chapter one @ 1998 March
life in jinzhou
In which I arrive on the other side of the world - a newcomer to China.
Nimen hao from:
Well, here I am 12 days into my journey to China and I am finally settling down to write, having just gotten my e-mail access yesterday. As I write, it is 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 10, 1998 (so it's 9:00 on the morning of the 10th in Cleveland) - one week before St.. Paddy's Day. Somehow, I don't think that holiday will be celebrated in Jinzhou.
The picture at the top of the page is a view of part of downtown Jinzhou looking north from the Xiaoling He (Little Ling River). The round building in the front left of the picture is the telephone company building where I was last week to sign up for my Internet
account. The cylinder on top of the building is a large 4-story analog clock - very cool. The water in the foreground is the river which was widened last year from about 50 meters to about 2/3 of a mile wide. Jinzhou is about the 45th largest city in China but it is about the size of Cleveland in terms of population. There are about 700,000 people in the city and about 3.5 million in the district (county).
There are many 20+ story buildings in the immediate downtown area. Here's a picture of another building in town, this one is on the north side of the downtown
area. You can also see it in the back center of the first picture. It is a hotel with a revolving restaurant on top and is right across from the train station where I arrived in Jinzhou at 8:00 a.m. on February 28, 1998. 
THE JINZHOU MANSION HOTEL
There are many more stores, shops and restaurants in downtown Jinzhou than in downtown Cleveland. Perhaps the biggest surprise has been the rampant market economy here. You can buy anything in Jinzhou (except fresh coffee-we can only find Maxwell House and Nescafe instant coffee in jars). The selection is enormous. There are 4 large department stores in the
center of the city; each is as large as a Dillards. What is great is that each counter is staffed by one or two people and you pay for everything at each counter so you keep track of what you are spending much easier. 
JINZHOU SKYLINE
And it is easy to spend here with the prices. Some examples: A cross-town 20 minute taxi ride - 10 Yuan (about US$1.25); bus fare 1 Yuan (US$0.12); a carton (not a pack) of cigarettes 13 Yuan (US$1.60) at the cigarette mall (that's right, there is a large market about 1/2 the size of the West Side Market that sells only cigarettes). If you don't want
to walk all the way to the mall, there are street vendors on every corner (all four corners of every intersection) who will sell you a pack of cigs for 4 Yuan (US$0.50). Beer (Pijiu) is sold in 22 oz bottles. A 22 oz. bottle of
Pijiu which you would pay about U.S.$2.00 in the States (Meiguo) will run you 2 Yuan here (US$0.25). And that includes the 1/2 Yuan bottle deposit. Return the bottle and your next beer is 1.50 Yuan. Coca Cola is
sold everywhere for 2.00 Yuan (US$0.25) for a 12 oz. can and a half-litre bottle of water is the same price. For some of my friends back home, this would be paradise: big bottles of beer cheaper than water or cans of Coke. Besides all of this, outside of the department stores where the prices are pretty much set by the government, prices are negotiable. For instance I have bargained with a vendor and she now regularly charges me 2 Yuan for Coke. After arriving, I found that I needed a voltage transformer for my computer (try saying "voltage transformer" in Chinese).
I found them at 3 or 4 places but the prices were quite high. I finally returned to one shop and offered the man 200 Yuan. He wanted 320 Yuan. He went down to 250 and I went up to 220 Yuan. Neither of us budged. Then I reached in my pocket and slapped down a pack of Salem Lights. So for 220 Yuan and a pack of American
cigarettes, my computer is now up and running. 
ZHONG BAI DEPARTMENT STORE
The entire first floor of every building, even the apartments, are storefronts and in front of the storefronts, on the sidewalks are street vendors selling every conceivable thing (except coffee!). And the side streets, in addition to the store fronts and street vendors, often have vendors in the middle of the street. This city is like a giant flea market.
Everyone works or sells something. The streets are jammed with people. It is a purer and truer market economy than anything I've seen in Cleveland aside from the West Side Market.
