From Grits to Chopsticks

We just returned to China after a two-month visit in the USA.  As we drove up and down the east coast to spend time with family and friends, the road was a common sight:

We drove 7650 miles, quite a change from zero driving in China.  One of the highlights of our trip was to spend Christmas in the mountains of Virginia, nearby Timothy’s birthplace of Waynesboro.  It was our first Christmas all together in two years:

It was also very special to be in the States to enjoy our grandson, Elijah’s, first Christmas:

As you might imagine, there were “exciting” Christmas presents, like this “Pleasant Goat” shopping bag from a Wal-Mart in China:

In keeping with family tradition, we spent a lot of our time together playing board games:

We also enjoyed hiking in the beautiful mountains:

After Christmas, we passed through Washington, DC (Mark’s birthplace):

While in DC, we were able to see Mark’s brother and his family and connect with a former student who is now attending graduate school in the US.  Of course, we ate in Chinatown:

Timothy’s friend Caitlyn joined us for a visit to Laurie’s house in PA.  Among other random things, we went down the road to take a tour of the Herr’s potato chip factory:

Of course, it was good to spend time in the south, too, where we enjoyed some great American food, like Krispy Kreme donuts:

While in the States, Susan was especially blessed to spend an extended amount of time with her mother (who was in and out of the hospital):

We will really miss her now that we’re back in China.  We’ll also miss spending time with Elijah, and are thankful that we can at least watch him grow from afar via Skype:

Here are some more random snapshots of life in China.  Last week, we mentioned that it can get pretty cold in “The Spring City.”  Here we are eating a hotpot dinner in our local village on Sunday night:

It’s good to eat from a boiling pot of broth this time of year, especially since it allows you to have a gas burner on the table.  There are actually some restaurants with “heat,” like this one near our apartment:

Of course, you have to go outside to warm up.  Speaking of food, sweet potatoes are a favorite roadside snack in our city.  All over town, you will find vendors cooking them on oil drum grills:

We spend a lot of our time eating with students, so here’s one more food photo, taken with some prospective students on an “interview” for my class next year (an interactive English test):

Now that the weather has turned cold, all of the dogs are wearing the latest fashions:

The trees around town have also become more fashionable.  After we returned from Taiwan a few weeks ago, we noticed that they had all been painted white:

You might think that this is a trivial thing, but recognize that there are tens of thousands of trees in our city.  Almost all of them received the same white coat of paint in less than a week.  But as we’ve said before, the Chinese never shy away from large projects, as you can tell by these cranes alongside the 2nd ring road:

Just a few more random shots to finish out this week’s blog.  Here is one of our English corner students participating in an art contest, drawing a nativity scene in a difficult way:

Here’s one of me juggling before movie night (kind of a warm-up act while waiting for additional students to arrive):

Every Wednesday night, Susan tutors the son of a faculty member in English:

It’s nice to be able to serve the folks in our city.

Even though we’ve been in China for over a year and a half, some things still catch our attention or seem a bit unusual.  When we returned from Taiwan last weekend, we enjoyed the wording of this sign next to the escalator at our international airport:

While walking by a local business, it was interesting to see the combination of religious perspectives in the newly decorated lobby: Christmas on the left and an idol shrine on the right:

Mold has not been as much of an issue as last year, but Susan still recently needed to clean our bathroom ceiling:

The weather so far hasn’t been as cold as last year, either, but I knew that the temperature was getting low when I saw Susan brushing her teeth at bedtime wearing a coat and scarf (like most people here, we don’t have heat in our apartment):

Before eating lunch with a student recently, I snapped a photo with my camera phone:

This restaurant, like many others, allows you to order from its rack of vegetables and raw meats.  It’s a good idea to ignore the kitchen while selecting your meal …

Restaurants are usually wide open to the street (brrr!) allowing anyone and anything to enter and check out the quality of the food.  This little stray stared at the offerings for a long time as we were eating with some friends today after our Sunday fellowship:

During English corner last week, we played games with our students (in English).  Here are some kids at the beginning of “Monopoly” and at the end of “Ticket to Ride”:

