraction of what they are in the West.  Well, a few of us have been pretty wrong about that, we’ve been burning through cash.  After paying for all of our initial expenses, we have all spent about 1000-2000 Yuan on things we really can’t account for.  The fixed costs, however, were roughly: housing – 200 Yuan, cell phone deposit + minutes – 200 Yuan, internet service – 300+ Yuan, gym membership – 300 Yuan, Metro card – 100 Yuan, and then about 600 Yuan on things for the room.  Beyond that, we’ve been eating out a bit and its very easy to spend a lot on food.  So if you’re beginning to think about expenses for your study abroad, be sure to save a few extra dollars!

Go Time!

T-Minus 2 hours from Shanghai.  We’re cruising at about 36,000 feet right now and our flight is expected to arrive a few minutes after 2:00PM Shanghai time (1:00AMEST).  The flight over to China has already been an experience.  After shedding a few tears with my parents, the lovely lady at check-in informed me that this 15,000+ mile round trip journey would almost be good for one free domestic flight with Continental.  Love that!

            As I approached my gate, I got a little primer of what city life in Shanghai will be like.  The gate was packed!  Not only that, when they called first and business class for boarding, the entire gate stood up and went to the line as if we could all get on the plane.  A few bold Chinese almost walked straight onto the plane without having their boarding pass checked, at which point they practically called in security for crowd control.

On another note, I recently picked up a pair of Bose QC15 headphones, which were literally my savior on this flight.  Even if you aren’t listening to music, you flip these headphones on and you’re in your own world.  I crashed right out for the first 6 hours of the flight, and I’m feeling pretty charged up to meet the rest of the Alliance crew later this afternoon.

Entering survival mode now.