a declaration of independance
avg. temp.: hot & sticky…as always
today’s accomplishment: calling a taxi
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so i thought i’d talk a little today about the art of taking a taxi here in shanghai. in truth shanghai is a truly bike-able city. you can get almost anywhere by walking or biking. and where bikes leave off, public transportation picks up. but in this crazy hot and humid weather a taxi is really the only option if you want to arrive somewhere in a solid state and not in a puddle. i’ve also found it’s pretty necessary on the way home from the market!
initially, i thought there would be no way i’d be able to easily take a taxi since i can’t speak the language. afterall, how do you tell them where to go if you don’t speak the language and how do you explain how to get there if you don’t know yourself? i’ve discovered that it’s not as difficult as it may at first appear….especially when you’re staying at a place like viscaya (the housing complex where i’m staying).
can’t get much better than picking up a house phone near the door and simply saying “taxi please” to the guard at the front gate. a taxi then appears at your doorstep about 5-10 min. later. you get in, hand them a business card and 5 min. later you arrive at church.
now that’s easy.
but really….the true discovery is the business card. the business card is the ticket to freedom here in shanghai. if you have a business card you can get anywhere. everyone has a business card and if you actually have a job then you have 2! everyone’s card lists their address, mobile number, and e-mail address. most info. is listed in both english and chinese. and many of them have mini-maps on the back to assist you or the driver in finding the street. when you meet people here you don’t merely shake hands or casually exchange phone numbers, here….you swap business cards. at first, i thought it was a bit overkill. like all these too-cool-for-school people passing out their cards. now i see….the business card is what allows people like me to get around. as long as i have a card, i can make contact via phone or e-mail, walk to the location using the mini-map, or give the card to the taxi driver to arrive in style!
now i’m saying…where do i get my business card?
apt. hunting 101
avg. tem.: ~90 degrees, 1500% humidity (inside each apt. with no air on)
today’s accomplishment: signed a contract for an apt.
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so maybe it’s time for me to shed a little light on the world of apt. hunting in shanghai. before i get to that let me just say that i have taken some pics that i want to upload and post, but at the moment my stuff is scattered between 4 suitcases and various boxes and i can’t find my camera cord. so i’ll have to wait until i can actually unpack for real for me to be able to post pics. but soon….
so anyway…yes, apt. hunting here in shanghai is cutthroat. with 200 million people in 1 city (yes i said 200 million and that is not me exaggerating), there are lots of people looking for places to live….and there are plenty of real estate agents to help you out. i think i explained previously about how the reale estate agents work and how they have to show you around.
what i haven’t told you about are the landlords. so i was told that the chinese don’t really say “no” the way westerners do…or especially the way americans do. there are a lot of nuances in the way they communicate with each other and much has to do with “saving face” etc. i was told it’s in poor taste to ever back someone into a corner to make him/her have to say something that will make them look bad. not like in the u.s. where we tend to call people out for beating around the bush. here…it’s more about reading between the lines.
it’s hard to really understand how this will play out until you actually have such a conversation. i finally came across a quite humorous case of this while apt. hunting. we have been looking at apts. for several hours every day since i’ve been here. most apts. are fully furnished and have had either 2 or 3 bedrooms (based on my price range). so we go to one particularly nice compound (all apts. around here are sorta like gated communities…even the not so nice apts.)….so we go to this nicer one which i knew would be more expensive and when we get up to the apt. the landlord and several of his “colleagues” are waiting to show us the apt. this particular landlord spoke some limited english so i was able to talk with him myself, which is why i was so enlightened by the conversation.
typically, you look around the apt. and then if it were decent enough to negotiate a bit then we would do so. with most being furnished you are dealing with the taste of someone else and not just anyone…but people of a different culture. so sometimes the apts. had very nice furnishings, but sometimes….well…they left something to be desired. in this case, the furnishings were rather sparse. and of the things that were there, there were several pieces of well….camping equipment. well, i should say….it LOOKED like camping equipment….we weren’t sure until later. as we walked through we mentioned things that maybe we would like to change….single bed to a double, was he leaving the desk?, could we change out the plastic table to a wooden one? that sort of thing. there were also no dressers or wardrobes so we had asked for that too. the landlord walked with us and was making a list of things we wanted to ask about. then we went back in the living room to discuss options. initially, he said yes to everything (as is typical)….then came what i can only describe as “chinese for laugh in your face no”!
when we asked about an extra chair for the living room (there was only 1 love seat), he said i could choose from a catalog. as he hands us the catalog we discover that this is the business he and his friends own (the light begins to turn on)….low and behold…it’s camping equipment!!! all in japanese…but camping equipment none-the-less. and so i learn two things, 1. apparently the japanese like to camp a lot and 2. no wonder the table and chairs look like they were made for camping….they were! but anyway, he smiles quite proudly at the selection he is offering. then i ask about putting a double bed in the 2nd bedroom, which was empty at the time. he again smiled and showed me the wonderful air mattresses that he was more than willing to provide. again, you almost have to chuckle at the air of benevolence he had about him….i think he truly believed he was being quite gracious. in any case, we just shook our heads to acknowledge the options and kept going. but the best part came when we got to the wardrobes and dressers. we asked that he provide some. first he said yes. then he came back a few minutes later and he said, “i hope you will be able to purchase this for yourself as you will be able to choose your favorite and i no be able to choose your favorite. i hope you can pick the one you like.”
huh? i look at renee and kinda ask her….”does that mean no he won’t buy it?” she smiles and shakes her head. ahhhh…chinese for laugh in your face no.
then we mention that the bathroom window would need some inexpensive blinds and he says, “i hope you will like to choose your favorite blinds because i don’t know what a woman would like. men don’t buy these accoutrements.” lol…again with the chinese for no….but really….accoutrements? if you don’t know…that’s the english word for accessories. i’m thinking…how can this guy who speaks broken english at best know the word accoutrements? i don’t think half my american friends would know that word!!!
ahhhh….the chinese. in any case, we told him we’d think about it and went on to find a spacious 3 bedroom apt. with a landlord so nice he is actually taking me shopping with him this afternoon to choose the furniture i would prefer to furnish almost the whole place (i think we’re going to ikea!). annnnd….it’s only costing me 5,000 rmb a month (about $650). so it should be pretty sweet. i’ll take some pics when i get moved in…hopefully sometime next week.
but i think i’m gonna keep in mind that chinese for no next time someone asks me for something i don’t wanna do. they’ll be so busy trying to figure out what i said they won’t even know i said no.
i hope you will like to do this job yourself as you know the best way that you would like to have it done and i don’t really know anything about such accoutrements!
chinese for funny
today’s average temperature: ~90 degrees, 600% humidity
today’s accomplishment: went shopping at market and took taxi home (all by myself) – yesterday, road bike all around pudong (all by myself) – today
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well here i am trying to begin my first posting about life here in shanghai. i’m not sure i even have words to describe what these first few days have been like. maybe i can best sum it up by my “ride” home this evening.
i’ve been apartment hunting for the past couple days and have found it to be an interesting experience at the least. in china, you don’t just go to an apt. complex and go to management and ask to see what is available. here, you go to real estate agents who take you to individual apts. that are all “owned” by individual landlords (though even ownership here is a dubious term since really the govt. owns everything and to “own” something you simply rent it for 100 years or something). in any case, there’s no loyalty to any one agent…you can talk to as many as you like and whichever finds you the best apt. for the cheapest and the fastest wins….basically. so we’ve been going around from place to place and tonight i decided to try riding a bike left for me here to use while i’m staying at this house. it wasn’t too far of a ride, but then we went from complex to complex so i ended up off the main streets that i knew. so my friend lily, who has been helping me to look (and speaking chinese for me) asked the agents (there were 3) to lead me back.
on a side note, i find it hilarious that at any given apt. there can be 3, 4, or even as many as 6 people there….just to show the one apt. and, of course, they all sort of stare at you as you walk around and think of various questions to ask about the furnishings or what have you.
so anyway, in this case there were 3 agents present. so there i am on my bike being lead home by 3 chinese real estate agents (2 on vespas, 1 on a bike with a basket on the front) all of whom are smoking and alternately talking on cellphones! it struck me as quite humorous as i huffed and puffed behind them trying to pedal fast enough to keep up!
of course, that’s really probably only the first of many such experiences. it’s def. been strange to adjust to a new way of thinking. sometimes it’s easy to get really mixed up…like in the grocery store when renee was showing me how to get to the market and where the various food sections were. i was telling her that i would probably want to try to buy food that was familiar (western)….she said ok she would lead me to the import section. and, without even thinking, i said, “import section? why would i eat imported food…don’t i want american food?”! of course, as soon as i said it…i was like….”OOOHHH duh!!! i AM an import here! lol” oops.
so i’ll end with this….we went yesterday to have sushi since i really like sushi and was interested to try it. as we walked to the sushi restaurant, lily and renee were explaining to me that the chinese and the japanese don’t really like each other very much…just in general. so they don’t like it when people think that sushi is chinese (it’s japanese). in any case, the sushi was quite delicious and very inexpensive (like $1 for 6 rolls!)….but the thing that really cracked me up was the wet napkin on the table. it came in a wrapper with a story about the restaurant and how it started. it was all in english, but as i’ve found often the translation never really sounds quite right. so here’s what it said….
the front said the restaurant name: sakae sushi. then under that: good place. very good sushi.
the back had this story: sakae sushi originated from a romantic love story between a husband and a wife. a young man had a wife who loved japanese food but would refrain from eating too much due to sky-high prices charged by japanese restaurants.
it was love that triggered the man to set up a restaurant in 1997, serving quality and value for money japanese food. he felt that everyone who loved japanese cuisine should be able to enjoy them without constantly having to worry about the cost of that gastronomical pleasure.
since then, sakae sushi never looked back. today, sakae sushi has over 40 outlets in china, indonesia, malaysia, philippines, singapore and thailand. despite its rapid proliferation, sakae sushi remains committed and true to its founding philosophy.
Hello world!
so just setting up my blog so i can begin sharing about life in china. i’ll be back later to add more….
