I love this

Funny thing, both for Language students and 60 minutes lovers.

Not all students are of the smart kind..: Panda bites student who wanted a hug

In some situations you better make sure you'r at the right door...: Drunk disturbs wrong couple looking for mistress

Tough times, tough world

Well, what can I say, school is killing me, pollution is killing me, the exchange is killing me, everything is killing me, even my computer has been acting up.

However, things are looking up. Beijing is not filled with smog today, we can even see the blue sky above us. It's probably the winds blowing the poison away to some other poor student in some other city somewhere in China. School this week has been, fun actually. The homework has been manageable, classes have been entertaining and challenging. All in all a good week.

One thing I've learned while in Beijing is how tiny our environmental problems in Norway are compared to the Chinese problems. (However, we all share one globe, so we share the problems) I had never imagined how pollution could physically influence a person this severely, I am couching regularly, I have started making the "Chinese-sounds" that all foreigners visiting Beijing can't stand(snorting, spitting etc.), my eyes hurt and my body feels heavy. All this can be credited the smog that we all live in. I've heard living in Beijing is like smoking 20 cigarettes a day. I'm no doctor so I don't know if it's true, but it certainly feels like it.

Of course Norway is an oil producing nation, we have our subsidized aluminum factories and our old cars. So it's not like we are innocent. However, the car fleet of Beijing is approaching 4 million, let alone the car fleet of the rest of China. Tokyo in comparison has about 3 million cars. The car fleet of these two cities together is approaching double the population(!) of Norway. You have all heard the famous statistic that China builds one coal-fired power plant each week. I recently read a report from MIT painting an even grimmer picture:

"China's power sector has been expanding at a rate roughly equivalent to three to four new coal-fired, 500 megawatt plants coming on line every week"

Read the report, it also talks about how Chinese coal-fired power plants is a problem not accredited to poor technology, but to poor management and difficulties handling the balance between the market and government subsidizing. (Another valuable source is Greenleapforward.com which in this post comments the report and outlines some of the problems and possibilities around Chinese coal-fired power.)

Now, the economy.

After attending a pub quiz at The Bookworm were one of the questions was towards which two areas the Chinese government was directing it's 4 trillion Yuan aid package I got curious and decided to dig a little. In this article by the China Daily the package is well described.
What caught my eye was this chart:













Notice the two areas, infrastructure and welfare, and also a third being environmental investments. The Chinese government seem to be trying to maintain growth without forgetting its poor people and the environment. You might say it's just politics, you can't get around the fact that we are talking about 14.65 billion US dollars being invested into todays economy, while keeping in mind that the development must be sustainable. Can this be said about the aid packaged launched in the western world? It will be interesting to see how the aid packages around the world is spent, how each government decides to heal their economy. This is not a glorification of Chinese governing policies(which definitely has it's faults), but a recognition that they do try, and their goal is quite obviously to balance growth, and humanitarian and environmental aspects.

As a note to this, what is the effects of spending government funds on infrastructural projects in times of economic "depression"? For those of you who are Norwegian, or just care, should these kinds of investments be done with our "Pension fund"? Thereby saving for future generations by building lasting infrastructure.

I leave you with that, please comment.

Chapter 8 - The tourist

After a month without updates, I'm sorry. I hope this post will give a little insight into what I have been up to lately. And why I have been absent from posting.

On the 22nd of August we had our exam in Nanjing. It was a fairly easy test without the biggest of challenges. However, we didn't know that beforehand, so we studied to the best of our ability, and became smarter for it. Allthough, this studying did result in a lack of updates on my blog. We had two tests, one written and one oral. The oral one was the most fun, it involved talking about norwegian eating and drinking habits, not too difficult, but after all, it was only a summer course. I expect the exam in Desember to be more of a challenge. (Picture no.1: Our teacher during the oral exam of one of my classmates, in the background Fredrik is relaxing before his turn)


The day after my exam it was time to get out of Nanjing and on to further adventures. Me, Nils, Jenny, Siv and Julie stuffed together in the back of a couple of cabs and shouted: "To the railway station" And then the driver replied: "Eh?!?". Still, after two months in China, the simplest of messages sometimes gets lost in translation... Anyways, after repeating the message he quickly nodded, grunted and set the car in motion. After getting to the station we had to orientate ourselves and locate the closest ticket-office. It is always outside the station building, so don't try to get inside without a ticket. Riding the train in China will unavoidably involve massive numbers of people, as pretty much everywhere else, but the train-stations definately seem worse. We got tickets on the first train destined for Suzhou, about 1,5 hours away. However, they only had standing tickets left, something which really wasn't that much of a problem, so we loaded ourselves aboard, at 67 Yuan per. head.

Arriving in Suzhou we quickly had the questionable honor of getting to know the local traders, that is; people walking up to you selling merchandise and services of different kinds. One advice; learn to say the phrase: "不要"(bu4yao4). This means, "I don't want it", very useful in pretty much any turist area predominantly inhabited by Chinese merchants selling tourist stuff. Another advice; look for the long line of people, that'll be where you find the taxies. If you don't get in line you'll be approached by people wanting to drive you in private cars, this however is usually never a good idea as you never know how much they'll demand from you or where they'll drive you. Go for the official ones, even though it might involve a little waiting. After getting inside the car have you cell-phone ready, it the driver doesn't understand the address it is always a good idea to call the hostel and have them explain the way to him/her. (Picture no.2: The taxi-line outside of Shanghai-south train station. Same principles as in Suzhou applies, except the line moves faster)

In Suzhou we stayed at beautiful little hostel called Watertown Hostel. It was a great place where we paid 50 Yuan a night in a 6-man dorm. Suzhou is know for its beautiful gardens and canals. For the short time of two days we got around to se quite a lot of them, and they really were beautiful. Additionally we enjoyed great food, relaxing books in the hostel's reading lounge and wandering around town finding good spots to sit and chat. Alltogether it was a very good stay:)

However, it was not as beautiful as our next destination, Hangzhou. This is the number one travel destination for Chinese tourists, situated only two hours by train from Shanghai. Found in thousands of poems, stories and paintings up through the long Chinese history. We ate even better food, went to even more beautiful gardens and crossed the fantastic "West lake". The place we stayed though, a hostel called Mingtown, was not good. If you wanted nice rooms you had to pay double the price you have to pay in big cities like Shanghai, the room had all the bells and whistles as well; cockroaches and mould. But all in all, go to Hangzhou if you can, just find a better hostel.

After Hangzhou we returned to Shanghai where we stayed until the 1st of September when we boarded the night train to Beijing. Shanghai was just as expected, fun and relaxing at the same time. After much travelling all I needed was to relax and enjoy a good book, a little sightseeing and good food. I got all that. First I found a bookstore that sold a book by Amy Tan called "the kitchen god's wife" that I had started reading in the common room at the hostel in Suzhou. I bought it and finished it in about two days before I went on to read "What does China think?" by Mark Leonard, the author of "Why Europe will run the 21st century". I can highly recommend both books allthough I would first read Amy Tan's "The joy luck club" if you haven't allready.

We stayed at a place called Blue Mountain Youth Hostel, the best hostel so far. It was convenient, clean, and had excellent staff members. In the evenings we explored the city and at night we slept, all in all very relaxing. The best experience in Shanghai was definately "The French Concession". This place is filled with quaint little cafè's, small art stores and stalls. If you ever go to Shanghai, this is the place to go! Other than that I guess my best advice is to skip the expensive trip to the to one of the downtown towers and rather find an expensive hotel with a bar on the top floor, sneak in, and enjoy the view for free:)

After arriving in Beijing I have been spending my time looking for apartements, getting used to a high workload and finding good places to study and use the internet. Right now I'm sitting at a popular student hang-out spot called The Bridge, which is right around the corner from were I live. Updates will follow, just not as often as in Nanjing:)

Chapter 7 - Olympic Singing-scandal!

This story, you all know. The little girl we all thought was soooo adorable wasn't really the owner of the voice you heard. However, what most of you, at least my Norwegian readers, probably don't know is the actual events of how it actually ended up being two little girls, or the fact that in reality, there were three little girls.

The reason why is Norwegian newspapers. They pretty much paints a degrading picture of an inhumane Chinese nation of 1,3 billion people who in coopertaion had the nerve to crush the little girl's heart in front of millions of viewers at home. Good storyline, right? This is a small story with a sad twist that was supposed to be picked up by all the big-hearted female bloggers (and that, has happended), in addition it is picked up by Norwegian media as their biggest story so far during the olympics! So, while World War 3 could be starting in South Ossetia they devote most of their collum space to this, even the King has gotten into the deal! Any other nation's newspapers and televison news have moved on, but the Norwegian ones keeps digging up new experts and royals wanting to express their views.

First of all, this is indeed not a Chinese phenomenon. Hollywood and the west has started the trend years ago, so don't blame the Chinese and present them as the inventors of "looks matters". They have simply adopted the views that we so dearly hold in the west. Shows like "Nip and Tuck", "The bachelor" and "extreme makeover" comes to mind. Secondly, the decision was made by one(!) person, and as I have earlier argued, rank matters in China. So if one guy important enough says something, that is the truth.