When a new student comes to English Corner for the first time, we ask them to put a sticker on our map to show the location of their home town.  If multiple students are from the same town, we begin to stack up the numbers.  Here is a photo of the map which has been on the wall for the past year, showing that we’ve had over 140 different students come one or more times during the past three semesters:

Transportation here is quite different than in the west, with a million electric scooters flooding the roads and sidewalks.  I’ve seen them carry huge loads, including a queen-sized bedroom set.   This is the first one that I’ve seen equipped with a western toilet:

Last week, we had the wonderful opportunity to spend Thanksgiving in Taiwan.  We’ve had a very busy semester and were thankful for the chance to get away together for a time of rest and refreshment.  This was our first trip to Taiwan, and it was a real treat to enjoy some of the interesting places and wonderful scenery.  We started by going to the top of Taipei 101, which was the tallest building in the world when completed in 2004:

It also has one of the fastest elevators in the world (38 mi/hr) with a pressurized cabin (like an airplane) to protect sensitive ears.  Here is a view of the city from the top (looking westward):

After getting a bird’s eye view of the city, we went to the Palace Museum to view ancient Chinese treasures:

The next day, we went to the memorial of a famous leader and saw the changing of the guard (imagine a Chinese version of what you might see at Buckingham Palace):

After two days in Taipei, we rode the train to Hualien, a small town on the east coast.  It was Mark’s birthday, so we celebrated with some Chinese-style seafood:

Like most tourists, we came to Hualien to visit Taroko Gorge.  It’s really hard to comprehend the scale and beauty of this place from pictures.  The massive cliffs and countless waterfalls are amazing:

This would seem to be a paradise for people who enjoy rock climbing or caving, with streams of water flowing (and spraying) out of holes in the huge stone walls:

At the end of the day, we went to the local seashore for a walk on the beach, which is not a walk on sand but on polished stones:

Before flying back home, we had a chance to visit the Taipei Zoo where we had as much fun viewing the school children as we did the animals:

Afterwards, we took a ride on the MaoKang gondola:

A part of the Taipei MRT system, the Gondola will take you on a 2.7 mile trip to the village of MaoKang for less than $2 USD.  And if you get into the special line, you can ride in a gondola car with a glass bottom:

Since Susan’s birthday is close at hand, we also celebrated her special day with a steak dinner at Ponderosa.  A steak (and a fork and knife) is a very rare treat for folks who live in China (make mine medium-rare please):

Taiwan is a beautiful place!  We’re thankful that we can now relate better to our friends in Texas who are from there.

During this time of year, we stop to give thanks for our many blessings.  Among other things, we are blessed with many wonderful students.  Here is a photo of our Thanksgiving English Corner:

We discussed the origins of American Thanksgiving and shared apple, pumpkin, and pecan pies.  This next photo is from a recent movie night:

We watch American movies (with Chinese subtitles) and answer questions from the students afterwards.  It’s a great way to enjoy English learning and spend time together.

When you ask Susan about her favorite food, she will quickly say that it is the humble fried egg, her staple lunch fare for decades.  If she were stranded on a desert island (or in China) and could only have one thing to eat, this would be it:

You can select individual eggs in the market or choose them from bulk boxes at local stores.  Some shops also sell eggs in clear plastic cartons, often containing quite a variety of egg sizes.  For example, here are two eggs from the  SAME carton:

When buying eggs, our biggest question has to do with freshness.  Although the eggs in the carton contain a slip of paper with a packing date code, it is easily changed to fool customers.  This question is compounded by the fact that eggs in China are not refrigerated.

After purchasing eggs, you can check their freshness by dropping them into a pan of water.  If they sink and lie flat on the bottom, you’ve got some good eggs.  If they stand on end, they’re getting old, and if they float to the top, toss them out (we once bought an entire carton of eggs that floated!).

Two months ago, we bought some particularly fresh eggs (shown here in a pot of water), each one tagged with a red sticker on the end:

This prompted Susan to run an experiment (she should’ve been a food science major), testing the benefits of egg refrigeration.  Two eggs were kept in a kitchen cabinet and two in the refrigerator.  After 9 days, all four eggs are still lying down and looking good (non-refrigerated on the left and refrigerated on the right):

After 16 days, only one egg (a refrigerated one) is still lying down:

After 22 days, all of the eggs are standing up:

30 days into the test, one of the non-refrigerated eggs floats to the top:

After 45 days, both non-refrigerated eggs are floating:

Two months later, the refrigerated eggs are still submerged while the others are floating high:

Based on this test, fresh eggs probably don’t need to be refrigerated if you consume them in the first couple of weeks.  But since our eggs are rarely fresh, we’ll probably keep them in the refrigerator.

There is no shortage of copycats in China, including copycat stores (like the one that we call “Fakea“).  In case you didn’t get enough copycat products in my last post, here are a few more from recent trips to markets nearby our apartment.  If you go to Wal-Mart, you’ll find a nice display of genuine Tide detergent:

But as you enter nearby market, you’ll find a slightly different display:

Luggage stores are notorious for their knockoffs.  Walk further into this market and you can buy a fake Puma bag:

One of our students’ favorite snacks is the famous “Oreo” cookie, nicely labeled in Chinese and English:

Of course, there is a copycat here:

Speaking of things that you put into your mouth, there is quite a variety of toothpastes in China.  You’re familiar with Colgate:

But you may have never seen Colgore:

Our favorite brand of toothpaste is produced by the P&G company and holds the dubious distinction of having the largest number of copycats:

A slight change, and you get Creve:

A few more letters, and you get Cvont:

Move the starburst to the center and squeeze in another letter:

If you have trouble saying the letter “L”, this could sound familiar:

Since we’re talking about clones, it only seems reasonable to have this one:

Finally, making the name more familiar to Chinese phonetics:

Remember, I found all of these within walking distance of our apartment.  Imagine what you might find if you expanded the search…

In order to provide the senior-class students with more time to look for a job, our school requires that we double-teach their fall semester classes.  To prepare them for exams, I combined both sections of my International Business Law class last week.  After working with these students for 3 semesters, we’re really grown to love them:

A couple of weeks ago, we studied about trademarks, copyrights, and patents.  For extra-credit, I told the students to bring in “copycat” items that they typically find around the city.  Here are a few familiar (and not so familiar) brands and their cheaper Chinese counterparts.  When you’re thirsty, be careful that you grab the real Pepsi (with the yellow top), and not the fake one on the right:

If you’re more than thirsty and want an energy boost, choose the right bull:

Maybe you just want to get a pack of gum.  If you select the one with the arrows pointing inward, you’ll end up with “mint flover gum”:

There’s been a lot of press about fake products from Apple, including the iPhoney on the left below (sorry about the poor quality of my photo – my Android phone refused to take a decent picture of its direct competitor):

While there are physical differences between the real and fake iPhones, you would not know the difference between these two Nokia phones until you turned them on and tested the operating systems.  There is also a “slight” difference in price: the fake is 300 RMB and the real one is 1200 RMB:

In case you’d like to whiten and tighten your face, choose the genuine collagen mask on the left instead of the half-price fake on the right:

For those of us who don’t use such things, the only way to tell the difference is the price (2 vs. 4 RMB) and the interesting attempt at English descriptive information on the back of the genuine article (click to expand):

Although native speakers may be able to identify the differences between some of the real and fake items, it can be very difficult for people who struggle a bit with their second language.  As an example, select the good noodles from the two options below:

This time, the good one is on the right.  Unfortunately, only the fake one is available for purchase at our city train station.

At the risk of wearing out this topic, I’ll post a few more copycats next week, including the mother lode of all: six fake versions of a popular American brand name.

While biking is a recreational activity in the States, it represents a major mode of transportation in China.  There are dozens of bicycle brands available for purchase in our city, ranging from Great to Bester to Best:

The strongest brand name is “Giant.”  Although I haven’t taken photos of all the copycats I’ve seen, here are a few.  The way that I see it, if someone marketed a knockoff of a famous Chinese brand and changed a few strokes in the Chinese characters, I probably wouldn’t know the difference either.

Although many of the consumers might not know the difference between a true Giant and a fake one, it sounds like the bike thieves know a real one when they see it.  I’ve heard that the genuine article has a tendency to disappear rather quickly…

Some sharp-eyed people were able to pick Susan out of the crowd in our downtown square.  Her’s your next test – click to expand the photo below and try to find Mark crossing the street with a group of local people: