When in China

So after two months in the Orient, I finally caved and decided to rejoin social networking, and of course, start a blog about anything and everything that pops into my head.

This is a blog dedicated to - at the risk of sounding VERY cringe-worthy - carpe diem. At the age of 21 and having just graduated from 3 years of easygoing, SATC-watching bliss I’ve realised that there are quite a few exciting places to see and things to do that mean becoming a ‘real person’ should wait a while. With little else to do I decided to pack up shop and move from Sunny Suffolk to China for a year to teach English. My new home for the year is Fuzhou – a coastal city and the capital of Fujian Province, with a population of over 7 million people.

Me: pre-departure - feeling very excited/absolutely terrified

If I were to describe my experiences thus far in one word it would be... mindboggling. Before this visit I had never been to Asia and boy is it different from anything I’ve seen before! To be honest I don’t know where to begin, so I’ve compiled a list of the top 10 culture-shock factors for me to get the blog ball rolling:

1.     Trips to toilet town: OK, so a man visiting China is fine and dandy like sour candy, but unfortunately for a gal, life is a bit trickier on the toilet front (I’ve sure found anyway). In China (and other areas of Asia I believe, but don’t really know) the toilets consist of a porcelain bowl in the ground ready to be squatted over – you must also remember to bring your own loo roll or you'll be sorry! When I first arrived I was appalled and disgusted at this system, but after actually using the public toilets here (though very infrequently I’ll admit) it’s actually fairly liberating! Sort of like being one with nature, but not really as there’s still a flush.

2.     Visiting the supermarkets: Wow. Just wow. Witnessing a rat scampering along the floor near the fresh fruit and veg and the live fish in tanks taken and left to suffocate in carrier bags while the customer pays have probably been the most memorable moments of my visits to my local shop. I do miss Sainsbury’s a little!

3.     Celebrity status: I’m pretty sure this is only really in Fuzhou and other less famous cities/towns or rural areas (that is, non-tourist places), but as a foreigner you are a celebrity; people staring, people taking photos, the whole shebang! I’m stared at all day, everyday by everyone passing me by really. It boggles the mind that most of the people staring have never seen - and may never again see - someone in real life that wasn’t Asian. Boggles the mind I tell ya.

4.     The language: AMAZING. I absolutely love the Chinese language! I think it looks and sounds so nice, and it is in no way as impossible to learn as people have made out. In Fuzhou they mainly speak Mandarin, but there is a local dialect as well – which is apparently incredibly hard to understand so perhaps I won’t bother with that just yet. I have found living and working here in China has given me an amazing opportunity to learn the language – being surrounded by it all day, everyday means you definitely need to pick it up! I have a few basics down in speech, but reading and writing is another kettle of fish...

5.     Rules of the road: Well this one took a little while to get used to; the road safety – or more accurately lack of – is INSANE. I’ve heard it’s different in other cities, but here in Fuzhou, anything appears to go. Pedestrians walking blindly into the road, scooters on the pavement, scooters going against the traffic, cars on the pavement, buses packed LITERALLY like a tin of sardines with passengers (horrible experience) – you see it all!

6.     Rich as Croesus: As I think everyone knows, value for money in China is very different to home – with the bus journey always being 10 pence, a taxi ride being no more than £1.50, a beer costing about £3.50 and a delicious meal being as cheap as £3 – coming from the West you feel pretty rich! Though money is also quite strange here too – like the ice coffee I get too many times a week costs around £1.50. Great price compared to home, but normally more expensive than a taxi. Bizarro.

7.      Personal/public hygiene: Now this one is a biggie for me. As much as I’ve already mentioned the toilets, I’m sure you can imagine (though you may not want to) how disgusting they can be... Though to be fair to China, I have been pleasantly surprised a few times with how clean they are. Despite having bins (for normal and recyclable waste) every few feet, litter is abundant here. There’s also the issue of dog (though I secretly suspect human) poo seemingly everywhere. Another fairly common sight is that of small children (maybe around 2 years old) dropping off some timber in the street while their parents monitor.

8.     Gobbing: Semi-related to the above point, but so very, very disgusting I felt it deserved its own section. Only really seen with older men and women but absolutely REVOLTING. There you are, innocently walking along the street and you hear someone around you spitting. You can barely walk a few feet down any path without seeing spit on the ground. On the street, on a bus, in the supermarket – there appears to be no etiquette as to where/when this disgusting habit is acceptable. SO GROSS.

9.     On the town: Another interesting cultural observance is the way in which a big night out (LOL) goes down here. There is a lot of drinking on the men’s side, but of the Chinese women I know, only a few of them actually drink, or like going to bars. China also has the ‘smoke anywhere you want’ policy (unlike the lovely UK with our smoking ban), which, as a non-smoker, I find very annoying. I love the bars here though and as I mentioned, a beer goes for around £3.50 a bottle and a cocktail is around the same. Thus far I haven’t visited what we Westerners would consider a club (with a proper dance floor and everything) – so I am intrigued about that! Another note in this section is the KTV phenomena. KTV – karaoke – is HUGE here. And I flippin’ love it!

10.   FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD: last, but certainly not least, is the Chinese cuisine: absolutely phenomenal! Real Chinese food totally wipes the floor with Chinese take-away, I’ll tell you that for free! Not only hot food, but everything from snacks to supermarket food is SO different here! Not that I’m getting bored of rice and noodles at all and I’m really getting the hang of chopsticks now, but I am starting to crave some home comforts – mainly a roast dinner omnomnom. Oh and fish and chips, that would go down a treat right now.

But despite a few negatives, I bloody love it here. Everything is so incredibly different to the UK and I’m loving the contrast. It’s made me realise how a lot of things are actually culturally relative – and how there really is a whole new world out there! Far from considering it as home yet – and to be frank, it probably never will be – China has blown my mind in a very good way.

The city of Fuzhou - view from Gu Shan (Drum Mountain) 
(Sorry, it was a little misty that morning)

Over and out for now

xoxo