Thirdly, if you are going to present a story, do it right: 1. The girl who "sang" was a stand-in for another girl that looked too old (she was 10). 2. The girl who actually sang was a stand-in for the voice of the girl who "sang". That is, it was not the singing girl who was supposed to sing, it was the "singing" girl. Therefore, the victim is not the singing girl, but the "singing" girl who did not have a nice enough voice to get on TV. Get it? But the "signing" girl was too cute to be an international victim, so they went with the less pretty girl because she whould cause more sympathy. Insensitive journalistic bastards I tell you!

Lastly, do not present it like China as a nation approve of the switch. Every Chinese I have asked about it has expressed just as much frustration as I. And it was Chinese media that first reported the whole thing, so do not present it like the whole western world has a heart, and China doesn't. To read well-written reports on the story go to foreign web-sites, like the NY times or the Washington Post. They do not write as much about it as Norwegian papers do though...I wonder why...?

Don't get me wrong. I do not think it's an okay way to treat little girls, but it is NOT first page material!

As to the explanation why the Chinese have a need to present the perfect Olympics, stay tuned, another blog post will undertake this matter:)

Chapter 6.2 - The rule of protocol

This is an addition to chapter 6, brought into excistence by a comment on chapter 6.1, and because I had some additional thoughts, of course. So there you go, comments really might bring results, hint hint...

As Ella so nicely pointed out in her comment, China has in its history a regime with a certain political philosophy in which the rules of protocol have been extremely harshly executed. This certain type of philosophy has many similarities to the philosophies of regimes we know from today's Belarus and yesterday's Russia; the Soviet Union. Since they all have this common denominator, could this mean that this philosophy is the source of the topic of chapter 6.1? That is, the rigidity of the excecution of rules and traditions.

First, an introduction. Belarus is a beautiful country in the centre of Europe currently in the political shape of a presidential republic, basically meaning excactly what is sounds like; a republic governed by a president; "Soppen på toppen". The ruling power has imposed a rigid set of rules and regulations which makes pretty much anything a bureacratic nightmare. Courts seem to have little real power, organizations have to register to be able to run legally and people cannot gather in larger groups anywhere unless it is approved by the K (blank) G (blank) B. A bit of innocent critizism there, please bear with me...however, whatever one might feel about the form of government, or its legitimacy, the issue under discussion is another matter.

The Soviet leaders all instituted strict rules and regulations as to what was condoned behaviour and beliefs. However, as I understand it, the main goal of these were to underline the supreme power of the state above the individual and to ensure the continuation of dictatorial power. The same might be said about the goal of the rules of conduct in Belarus. One might say that the rule of law is weak since the law at any time might be changed as to suit the purpose of the ruling regime. But what does this control from the government tell us about the rule of protocol? Next to nothing, because the two are completely different acpects.

I believe there might have been some confusion in 6.1 as to how my own concept of "the rule of protocol" on the one hand, and the rule of law on the other, differ from each other. Therefore, I have added definitions on both posts to clarify. In general, the rule of law is fixed and absolute while the rule of protocol is an attemt to describe more unofficial rules of conduct that is practiced by officials or the public in general. Now that the background is established and the conscepts are clarified the main issue might be attended to.

China is socialst republic with an economic system of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. The footprints of Communism is engraving and the system is still headed by one party, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). However, the nation as a whole has changed enormously, as I have argued in an earlier post it might be considered more of a capitalist country than anywhere else in some aspects. The aspects of the rule of protocol and the rule of law though, seem to have survived the changes.

The rule of law in China is, as I wrote in 6.1, dominated by corruption. This however, is combatted by the government. The signing of laws that establish stricter rules for economic conduct and "economic purity" for officials contribute to lower the rate of corruption. In addition comes stricter punishments, even the death penalty for economic crimes like embezzlement and alike. This does not change the fact though, that China has a weak rule of law, at best. The reason being that there is an established rule of protocol that high positioned people and their friends and family gets benefits that others don't. Thereby, a rule of protocol deminishes the rule of law.

Under the early years of the People's Republic of China(PRC) the high officials tempted by corruption were people within the CCP. Later it has become anyone from party officials and elected officials, to businessmen with high contacts. The combination of officials with absolute political control and a free market economy actually lead to even more corruption since power was easily bought by paying off only a few people. Now, is this a result of Communism? No, it is firstly a result from a long history of officials with much power on few hands and secondly a result from market forces putting a price on official decisions.