Jinzhou Shifan Xueyuan (Jinzhou Teachers' College) is located in the downtown area about 6 blocks east of the "4 Corners" - the main intersection of downtown which lies about halfway between the river on the south and the train station to the north. In terms of
enrollment, there are about 3,500 full-time students so it is about the size of John Carroll in terms of enrollment but with a tiny campus. The campus is somewhat like a small Cleveland State in that it lies in the center of the city. There are about 20 buildings and the entire campus is enclosed. Established in 1958, it will celebrate its 40th anniversary this
year. The school now grants numerous degrees in various programs other than teaching. It may soon undergo a name change (probably to Jinzhou Normal University) to reflect that fact. There is a main gate on the main east-west street which is manned by security guards so except for government cars coming onto campus, no vehicles are allowed. I live in the foreign residence hall. The Foreign Affairs Department offices are in this building. Students from other countries who are studying at the college live here as well as teachers from foreign
countries. The Chinese colleges, I am told, usually segregate the foreigners. Contrary to the usual Western assumption that this is to minimize their contact with Chinese people, they do this because the facilities (or at least the ones here) appear to be somewhat better and because they truly wish to be good hosts for their foreign guests. I have seen no
restrictions on any contact with Chinese and we have been free to go anywhere we wish, even to private homes. Anyone is free to visit me anytime.
In my building there are about 10 or so Japanese students who have come here to study Mandarin Chinese. I am told that there will soon be a student from Germany and a student from America also coming to study Chinese. My students are all Chinese so they live in the college dorms. Incidentally, it is interesting in that the buildings house classrooms and dorms.
Two of my classes are in the Math Building which also has dorm rooms on the same floor and serves as the "Grown-Up English School" - their translation of the English Adult Education Department which is a separate program from the Foreign Language Department in which I am serving. Here is a picture of my building:
FOREIGN AFFAIRS BUILDING
The Foreign Affairs Hall houses the foreign affairs department, apartments for the foreign teachers, dorm rooms for foreign students, a classroom for foreign students studying Chinese, and a small restaurant. Short term visitors to the college (both Chinese and foreigners) often stay here since it has the most comfortable residence units on campus.
My apartment is quite nice. and spacious. Early on my trip to China, I saw first hand what I had only read about - the "hole". Having flown 14 hours from Detroit and having arrived in Beijing at 7:00 p.m., I was met at the airport by the Dean of the Foreign Language Department and by Chen, my contact with
the Foreign Affairs Office. From Beijing we were to take an overnight train to Jinzhou which didn't leave until 10:00 pm. We went to a small restaurant near the Beijing train station and when I saw the facilities I decided I could wait awhile longer. What I had heard was true - restrooms in the East are just a hole in the ground. You squat and do your business
then wash it down with a bucket of water and a mop. When we got on the train - same story. We had been booked on the "hard sleeper" car - no misnomer. In a compartment about 6.5 feet long by 9 feet wide were 6 metal cots bolted 3 to each wall with a thin "mattress", a blanket and the soon to be infamous "Bean-bag" pillow. For the next 9 hours I was in agony.
 When we arrived in Jinzhou and I was shown to my apartment (now about 33 hours since I had left Cleveland) I truly appreciated the promised "Western-style bathroom" in my apartment. And I'm glad I had bought my own toilet paper.
INSIDE THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS HALL
MY APARTMENT IS THE
THIRD DOOR ON THE RIGHT
DOWN THIS HALLWAY Teachers have their own two room apartment and private (Western-style) bathroom. There is a water heater (which you have to plug in about 15 minutes before you want hot water) for my shower. Hot showers are not very common I am told. The staff also provided me with cable TV (26 channels many of which are shopping channels, of course!), a rice cooker, wok and
utensils and a teapot. They have really made me feel comfortable. The desk in my room was very nice, but very small. My knees could not fit under it. They quickly got me a larger desk. They have been very helpful and gracious and are always willing to help us when we need to find things. Chen was especially helpful in getting my Internet account set up.
There are two other western teachers here at the college - with whom I have become fast friends: Donna James is from Toronto and has taught for many years in Canada. She has an MA in Psychology and is in her late forties. She has been here since November and is teaching Oral Conversation to freshman and sophomores. Kerryn McMaster is from Sydney, Australia. She
taught for a year in Paraguay after graduating from college and then came to Jinzhou. She arrived about 2 weeks before I did and so was assigned to teach the Lit Classes I was hoping for - (cheeky girl!). We travel around the city a lot and eat cook dinner in Donna's apartment on most nights (she has a full kitchen). We are the only
English-speaking people around and everyone stares at us wherever we go. If we stop on the street to buy something, 10 or more people will gather around us to listen to our strange tongue and see what it is we are buying. It is sometimes hilarious.
I am teaching 2 sections of Oral Conversation to freshman and 4 sections of US and British Survey (history, culture and geography). Classes run two hours each with a ten minute break. The students are extremely diligent, hard-working and polite. Their previous English training was done by British teachers so they speak a very formalized English. They stand when they ask a question or when they are called on. They apologize if they even think they might have asked or done something offensive.
