Weekend Workday Wah-Wahs

Weather today:  Cloudy.  High 4 Low 0

This post is going to try and explain the 'how' of weekend workday make-up days in China, but I dare not try and get into the 'why' because we know that question leads nowhere.  In short, you don't ask 'why' about anything to do with China.  You just don't.

The Chinese government recently published this information about the holiday schedule for 2013.  There's a possibility this information can't be accessed from the newspaper  (you need to be a subscriber) so will post it here instead:

2013 holiday schedule

New Year's Day: January 1-3 with January 5 and 6 working days.

Spring Festival: February 9-15, with February 16 and 17 working days. 

Qingming Festival: April 4-6 with April 7 working day.

Labor Day: April 29 to May 1 with April 27 and 28 working days.

Dragon Boat Festival: June 10-12, with June 8 and 9 working days. 

Mid-Autumn Festival: September 19-21, with September 22 working day.

National Day: October 1-7, with September 29 and October 12 working days.

So the 'working days' mentioned are in fact on weekends.  The idea is that depending on when the public holiday falls, a Saturday or Sunday (or in rare cases, both days, as in this weekend) are used as make-up holidays.  These make-up days can be either before or after the holiday, depending on a variety of factors.

What usually happens is this information is released a month or two beforehand, but the Chinese government has recently begun to post the information a year in advance, as people complained about the inability to make plans.

Right now, it is a rare case of working 8 days in a row, starting Fri Jan 4, then Jan 5 (Sat) and Jan 6 (Sun), followed by the next week.  This is to make up for the Jan 1-3 New Year Holiday, of which we also had to work on Dec 31

Of all my 11 years in China, this is by far the worst particular holiday make-up arrangement there has ever been.  The Chinese public is generally quite pissed off about it.  Somehow or other, we'll survive these 8 days in a row.  So far 2 down, 6 to go.

A Cold Winter

Weather today:  Snow.  High = 1  Low = -1

Reports of an extended cold snap all over south-eastern China are yet again in the newspapers, affecting the inland areas such as Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangxi provinces.  The cold snap is being felt here too, although not as severe because of the coastal influence.  The newspaper reports this winter as the coldest in 7 years, for the east China region.  The 2009 winter was the coldest in 18 years.  And the year before that saw an unprecendented disaster when the cold weather shut down the trains for the Spring Festival rush -- around this time of year.

So the newspaper is asking the readers a poll question:

Shanghai is experiencing its coldest winter in seven years. Many locals complain about the absence of central heating systems as enjoyed by people in north China. Do you think Shanghai should bring central heating to ordinary homes?

Absolutely. Electric air conditioning is inefficient in winter and not energy-saving.

It is okay for me as long as I don’t need to pay extra bills for heating.

It is unnecessary because Shanghai only has a few very cold days. A citywide coal-burning central heating system is wasteful and polluting.

Interestingly enough, note that fewer and fewer people are talking about global warming anymore.  And why would they, when every single year it is a colder than normal winter.  All that can be done is to survive, and to bear it out, cranking the air conditioning to the maximum and taking long extended hot showers.

8 days of teaching in a row starting today.  This is gonna suck.  It already sucks.  We are literally living in a refrigerator.

Shanghai was like a refrigerator with a fixed temperature yesterday as the difference between high and low was only around 2 degrees - with a low of minus 1.7 degrees and a high at 0.4 degrees. Intermittent snow did not accumulate.

Adventures at the Post Office

A long time ago when working at Dalian Maple Leaf, they gave me and the other teachers some excellent advice about living in China.  That is to say, frustrations are bound to happen.  Will you view them as an irritant or adventure?

It goes without saying that trying to get something done in China will be difficult and your patience will be tested.  After going through this time and time again, it also amazes me how much power there is in the choices we have in how we perceive our circumstances.  If frustration happens to you enough times, then you might as well shrug it off, see a bit of humor in it, and tell a story.

Alright so the plan was to mail a bottle of hand sanitizer to a friend who lives in Chongqing -- Yongchuan District to be exact, the location of one of the Maple Leaf Schools.  I've been to that area before and it's rather remote, so anything I can do to help.

The nearest post office is just down the street from my apartment here in Shanghai.   Having just mailed something there internationally (to Canada) the day before with a minimum of hassle, I figured it would be a cakewalk to mail something domestically.  How wrong I was. After waiting for some time in line, the post office clerk snarled at me, took a look at the hand sanitizer, then looked at me like I was a terrorist trying to mail a liquid bomb.  

"You want to mail this?"  He asked.   "Yes", I replied.   He then asked if I had used this earlier.  I said no.

He rattled something off that I needed to pack the hand sanitizer as it looked like it had been used already.  So I asked him if he had a box to pack it in.  He said a whole bunch more stuff which I couldn't understand, and I asked the people around me to help explain what was going on.  Apparently I had to pack it myself.  OK, so across the street I went to find a small box for carrying lightbulbs, and then packed the sanitizer in the box.

It seemed strange that I had to do this, because on previous errands at the post office, they usually provided a small green box for packing whatever it was.

So  now back to the post office, this time to another clerk.  She told me I needed to go back to the first guy and also pointed out that I had toothpaste on my lips.

Back to the first guy.  He said the packing wasn't acceptable, and that I needed to put cotton around the hand sanitizer.  OK, so where to get the cotton?  An ayi sitting nearby told me I could go to the medicine shop just down the street.  So I did that, and the people there were quite friendly and immediately had what I was looking for.  One of them smiled at me and said I was wearing too few clothes for this cold weather, and to take care of my health.  The other person, having learned I was from Canada, jokingly said, "Oh the guy's from Canada, he can handle the weather here."

Now back to the post office.  This time they deemed the cotton packing acceptable and provided the small green box as mentioned above.  The sanitizer was then packed into the box and the next hurdle came:  filling out the slip for mailing to a Chongqing address.  The ayi said, "Here's a pen" and gestured for me to fill it out.

So we have a clueless foreigner who has been going back and forth for an hour, and a crowd of clerks is now gathering to watch the fun.  The irony here is they just watch as someone hands me a pen, and expects me to just fill out a form using Chinese characters.  Nobody offers to help, despite me stating the obvious:  I'm not very good at writing characters.  OK, I can read, I'll admit that.  But not write.

Even so, it appeared there was nothing to do but go through the torture of writing out one character at a time as best I could, copying from the computer printout slip that my friend had earlier emailed me.  If that wasn't enough, I was given a black felt pen and had to repeat the entire process on the green box.

Not once did anyone think it strange that a foreigner was struggling to write characters, nor was anything mentioned about this reality.  But they were able to read it fine, and the package was then sent on its way.

Christmas Holiday Recap

The school I work for follows the Chinese calendar, which means the predominant winter holiday is the Chinese New Year, happening in February this year, and not Christmas.  Because of this fact, it is always difficult to get time off to visit Canada for Christmas -- my country of origin.  To make a long story short, I hadn't been back for 7 years and thought it appropriate to try and fight for some time off this year to see friends and family, despite the difficulties involved.

It seemed that this year we might actually have had 6 days off in a row around Christmas plus weekends.  So I talked to the boss, he agreed to book the plane tickets, and so it was done.  Fly out Dec 21, fly back Dec 30.  The only problem was the Chinese side later change the schedule to this:

Dec 24 -- work
Dec 25 -- one day off
Dec 26,27,28 -- work
Dec 29,30 -- two days off
Dec 31 -- work

Needless to say, it created a mess, because the Chinese side only let us know the revised holiday changes a month in advance, and my plane ticket was already booked.  This is a common problem of working in China which makes it very difficult to do any kind of long-term planning.  However, a salvage plan emerged where other teachers would sub my classes, and in turn, I brought them back a lot of stuff from Canada.

So I could go and visit.  Now the question is, did this time feel like a holiday?  Not really.  It wasn't expected to be a holiday from the get go, given the short time involved, and the inevitable deluge of phone calls from people expecting me to visit them since I was in Vancouver.  But I saw as many people as possible, and despite the rush, it was still fun.

One thing to say about this, however, is that my little short holiday is the norm for people back home.  That is, a few days off around Christmas is all they get.  Then it's back to the working grind.  So the holidays are very, very short.  To make matters worse, there is an incredible amount of work involved during this holiday time, out of the usual Christmas obligations.  You know the drill.  Shopping, cooking, preparing.  In a word, stress.  No small wonder that credit card debt goes through the roof during this time, and so does depression, loneliness, and suicides.

Every year it's the same thing with Christmas back home.  People always complain about the loss of the meaning of Christmas, and the commercialization of the holiday, yet nobody offers any solutions to the problem or does anything differently.  In a sense, living in Shanghai, worlds away from the whole thing has been the ultimate solution for myself.  But I still like to go back and enjoy a holiday -- as best as possible.

Of course, it's not all bad.  As mentioned, there were some fun parts to the holiday and I'm quite glad to have made the trip.  Catching up with family and friends was excellent, and there were some lovely dinners with great people.  Santa gave me a new Garmin GPS unit for my upcoming bicycle trip that is going to be sweet.  And I'm now well stocked with reading material and other essential items from Canada.

Nonetheless, the real holiday for us starts in 3 weeks, which is Chinese New Year.  Until then, it is going to be some very hard work and slogging as we prepare the exams and lead up to the vacation.

The Spring Massage Experience

About 9 months ago a friend invited me to go for a massage near the school, and so I figured, why not try it.  Since then I've gotten hooked.  Only now, I am asking myself why it took over 10 years of living in China to think of doing massages on a regular basis.  Sure wish I had thought of this earlier.

There was the odd Thai massage I tried now and again while traveling, but nothing on a regular basis.  At that point while traveling, I recall reading about how the Thais  (and I would argue, the Chinese also) regarded the massage experience as a key part of their overall physical health regimen, and most would do this quite often.  Doctors, for example, are certainly trained in massage therapy and the vast majority have it built into their clinics.  I thought that strange at the time, as a westerner, since we are accustomed to viewing massages as kind of 'pampering' or relaxing kind of therapy that happens only on special occasions.

Certainly, that is how it is marketed and portrayed in the western countries. A typical massage therapy session would be not even an hour  (perhaps 50 minutes) and run upwards of $80.  There would be all kinds of forms to fill out, and tons of regulations involved in the industry.  In Asia it's quite different.  Especially in China, the whole massage industry is unregulated.  The prices are much cheaper, running from about $8 to $15 an hour depending on many variables.  So, when going to Thailand on a vacation and noticing this, it would only make sense for the westerner to 'indulge' or be 'pampered' with a massage after not having one for many months back home, even years.

The Chinese massage experience is somewhere around the $15 / hour  range if you go to higher-quality establishments like Spring Massage.

http://www.springmassage.com.

Of course, you can go much cheaper than that to countless other venues, but you get what you pay for.  Many of them offer extra services and happy endings.  This isn't to say that Spring does not, as this is China, and the industry is unregulated here.  But in general, the higher-quality establishments have a much better chance to offer the legit massage experience, especially if you follow the advice below:

http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/phpbbforum/good-clean-and-safe-massage-center-t150541.html

Chinese massage is somewhat different than Thai massage.  While Thai massage is predominantly about stretching and body flexibility, the main focus of Chinese massage is to release tension.  The Shanghainese tend to be experts on the back, neck, and shoulders.  This only makes sense as the vast majority of customers are white-collars workers with high-pressure jobs who spend hours sitting at desks and develop stress in those areas.

It goes without saying that the massage experience will be painful.  Don't be fooled by the petite look of the masseuse, these people make it hurt.  That's all part of the philosophy, that pain is a signal that the tension is being released.  No pain is essentially no benefit.

Most of the time I go for 90 minutes to 2 hours full body massage, roughly twice a week.  This is combined with regular gym workouts, which I'll do a post later on.  The standard massage is 'zhi ya' or the pressure massage.  Other types include the 'tao can' which is a combined foot and body oil massage.  Fire cupping is possible as well, where they put suction cups on your back and suck the air out, leaving red circular marks.  Good to combine that with back scratching, or 'gua sha'

It is a very good idea to get a member card.  They way it works is you advance pay amounts of 1000, 3000, 5000, or 10000 RMB depending on how much of a discount you want.  The more you pre-pay, the bigger the discount.  Also, they treat you differently depending on the type of card --- that's a no-brainer.

If you are pleased with the massage experience, then most definitely get the 'number' of the masseuse.  What I mean by this is their service number.  All of them have one, usually two digits, to identify themselves.  So if you like the person giving the massage, then memorize the number and make a telephone reservation the next time.  What usually happens is the good people get snatched up fast, and it becomes very difficult to make bookings with them.

Another thing to mention is this is perhaps the best opportunity I've had to practice Chinese.  Most of them like to chat.  Some customers enjoy this, others can't stand it.  Spring Massage tends to be full of chatty masseuses, which creates a fun atmosphere that can otherwise be a very boring job for them.  It's not unlike Thailand where they generate a sense of 'sanuk' out of routine jobs.  Actually, I quite like the chatting, and have improved a lot on my Chinese in this sense.

Sold the Yamaha Scooter

Today's weather:  High = 2  Low = -3
Sunny and cha cha cha chilly

About a year ago I purchased a white Yamaha knock-off gas powered scooter.

These beasts are ideal for getting around the city and they cut down a trip time in half compared to using the subway or getting into taxis.  Scooters are flexible and nimble to navigate the city's busy roads.  They are most useful during rush hours, when a taxi is hard to come by and the subway is packed.  Late night is also a good time to ride, and there are no transport worries about coming home from a party.  Scooter riding is much better in the 'riding season' which typically goes from March to November when the weather is decent enough to ride. During the winter months, you can still ride, but it is going to be very cold and uncomfortable.

Generally, gas is cheap to fill up the bikes.  Roughly 30 RMB each time, about $5.  It lasts for around 200km.  As mentioned in previous posts, however, a crackdown on unregistered bikes (all scooters are illegal in the city since 2006) means that not all gas stations will sell to you.  The crackdown, of course, is not uniformly applied and it's a matter of knowing and memorizing which gas stations do sell you that precious fuel.  Awhile back I had a siphoning system going on with jerry cans and hoses.  That has not been necessary recently, but you never know when I'll need to revitalize that plan.

A typical knock-off Japanese scooter goes for around 5000 RMB, or $800.  This is a great deal of course.  Double the price and you have the genuine version.  For even cheaper you can get a purely Chinese bike, usually around 2500-3000 RMB, but these are not recommended as they always break down.

Regardless of which scooter it is, the key to owning and riding a bike Shanghai is getting familiar with the shops, making friends with the mechanics, and doing repairs and maintenance on a regular basis.  Expats have this strange idea that they buy a bike, ride it, and see how long it lasts without maintaining it -- they expect this to be a very long time.  Conversely, they seem to think that going to the shop regularly means the bike is not high quality, and it's a sign of weakness.

Perhaps this idea comes from the combined fact that parts and labor in western countries is ridiculously expensive, and vehicles in general don't go to the shop very often.  In China it's the opposite.  The bike is cheaper, so the quality is less, that's a given.  But the available parts at the shop are so cheap and the labor is essentially free that you'd be a fool for not taking advantage of this and getting that maintenance done.  Why do it yourself when you can pay someone else to do it for you at a good price?

So I've been maintaining and repairing the Yamaha Cygnus 125cc knock-off scooter for awhile now, and recently upgraded to a Honda CB400 full-blown motorcycle.   The scooter was taking up space so I figured that selling it would be a good idea.

On that note I took the scooter down to the shop and did a major overhaul.  New exhaust pipe, new spark plugs, new carberator, new battery, new tires, new generator, change the oil and air filter, and various other touch-up jobs.  The mechanics did fabulous work on the bike, it only took an hour or so, and the grand total of all this work was 490 RMB, about $80.   It was ready for selling shortly after that, which I did.

The bike served me extraordinarily well in the past year.  I put roughly 10,000 km on it, and made countless trips criss-crossing the city for this thing and that thing.  The savings of both time and money were enormous.  Using a rough calculation, the estimated savings were like this:

15km of riding saves one hour of commute time.
10km of riding saves 30 RMB in taxi fare

So that's essentially 30,000 RMB and approximately one whole month of time savings.  Fabulous.

Happy New Year Everyone

Today's weather:  High = 9 Low = 0
Sunny

I almost rang in 2013 with a nap.  After getting off the airplane on the evening of the 30th, I caught a taxi home and had to be alert as the driver, quite typically, was not familiar with the roads.  They usually make a beeline for the Lupu Bridge which is the most common way to reach downtown Puxi, as the vast majority of travelers are heading in the direction from the Pudong airport.  But it turns out I live further south in Puxi near the Shangzhong Road Tunnel, and that is where I expect the taxis to go.

Otherwise, heading into downtown and heading back out adds money to the taxi fare and I'd be better off just using the maglev train -- which I was deliberately avoiding, as just wanted to get home in the most direct way possible, i.e. a taxi.  With a bit of directing the guy, I got him back on course without adding too much to the meter, and in turn, he was impressed with my Chinese and familiarity with the streets.  He discounted the taxi fare and said to call him if I needed a future ride to the airport.  A nice gesture.

The next day of teaching was a writeoff, as to be expected.  The holiday schedule is not pleasant, in the sense that we have to work Dec 31, get Jan 1,2,3 off, then work 8 days in a row after that.  Basically, on that day of Dec 31, nothing got down and it was essentially babysitting.  I could care less, but at least I got paid.

After that, a massage with two other colleagues, then a long nap.  I woke up at 10pm, just in enough time to hop on the folding bicycle, stuff it in another taxi to Hengshan Lu, then attend the midnight church service.  It was an excellent event of ringing in the new year, followed by a bicycle ride home at 2am.  The bicycle of course was a good call due to the scarcity of cabs on New Years Eve and practically the entire city wanting one to get home.

From past experience, it's always a nightmare getting cabs on New Years Eve, and I still remember what happened 4 years ago while living in Songjiang at the time.  Not a fun story, which I'd rather not repeat here. Anyways, it was much easier tonight just biking past all the madness and then suddenly, all the crowds pretty much just disappeared past the downtown area.

The subway wasn't much use, as it closes down at 11pm just like any other night.  You'd hope they would run the trains late at night just once for this special event known as New Years Eve, but that is wishful thinking.  The trains purposely stop running at this time in order to generate jobs and income for the taxi drivers.