What about "the rule of protocol"? Rigid rules of bureaucratic procedures and social ideas of proper conduct combine to form this concept. The Chinese bureacratic tradtion comes from the fact that the Chinese dynasties have to a great extent been built by using an extensive bureaucratic system with an educated elite whose task was to enforce and keep the power of the central government out into the very edges of the empire. Bureaucracy have therefore proved to be the best way of maintaining power. One of the most important pillars of the Chinese system of government have therefore become a system of rank, in which the person with the most education (now: contacts and lineage) outranks the next.

The social ideas of proper conduct derives from Confucianism, the dominant life-philosophy throughout Chinese history. Here, respect for traditions and ancestors is above all else. Any person not conducting his or her life according to what is morally correct according to tradition and the ancient texts of Confucius and others, is viewed as weak or bad person. Combining this respect for tradition on the one hand, and the bureaucratic tradition on the other, forms the Chinese enormous respect for established rules of conduct and rank. Lastly, it should be mentioned that "saving face", which I also have written about in an earlier post, contributes to this respect.

PS. My definitions:
The rule of protocol - Established rules and/or traditions as to what is correct or accepted behaviour. That is, smaller issues and daily life questions.
The rule of law - That all decicions are made according to laws, not subjective opninions. That is, firmly established laws that the population and government both must live by.

Note

As my blog mostly will revolve around social concepts, political ideas and other themes of interest, I will seldom write in length about typical tourist stuff that I do, as I have a limited amount of time to spend on other things than studies. Therefore I encourage you to read the blogs of my classmates Gøril, Marie and Fredrik to see more pictures and also detailed descriptions of the places we go and alike. I'm sorry to say that they are in Norwegian, but the pictures are international.

On their pages you'll be able to read about our trip to Huangshan, The Nanjing massacre museum , the Ming Temple in Nanjing and the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum. All beautiful places that I recommend to visit. Huangshan(Yellow Mountain) in particular, that place is haven on earth!

PS. I hope you all have discovered the picture slidshow on the bottom of my blog. By clicking on the slides you'll be able to get to my flickr pages where you will find all my pictures.

Chapter 6.1 - The rule of protocol

After classes every morning I usually get online to get updated on news and hearsay aka. facebook. This afternoon I decided to go through the trash papers in Norway and came upon an article in "Verdens Gang"(VG), in English; "The events of the world"(the name seems almost ironic if you know what kind of stories they print).

First, a few frustrations. I must say, I find it disturbing that a country like Norway, that deems itself to be the peace-nation of the world, a nation of communication before reckless action, only has two major newspapers, and both of them can be compared to "the Sun" in Britain. What does that tell us about the environment and setting for political debate? Contrary to my feelings though, I still frequent the web-pages of the said newspapers for some annoying reason I have yet to pin down. Consequently, this post will, really against my own priciples, be a commentary on the formerly mentioned story in the formerly mentioned trash paper called VG. Ah, what one does not do for one's audience...

For my English readers, the story describes a Norwegian beach-volleyball team that was on their way home from practice when their bus-driver drove the wrong way home. Thereby approaching "the olympic village" from the wrong direction. As a consequence the police barred the athletes from exiting the bus for a few hours. The people inside was of course really frustrated since they were hungry and wanted to get home.


This story illustrates quite well an issue that one will meet no matter were you go, or what you do in China; "the rule of protocol". At the latest census in 2005 China had a population of about 1,3 billion. When a country is this large, governing bodies, the police and other bodies of authority will unavoidably need to establish rules and regulations as to how people are to behave, or not behave in public areas. This however, is no different than what one might find in Norway or any other western country. The difference in China however, lies in the willingness to be lenient when applying both the rule of law and the rule of protocol.

On the one hand, China has one of the world's worst records of corruption. The idea that if you know a politician, or have one in you family, you are secured privileges and extra cash is an established part of Chinese society that goes way back into the dynastic periods. Arguably even as far back as the beginning of the civil examination system during the Han Dynasty 200 BC. (This dynasty is also were the name Han-Chinese derive from. Most Chinese you have ever met are likely to have been Han since most emigrants from China are from the Guandong region which is predominantly Han-Chinese.)

