Bad baby milk

I am sure everyone has heard about the chemical-laced milk that gave hundreds of babies kidney stones. I am just dumbfounded on how this can happen. Some person is poisoning babies just so they can make some extra money with this watered-down milk.

In China, you have to believe everything is fake, even medicine. In Macau, I bought cold medicine that turned out to have photocopied safety information. It is so strange to not be able to trust products here. One of Jon's salespeople said he can actually feel the difference when he takes vitamins we brought back from the US instead of vitamins he buys here. (Obviously not every product is fake, but there is enough of a problem that most people are careful about it.)

Why doesn't this happen at home? I'm really glad it doesn't, but why should it happen here? Are people more ruthless and don't care about who they might hurt to make an extra buck? Are there so many more regulations in the USA that it doesn't happen because it is so much more difficult?

Signs of a non-laborer

In China, it is desirable to show that you don't have to do physical labor for a living. For example, pale skin is very important - some girls have even said that it's the most important thing when determining how beautiful a girl is.

Another one of these signs is long nails. Many times taxi drivers will have a very long nail on their pinky finger. Jon S. sat next to a guy on a train with very long nails, and when he fell asleep Jon took a photo! I have no idea how people can keep nails this long - mine break off as soon as they are getting a little length.

Bikes!

About a month ago Jon and I bought bikes. They are the one-speed, basket in front with a rack on the back typical Chinese bikes. It's great to see our neighborhood from the bike lane!

The store we got them from - it seems that electric bikes are way more popular now.

This type of bike is really popular too. It has tiny wheels and folds so you can take it on the subway or store it in your apartment. I've never seen a foreigner on one though.

It seems a bigger bike would be more comfortable and go further for your amount of pedaling.

"Head back-turn rate"

In China, it is not considered rude to stare, and since us foreigners look so different, we get stared at a lot. (More than we are used to, anyway.)

When we were in Beijing for a meeting, we had a group of Dakkies at a construction site. The workers were breaking for lunch or something, and I got a video clip of all of the workers doing double-takes as they walked past our group.

My co-worker told me that the term for this is "hui tou lv" meaning head back-turn rate. If a girl has a high hui tou lv, she gets a lot of second glances!

Minna's Wedding

A couple weeks ago Jon and I were able to attend Minna's wedding. Minna works at Daktronics in HR and also tutors me in Chinese occasionally. There didn't seem to be an actual ceremony like we usually see, but just a large celebration, speeches from the family and the biggest meal I have ever seen! The dishes were piled on top of each other and kept coming long after everyone was stuffed.

Minna and her husband. She started out in a white, Western wedding dress, then changed to a gold dress, then finally changed into a red traditional Chinese dress. (Red is lucky in China, while white is the color for funerals.)

The guests all signed this, which was then cut up and names drawn for prizes.

Shelley and Sue (both work at Dak)

Yolanda, Gina and Chris (all from Dak)


Keyframe with the couple

Cody (Dak salesperson) and his family with the couple

A new dish for me - soft shelled turtle.

Ryan and Jon drinking baijiu (white wine, but really strong alcohol)

Minna toasting at the table. The couple toasts every table.

Tianning Temple in Changzhou

Before Minna's wedding, Mr. Huang took Ning, Jon and I to see a temple in Changzhou.








This is now thought to be the tallest pagoda in the world.

The character for "happiness"

Gods

These are four gods that were in a Buddhist temple we visited in Changzhou. Due to the lack of information in English around, I don't have any other information to share. I do think the gods in the temples always look quite scary though.

EARTHQUAKE!!

I'm sure you've heard about the earthquake that hit China this afternoon. It was a 7.8 on the Richter scale and located around Chengdu. They confirmed about 7,000 dead and rising. Go to www.CNN.com for the latest news.

Aftershocks were felt all over the country. Jon was in Beijing and it recieved some of the worst aftershocks. Fortunately, they weren't that bad and no one has been reported killed by them. He felt the shaking and everyone in the Dak office ran down all of the steps and out of the building.

After I recieved a call from him, I got a call from my boss's wife, Sai. She was on Nanjing Lu and felt it there too. At Dak Shanghai, we didn't feel anything, but they felt it in Hongqiao too.

