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Thursday, February 17, 2011

What It Is REALLY Like In Beijing, China Part 1

This post is to tell you all about the everyday life in China and about the things that are different than they are back in the states.

1.  Traffic - If you have ever been to NYC, then you have experience bad traffic.  Well, that is nothing compared to the traffic in Beijing.  Just like in NYC, there are tons of taxis and hardly any trucks.  But, here the biggest thing on the road gets the right of way.  You may be thinking, "That sounds right."  Keep in mind that people are included in this.  Yep, that's right.  People better watch what's going on around them or they might get squashed!  Drivers often honk at people who are crossing the street and are in their way.  People are not even safe on sidewalks.  We have seen cars driving and parking on some sidewalks.  We haven't noticed how to determine which ones are car free and which ones aren't.  We still have not figured out all the rules of driving around here.  They seems to switch lanes without any reason.  As they turn a curve, they may drive into two different lanes than they were originally in.  There are many intersections that only have traffic lights on one of the two streets in the intersection.  We still haven't figured out how the street without the traffic light figures out when to stop and go.

2.  Fireworks - These Chinese New Year ended the week before we arrived.  But fireworks are still around to celebrate.  Every evening we hear them booming from all directions.  Sometimes we see them out our window and sometimes we can't.  Mostly because they are being shot from the middle of the streets and the buildings are blocking our view.  They even shoot them off during the day.  Which we haven't figures out why.  Joseph is so used to hearing them that he never flinches or desires to look at the sound when he hears them from our room.  We did see a guy shooting some off as we were walking down the road and he had quite a lot to say about them and he covered his ears.

3.  Cleanliness - They are very into keeping appearance of being clean.  I say it this was because the people themselves litter but the city has street cleaners who keep the streets clean.  They do a great job, but I still see litter on the ground.  The hotel maids clean our rooms several times a day.  We know this because we like to keep the windows open in our room and every time we leave and come back to our room the windows are closed.  However, they don't vacuum unless we ask them too.  Ronny forgot his toothbrush at home so he has been using the free one that comes in the hotel bathroom.  Today, we came in to find it in the trashcan and they gave him a new one.  I guess they thought he had used it to much and it was dirty.  LOL!  They are really into recycling here.  There are recycle bins instead of trash cans all over the city.

4.  Every thing here in China is a lot cheaper than in the states.  $1 = 6.5yuan.  So when we exchange our money we feel like we are rich.  The first day we exchanged $200 and got about 1400yuan in return!  We bought a Toy Story 1 movie from Walmart and paid $2 (USA).  We can go out to eat and feed our whole group for about $4 per person.  It only cost about $3 to take a cab across town.

Only $2!

5.  Ronny has found his new love, shopping in China markets!  lol!  He loves to negotiate the prices which is what is expected in Chinese markets.  They always start with a ridiculously high price and our guide, Veronica, said to start the bargaining at less the half the price they started with.  So if they tell you an item costs 85yuan, you come back a say that you will pay 40 yuan.  Then go from there.  Ronny is really good about sticking to the price he wants to pay.  He doesn't go much higher than half of the original price.  Then he walks away and the salesman will call him back and give the item to him at the price he wants.  He bought a new wallet for 35 yuan and their starting price was 180yuan.  35yuan=$5.  Then they told Ronny that he was a tough bargainer and that he had big muscles.  Ha ha!



6.  We've been told that it is not polite to stare at people in China.  However, we get stares constantly!  We were at Walmart and Joseph was sitting in the seat of the shopping cart.  As we passed a lady, she strongly stared at us for a while and then started asking me a question.  Veronica, told us she was asking why we were pushing a Chinese boy in our cart.  lol!  Veronic said that people hear don't understand adoption, but when this lady heard that we adopted him, she told us we were good Americans.

7.  Chinese people do not like to be cold so inside the buildings it is like 75-80 degrees.

1 comment:

  1. It definitely sounds like your getting to experience some great culture shock!! I laughed at the 'big muscles' part! HaHa I'm glad you all seem to be having a great time. I can just see Ronny bargaining with them! :o)

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