On the other hand, when a system of protocol and conduct is established you can bet that it will be followed, down to every detail. In daily life I have allready experienced some examples: We came to a restaurant, and there was almost nobody else there so we sat down at a table for 8, even though we were only 6 people. We had to move though, because we had to(!) sit beside the air-conditioning. That was our privelege as the first guest arriving there that day:) Another is, if you forget your card at an ATM and it swollows the card, you have to(!) wait four days, and then go to a bank another place in town to pick up you card. A third is how when you shop you have to get a note from one place, pay it at another and come back to the first to pick up your stuff. What the different examples have in common is that they are reactions on the high number of people involved. Since there are so many, a system/traditions/rules of conduct is set in place in order to ensure a secure chain of events. In other words, perfectly normal and logical.

Now, with regard to the article in VG specifically. Beijing is currently hosting the Olympics, of course it will involve a strict rule of conduct and protocol. The Chinese people have heard nothing but sour commentaries from the western world before the Olympics. The police is on extremely high alert to avoid terrorism. Any person not behaving according to protocol, the rules of conduct for the massive number of people in the city, will unavoidably be carefully checked. And in order to give exceptions to these rules, a superior officer is needed, after all the police are not barbarians!

So, here comes my point, protocol and rules of conduct and the rule of rank is there for a reason; security. The fact that the Chinese people seem more taken with the rule of protocol than the rule of law, however interesting and facinating it may be, is another matter.

PS. My definitions:
The rule of protocol - Established rules and/or traditions as to what is correct or accepted behaviour. That is, smaller issues and daily life questions.
The rule of law - That all decicions are made according to laws, not subjective opninions. That is, firmly established laws that the population and government both must live by.

Chapter 5 - Consumer spending in China, aka. Shopping

Dear readers, in spite of its "geeky" first appearances, I hope this post will be of interest to all my readers. After all it is about shopping. So I guess that at least covers the female readers, and since I will be mentioning numbers and news, that should cover the guys as well. (Chauvinist?!? Me??)

Anyways, after having spent a few weeks in China I have gotten many revelations. One is the purely amazing number of Chinese people that excist in this world. Another is the just as amazing amount of shopping centers in the cities that I have been in so far, not to mention the size of each one of them. In Shanghai we went to an enormous shopping center downtown. It was completely stuffed with people, as the Chinese say; 人山人海, meaning, people mountain people sea. And this was just one out of many throughout the whole city. Later, in Nanjing I spent my first few days shopping for light clothes to wear in the summer heat. So I went to all kinds of stores, big and small.

First of all, to clear any confucion or predjudice, all of the shoppers are Chinese. The centers are not designed for foreigners or anything of the sort. They are designed to fit the needs of the Chinese modern-day consumer. The first floor of any shopping center sells jewlery, perfume, and in the cheaper places, shoes. The second and third are the ladies' floor, the fourth, men's and the fifth, sports and youth and the sixth, for home furnishing. This pattern repeats itself, at least throughout Nanjing.

It also seems as though the centers are devided by class. The fanciest is probably your best bet for having some alone-time in China. They have expensive brand-names and seem only to be frequented by the newly- and would-be-rich. In spite of the lack of costumers here, they are perhaps the largest ones in size. How they ever manage to keep afloat I have no idea. Underneath these though, we find the bulk of the shopping centers. But these are also devided into two kinds, one with cheap brand names, and one with cheap Chinese brands. If this means that the only genuine articles can been found at the most expensive malls I don't know. The last "class" of malls are the really cheap places outside of downtown. It's kinda hard to find nice stuff there though. This included giant places solely comprised of stores of the kind you would find in an outdoor street-market in Europe. Beside this whole scale is the smaller stores that can be found along all streets in China. These vary in prices, quality and sizes. Shopping here is like digging for gold...really tiring!

In addition to these places comes the electronic centers, Wal-Mart, and other Chinese versions of various American retail-stores. The electronic centers btw. are cool, it's like 5-6 stories of all kinds of electronics. Very nice:)


Now, the bigger picture.

I have lived in the US, I am from Norway. Never before have I seen a society that have more buying-preassure than here. I don't mean that the whole society is commercialized to the same rate as the American society. It is however, filled with the need to be better than the Jones' that is found in the US. The need to have better, fancier and cooler stuff than your friends and neighbours, have creapt into Chinese society. The fact that you have about 20 people "helping" you to find what you like in each store, really doesn't help on the preassure to buy stuff. Don't take me wrong, I don't mind this developement, I just hope it doesn't turn cultural China into cultural America...

One thing it can do however, is to turn economic China into what the US have been throughout the 20th century; the world's economic engine. The driving force of the US domination of the global economy have been the American consumer. Now, he/she is failing, American consumption is down and the Chinese have achieved a higher standard of living. Thereby, more and more Chinese products are now sold IN China, thereby fueling its own economy, and no longer being dependant on foreign investments. This development might lead China further down the path for the candidacy as the global economy's leading nation.

As you can read in the Business Spectator the Chinese ratail sales are continuosly growing, fueling the economy. Even in spite of the earthquake in May 2008. This fact, and the fact that it has been steadily growing the last few years shows that the Chinese consumer means business. Watch out! ;)

Chapter 4 - Saving face

Now for a more sociological post.

"Saving face" is a Chinese social concept that any westerner in China must, and will unavoidably learn. I experienced it quite qickly as I arrived here, just by asking for directions. If you ask for the way, Chinese people have a certain tendancy to just tell you something, even though they really have no idea were it is. One reason for this must be to avoid the loss of face. As a Chinese being asked by a westerner, you are supposed to know the way. If not you lose face.

Let's say you are waiting for someone who is late, he will definately give you some excuse to avoid the fact that it was his fault. And these "white lies" seem as though they are accepted, it not even expected. If you airline has trouble witht the plane, they will instead say that some other airline have messed up. If your teacher do not know the answer to your question he will tell you something anyways.

So, if you ever find yourself in China asking for directions, ask someone that looks as though they are likely to know. If you look for a bank, ask at another bank. If you look for a computer store, ask at another electronics store. If you look for a beauty shop, ask a girl, If you look for a bar, ask a bum...or another westerner.

All this, can of course be compared to our concept of avoiding embarrassement, but this concept is not nearely as important in our culture as saving face is in the Chinese.

Chapter 3 - Nanjing

Pre Scriptum: This chapter will present my view and experience of Nanjing as I will be staying in this city for almost two months, July and August. This chapter, the chapter on Shanghai and the future chapter on Beijing will all be subject to updates in the form of chapter add-ons if it is central to the city itself. Normally however, I will post new posts on the subject-matter at hand.

And so, we arrived in Nanjing. Our first encounter with this city of about 6.5 million inhabitants was an impression that have continued to fall down on us, thunder, lightning and rain. I have never in my life heard such loud weather. It was like dynamite and plastic explosives all at once. (The closest I have ever been was probably the nighly sounds of a politician-friend of mine...) Summer here have proved to be humid, rainy and unstable. Every day is warm, which is nice, but it can get too hot, which is not so nice. 35 degrees celcious and really humid is not a good combination. It makes for at least two showers each day, which is not good for your immune-system, so the problem is: to shower, smell good, and potentially get sick, or avoid to many showers and stay healthy but risk sickness?

Anyways, Nanjing is, as Shanghai, a big city. The difference being that Shanghai is a metropolis and Nanjing a big town. Shanghai har buildings downtown build purely show off, Nanjing is more practical and normal. Some might say boring. This is however, I realize is dangerously close to being boring information so I will quickly move on with the story. At the moment of writing I have been in Nanjing for one week and three days.

First of all, the campus, it is quite green, like everything else here. I heard they have planned the planting in the city so as to avoid the breeding of mosqitos which have previously been a great problem here. I do not wuite understand how plants help getting rid of the little buggers, but hey, I belive it has worked, Nanjings musqitos is not as bad as their reputation. The little things do not seem to like me that much though, something of which I am quite happy about. Is the sweet blood thing true? Why have not mythbusters answered this myth for us...or have they?

We live in Mandarin garden Xiyuan hotel. Definately a fitting place of resting for a bunsh of mandarin-students. We have the 16th floor pretty much occupied. Something which helps a lot when deciding where to eat, what to wear(girls only), or where to study new vocabulary. The reception is all right, they know a little english, which helps in emergencies, but is only destructive when it comes to practising Chinese. The mbreakfast however, is not good. And why do they only have one track on their feel-good atmosphere-creating CD-player? After a week of the same salsa-rumba-ish song, it no longer promotes a happy feeling, to say the least. So, eating out is the answer, or skipping breakfast, something which rarely is a very good choice since a reservoir of food is sorely needed when class starts at 8AM.

During my stay here I have allready experienced some things worth blogging about, these will follow in later chapters.

Chapter 2 - Shanghai

After sleeping waaay into the day and eating up preacious tourism-time we got up and had breakfast at the hostel. Btw. we stayed at Koala International Youth Hostel, www.hotels.lonelyplanet.com/hotel/Shanghai-Koala-International-Youth-Hostel-P1007947.html
Which was allright, but we were a bit unlucky since they were doing some construction right next door. Also it was a bit far from downtown, but taking a cap is not too expensive and the subway is even less expensive. However,the employees spoke english well and the neighbourhood was interesting, and a bit more "chinese" than downtown Shanghai.

I must say, Shanghai is great! I really loved this city, even though I was only here for a few days I really fell in love with both the people and the city itself. I prefer not to write about the touristy stuff but I'll mention it real quick. The Bund, which is the downtown riverbend, is a must. It gives you a view of the city which is nice to have from the onset off. The Yuyuan (Garden) in Old Shanghai was also fantastic. Both places was cool, but a bit too touristy in the long run. So to liven it up we bought some small fish locked up in a plastic key-chain cage, (btw. What woman, which obviously is their target-group, would ever buy a locked-up fish to have on their key chain?) and set them free into the fish pond. Only to see them easten by a bigger fish:) Ethical dilemma: What is better? To leave a fish to die in its plastic-cage, or let it free to most likely be eaten by a bigger fish?

The most fun in Shanghai though, is walking the streets randomly. Finding small cafès and bars, looking at people and their homes. And if you know Chinese, asking directions:) It gives you a great oppurtunity to talk to people. They are usually so suprised to hear a Waiguoren(foreigner) speaking their language that they welcome a chat. One of my days in Shanghai I couldn't sleep so I got up at 5 am and went outside. This was my best experience in China so far. Seeing the city come alive:) Especially all the nice old people in the park doing Taiji or walking backwards(?!?) for exercize. I also found some streetmarkets and and interesting stores in one of which I bought my new toy, an electronic dictionary:) A good one should cost around 1400-1800 Yuan, a perfectly fine one around 800-1000 Yuan, as the consuming Norwegian that I am is mine of course of the former kind.

Since Shanghai is such a business hot-spot there are people of all kinds here. Foreigners, people from other places in China and so one. Consequently, meeting people is no problem. Find a bar with the kind of people you want to meet, and go in. Buying something also tends to help the bonding-process. At least for our part, this worked quite well:)

Finding our way to Nanjing on our last day we realiced that we had made two major mistakes. The first was not having bought tickets in advance, the second, deciding to seperate into two groups, one who walked, a one who took a cab. Finding each other on the railway station proved not to be a laughing matter, but after much sweating, we managed. Beforehand we heard that there left about 70-80 trains for Nanjing each day(!), however, we did not know that they were all full. "I mean how many people can there be...?" So I boldly went to the counter and asked, in my rather sluggish mandarin, "Four tickets to Nanjing please". "Okay, next train with available seats leaves in six hours." was the reply.

By some heavly intervention however, I was saved by another foreigner. One with much better mandarin than myself. He was standing right next to me getting his stuff together after buying his ticket. And I mean, ANYONE that have been in China can tell you that you really don't see foreigners that often, and one that speaks mandarin no less! Thank God Almighty:) I think he was French, he looked French, I guess the Americans are wrong, the French ARE helpful ...Anyways, he had to really digg out the tickets though. First there were none, then I could stand at 17:00, and then I could stand and sit at 16:30, and then, by some miracle he found tickets on the train at 14:00, one hour from present time. That is China for ya! If its to much of a hassle, then they just don't care. Someone else will buy the tickets, sooner or later, its not like there isn't enough people...Ren shan ren hai, people mountain people sea, Chinese Chengyu. (Old four charachter sayings that has some moral og philosophical point.)

The train ride itself was pretty good. Express train going probably around 2-300 km/h, I am really not sure, but it was confortable. I must say I am suprised that I had to come to China to see the nicest train, and the nicest airplanes in my life.

Next, Nanjing:)

Chapter 1 - The Journey

Getting up in the morning when you have a long journey ahead of you is really no problem. Actually, you'r so much looking forward to travelling that you barely sleep. Which tends to come in handy when you later sit in a train and in various airplanes for a total duration of about 21 hours. That is without counting the waiting at the airports. So, first dummielesson, the flight from Europe to China takes about 6-7 hours depending on the airline and departure location.

After a few hours on the train from Vennesla to Oslo in Norway I actually felt great getting back to "Tigertown". Except for the fact that Oslo downtown still looks like a cunstruction site. I met up with Steffen, who had just returned from half a year in Australia, at Han's place to eat chinese food and catch up. I was great:) And by the way, Han does cook great chinese food, even compared to what you get in resturants in China. So if you'r ever in need of a cook...

After a great meal and a wet goodbye-for-half-a-year-hug/kiss I went to exchange cash. I was in too much of a hurry...So, i didn't bother to check the rates and ended up with getting around 500 NOK too little compared to the standard rate. I do not trust FOREX anymore! Neither should you, if you ever go travelling av need to exchange a large amount of cash all at once.

Before I left for the airport I also met up with Shan who gave me some last minute advice on phone cards and chinese phone numbers in China. You see, getting a Chinese phone number to use while in China is really cheap. Costs about 35NOK and is really easy. The thing she didn't tell me though, no hard feelings by the way, was that I should by the phone card in the city that you live so that the rates are cheaper. So, now I might have to get a new number here in Nanjing. but hey, no worries, it's cheap and easy:)

Now, the flight was fine. Nothing that exciting. Except for the fact that I do not evny the people that travel airplanes in a weelchair, what a hassle. Both in Beijing and Shanghai we dropped the chair off at the gate, but it never showed up at the baggage claim. In Beijing Rebecca, the girl sitting in the weelchair, was weeled around and all the way out the door to the taxies by a tiny, cute, and did I mention tiny chinese airport service employee. The problem was we were changing planes, not exiting the airport. Oh, my... I do not evny the person not beeing able to speak any chinese that ends up in this situation. After a while the tiny,cute and tiny girl kinda just left us. She said something about getting a "new person" to come with the weelchair. So we waited, but no weelchair showed up. After a while we took the matter into our own hands and started digging, in Chinese, a though matter for any second year student of mandarin. Finally, we found it at oversized baggage claim, logically enough... The tiny, cute and tiny Chinese girl however, was still MIA. I am beginning to think she abandoned us...

Going from Beijing to Shanghai wasa not a small matter either. We got one the plane, the stewardesses promised, we think, that the weelchair would be by the gate on the other side, so we believed them and got on board. However, once we got on boards the nice, soft voice of the captain told us that unfortunately we had some planes ahead of us on the take-off schedule,15 of them to be more precice. After this I felt like I was one the phone with lånekassa: "you are now number 15 in line, please hold...you are now number 10 in line, please hold...you are now number 5 in line, please hold..."and finally,"You are now next in line, please have your social securi...eh, please fasten your seatbelts and prepare for take-off." This ordeal lasted a whopping 2 hours, that is, a whole showing of "Because I said so", the most girly movie ever. But actually not too bad, I am emberrassed to say. However, it should be mentioned that is was the nicest plane I have ever been on.

After arriving is Shanghai, we all want to get to the hostel of course. I would at that point have given anything for a bed... However, the weelchair was missing. We found it, suprise suprise, still inside the airplane. "Oh, was somebody supposed to pick that up as well...???" In the words of Red Foreman: "Dumb ass!" Anyways, after a 160 Yuan taxi trip into the city we finally ended up in our beds. In a family room, no less, since they had no more twin rooms left. I, however, did not complain about a king-size apartement with two bathrooms for about 90 Yuan per person:) (Btw. exchange-rates for Yuan is found here: http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html )


Finally, Is was sleepy time...we arrived at 10pm/22:00 and I had left at 8am/08:00 the day before.

PS. pictures will arrive later, as soon as I get my computer fixed.

China for dummies - A prologue

It all started a late spring evening a little more than a year ago. I decied that Mandarin Chinese was to be conquered and pressed into my head, somehow. I guess there are just about a thousand reasons for starting a study of Mandarin, Putonghua（普通话）, the official language of China. Yet when people ask me this question, which they do pretty much ALL the time, I usually can't think of that many of them. But here are some:

First of all, because of the extremely facinating culture which stems from an even more facinating history. Learing Mandarin today, in 2008, makes me able to read original texts written by Confucius (孔夫子) during the Spring and Autumn Period about 500 years BC. Secondly, because of the people. Chinese people come in all sizes, shapes and personalities, and this fact makes getting to know them that much more interesting. Thirdly, because of the money. It is no secret, China is taking over the world, guchi-bag by guchi-bag and addidas-shoes by addidas-shoes...and yes, they are misspelled for a reason. And in the word of Green Day; to those of you above average intelligence, American IOU's by IUO's and stocks by stocks. Consequently, their economy will continue to grow, possibly to become what Britain was in the 1800-hundreds and the US in the 1900-hundreds, a superpower above all others. The fact that they are about 1.3 billion people, compared to the US at 300 million(half of them, to fat to walk...) and Europe at about 750 million(half of whom is about to, or allready retired), does not exactly weaken the Chinese superpower-candidacy. As a result of its growing importance, knowing Mandarin greatly increases my chances of getting a great job. As a fourth, and final point, simple and pure curiosity. It's said that it killed the cat, but I am no cat, thank God...

I this blog I will attempt to portray my study of Chinese language and my time in China during the fall of 2008. Please visit often, ask questions and/or post comments.