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are OK-la!!

links

Remember my post with the photo of the chickens on a motorcyle (here is the link to it)? This article has many photos and explains how they carry chickens in different ways around the world. It's quite interesting!

Here's an article from the New York Times about some of the things that China is cracking down on before the Olympics. One thing that has the potential to be a problem for us is our visas. China isn't giving many to Americans and French right now, and our's will expire in July. I hope because we are already residents there won't be too much of a problem.

Made in....

Today Jon and I went to Metro (like Sam's Club) to buy some patio chairs. Everyone assumes everything is made in China, especially in China. Nope!! Some things are made other places.

Fireworks on Chinese New Year

The fireworks on Chinese New Year were the craziest thing we've ever seen!! We watched the WHOLE city explode for about 30 minutes. Imagine 20 million people all setting off fireworks at the same time... After about 20 minutes the smoke blocked our view of all but the closest ones. Check it out!!



Our apartment people set off a lot too. They were really close to the balcony!

Street Meat

This guy was on the street one day and I said I wished I had my camera out quick enough. A few days later, my boss Dan got the photo. He said: Right on the main road. You pick out your chicken or pigeon, and he butchers it right there. Mmm Mmm Good.

Donating

My friends Abbey and Chris have just adopted two boys from Ethiopia who are 4.5 and 6. This and the Christmas seasoning have led me to looking a lot at charities in China lately.

There are quite a few that help orphanages. It's sad - they say 95% of the kids in orphanages are girls. (Traditionally, girls are less valuable than boys.) Two of them I like are Love Without Boundaries and Half the Sky.


I ordered a Christmas present online through Amazon.com, and Amazon will give 4% of the total price to Love Without Boundaries. If you ever order on Amazon, please go to the LWB website first and click on the Amazon link to order. A few extra seconds of your time means a donation for them!

If you sell on eBay, you can sign up to give from 10 to 100% of the proceeds to Half the Sky. Click here to learn how to do this through MissionFish.

(The photos are of Molly (adopted from China) and Micah and Macy (adopted from Korea.) Molly's mom works at Daktronics and Micah and Macy's parents are my cousins. I took their portraits last year.)

Holly visiting

My friend Holly has been visiting us for the last few days. She used to work at Dak (and was my boss in IT.) Now she lives in Beijing and teaches English. She came to visit and we toured the town. Here we are at the Bund.





This is Nanjing Lu - the "Times Square" of Shanghai.

Around Yuyuan Gardens

Traditional red lanterns on the "street of small commodities."

Street food - grilled chicken and squid.

Making bouzi... (steamed dumpling.) Very famous and tasty!

Looking out from Yuyuan Garden

There is one spot in Yuyuan Garden that you can climb up on some rocks and stand over the wall, looking down to the street below. I took a few photos and noticed a guy was watching everything, including me, below. I looked at him, smiled and waved a few times, then finally smiled and pointed to my camera. He gave me the thumbs up sign, so I snapped a photo of him.



I am not sure why I like to take photos of laundry so much. Probably because back home, everyone has dryers and you'd never see someone's underwear outside of their house. It is so cold to leave clothes outside now!

Jing'an Temple

Jing'an Temple is just a subway stop away from our house. Jon and I have never been inside the temple, but I thought it would be a good time to go and take Holly! It wasn't anything too special, but I do like some of the photos I took.




An ad for crazy expensive jewelery is just above the temple. Ironic, don't you think?

Jing'an Temple

Incense sticks burning

Throwing money into the.... thingy.....

Mid-throw!

Merry Christmas!

Jon cooked a delicous meal consisting of rack of lamb, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. I made an apple pie for dessert. Yummy. (We started looking for a turkey to roast a little too late. The only one we found was too big to fit in our oven!)

Our mini-tree.

Mom, Dad and Jared opened their presents in front of the web cam while chatting on Skype. It is our tradition to open gifts before Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. It was that time for them, but Christmas Day for me.

My dad. He was just elected to the national Farm Credit Services of America board. His term starts January 1st and will last 3 years. Congratulations Dad!!

500th post

Wow... this is my 500th post. Half-way to 1,000! If you keep following my journey, I am sure you will see 1,ooo posts someday.

I don't have anything groundshaking to say. I'm still blogging about my life in China. If you weren't interested, you probably wouldn't be reading still. I hope that you are learning about people and places outside of your comfort zone. And, if you'd like to visit, I'd be happy to act as your host someday.

The below photos show just what Shanghai is like now. I took these on the way to a furniture store near our house. A few months ago, this was all old Shanghai - old homes. Now, it's a field of rubble, with squatters still there and within a week or two, huge skyscrapers will be rising from the ashes.

Fireworks

On the 23rd, we hear fireworks going off for about an hour. We finally decided maybe we should see what was going on. It was when Paris Hilton was here for a fashion show, so we decided it was probably that. It definitely was the largest firework display either Jon or I had every seen!

Steaks

Home-grown beef is one of the things we really miss here. Jon bought four steaks the other day, at over $10 per steak. Ouch.

I made him bring back baking supplies that are either impossible to find or super-expensive here, such as chocolate chips, pecans and lemon flavoring, when he went back to SD recently. I also had been craving salt-and-vinegar chips so he brought back those. I'm so lucky to have someone smuggle things home for me. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving night was spent at The Spot, a bar on Tongren Lu. Dan, Sai, David (Dak sales from Hong Kong) and I waited for Jon, who was just getting back from Beijing. We didn't have turkey, but did have some good dips and other appetizers. The menu is huge (literally!) but no turkey.

Castle Oktober

Some older photos, from October 27th.

Dan, Judd (senior project manager from Dak US) and Jon at Castle Oktober. It's a beautifully-restored old building, now a restaurant with a great garden. It was built by a Chinese general in the 30's, taken by the government and was the Taxation Bureau office until recently.

Dan and Jon dress freakishly similar. In the office, they somehow manage to wear the same color striped dress shirts and cuff links nearly every day. Even on the weekend, they both show up in Tommy Bahama t-shirts. I'm sure they'd say "great minds think alike."

Actually, they said, "There's not many places in China with clothes big enough for us!"

Aggressive Beggars

The last time I blogged on begging, I got flamed by some Anonymous person. If you are going to personally attack me, at least have enough guts to leave your name. Obviously, this person didn't know me, or they would have known where I give money or donate time. Yes, I do mostly blog about positive or things that I think are interesting to others. I don't blog about the evenings I eat a sandwich for supper and spend the night working. I blog about the times I go somewhere and try something new. Hence, it may seem that my life here is all fun and games, when in reality I just try to show the interesting things.

Anyway, one night we were at Malone's, sitting outside. We had front row seats to what was pretty much a circus. I used the ISO 3200 setting on my point-and-shoot, hence the grainy shots. We watched a large group of beggars hassle everyone who walked by. They tried to use the kids to gain sympathy. Once as we walked by, a woman asked for money and on cue the kid starts fake coughing. A man was hovering nearby, clearly the "ringleader" of the group. If there was any trouble (such as some Chinese people demanding they leave) he disappeared.

These kids saw me taking a photo so their mom sent them over. I took this photo and then gave them some money.

This guy was just wasted and could hardly walk. The kids attacked his legs, sat on his feet and clung to him. That seems to be crossing the line.

The kids also were constantly running across the street. Never did an adult stop them or tell them to look before crossing. Traffic is crazy here and the rule is that cars have the right-of-way. I am afraid they were thinking, "One less mouth to feed..." Does China have a Child Services department? (I thought I heard that they have laws about taking care of your parents, but none about taking care of your children. But I have absolutely no facts back that up.)

This lady (right) was at least trying to sell something to make some money. Then a "working girl" came and was trying to sell something else. We saw the negotiation, then they left together. Ewww.

The whole evening bothered me quite a bit. I went home to try to find some more information about homelessness and ways to help in Shanghai. What I mostly found was information on how it is a choice for most of them.

A highlight of one story, based on the work of a high-school girl:

'Huang said that 63 of the people she interviewed were "occupational beggars" who were not wandering alone in the streets because of a lack of money or accommodation. Staff at a government homeless shelter told Huang that about 80 percent of the street people in Shanghai were occupational beggars.

"Considering their income, I can only conclude that some beggars are occupational. They view begging as a job. The reason for them to live such a humble lifestyle is the 'high pay, less labor' mentality." '

Shanghai published a guide on how to spot beggars that are trying to deceive you.

Old story about Shanghai police asking for a beggar task force.

