Today is the Chinese equivalent of Valentines Day. 七夕 (qī xī or night of sevens) – the story as to why the 7th of the 7th (lunar calendar) is a romantic day can be found here…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_of_Sevens
… quick, find a Chinese person to buy flowers for!
It is a quiet Monday evening in the pub, the boys from work are out for ‘a quick bite to eat’ and I’ve just popped in for a couple as they say. There are another half a dozen people in the bar at best and of course the staff. How much fun you gonna have? So because it’s China and you can do this sort of thing, after taking a few snaps I just let the camera do the rounds. I’ve put the photos into this flickr set. The whole bum thing was a sort of mission that one of the staff went on. For the record the bar staff are in the fetching Orange, the people with instruments are the band and everyone else (all the fat white men) are the boys from work.
Just found the big fella here sat in the kitchen sink blowing bubbles. Guess that answers the question of what we are having for dinner.
It was light as I passed the man selling 羊肉串 (yáng ròu chuàn, lamb on a stick – there is an ‘informal’ English name in common use here which I’m not going repeat) and that is when I noticed it, not when a quip was made by a colleague I passed / tried to run over in the car park. What had I noticed? It was still light outside. I was leaving early, 18:05 to be precise. I cannot recall ever riding home in the light before. I ride in when it’s light, baking hot in fact but I don’t recall every riding home in the light.
A diversion into geography
This does not mean quite the extreme working hours that the same statement would imply in the UK. – It’s mid summer here same as in the UK and everywhere else in the northern hemisphere (I know it’s obvious but someone did ask me the other day and I can’t remember who so apologies if you are reading this!) but yes it’s mid summer. This means that sunrise is at 05:10 which is particularly disconcerting when you are sat outside the Shamrock still watching the football. Sunset is at 19:00 which is why I cannot recall riding home in the light before. To end the geographical diversion Hangzhou is at approximately 30 degrees 15 minutes north and 120 degrees and 11 minutes east.
I had a moment that captured something beautifully about Hangzhou for me and sadly failed to get a decent photo with the phone. There was a lady standing cool as a cucumber in the middle of a junction. It’s just another junction in Hangzhou but for the benefit of those of you who’ve not been: the road west-east* has 6 lanes of traffic in the main part of the road, a two lane bus lane at either side and a bike lane, that you could drive a bus down and have room to spare, at either side. The bus lanes and bike lanes are normally separated from the main part of the road by a kerbed flowerbed but clearly not across the junction. The smaller street that crosses this road south-north* is four lanes of traffic and a bike lane either side. So when I say that this lady was standing in the middle of the junction I mean that she standing in the very centre of all this, sporting the most fantastic Chinese hat and generally being completely un-phased the whole thing. This is what captured something about Hangzhou for me – it’s the size of it, it’s huge and incredibly, incredibly busy. The busyness scares that wots-its out of foreigners (think important visitors from the UK yelping and grabbing my arm as we try to cross the relatively trivial road outside the office) but with which the locals seem to deal effortlessly. It took me an incredible 35 minutes to get home on the bike because of the traffic. Traffic in the bike lanes that is, not the cars, who cares about cars? I stopped at this relatively minor junction above and realised that there were almost 50 people on bikes between me and the line (and more behind me).
It’s daft I guess to be struck by it all (afresh?) a week before 3rd anniversary (more later) of landing in China the first time but it struck me then, mind blowing.
* In Chinese you say south-north and west-east, I wonder how these things come to be a standard?
So, attentive readers (both of you), you should by now have got the impression that traveling by e-bike is a journey of cultural discovery as much as it is a journey from one place to another. While not as exciting, interesting or good for the environment as traveling by e-bike taxi journeys can also have their moments.
I’d love to think that the gentleman by the roadside was a casualty of the previous evenings excesses but suspect he’s just hot. All I can say about the gentleman above is that I wish I was free to play Etch-a-sketch (yes, that is what he is doing) at 09:30 on a weekday morning, oh for a life of leisure, eh?
This is a shameless plug. Shameless because I think they deserve it. ChinesePod is excellent. Not perfect (I still think that the ‘blog style’ organisation of the site is difficult to get your head around). However – that’s where the criticism ends and it’s worth noting that the people behind it are clearly responsive to community feedback.
Ultimately the core product of ChinesePod is the podcasts and they are without question the best thing about the site and they are free. I’m not a teacher; I’m not even a very good student. However the formula they’ve put together works, really well. I’ve listened to newbie lessons as a refresher, or just for fun and I’ve tackled lessons where most of the vocabulary was new and found that in both cases the system works as a learning tool for me. I’m about to re-subscribe to the full content having previously enjoyed the trial period and am looking forward to getting stuck into the extra resources now I’ve got some time again.
One of the best things about it as a learning resource is that there is no commitment beyond the fact that you want to do it. You can work at your own pace.
Another great thing about the site is that, at least for now, is that the comments on the blog posts (sorry can’t get past this view of the site) i.e. the community is brilliant.
Enough said, if you have a means to play mp3 files (and I don’t see how you can be reading this and not) and even the vaguest interest or requirement for some mandarin get stuck in.
I’ve just found a cool web site called Bubblesnaps that makes photos like this. I have a long list of features they need to add but will save it – it’s pretty cool nonetheless.
I’m going to change the world! My chosen cause? I hear you mumble. Well it turns out that some Gates fella has already baggsied malaria and the like so *drum roll* the e-bike. I love my e-bike. I’ve just blasted home in less time than it would have taken to get a taxi, listening to ChinesePod and generally having fun, on my commute!
Ok it’s unseasonably pleasant out there after the monumental thunderstorm we had to today (which L and I watched, taking our life in our hands without the protection of an iPod, from the balcony) but the fact remains it is THE mode of transport for me and environmentally friendly to boot.
I’m going to start with China. Why?… You mumble … There are 10s of 1000s of e-bikes on the streets of Hangzhou alone. Well it is here a perception issue, I guess like in the UK. Many, many people aspire to car ownership. As do I – I mean owning a car in the same country I live in. But I wouldn’t use it to go to work. As an example I had a conversation with D’s Dad recently about this which illustrates the point rather well. For the record he is a former motorbike rider (they’re not banned where he lives) who owns a car.
DD: He still rides the e-bike?
ME: (staking claim to direct conversation as opposed to being talked about in my presence) Yes!
DD: British managers* shouldn’t ride e-bikes, they’re for workers.
ME: In Hangzhou lots of foreigners ride e-bikes (I know four, it’s all relative)
DD: (notable silence)
ME: Because foreigners don’t have any face.
D: (helpfully) He means foreigners don’t have to worry about losing face.
ALL: *lets find something else to talk about quickly laughter*
This conversation happened in Chinese, I offer no guarantees of the quality of my understanding, translation or memory. It’s also probably worth pointing out that I was driving a car at the time that it took place.
It is certainly true at the times that I travel that the majority of e-bike riders are construction workers, but then there has to be a lot of construction works in Hangzhou unless the fairies are changing the skyline while we are all asleep (sleep being an activity we are all once more enjoying now the world cup is over).
As we’ve all heard the environment can’t take western style car ownership in China and for my 2p** neither can the roads and it needs to go down in the west too. The e-bike is the solution. You heard it here first, get yours now.
* I’ve actually deliberately manipulated the translation here, what has D told them I do for a living!?
** I’m going to keep using it whatever JP thinks it means.
How to not get too hot or too tanned in Hangzhou this summer #4 – The Snooze.
At the end of the day all the tricks of the trade aren’t going to help you that much if it’s 40 plus and nearly 100 per cent humidity. The only option left, as demonstrated by this gentleman, is to find a shady corner of major office building car park and siesta.
England declares Cristiano Ronaldo national emergency | The Register
As a counter to my jab at the shallow end of the ‘popular internet’ a couple of days ago in MyTuppence – I thought this was a heart warming story of how a bunch of ordinary folk, a some vote rigging and an email hate campaign saw a little bit of justice done.
Restores your faith.
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