For instance, each has chosen or been given an "English name" when they had begun studying English. One of my students told me her English name was Helen. "Ah," I said, "my grandmother's name was Helen!" After class she pulled me aside and said, "I am very sorry that I was given the name Helen and that that is your grandmother's name. If you are offended I will
change it." They have tremendous respect for their teachers as well as family relationships. Each class meets once a week and having 197 students, it is difficult to say much yet other than the fact that classroom management and discipline is not an issue. They have come to each class prepared and eager to learn - about the language and about America (they've
asked about Iraq and Clinton's personal problems). I'll write more about the educational differences in my next missive - but I am most favorably impressed with the quality of knowledge and the quality of effort I have seen so far. Here is a picture of the building in which 4 of my classes are held. One of my classes is on the top floor. The classroom is in that portico on the seventh floor next to that satellite dish on the right. (The English Language students gather up there every night to watch CNN by satellite.)
ARTS AND LETTERS BUILDING
Since the average Chinese is generally in much better shape than the average American, there are no elevators. It's a seven-flight walk up to my class. (Perhaps that is one reason why the average Chinese is in much better shape than the average American! - for others see
FITNESS WORLD in this issue.) From my classroom up on 7, I can see the mountains which surround the city. (Jinzhou lies in a plain, surrounded by low mountains, on a river which flows about 20 km to the Bo Hai Gulf of the East China Sea). Today, I also learned that they have added 2 more sections of Conversation to my schedule. It was not unexpected as I am here as a "Foreign Expert/Education" - a higher classification with higher pay and, thus a larger expected class load. The only drawback is that with the two new classes I now have an evening class on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
nights. But it's not as if I'll be missing much at night.
...doesn't exist. First there is the logistical problem - the campus gate is locked at 10:00 p.m. so if you are not back on campus by then you have to wake up the gate guard. I haven't experienced this yet but Donna said it wasn't fun. Also, the hall doors are locked at 10:00 too and so you have to ring the bell to summon the residence caretaker, a nice old man
who looks like Mao's younger brother. This happened to me once. I ran out for cigarettes right before 10:00 and he had to wait for me. He wasn't very happy. Interestingly, I didn't have to run off campus to get cigarettes since, as I said, almost everyone with a first floor apartment has some kind of shop. In this case, there is an apartment building which abuts
the side of the campus. The residents have merely turned their back rooms into little convenience stores. You just knock on one of the back windows, they come to the window and sell you pop, beer, cigarettes, candy, laundry detergent, even stir-fry & rice. As I said, everyone sells everything here. There's no such thing as zoning much less vendor's licenses.
The building next to ours is the student center. They have a movie on most nights and students flock there. The movie starts at 6:00 (dinner for students is about 5:00). Last weekend they showed Gone with the Wind. On the third floor they have a small disco/karaoke room. Last Saturday night, some students took Kerryn, Donna & I up to the disco. The students
really seemed to enjoy having us there. I haven't danced so much since the Maxwell's days. I think they were surprised but as we were leaving, the students came up and said "Teacher Chuck, we have decided to name you the Dance Prince". When I got to class on Monday, the students told me that everyone on campus had heard that the foreign teachers had been up to the
club and that "the Meiguoren danced very well". The Chinese are so polite and love to give compliments when none are deserved.. We left before last call-not that anyone was drinking. They did sell beer, I think, but nobody was doing anything but dancing. There are no liquor laws here - anyone can buy anything, anytime, anywhere it is sold. So everyone seems much more responsible about liquor - as in Europe. Anyway, last call was at 9:30 (the disco opens at 6:00 p.m.). We were home by
8:00. As I said, not much night life. Except for Karaoke. More on that on a bit.
All day long, the entire downtown area is like Cleveland's Coventry Rd. on a warm Saturday night. Most of the people ride bicycles or walk. There are quite a few cars but they fall into two categories - little red Ford Escort-type taxis and big black tinted window government cars. No one obeys traffic laws - hell, there are no traffic laws. Your taxi driver
will turn left right in front of a bus knowing the bus will slow down; he will drive right into a crowd of bicycles knowing they will avoid him. If you asked to be dropped off at a restaurant, they will drive up onto the sidewalk into the pedestrians, right into a crowd of police (or are they army personnel-it's hard to tell, the uniforms are similar) and
literally drop you at the front door. Imagine a driver pulling onto the sidewalk and up to the front doors of the Terminal Tower at rush hour to drop you off and you get the idea. Every pedestrian jaywalks. Every bicyclist and driver jayDRIVES! (to coin a new term). Traffic tickets do not exist. Neither do traffic laws. (Traffic lights do exist, but they are
redundant). I have learned that if you just walk and don't look at the cars (or bicyclists) they will avoid you. If they know that you see them then they assume YOU will avoid THEM so if they see you looking away THEY will avoid YOU. It's worked so far for me anyway.
It also helps that I may be the tallest person in the city. I've only seen one man who was close to my height. I am becoming known as the "Gao
Meiguode Laoshi" - the tall American teacher. Some other teachers told me that the people at the nearby market where we shop had asked "Da Meiguo Laoshi zai nar?" yesterday - where's the tall teacher? Basketball is a favorite sport here. There are 6 courts right by my
hall and 6 more across campus. I played the other day and many students stopped to watch. When I went to my class later in the afternoon, the students told me that the word had gone around that the Meiguo (American) had been out playing basketball and he was "quite good". There is an NBA show on TV every Saturday morning and they regularly show NBA highlights and
scores on the news. In fact, the only "American" caps and tee-shirts I have seen are Chicago Bulls items.
After lunch and after classes, the basketball courts are jammed (as are the volleyball courts and the football ("soccer") field. The people here are very health conscious. There is no need for an alarm clock at the College, every morning at 6:20 a.m. loudspeakers blare out music and exercise instructions
(Yi...Er...San...Si - 1-2-3-4) and people gather to exercise or do Tai Qi. Students and staff members alike can be seen all over campus doing morning exercises. Classes break again at 10:00 a.m. and the entire student body assembles on the soccer field for 10 minutes of exercises.
After lunch, many staff members and some students again do exercises. And after school, as I said, they hit the b-ball courts and volleyball courts. Another big thing to do, especially among the women is badminton. Just as we might go out and play catch, many of the women students will stand outside their dorm and swat a badminton birdie back and forth. Everyone
is in very good shape and I'm getting in pretty good shape myself. The fitness and the excellent (and cheap!) food helps.
You literally cannot walk more than 50 paces anywhere without encountering a restaurant or food vendor. Many residents with first floor apartments will have their front room as a small 3 table restaurant. You just walk in and they will serve you. The sidewalks are filled with vendors selling all manner of food - most of it things I have never seen elsewhere. We
will walk down the street and try what we call Chinese Surprise - "I don't know what it is but let's try it". We'll try almost anything once (except me and eggs - and they have street vendors cooking omelets on their carts). Some of it is very good. Some of it is "bu hao" - not good. But that is how we learn. There is the food market I mentioned earlier across the street from the school and it is like the West Side Market but a bit smaller and a lot dirtier. We have become regulars there and the vendors love it when we show up - the only English they know is "Hello!!!". The only intelligible Chinese we say is "Ni Hao, pengyou!" (=Hello, friend!). Then as soon as they try to talk to us we smile and say "Wo bu hui shuo han-yu" (=I can't speak Chinese). They are very much impressed with our mastery of that phrase. But we get on just
fine. The cigarette lady knows that I like to buy "Liang he Shuang Ye" - (Two packs of Double Leaves Menthol [my new brand]). We also shop at the "High Five" grocery store down the street. We were in there on my second day in Jinzhou and as is usual in every larger store in the city there were about three times as many people working there as would be expected -
customer service is exceptional in China though a western personnel director would probably go crazy. Downsizing has not hit China yet. Anyway, we walk into the grocery store and get the usual stares and whispering (see BEIJING ZOO in this issue) and as we walk around buying things one of the clerks says something in English. Having been
suffering from English deprivation I immediately high five her. Her fellow clerks all thought this was hilarious. Now whenever we go there they shout "High Five". Thus, Donna, Kerryn and I often shop at the "High Five". After leaving the High Five that day, we went to a very nice looking (read: clean) restaurant where for a total of 23 Yuan each (about US$2.84-no tip-tip do not exist here) we had a 4 course meal w. beer. This is considered an expensive lunch in Jinzhou. Since we had no idea what the name of the restaurant was (there are virtually no signs in English anywhere in
Jinzhou - it is rare to even see anything written using the Roman alphabet), we dubbed it the Double Happy Birthday Restaurant since there were two families holding children's birthday parties there that day (they, of course, had to have their pictures taken with us - the first foreigners they had ever met!).
A few nights later, suffering from westernitis, we heard that there was an Italian restaurant that had recently opened. We hunted it down, found it and walked in. Someone had looked in a book and found a picture of what an Italian restaurant should look like and built one. No one spoke English (no one outside the campus does except to yell "Hello!!!") and after
our poor attempts (with 2 Chinese guide books) at communicating they found a menu that had once been translated into English (perhaps during the Boxer Rebellion) but with no prices. We ordered a bottle of wine and when it came they said it was $280 Yuan. In broken Chinese we told the waiter that we were merely Laoshi (teachers) not rich Western tourists and that,
perhaps we would just have beer. I don't believe we phrased it as "bring us your best bottle of beer" but the waiter quickly returned with a 22 oz bottle of Beck's beer and proceeded to treat it as if it were a 50 year old bottle of Lafitte Rothschild. He presented it to me wrapped in a napkin, proceeded to remove the cap and place it in front of me (yes, the
bouquet of aluminum attested to the quality of the bottling and storage of this exquisite Beck beer) and poured a sipful for me to sample. Upon my approval he filled our glasses (ladies first, of course) whereupon we toasted and called for another bottle. It was a hilarious incident - but it's a perfect example of the personal attention that the Chinese bestow on their foreign guests. And it is a good example of how we, having feared "losing face" by appearing to be cheap for rejecting the wine, were made to feel comfortable and respected. It was a good cultural lesson. As for the food, we tentatively ordered two
pizzas. Tentative because it is very rare here that any restaurant has an oven for baking. And cheese is practically non-existent (I have had this Mongolian Yak Milk concoction that is called Mongolian cheese but, though it is good, it is not cheese). So we were prepared for yet another Chinese Surprise and Surprise! they had very good pizza. It was a baked dough
and had mozz cheese. The first pizza was called Four Seasons and was your basic red and green pepper, onions and something much like pepperoni. The second, they called "Country Pizza", had that very common topping of corn niblets and sliced eggs. It was very good (though I, of course, picked off the eggs). Total bill - no tip nor corkage fee for the beer 83 Yuan
(U.S.$3.42 apiece). This place is considered to be one of the more expensive places to eat. Bottom line on food here-it's plentiful, cheap, everywhere, and mostly excellent. If you grab a meal from one of the vendors, a big Styrofoam box of rice and stir-fry is usually 2 Yuan (US$0.25). The regular small restaurants will set you back about 10 Yuan ($1.25) for a full meal. And then there's the Country Pizza with a cold 1998 Beck's for about US$3.25.
Oh yes! Besides the Italian place, there is one other western place in Jinzhou - Hong Li's Ham Burger Restaurant. It is the Chinese attempt at McDonald's. It is attached to the best department store in the City and it has counters just like McDonald's. The workers all wear those stupid hats and the menu is in English (the first and only such place I have found
here). I ordered the Hong Li Burger Set (I guess that's how combo meal is translated) and got this very small (smaller than McDonald's) "ham burger" a small order of fries and a fountain Coca Cola (Coca Cola is sold everywhere - US$0.30/can pretty expensive for here). The fries were fantastic. The burger sucked. I should have ordered the "cone salad" (their
translation for cole slaw). And the bill was about US$3.00. Very expensive for here but hey, those are western prices. So much for the food.
This is a true story. Last Thursday night I had a class from 6-8p.m. Kerryn and Donna were going to cook dinner and save some for me after class. Sometime between 6 and 7 while they were cooking they received a call from a man who Donna had met previously at a college dinner.
Chen He is a prominent Jinzhou leader in real estate. (By the way, contrary to what most
Americans believe, there is private property ownership in China - we have had dinner at our Dean's condo my first Sunday here) He told them that a car was picking them up in 5 minutes to take them to dinner. When I returned from class at 8, the lights were on in their apartments but their was a hastily scribbled note stuck on my door saying that had been called
away to go to dinner at the last minute and they didn't know when they would be back. Puzzled and a little concerned, I was trying to figure out what I would do for dinner when there was a knock at my door. Donna was standing there with the leader's driver and told me that they had been taken to a restaurant a few blocks away and when they had explained that they
had been making dinner not only for themselves but for me as well, the leader had said, "No problem, My driver will pick him up when his class is over." They had, of course, finished eating by now and had decided to go to a karaoke room. We were driven to the karaoke room where the leader and his four friends and Kerryn arrived 5 minutes later carrying 4 Styrofoam
containers full of food - for me. They had ordered a full dinner for the Meiguo Laoshi (American Teacher) who they had not yet met. It seems that the leader runs the Karaoke room's building as well a number of other properties and we were treated like visiting royalty. I am told that we are among the very few foreigners in the entire city and that even the mayor
knows of us and they want us to feel very welcome in their city. The leader's friends were other high-ranking city officials, I was told (they didn't speak English). The driver returned us the school after we had sung Karaoke and ganbeied. Though we returned after the magic
10:00 hour, the school gates were immediately opened when the van pulled into the drive. We had a fun time and, yet again, were treated exceptionally. In the short time I have been here, everyone goes out of their way to make sure that we are comfortable. We have been given the utmost respect none more so than by the students). The foreign language department had morning tea for the foreign teachers and students which the College President and Vice-President attended (and whom insisted I sit at their side - a
great sign of respect in their culture, I am told). The foreign language department also hosted a party for us last Sunday in the third floor disco club we had been to the night before. In addition to dancing again, we also sang more Karaoke (it's the hottest thing going in Jinzhou). I sang "Moon River". I sang "Moon River"
bu hao de . But it was lots of fun. This morning at 8:30, one of the staff people came to my door and said that they were going to be taking pictures downstairs with the Japanese students. I am getting used to this "time scheduling" thing I had read about the Chinese. It seems they often decide to do something and give very little advance notice. Thus, the Karaoke King's invitation of a few nights
ago. The Chinese culture from ancient times is one of group identification. If you are considered part of the group, then you must be prepared to do group activities whenever they occur. If it is going to occur in five minutes, no problem! So here's Meng at the door asking me to go downstairs for pictures. Here's me in my sweats and baseball cap - my first class
wasn't until 1:30. "Let me jump in the shower", I said. She looked a little perturbed. "Five minutes, I'll be down." I pleaded. I had not yet turned on the water heater, but I jumped into a cold shower, shaved and was climbing out when she knocked again.
Kuaidianr
ChaKe!" (="Quickly, Chuck!"), she said to me standing there wrapped only in my towel. I threw on some jeans and a beat up sweatshirt and my Reeboks and ran downstairs. The "picture with the Japanese students" was to be a formal group picture with them, the President of the school and the VP. Everyone was in a suit but me. Well we took the picture and then the
President wanted a picture with just me. I borrowed someone's sports coat and threw it over my sweat shirt and so that will probably be the picture which they will publish in the newspaper. Another lesson in Chinese culture learned. Everything is planned. Nothing is planned.
The Beijing Zoo is one of the most famous in the world. I plan on visiting it sometime during my stay in China. And when I do, I will be fully able to identify with its inhabitants. In my many visits downtown so far and in all my walks around the city and the campus, it is clear that as far as Westerners go, they are apparently rare in this town. Of the 6 classes
I am teaching, I am the first American that 4 of the classes had ever met. Everywhere I go, people stare. People on bikes riding by stare. Sometimes they almost fall off when they see me. On the streets westerners are stared at - me because I am tall, probably because I am balding (it's rare here). Kerryn gets many stares because she has blonde hair. We stick out
and we are rare animals. Sometimes it can make you feel as if you are in the Beijing Zoo. I have yet to see any other westerner in town (there are some other western teachers at the college on the other side of town whom we met my first weekend in Jinzhou) so the people here are curious. It was annoying at
first but I am anesthetized to it now. If you smile and say Ni hao!, the people will break into a big, friendly smile.
In class today we read a story called "How to Make Everybody Happy" which epitomizes the approach I have learned to take here in China. In the story, an old man is walking with his visiting nephew. As they walk through the village, the old man waves to everyone he sees. His nephew asks him why.
"Well, when I wave to someone and he knows me, he is pleased and he continues his journey with a happier heart. But when I wave to someone and he doesn't know me, he is surprised and he says to himself, 'Who is that man? Why did he wave to me?' And he has something to think about during the rest of his journey, and that makes his journey seem shorter. In this
way, I make everyone happy."
I have found that the Chinese I have begun to get to know, the cigarette lady, the clerks at the High Five, the staff at the Happy Birthday restaurant, the Foreign Affairs office staff, and my students, are very pleased when I wave and say Ni Hao! And to those I wave and Ni Hao whom I don't know, they seem pleased and smile. I hope it helps make their journey happier. My journey thus far has been very happy.
Chuck
 
| 
