Global Brand Names in Capitalist China

Before I went to China, I wondered to myself what the consumption patterns of the people there would be. Would it be a country filled with low-quality items manufactured in state-controlled industries like in the former Soviet Union? What I found out is that at least in the major cities we visited, China is as capitalist as any other developed country. The rising middle classes as well as the jet-set political and economic elites consume goods, services, and ideas just like their counterparts in North America and Europe. Counterfeit Rolex watches were offered to us at just about every street corner. Copies of designer leather products were also widely available, and buying music or movies on disc, including pirated copies of yet-to-be released Hollywood titles is very possible in China.
King Kong psoter at a grocery store (above) while you can drive your Jeep Grand Cherokee to the Starbucks Coffee and order yourself a tall latte! (below).

You won't miss your favorite soft drinks in China either. Sprite, Fanta, Coca Cola, Diet Coke are all over the place and quite popular. Nestle serves chocolate and other goodies, and I wish I had gone in to see what the IKEA store in Shanghai sells. Underneath the Coke umbrellas overlooking the Bund strip in Shanghai, you can have fresh coconut juice and roasted corn on the cob too.

The Lion King was coming to Shanghai a week after our visit. All four of our tour hosts had seen the Disney movie version of the Lion King. The tickets for a decent seat in the middle of the theatre were going for about $45.

Kentucky Fried Chicken was one of the most popular fast food restaurants I saw in China. So too was McDonalds. Colonel Sanders is depicted with two different beard styles at different locations in China. At McDonalds, the menu included spicy McWings, and a MegaMac sandwich made up of four beef patties to celebrate the soccer World Cup. After 14 days of eating nothing but Chinese food, we were all ready for a good old value meal at McDonalds, and we got it!

I have never been to a Carrefour before, but apparently it is a popular department storein parts of Europe, and I saw a few branches of it during our trip. This one is located in one of the present-day expatriate neighborhoods of Shanghai.

More than slightly disOriented!

I have been back home in DC for a little over two days now, and it feels very strange to be back. I can't fully explain why, but it just feels funny. When I was in China, I had quite a few moments when it seemed surreal that I was actually so far away, in a culture so different. Several times, I thought to myself, "this feels like somebody put me on a bus to Chinatown, and I am not allowed to leave for a few days." Now I am back, and sleeping is the toughest part. I keep waking up, expecting to be in a hotel room in China, and finding myself in my own regular bed throws me off so badly. I dream about China; its sounds, scents, and colors. I dream about the people. I see myself in situations with the members of the delegation I travelled in. It will take a few days to get used to being back. Of course, I can't bring myself yet to go shopping and do any cooking, so I have had only three meals in two and a half days, two of them at McDonalds, and one pizza. There is a Chinese food place down the road from my house, and I am curious to see how long it takes before I go and order food from there.

In short, I am more than slightly disOriented!

Some final pictures from Shanghai.

In the MAGLEV train from downtown Shanghai to the Pudong International Airport with my colleagues from Maret and Bullis.
The 30 km ride took about seven minutes in total, and I felt slightly robbed. I wanted my money back, not because the ride was not worth it (it was), but because it was over before I had even settled into my seat and began seriously enjoying the ride. Oh goodness! Next time I will buy several tickets and simply go back and forth on the high speed train until my heart is contented.

My friends from Sidwell (above), Holton-Arms, and St. Albans (below) enjoy the ride.

On this day, our highest speed during our ride on the train was 431 km per hour. The highest speed I hear about is 265 miles per hour (no idea how many kph).

The Shanghai Transrapid MAGLEV train enters the train-station downtown. Notice the special tracks and the shape of the train.

Farewell to Shanghai ...

We went to a classical Chinese garden on our last full day in Shanghai. It was very ornate and delicate. I especially loved the interchange of water with fish, plants, and stones in the landscaping. The architecture included many doors and windows that frame the space and objects behind them in very interesting ways.

Although China is a big country and siginificant player on the global political and economic stage, the number of foreigners here is still very small. Being a black person still attracts a lot of attention, and I have had to pose for pictures with more than fifty new Chinese friends in the three cities we visited. In fact, after a few days, I quickly learnt to know what a certain inquring gaze on the face of a Chinese admirer with a camera in hand meant, even before they spoke a word. Many are shy, but the message is clear ... "Hello, you look different, I would love to take a photo with you if you don't mind." To which I smile and and simply pose away. I will post some photos of such scenes next week when I get the chance.

I liked this picture at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The honor guard in front of the flag and Chairman Mao's gigantic portrait appeals to my love of uniforms. I also was struck by the fact that while the flag and Mao's image are valuable things to guard, they are just not worth standing in the summer sun and sweating for or risking skin cancer. So, the guards get to stand underneath a nice umbrella instead, and everyone is happy!

We had lunch today at a hole in the wall kind of cafe where local chinese people go to eat, and escaped from the tyranny of lazy-susan-tourist-banquets that we have been experiencing since we got here more than two weeks ago. Shanghai rice noodles with pork, beef, or tripe was the menu, topped with fresh cilantro. For drinks, I tried a 630 ml bottle of beer 'cleverly' brand-named REEB. It tasted like a diluted Corona beer, but is definitely much safer than drinking unobottled water which is 'forbidden' in China.

And finally, we ran once again in Shanghai into some people we had met at the Great Wall north of Beijing about 10 days ago. These friends were part of a teachers/parents/students group from a public middle school in Montgomery County. Small world indeed.

We depart downtown Shanghai this afternoon (Thursday) by the MAGLEV train to the airport. The MAGLEV train (magnetic levitation) is a one of a kind engineering marvel in the world, built on German technology. It looks like many European high speed trains, but floats/flies on a special track at a top speed of about 265 miles per hour. The 30 kilometer ride from downtown Shanghai to the airport takes about 7 minutes one way, which is about as long as my stomach can bear on such an exciting 'roller coaster.' In fact, we heard that now more and more tourists are coming to Shanghai to simply see and ride on the MAGLEV. A return trip will set you back 100 Chinese Yuan, about USD 13 total. I can't wait to ride the train!

What would you like to drink?

I took this picture at the entrance to the Xian Museum of Tang Dynasty History. The weather in this part of China over the summer gets hot and humid, and often rainy too. Average temperatures have been between 29 and 33 degrees celcius, and on some days we had temperatures above 35 celcius. Walking around as a tourist visiting sites and doing some shopping in such muggy weather (like DC on a code red summer day) is not easy. We have been drinking so much bottled water. When I saw this sign, I wanted to ruch straight to Ann's coffee and get something else to drink. If you were here, what drink would you have selected?

PS: TsinGtao (pronounced CHING-DAO) is a popular Chinese beer that I have tried in my time here. Though I am no beer expert, I thought it was pretty nice.

The company you keep ... and travel with.

One of the most rewarding part of this trip is traveling with an interesting group of teachers from whom I am learning a lot. I hope I will continue to keep in touch with them when we get back to DC.

Teachers from Potomac, Bullis, and Maret schools. All the men on our trip.

With a friend who teaches art the the Bullis School. Enjoying the Olympic Statues Competition/Exhibition in downtown Beijing.

No diapers here ...

I took this picture at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Chinese children in general do not wear diapers. Rather innovatively, they wear shorts that cover their buns and thighs, with a convenient slit for other business matters when nature calls. We laughed quite a bit when a little boy came to relieve himself on a waterpond surrounding a tree in one of the gardens at the Temple of the Wild Goose Pagoda in Xian yesterday.

Let me post this and see if I can get another picture up before my time runs up at the internet desk.

We arrived in Shanghai today. It feels very much like New York City. I love it! Can somebody egt me a job here if possible? Just dreaming ...

Apparently, the world is NOT flat...

On Monday we met with the director of Basic Education at the Chinese Ministry of Education. In his presentation, he cited an argument from Tom Friedman's "The World is Flat."

That this man could work in Friedman into his vision of how Chinese education should be reformed, and could also analyze the merits of the No Child Left Behind Act, left a powerful impression on me.

Yesterday, we went to visit a middle school. The 7th and 8th grade students were studying in crammed classrooms of 40 to 44 students each. Yet, their passion for learning, confidence, and intelligence was almost out of this world. Half of the students could speak fluent English, and the other half could understand and speak haltingly. The reality of these Chinese youth mastering English so early, and the focus of their curriculum on math, chemistry, phyics, and Chinese was scary. I think very highly of our own students in America, but these Chinese students in a public school showed me that the world is not really flat after all. The Chinese have, by virtue of their rigorous educational system, tilted the playground in their favor. If our students in America are to compete/collaborate with these Chinese kids in the future, we have our work cut out for us in America.

Now someone go fetch me an olive and a Lexus!

When in China, speak Italian. Off course!

Ok, that title will make sense in a bit. Hold on tight.

But first, let me get the objective facts out of the way. Today we went to see the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. The Forbidden City was the home of many Chinese Emperors, their families, their concubines, and a coterie of eunuchs. Commoners were forbidden from visiting this gargantuan and magnificent complex of living, ceremonial, and entertainment spaces. Hence the name. Pretty impressive it was, though as one of my co-travellers said, "nothing man does to perpetuate their immortality can stand up to nature." True, none of the emperors lasted forever, and their palaces serve different purposes for the people who visit them today. On a very practical level, a lot of tourism related jobs come out of this! I promise to post my own pictures when I get back home.

Now back to speaking broken Italian in China.

So yesterday we got lost, with three different taxi drivers delivering us to three different spots in a semi-labyrinthine Hutong (a traditional Chinese neighborhood/estate). As the threat of heavy rain loomed in the skies above and distant thunder could be heard, we tried to find each other, split in three groups with no cell phone. I was in the group where none of us spoke any Chinese, remember?

Our motley crew of four lost English-speaking tourists stood infront of a gate to some mysterious tourist attraction that had been closed for the day. No sooner had we been dropped off than had two aggressive pedicab drivers come to offer us rides on their rickshaws. In a minute or two, it was five different men all competing to get us to pay them for a tour of the Hutong.

They spoke no English. We spoke no Chinese. Actually, they spoke enough English to say something like, "Want Hutong tour? Get on my rikisho, I take you tour. Good price." Their entreaties were at times aggressive, persuasive, friendly, serious, light-hearted, and sometimes, all of the above at one go! Incredible you say, but you should have been there to see it.

"No!" we responded in English. Now, being the kind of person who rarely takes no for an answer, I sympathized with these folks trying to sell us a tour we did not need. They just could not take no! We even tried to explain in plain simple English that we were waiting for our colleagues to show up in two different taxis before we could even contemplate going on a tour. After about ten minutes that must have felt like an eternity, I realized that communication was virtually impossible, and our English was being fruitless in the situation. So what harm would it do to try explain the same thing in my broken Italian to these poor Chinese fellows? After all, Marco Polo did come to China, right?

Well, I had no shame in cobbling the best Italian sentence or two I could to explain the same point. Ladies and gentlemen, it did not work. They did not understand Italian either!!! Next time a Chinese person keeps talking to me in Chinese when I clearly can not understand them, I will try speaking back in Swahili to them. Now that is something they might understand. After all, the Chinese version of Disney's Lion King was on one of the television channels the day before yesterday.

Did somebody say "Hakuna matata?" Translate that, comrade!

PS:

My memory is a little foggy and non-linear in this humid weather as I try to type away in a balmy smoke-filled internet cafe with 171 (0ne hundred and seventy one) computers, most of them occupied by young Chinese men watching movies online, chatting, and playing video-games hardcore. I forgot to mention that necessity is the mother of invention, and we remembered that the Chinese translation for "I don't want" is "Bu yao!" When my Italian failed to make sense, we broke into a short chorus of bu yaos that finally sent the 'tour-guides' away.

Tomorrow we go for some meetings at the Chinese Ministry of Education. I look forward to learning a lot, and asking some questions.

Lost in translation?

We left the hotel in three cabs this afternoon. Only two out of ten people speak Chinese. I was in the first cab with three people. None of us spoke Chinese, the cab driver spoke no English.

We had a sheet of paper in Chinese with the address of the restaurant we were going to. The restaurant has an identical name to a recreational park in the same neighborhood. The driver delivered us to the recreational park, about three blocks away from the restaurant. We had no way of finding this restaurant, until somebody came to find us.

It was raining cats and dogs.

We sought cover under the awning of a little kiosk. It was hot and humid. The shopkeeper was a topless pudgy man, with a nice friendly mien. He spoke no English. We ordered two colas (that is what coke is called here!) He typed the price onto a calculator, we paid, and stood waiting for the other cabs to show up.

As we got wetter and wetter ... we thought we saw our regular tour driver arrive (hallucinations). It is at this point that the expressions "faire d'une gaffe!" really comes in handy. I am too embarassed to tell what happened next.

So I will skip that part and say that about 90 minutes later, the whole group was reunited and having dinner at the restaurant. The food, as usual, was delicious.

More tomorrow.

Great Wall of China ... and other great experiences

Today we got up to some "sizzling" rain, and for a moment wondered whether our planned outing to the Great Wall of China would take place at all.

I chickened out and avoided eating the "Chinese Breakfast" (including a salad of pigs ears) and went with the more traditional western breakfast.

The Great Wall was beautiful. But more impressive were the imperial jade and cloissone factories.

Stream of consciousness writing here, still not sure this will even post. More elegant prose tomorrow.

If you know me and want me to get you something from China, send me an email message pronto. They have a lot of really neat things.