From Grits to Chopsticks

Perhaps you have seen the children’s books in which a guy with a red-striped shirt hides in the crowd.  While we were heading to a meeting downtown last week, it seemed appropriate for us to stage our own where’s Susan photo (click to enlarge):

While we walk around town, it seems that her height, eye color, and hair color make people wonder if she is part Chinese…

Today, I had the opportunity to visit a large manufacturing plant just outside of the city with one of our students and his mother (who happens to be an industrial loan officer for a major bank).  The factory wants to borrow money for a capacity expansion, so it was interesting to be an informal part of the due diligence process.  As you might imagine, there are “a few” differences between manufacturing plants in China and the US.  One difference is employee housing – this factory provides dormitories for all of its workers, much like these at a nearby construction site:

Dormitories are especially helpful at the factory, saving commute time to this remote location.  Each month, the employees get one day off (!) to leave the site and go wherever they choose.

Aside from the expected differences in large scale manufacturing, the most interesting things (to me) about Chinese industry show up in the small scale shops.  While walking south of town a few weeks ago, we passed a row of garages, each containing a metalworking lathe:

If you buy Chinese goods, don’t be surprised if they are produced in tiny shops like these.  People in China are extremely resourceful, salvaging anything possible.  We often walk by shops where people are taking apart old computers or unwinding the copper wire from motors:

Since space is usually tight, the work is often done on the sidewalk outside of the shop.  I walked by an auto repair shop last month where a guy was doing a complete ring job on the sidewalk.  Here is a the typical scooter repair company:

And a sheet metal shop:

And a fencing company:

And a shipping/logistics operation:

You’ll notice that all of these photos were taken from the road – just one of the drawbacks to a sidewalk industrial revolution.

As mentioned in our last post, the rainy season has finally arrived.  Among other things, this time of year reminds us of how much we appreciated our clothes dryer back in the States.  Even when the rain stopped over the weekend, it took two days to dry our sheets:

Last year, the wet season came much earlier, and having never experienced one before, we weren’t prepared.  When we finally got a hygrometer, we realized how high the humidity actually was:

By the time we were able to find and purchase a dehumidifier, the books were wrinkling up and the walls and ceiling were getting pretty moldy:

The inside humidity was especially evident when the outside temperature dropped a bit, overloading the windows with enough condensation to start a small indoor garden:

This year, we have the dehumidifier running all day and are trying to stay ahead of the moisture!

Speaking of keeping dry, I recently had a minor success in one of our two bathrooms.  By the way, if you ever want to convert your half-bath to a full-bath, just do what the Chinese do – mount a shower on the wall:

While this can be convenient if you’re good at multitasking on a busy morning, the entire bathroom floor will be wet after using the shower, especially if the floor drain is not the lowest point on the floor (which it never seems to be).  To remedy this, I caulked a piece of plastic conduit to the floor and hung the shower curtain directly above:

I attached some split-shot fishing weights to the bottom of the shower curtain to keep it inside of the track:

But lately, the water supply valve for the entire apartment has developed a steady leak (about 2 liters/day), surrounding the toilet with a perennial puddle.  Since there’s no good way to isolate this valve (and the thought of hiring another plumber is a bit overwhelming), I did what all good engineers would do: treat the symptom.  Hence, I now have a soap dish catching the drip and diverting it to a floor drain behind the toilet:

Thankfully, you’ve reached the dry end of a somewhat dry blog about keeping dry.

On a Sunday afternoon two weeks ago while the weather was still sunny and warm, we enjoyed taking a walk through the park.  At first glance, the pine trees almost remind you of the forests back home in South Carolina:

But then, it always helps to back up a step and take in the full view from a different perspective (our local park has a wonderful bonsai garden):

While the bonsai trees are tightly controlled in their own miniature environments, the shallow water leading to the main lake has out-of-control water hyacinths.  These tour boats have to plow their way through a floating jungle every time they leave the dock:

The overload of hyacinths provided an interesting idea for this sculpture, ironing the rough green vegetation into a smooth surface:

We rented a pedal boat for a peaceful ride around the lake.  Of course this is China, and regardless of where you go, you will usually find a traffic jam:

One of the many differences between China and America has to do with kite flying.  In the USA, kite flying is usually child’s play.  But not in China – kites are almost always flown by retired men with some pretty fancy gear:

As we enter the cold rainy season, we’ll try to hang onto this memory of the warm blue sky.  In the last few days, we transitioned from short-sleeves to sweaters and have cranked up the dehumidifier to try and keep the mold at bay for a while…

We often get a kick out of the English names posted in front of stores, usually because they lose something during the direct translation from Chinese.  A new city ordinance requiring English words on all business signs will undoubtedly add to the entertainment for westerners.  Sometimes the use of a surname can also result in an unintended double meaning:

There are also the stores with names that mimic a successful western brand, like this one that might surprise non-English readers who are planning to visit “the Colonel” for some fried chicken:

And then there’s that company with the famous “swoosh” logo:

Some of the popular brandnames are also interesting.  A very popular chain of shoe stores gives me the creeps when I think about what might be hiding inside:

Staying in the realm of creepy things in your clothing, here is a women’s clothing chain in a high-end shopping mall:

Our personal favorite name for a women’s clothing store has a location on the road behind our school:

In spite of some unfamiliar and unusual brand names, we occasionally see one that makes us stand up and take notice, even in our “small town” of 7 million people:

Learning a foreign language can be difficult, especially when you’re old and the language is Chinese.  Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just go to sleep with a book under your pillow and absorb vocabulary?  Too bad that doesn’t work – maybe we just need a smaller brain.  Read on…

This weekend, we went over to our landlord’s house for a delicious meal (I sat down for this photo to avoid dwarfing them):

Our hosts were extremely gracious, preparing 10 dishes for us – the number of dishes shows a very high level of respect.  Fortunately, their son-in-law is a great translator and kept the conversation going since our Chinese is so weak.  After dinner, we were introduced to Ping An, their pet bird:

Just when we were feeling bad enough about our limited Chinese, Ping An demonstrated his skills in Mandarin and in the local dialect.  Interestingly, he puffs out his feathers as he talks:

Click this link to watch as Ping An demonstrates his skills: TalkingBird

If you can’t see the video, perhaps you can listen to this audio clip: PingAn Audio

Perhaps we should stick with English.  Speaking of which, we held our first English Corner last week and had a good crowd of new students:

For snacks, Susan made a enough cupcakes to spell out “Welcome to English Corner.”  Perhaps it’s just my foreign palate, but I think cupcakes are a lot easier to eat than mooncakes (maybe I’ll have one right now!).

Fall colors are showing up in China.  While fall will eventually bring beautiful yellow, orange and brown hues, right now we are seeing mostly green on our college campuses.  That’s because fall is the time for school to resume operation, which means that it’s time again for freshman orientation, which means new university students put on their green camo uniforms and learn to march:

It’s quite a site to see several thousand students, divided into groups and counting “one, two, three, four” (in Chinese, yi er, san, si).  Click this video clip to hear them: Freshman Orientation

While there are many colors along the street here in China, some of the most vibrant ones are natural, like the brilliant red of these peppers drying on a table (reminding us why our digestive systems are always a bit “different” here):

We’re also drawing near to “Zhongqiu” – the Mid-Autumn festival, for which the official calendar grants holidays on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday next week.  One of my students asked how we planned to celebrate.  “Well…”  Surprised at my hesitation, she asked how the typical American family celebrated this holiday.  “Well…”

Locals celebrate by eating mooncakes with family members, which are usually about 3″ diameter and come with a variety of fillings.  Some are smooth (like the ham-filled one below) and others are embossed with fancy printing and flavored with fruit:

To satisfy the huge demand, attractive displays appear in almost every shop, adding to our fall colors.  The mooncakes usually come in a gift box, but this merchant went for the Easter basket packaging approach:

In my opinion, mooncakes are kind of like fruitcakes.  They are fun to give and receive during the appropriate season of year, but you can’t eat too many of them.

We just returned from a whirlwind visit to the States, working our way down the eastern seaboard from PA.  Laurie and Jeruid hosted us at their home during the first week while we adjusted to the new time zone.  Mark’s brother and sister (Jimmy and Barbara) brought their families together for some meals and fun:

In true American fashion, we went out to the shooting range after lunch, including Elijah with his own “baby-sized” earmuffs:

After spending time in PA, we drove south, stopping in NC to see Jean:

We stayed at Susan’s brother’s house in our old hometown in SC.  Susan’s mom got to visit with her great grandson:

We also spent a couple of days enjoying the hospitality of Chris and Dixie (Mark’s brother and sister in law) at their house on Lake Murray (a real treat to swim in warm, clean water!).  The two grandfathers took this chance to show off their progeny:By now, you’re probably thinking that every photo is basically just an excuse to show off our grandson Elijah (almost true).  We then went to Myrtle Beach and were joined by Stephen and Jessica, marking the first time in over 18 months where we were able to have our entire family together at the same time!  We were so thankful for this wonderful privilege.  We had good weather (hurricane Irene waited until the following week to force evacuations) and did most of the typical beach activities.  It took 20 years, but the two brothers are now about the same size:

Now, for another picture of Elijah (and his Nai Nai):

Stephen and Jessica are experts at geocaching, so we spent a morning eating donuts and finding five caches.  We found the last one at “Frick’s Park,” probably the smallest public park in the state of SC:

Myrtle Beach is the mini-golf capital of the world, and we always enjoy a little friendly competition.  Jeruid still won on the second day, even with his son strapped to his chest:

Susan and Mark enjoyed morning walks together on the beach, often finding interesting things washed up on shore:

We did take some time to go fishing and crabbing, but didn’t catch enough for a reasonable meal.  So we headed over to Bennett’s seafood buffet and stuffed ourselves:

Back on the beach the next day for some surfing lessons (it’s never too early):

The water was nice and warm, so we spent a lot of time playing in the waves:

We also took a stroll on the new boardwalk:

After our beach vacation came to an end, we flew to Atlanta for a quick weekend to move Timothy into his apartment at GA Tech.  Recognizing that we were about to leave the land of fattening food, Stephen was kind enough to treat us to brunch at a fancy place:

It was a great trip.  We are truly blessed to be able to spend such a good time with our family and friends.

Our city is actually quite a beautiful place.  At 6300 ft above sea level with tall mountains to the west, it kind of reminded me of Denver on my first visit.  The south side of our town is bordered by the sixth largest freshwater lake in China (Dianchi Lake):

On a recent trip to Haigeng park, we strolled and watched as some fishermen labored for a very small catch:

However, it’s amazing that anything lives in this heavily polluted lake.  Photos of the lake may look nice with the right combination of sun and camera angles, but a direct shot shows the green, soupy reality:

As the city has grown, the wastewater loading has exceeded the old axiom that “the solution to pollution is dillution.”  People used to swim here 20 years ago, but now the lake is rated “grade five” (unsafe for human contact). In addition to runoff from nearby phosphate mines, ditches full of stinking grey water pour into the lake from the city.

Since it seems unlikely that people will stop dumping their wastewater into the ditches, the city has been working to convert the ditches into mini-treatment facilities.  A few months ago, I watched as teams of workers shoveled, bagged, and removed the sludge from the bottom of the ditch in front of our school:

A truck of water hyacinths arrived:

They built wooden frames, hooked them to the sides of the ditch, and “planted” the hyacinths:

A botanist friend told me that water hyacinths are extremely good at absorbing heavy metals.  Since the hyacinths are alive and spreading, I suppose they do OK with basic sewerage as well.  While I doubt that this process will be sufficient to clean up the lake, at least it keeps the ditch from smelling so bad.  I only hope that they don’t incinerate the hyacinths each year and dump the ashes in the lake…

Further down the ditch (near our apartment) is the construction site of a new hospital.  Over the winter, they spent a few months building rock structures and dikes in this section of ditch, making me wonder if they were trying to make a staged pollution control reactor.  Unfortunately, the chemical engineer in me was disappointed when they filled all of their structures with dirt and stuffed dead-looking plants into them:

But this is China, and they seem to have an uncanny ability to make things grow.  A month or so later, the dead things started to show signs of life:

Now that summer is here, the old sewer ditch is starting to look pretty good:

OK – I know that it’s not Longwood gardens or anything.  But for a wastewater ditch, it doesn’t look too bad.  At least until the hospital opens up and the medical waste starts to flow…

Update for October:  Here is the latest photo of the ditch garden, looking better every month:

Today was the first day of our school’s summer camp season.  There will be three English camps this year for different target groups, including college students, primary school students, and rural teachers.  I had the opportunity speak at today’s opening ceremony for college students:Some student volunteers helped me to illustrate the challenges of being too afraid to speak out and learn:We have a really good group of students this year from several universities.  We are especially thankful for our team of teachers who came all the way from Wisconsin to work with our students: