A tryst with China - Part 1

Hello readers. Greetings for 2009! After being away for quite some time, I finally decided to write. A lot happened in between, many different things like many chapters of the book. I can just say that it was not the best time for me ... but ups and downs are part of life no? ... Presently i am in China and will stay here for 3 months. This is a change that I desperately needed from my monotonous life back in India, and i am really glad i am here.

The Great Indian Naval Architect! :)

I landed on shanghai pudong international airport on 1st January 2009. My Malaysia Airlines flight took off at 11:55 pm on 31st December from Mumbai. At midnight, I was right on top of Mumbai. Imagine what scene was in front of my eyes. Mumbai, a mega metropolis, was shining with red and yellow lights till the horizon. As the clock ticked 12, the pilot form the cockpit, in English spoken by only pilots, wished happy new year to all the passengers. But my attention was somewhere else. I was seeing the Mumbai midnight fireworks from the top. I leave the rest to be imagined by the reader (actually I don't want to underestimate the aura of that moment by describing it in my strangely broken English!)

Well, just to make a point, Malaysia Airlines is really very comfortable with good food and sexy air hostesses in very traditional Malaysian dresses. Point to note: They serve guava juice in flight which I liked a lot!. I had a break journey with flight change at Kuala Lumpur. I changed 10 USD into Malaysian currency, got 44 ringgits and ate a croissant with a regular coffee in a French café at the airport. I wanted to buy a souvenir but couldn't decide in the short time I had, so planed to take something when I return. I boarded the flight for Shanghai. To my surprise both the flights from Mumbai to Kuala Lumpur and from there to shanghai were almost empty. I felt glad that they weren't cancelled.

Pudong international airport of shanghai was also completely empty. This really surprised me because after all, it's china. How can any place be empty? Anyways, I changed my currency, collected my baggage, cleared the immigration and got out of the airport ….. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee what the f**k …. It's so coooooold. After wearing five layers of clothes, I was regretting that I didn't had sixth. I found a driver waiting with my sign board on the airport (lol, it was funny, it made me feel like a rich man!). As we drove towards nantong, a city 120 km from shanghai, were I am supposed to live for the coming months, I was confused. And it was because the roads were also empty. For a moment I thought that I landed in some other country. I couldn't discuss this with driver as he didn't spoke a work of English. We reached my hotel in nantong in 2.5 hours.

Chinese KTV (Karaoke TV)

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Hotel was amazing, probably the best and costliest I have ever lived in. I expected the hotel staff to speak English but they didn't, not even a word. I ate noodles my first night in china, which I later realized, had beef extracts. Though almost no one speaks English in china, I realized it very quickly that it will be easier to communicate here then in France. This is because as a foreigner you get a lot of attention and people look forward to talk to you. When people stare at me here, I realize the cause of ultimate frustration which some foreigners have in India … and I blame no one … because I understand why I myself stare at a foreigner so hard back in India. It's a strange feeling and you have to belong to India or for example China to feel that.

Next morning, after meeting my boss, I headed to meet a couchsurfing friend. Her name is Eveline, she is from Cameroon in Africa. Her family shifted to America few years ago and she then came to china to teach English. China hosts a huge number of foreigners, esp. from English speaking countries, who come here as English teachers. We met for lunch. I ordered something without giving much attention to the menu and later realized that whole lunch was priced 22 RMB and a regular black coffee was priced 33 RMB. WTF!!! A Chinese friend of Eveline, QiQi (pronounced chee chee) joined us during lunch. She is also an English teacher, and a GenX Chinese for sure. She told me that only foreigners drink coffee in china and so to make money, it is almost always over priced. Now after living 10 days in china, I realize how money minded these Chinese people are. The whole nation seems obsessed with earning money. People don't even know right, wrong, ethical, unethical, important, unimportant … nothing … they just want to make money. QiQi helped me to buy a local china mobile sim card (100 RMB including 100 RMB talk time). I spend the rest of the day reading a book which I bought at crossword in Mumbai “China Road” by Rob Gifford. Next day, with the help of my boss I rented an apartment for 3 months. It cost me 1400 RMB per month + Electricity + Water + 400 RMB broker charge. The apartment is really nice but is surely overpriced. My boss told that it's difficult to get an apartment for 3 months so quickly. I had to shift immediately as I was staying in a very expensive hotel (300 RMB a day), so I took it.

With a chinese couple during their wedding banquet!

I will summarize my china experience till date point wise:

1. Went to lot of nice bars in the city like Heavens bar, Angels bar, Tiger Tiger bar etc. The good point of going to a bar is everyone speaks English (made esp. for foreigners remember?) so you can have some nice chat with people there, most of which are foreign English teachers, travelers, business men with lot of great stories to tell.

2. Chinese food is not as hostile as people tell you back in India. Believe me, being a vegetarian (well … almost!), I have gained weight in 10 days. They have lot of great vegetarian verities too. It's just difficult to figure out if you don't speak Chinese. It's a different story that I have tried jelly fish, 54% alcoholic chinese wine which burns your throat more then chivas regal and few other things which are better left unmentioned.

3. Chinese people have 2 names, one Chinese and one English, they have 2 birthdays, and they host their marriage parties 2 times!

4. Went to a Chinese wedding. Obsession of Chinese people with karaoke is also eminent in marriage celebrations. Many sing and speak for the happy life of couple. During a meal, Chinese people can do cheers as many numbers of times they want. It's really funny.

5. The most important observation I had in china is that how obsessed they are with the western civilization. It seems that the sudden opening of china to the world and the ultra rapid development after that has taken Chinese people with the storm. There are ultra modern roads but they don't know how to drive, they were the costliest brand of western cloths (those brands which have not even entered India till now have showrooms even in second hand Chinese cities) but they don't know how to carry them, they live in ultra modern houses but have a very poor personal hygiene. The whole country, the young, the old, the rich, the poor … just everyone is swept away by something that is happening to china. They were never allowed to make decisions and suddenly they have so many choices in front of them. They are confused with this quick positive change with no one to guide them. And I think this is why the world is afraid of china, if you understand what I mean.

With QiQi :)

My wish to travel distant places has somehow worked during the past few years. I have gained and lost many things during these times. I made friends for life, fell in love, lost it (really? ... ehh ... not sure!), drank and ate some most auspicious dishes existing on planet earth, visited engineering and natural marvels, learned a lot professionally and did what not! On the other side, I learned the importance of keeping association with my motherland and my family where ever I am in the world. I learned to accept the differences that exist in this world as just another form of reality.

Overall I have realized one very important thing about my life. I am not born to be an engineer for sure. Somehow I am not able to convince myself that I am born to built ships!!! I love to live in my virtual world with my abstract ideas. Maybe I would become a teacher or a journalist one day … the holy search continues!

With Love,
Karan Bhawsinka