I would like to help those less fortunate. But when it is a choice and they hassle me, I choose not to give to them. I choose to give to those obviously unable to work, who are at least trying to do something for a bit of money (such as playing and singing in the subway.) The able-bodied ones that are dressed warmly and chase after me won't get a fen from me.

Oh - if anyone knows where I can donate some previously-used clothes, please let me know.

Chinesepod

I have been trying to take a lesson or two every week from one of the girls here at Dak, but work overrides it a lot of the time. There is a site called Chinesepod that has daily lessons at various levels, so I decided that I would try to do one or two lessons everyday. I also paid for an account so I can get transcripts of each lesson and have the lesson emailed to me daily. (The MP3s are free to anyone.) I think that should speed up my learning!! I am disappointed with my lack of progress after almost 6 months of being here. Today's lesson was politely declining another cup of tea. There are about 450 lessons for "Newbies" and hundreds more for other levels. The Newbie lessons are about 4 sentences each day, which I should be able to handle easily. Just sync the lesson to my new iPod and listen while going to and from work each day.

Three Gorges controversy

The New York Times had a big article on the human and environmental impact of the Three Gorges Dam project, plus other dams. Chinese Dam Projects Criticized for Their Human Costs

There is still one question I have - how many workers have died during this project? You certainly hear about it when there is no loss of life, but I think construction in China doesn't have the best safety record.

Click on the link below to see my previous posts about the Three Gorges.

More traffic

I should really find something else to do time lapses of. Traffic is pretty much the same all of the time. Unfortunately due to all of the pollution I don't see any cool clouds. Maybe I'll try to do 24 hours this weekend, on Sunday, when the pollution usually is at the lowest level of the week.

Mosaics

I had a lot of free time this weekend (read: I was bored and lonely with my husband being on the other side of the world) so I spent a lot of time messing around on my laptop. Check out the mosaics I made - all from China photos!

They are pretty big so many take a while to load if you click on them to see the large photo.

Funny signs

I'm not so sure these can be called Chinglish - maybe they are just funny to me. A fellow Toastmaster told me last night that he reads my blog and these are his favorite part.

All of the taxis have the rules printed on the plastic surrounding the driver. Number 2 is: Schizophrenic or drunkard without guardian is prohibited to take the taxi. Schizophrenic can be replaced by mental patients or psychos. Oh, the lawsuits for discrimination we'd have in the US!


When I first saw this ATM, I didn't think I could use it. It says "Cash Recycling Machine" so I thought it was something you could put in your tattered old bills in, and receive nice new crisp ones back. Sometimes people won't take bills if they are in bad shape. To me, the word recycling is usually only used when referring to destroying one thing but making something new out of the remains.

Nope. It's just a regular ATM. Stick your card in, get money.

Suzhou

A couple weeks ago Yvonne, Perk, Ryan and I went to Suzhou to meet with a potential Keyframe client. Suzhou is about an hour away by train from Shanghai. After the meeting, we went to lunch and had a Shanghai special - hairy crab. They say people come from all over the world to eat hairy crab, and the season just started.

It's really a pain to get all of the meat out.

First, you rip all of the legs off, and the stomach shell off.

Next, the back shell and the sides. Then you suck out the yellow stuff and take out things like the lungs. After getting all of the meat from the body, you crack all of the legs open and suck out that meat too. It's really a long, messy process.

As we were going to the bus station, we walked down the main shopping street and by the temple. Yvonne explained that someone had died and they were burning things to send to them in the afterlife. They believe that if you burn it, it will cross over (or something like that.) In the above photo they are burning money (not real money, which makes me wonder why they can use fake money in the afterlife?) Yvonne said they will burn furniture, clothes, food, etc.

Yvonne trying to throw coins for good luck.


These signs on the temple are totally Chinglish. I thought maybe they were verses with a deep meaning - but Yvonne translated and they aren't. The risk of fire is more dangerous than an actual fire, prevent fire instead of having to put it out, etc.

Yuyuan Garden

Perk wanted to go into the gardens during his visit so I joined him. We've taken many guests to the outer part, with all of the old buildings, but never have been inside the gardens. It was the kind of place I'd like to have as a yard; tons of nooks and crannies that would be great places to relax with a book.





Then we walked to the Bund, and up Nanjing Lu to People's Square. Naning Lu is pretty much all neon - lots of opportunities for LED displays!