First-world Services for Third-world Prices

One of the coolest things about China is that you can get 1st-world services for 3rd-world prices. Of course, you can get cheap 3rd-world services everywhere, but only here can you get treated very well very cheaply. Very often you get U.S.-quality services at 10% of the price.

For example, two weeks ago four of us had a shampoo, 20 minute head massage, 20 minute shoulder massage, a hair cut, and finally another shampoo. All in a U.S.-style salon where the four of us had our own area with up to 8 people attending to us. The whole process took nearly two hours, for the astonishing price of $5. It would have been much more expensive, $10, if my friends were not members.

Other examples include decent taxis for $1-3, an hour massage for less than $10, etc. Not to mention a maid, nanny, or driver, for $250/month.

What if such things were such prices in the U.S. ? We'd all be a lot more pampered, and probably happier.

Discrimination Against Chinese in China

Heard a disturbing story in Shanghai, about a local popular foreigner hang-out. There were rumors that this place didn't want many Chinese customers, so a Chinese guy I know had a buddy call and ask in Chinese if they had any booths left to reserve and was told no. Then my friend called and asked in English and they said, sure, we have several. This is disturbing on many levels, from being wrong in the first place, to really pissing off our gracious hosts who are understandably sensitive to this sort of thing.

Bottomless pants

I had heard, but never seen, these - baby's pants with no bottom ! The kid can just poop or whatever, whenever and wherever they want ! A bit of a strange sight on the subway, but it turns out of course, that this is quite common on many countries. Now, you might wonder, as I did, how you keep said child from pooping in the subway. Turns out that this entire process is called "Elimination Communication" or "Natural Infant Hygiene" - see this WikiPedia Article on it. There is even a website dedicated to this process. Basically you start teaching the child at birth to signal when it is necessary to use that giant hole in the pants. Lots of verbal and hand queues, etc. Interesting.

Visiting Shuzhou

I had a chance to spend an afternoon in the city of Suzhou, about an hour from Shanghai. Suzhou is famous for its canals and hundreds-of-year-old gardens. We took the train to the city, which was an interesting experience (see another blog entry on the train), including the train station full of migrants and day-trippers to the city.

I must admit I was disappointed by Suzhou, as neither the gardens not canals lived up to my expectations. Perhaps these were set too high by hearing that Suzhou was like Venice or Amsterdam with canals, gardens, etc. The gardens were nice and very large, though not maintained as well as I'd hoped. More challenging were the canals, which had limited interesting areas, far less than similar canals in old Shanghai - I was really looking for canal-side cafes and tables, but perhaps I'll find them on future trips.

Hospital Visit in Beijing

So I had the unfortunately opportunity to visit a Beijing hospital since I was pretty sick from bad food a while ago. Given that I'm told people have died there of such things I didn't want to take any chances.

While the quality of Chinese health care is quite challenging on many levels. Many big hospitals have wings that cater to ex-pats that can pay accordingly. Generally equipped with English-speaking or Western doctors and update-to-date equipment, they are the life-line for foreigners, though for serious injuries or elective surgery, Hong Kong is the preferred alternative.

So, my friend chose the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, regarded as the best in Beijing. The foreigner wing was empty and I was the only patient, so I had the doctor, nurse, pharmacist, lab tech, and receptionist to myself - they were all very nice.

After my an examination, blood and other tests, etc. the doctor indicated I had inflammation in my digestive track and prescribed two medications, which they sold me on the spot. Total cost for registration, exam, lab tests, medicine, etc. was $45. That probably would have been $450 in the U.S. I have heard challenging stories from some hospitals, but my experience was exemplary.

I feel bad for local Chinese who do not receive such care, who have been pushed into a system they cannot afford (with docs and hospitals incented to do tests and sell drugs), and who generally do not fare well in the current system.

Beijing Impressions

This was my first time in Beijing, which is a very interesting city, rich with architecture, history, culture, and deep meaning for China going back over 1,000 years. I did not have much time to see the sights and was sick one day, but managed to get to the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and Houhai Lake.

It's a city of many wide boulevards, contrasted to Shanghai's crowded streets and old neighborhoods. Plus the usual capital-oriented large buildings, monuments, and throngs of tourists there to look at everything; it was good to see large numbers of Chinese at all of the exhibits, especially those that traveled a long way to see the their national treasures.

There are some challenges, though, which unfortunately started with mean taxi drivers - it's not clear how they will inject friendliness in time for the 2008 Olympics - the airport taxi coordinator had to practically yell at my driver to get him to take me into the city, and my friend had the same experience. Fortunately, the driver that took me to the airport days later was very nice and talkative within the limits of my poor Mandarin.

The air is something else. Beijing gets blanketing dust storms each spring, with the last ones just weeks before and the taste of dust still in the air. I thought Shanghai had challenged air until I went to Beijing where I couldn't see too many blocks down the street! So much dust and haze, that I cannot imagine how it must be when it's 100 degrees in the summer, or full of coal dust in the winter.

Finally, Beijing traffic is out of hand, even on weekends. Beijing is a far-flung city, like Los Angeles, with several business and embassy districts, plus government areas - even though it has five big ring roads that circle the city - traveling on and between them is fairly slow and painful. By contrast, Shanghai is a larger city, but it's central district where all of the business and most of the foreigners hang out is very compact, roughly a square box a mile on each side (bounded by Nanjing Xi Lu/Suzhou Creek, Xujiahui, Huaihai Lu, and Dongfang Lu in Pudong). It's criss-cross highway network connects pieces of the city together rather quickly.

Traffic Accidents - Instant Settlement

I was recently in a minor accident, not in China, but in a gas station in Menlo Park. It was very minor, a few scrapes and a broken light, and neither of us wanted to deal with insurance, so I paid the guy $100 and away we went. Not that common in the States, but the preferred way to settle such things in China, apparently even encouraged by the police - in some cases a crowd will even assemble and pass judgment on the amount owed (apparently not always a pleasant experience if you are a foreigner). Never-the-less, it is efficient and gets the job done.

Getting in vs. Getting out

It's interesting going in and out of China, where somewhat surprisingly, it takes longer to leave than to arrive. I've learned not to get behind lots of Chinese while leaving, as they are heavily scrutinized to insure they have proper visas and other approvals to leave, though they have also heavily looked at my passport from time to time. Further, there appears to be some internal security controls, in that you must pass through a sort of immigration checkpoint even on domestic flights. I've also been warned is never, ever over-stay your visa, even by a day or an hour, or the nice airport people will detain you for explanations.

Chinese Trains

I had the chance to take the train to Suzhou, 90 minutes away from Shanghai. My last time on a Chinese Train was nearly 20 years ago and many things have changed (though not everything).

Chinese trains have two classes - upper class and "hard seat," which unlike the name sounds, is just more economical and does indeed have padded seats (though it used to be a hard chair or plank, I guess).

We rode upper class on the 90 minute trip to Suzhou and it was pleasurable, sort of like being on an old, but serviceable Amtrak train. The train was fairly high speed, except when it wasn't, with numerous bouts of walking pace in various places, but still we arrived within a few minutes of our schedule time. One way fare was about $5.

The trip back was in hard seat, for a little under $3, and a bit more cozy. The most amusing part was the sock seller, who for about 10 minutes tried to sell packs of socks to the train car, tossing them around as demos, etc. I think one woman bought some, but it was otherwise just humorous.