A Walk thru the City

Here are a few pictures of some of the things I saw on a brief walk thru the city today. I saw several cars decked out with flowers announcing a new marriage. There were numerous women walking around with umbrellas to shield their delicate complexions. I came across a teenage girl teaching a teenage boy some hip-hop dance moves. Usually, you can find someone selling pineapple on a stick at just about any intersection. Also, on most sidewalks, you will find public sanitation workers doing their part to keep it clean.
Outside of restaurants, you often see the 服务员 (fúwùyuán or service personnel) preparing the food for the evening. Today, I saw a young man tenderizing and breading meat using a marble pestle. The owners of one restaurant sat down to have a meal before the dinner rush. Notice, their young daughter is with them. This is a sight that we often see here, children at their parents’ place of business. This is not confined to restaurants either. No matter what kind of store you happen upon, if it is owned by the parents, then usually the children are there. If the prep work is done, sometimes you will find the服务员playing a game to pass time. Sometimes they will play badminton, Chinese chess, or jump rope. Today, it was cards. Then there was this shop owner, hard at work cross-stitching a picture to frame and sell.
No matter how long I have been here, it is still interesting to see how people get around. Notice the picture of the little boy sitting on the back of his father’s bike as they ride through traffic. This is an everyday occurrence. They were riding in front of the two mopeds being followed by the Buick down the bicycle lane. Then there is the guy on his tricycle, he was probably between delivery jobs.
On a short walk thru the city, you can see so much. The everyday sights can be mundane, or they can be full of wonder. When I have the opportunity to just wander around and watch people, I often try to think of those I meet, not as Chinese people, but just as people. They want to spend time with their children. They are being married and given in marriage. They enjoy games and dancing. They have to work to do, some as owners, some as workers. They care about how they look. All of these things can be said about people anywhere on the planet. So, on a short walk thru the city, I am reminded of something that my parents taught me long ago: people are people no matter where they come from or the color of their skin. – Frank 付伟国

Hong Kong - Where East and West Are One

As we have gotten to know this interesting city over the past few days, the mixture of its past comes through in its personality. As you probably know, until 1997 Hong Kong was a dependant territory of the United Kingdom. The treaty signed after the First Opium War stated that total control of Hong Kong would return to China after 1997. So for over 100 years, Eastern and Western culture have not only coincided but have fused to form a unique identity on this small island. The influence of the British can be seen just about everywhere, beginning with the roads. There are only a few places in the world where it is the law that everyone must drive on the wrong side of the street. Thanks to “Jolly Ol’ England”, Hong Kong is one of them. This has caused me much angst over the past few days. When I come to intersections, I constantly want to look the wrong way. I am so grateful that most intersections have “Look Right” stenciled on the ground. (I wonder how many tourists they had to lose before they started doing that.)
Another way you can see the influence of England is in the language. Officially, the language spoken here is Cantonese but of course many speak English, and by that I mean the “Queen’s English”. Well at least “Her” English with a Chinese accent. It seems very strange to hear people who are obviously Chinese sounding like they just stepped off a lorry in London. Something else that has been odd for us is seeing so many Chinese faces but not being able to understand the Chinese that they are speaking or read the words that are written (They use Traditional characters instead of Simplified). To us, Cantonese is harder to understand than Mandarin. It has nine tones. Mandarin only has five. This trip has been really good for us though. It has helped us realize that we are actually making progress in learning Mandarin. The thing that really drove this point home is the fact that on several occasions we have had dinner with people that our host has set us up with who speak little or no English. On these occasions the only common language that we could all understand was Mandarin. So for entire evenings we communicated mostly in Mandarin. It was not easy. There were times for all of us when we really had to struggle to get our point across, but we did it. There were times when some of the things said were funny and we actually could genuinely laugh. (Unlike our usual nervous courtesy laugh.) They say that humor is one of the hardest things to understand in a different language, so it felt good to really get it. Of course Amanda did even better than that. She even said some of the funny things. (Sure people often laugh when I speak but that is for an entirely different reason.) I was so proud of her. She is really doing well, and of course everyone loves Amanda. Amanda says that she could tell the improvement in my Chinese. After that night I truly felt that I could learn this language. I felt like shouting like Frederick Frankenstein “It, could, work!”
Speaking of our host, she is 最好“zuihao”or the best. From the minute we arrived, she has taken care of everything for us. She has made sure that we have someone with us to make sure we get where we are going or she has written out directions for us to make sure we knew which bus or train to get on and where to get off. She planned a big dinner for us the second night we were there, her brother and his wife took care of us the next night, and then she took us to a small island in the South China Sea for seafood. The amazing part is that we just met her. We were set up with her by a friend. As I said, she is definitely 最好, the best.
Another interesting aspect of visiting here is riding public transportation. The public trains here are very efficient but a little on the pricey side. No matter what city you go to, subways systems have got to be one of the easiest ways of getting around. The bus though is another matter. Due to the aforementioned habit that they have of driving on the wrong side of the road, combined with the fact that many of the intersections are “round-a-bouts” it is easy to get disoriented. I often had trouble determining which direction we were travelling. One day I was going by bus to meet Amanda and a friend, when I found out an interesting fact about the buses here. Sometimes they don’t stop at the bus stops. It seems that at certain times one must push the button if the bus is to stop. What is more, on that particular bus they were not even announcing what stop you were at or what the next stop would be. Apparently you had to use “The Force” to know which stop to get off at. (Help me Obiwan Kenobi, you are my only hope!) Needless, to say I got lost.
To sum up my thoughts on Hong Kong so far, I like it. It is a beautiful city. It reminds me a lot of New York but is much cleaner. It has all of the trappings of the Big Apple but with a decidedly Oriental slant. It is a wonderful place to visit but I miss China. I miss the simple life that we have there. I guess it is true what they say. There really is no place like home, wherever it is that you call home. – Frank 付伟国
England and America are two countries separated by a common language.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950

Xiaoxinde – Carefully

Getting around can be very dangerous. There are millions of people in this city. The chief means of conveyance is either walking or riding a bicycle. There is also a very efficient bus system, and of course cars, trucks, motorcycles, and scooters. There is even the occasional horse or mule drawn wagon, all “sharing” the road. Maybe sharing is too generous a term. I think begrudgingly occupying simultaneously is more accurate. As with most traffic systems, there are traffic lights. Next to these lights there is a display that counts down the seconds until the light changes. At around 5 second, the green light changes to red and people begin to cross. This is not always the smartest thing to do. If one is not careful, they may get hit. There is often one last vehicle trying to get through the intersection, usually preceded by a continuous blast of the horn. You should see the casual way that the pedestrians react to this. You would think that there would be a mad scramble for safety, but instead they usually just slightly alter their course. It is almost as if they know that they won’t get hit or either they don’t care. I haven’t figured out which it is yet. It is a wonder that there aren’t more accidents. One day, while riding the bus, I saw two people almost get hit within an hour of each other. One was a lady who was sweeping the street. As the bus was barreling down on her, she was totally expressionless. She just stood there and watched. I guess she had total confidence in the driver’s ability to stop in time. Although I didn’t know the words but judging by the tone, she had more faith than the driver. Somehow he got the behemoth stopped; she continued sweeping the street. About 40 minutes later a guy walking a bike stepped out in front of the bus. There must have been about 20 feet for the bus to stop. We were travelling about 40 mph. Physics was not on his side, there was no way we were going to stop in time. Before we hit him, a guy reached out and pulled him back. Once again there was little reaction by anyone other than the driver. It is sad that with so many people around, most people seem to be myopic. They are in their own little world and they have little interest in noticing what is going on with others.

Amanda and I have had bikes for about a week now. I really enjoy riding it around. Even with all of the other bikers, pedestrians, and motorized vehicles on the road at the same time. There is an ebb and flow to things. I heard getting around compared to playing a video game. Amanda says it is like Frogger. You know, the classic Atari game about a frog trying to cross the street. Fortunately, I was really good at that game. Well, I have been getting the feel for the rules of the road. I will sum them up for you. Ride fast, don’t hit anything, and when you see an opening take it. Other than these, I don’t think there are any.

I remember when I first began driving. My dad showed me how to check the oil, transmission fluid, and tires on the car. He told me how important it was to do this so that I could make sure the car was safe to drive. When I was at the fire department, I actually taught new drivers to do the same thing. For some reason, I did not apply those lessons to riding a bike. I usually just jump on it and go. What can go wrong? Today, I paid for that hubris. I was riding along, following the rules of the road; especially the first one. There I was, standing up on the pedals, pumping my legs as hard as I could, and leaning forward to get as much momentum as possible. Everything was in sync. The bike and I were one. Then the chain came off. That small event began a chain reaction, please excuse the pun. The chain came off just as I was pushing down on the pedal. That made me lose my balance, and I fell into the handle bar. Falling into the handle bar made the front tire turn perpendicular to the direction of travel. Here is where physics was not on my side. WARNING SCIENCE CONTENT: Sir Isaac Newton’s first law of motion states “Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it”. With the tire turned sideways, friction caused the bike to stop. Unfortunately, with no such external force applied to me, I didn’t, at least not immediately. So, I flew through the air until that other discovery of Newton’s caught up to me: gravity. After an incident like this happens to you, what is the first thing most people do? Check and see if they are hurt or check on the bike to see if it is broken? Nope. Look around and see if anyone saw you! Whew! Thankfully, I was in the clear. I couldn’t believe that there was no one around. Truth be told, I was truly relieved that no one was around, because if it had been during rush hour, I could have easily caused a huge Nascar style pile up. All of this because the chain of on my bike was too loose and slipped off. I guess I learned my lesson. I will be checking my bike out from now on. I have got to be xiaoxinde. – Frank
We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it--and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit on a hot stove lid again--and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

PS - I am fine. Just a little sore. The only thing hurt is my pride. You know I have had writer's block for the past few days. It is a shame that I have to fall off of my bike for inspiration. Hopefully the next post will come at a lest painful price.