Sierra Mountain Times

Nihao (hello) – Good News! The HEAT is on!*

And just in time, we had our first snow here. It was beautiful to see the area cloaked in a nice clean winter blanket. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for a White Christmas. We are still enjoying ourselves over here in Dalian, China and continue to have some interesting experiences. An American friend and I recently attended our first gongfu (kung fu) lesson, and it was quite a treat. The first thing we learned during our lesson was that if at anytime during the instruction our “master” wanted to kill us he could do it in 0.3 seconds. Seriously, this guy, (whom we refer to as Bruce Lee – Chinese names are difficult to remember and hard to pronounce) was a pro. The first thing he had me do was hold a boxing pad at my chest with both hands. He then placed his hand a few inches from the pad and punched. This sent me flying back about 10 feet, no exaggeration! He didn’t even bring his arm back; as far as I could tell all he did was close his hand into a fist. We’re pretty sure it was magic. Anyway, we had a great time and hope to continue our lessons in this ancient technique.

I think that having kung fu skills in China is a good idea for protection, but so far we have discovered that China is a pretty safe country (other than trying to cross the street or taking a taxi). It is nearly impossible to get a hold of a gun here and many of the police officers don’t even carry firearms. The only people here we’ve seen with some real firepower are the military and the guys in the armored trucks. We had an encounter with some of these guys that made us feel like we were in a movie. On our way up an escalator to a Bank of Dalian I turned around and was staring at 3 guys in blue military fatigues holding shotguns. In the center of them were two “businessmen” carrying a large duffel bag. Just like in the Mafia movies! This thing was bursting with fat stacks of yuans (Chinese dollars, referred to as RMB’s, short for remnibi). Apparently this is a normal transaction in China because nobody else in the building even blinked at the scene. I on the other hand, snapped a covert picture (exclusively for the SMT).

Speaking of yuans (RMB), the American dollar is still holding pretty steady here despite the economic problems back home. It’s about 6.8 RMB to $1, which means you can live pretty comfortably here on a meager salary. For example, four of us can go out to dinner and order sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, noodles, a few vegetable dishes, tea, and a few beers for around 70RMB total. That’s $10! It’s amazing. Shopping here is fun as well, because almost all of it involves bartering. Most stores here, excluding restaurants and food marts, mark everything way up – especially if you are a foreigner. Some Chinese friends told us that when you go shopping you typically want to start your bartering by asking to pay ¼ of the price given. A quarter! Can you imagine doing this in the U.S.? “How much is that Ipod?”

“$120”

“I’ll give you $40”

“Are you kidding me!??”

But here, they say 200RMB for the Ipod, you say 40RMB, they shake their head with disgust, and then you begin to walk away slowly. They chase after you, throw a calculator in your face and say “how much you pay?” You put 45, they laugh and gesture “more, more” you put 50, they say “more”, you walk away, they grab you………..you can see where this is going. Ultimately, you can get things down to less than half if you really work at it. The key is a big smile, laughter, a few walk-a-ways, and you’re in. It can be quite enjoyable, but often times it leaves you drained and you’re still not sure if you got ripped off. I have learned how to count to 1,000 in Chinese, which is very helpful during theses exchanges because you can overhear what prices they are saying to the locals…Just a tip, in case you ever make it out here.

My Chinese is still very poor, but it is a great feeling when you say something and it is actually understood! The tough part about Chinese, or Mandarin, is the tones. The language has four different tones, and most words have all four tones. For example: the word “ma” can mean four completely different things depending on the tone you use when you say it. “Ma” with a high flat tone means mother, “ma” with a dipping tone means horse. You can see how this can create some problems if you’re not careful. There is a popular Chinese tongue twister here that goes “Mama qi ma, ma man, mama, ma ma.” With the correct tones this translates as “mother rides horse, the horse is slow, mother scolds the horse.”

On that note, the phrase of the week is: “wo shi Meiguoren” which means “I am an American.” Make sure you know the tones though!

That’s all for now, thanks for reading! Zaijian! (goodbye)

*Last week I mentioned that the government controls the heaters and ours had not turned on yet, even though “National Heat Day” had passed.