A Day in the Life

Just a day, just an...ordinary day...

Living in China, one thing that all Westerners need to get used to is the desire of the Asians to photograph our light skinned, round-eyed children. Since our earliest days in Malaysia we have made it a bit of sport to try to take pictures of the people taking pictures of our kids. Often the kids are tired of it and hide their faces. Today we were having a lovely doughnut at Dunkin Donuts and the very sweet girl behind the counter took a liking to Viv:

I guess Vivi was feeling cheeky today because she posed for her:

Then we continued on with our errands at Carrefour, our nearby super store. They had a nice sale on shirts and I nearly bought this one, but settled for the picture instead:

Here's a close up of the bottom of the text:

"The wind lether know That my wands are drenched in the dilk". I have even tried to reverse-engineer a translation that makes SOME kind of sense but try as I may, I keep coming up with nothing. Suggestions?
And as it is Halloween, let's have some holiday-specific fun. Seen on the box of a Halloween decoration in Carrefour:

As Halloween nears, we have been doing some prep. This year again we made the flyer for everyone in our neighborhood to hang on their doors to identify the houses participating in handing out Trick-or-Treats. Viv was such a trouper, she helped me to deliver them to all 100+ houses! and she wasn't even afraid of the spider and webs on our neighbors' mailbox~

We decorated Halloween cookies with our friends (thanks for the googley eyes Aunt Vickie!)

Some of the finished product

And had fun straws for our drinks! (Thanks again to Aunt Vickie!)

Everyone got a Halloween tattoo as a parting gift:

Happy Halloween, Everyone!

National Vacations, Chinese-Style

I'm sure many of us Americans and Westerners would like to have more vacation time than we currently do, but really, it could be a lot worse. As a follow up to my last post (and to clean out the pipes so I can write what's up next...) and amid rumors of 10 to 18 hour traffic jams and tourists having to walk down mountains in the middle of the night because not enough busses were there to service the crowds bussed in for a day trip during the most recent holiday week, here is some insight into the Chinese way:

(Taken from the South China Morning Post, Oct. 11, 2012)

Time to end the massive chaos of the 'golden week' holidays

The 'golden week' holidays are the only time many millions get a chance to travel - which means chaos and massive overcrowding

Mainlanders like to compare being caught in throngs of people, all jostling to get through a crowded place, to making their favourite dish - boiling dumplings in hot water.

That comparison is a fitting metaphor for the nightmarish experience of tens of millions of holidaymakers who packed the nation's motorways, trains and airports during the week-long National Day holiday, which ended yesterday.

Online postings of pictures, along with state media reports, painted a picture of holiday mayhem on an unprecedented scale. The country's main roads were so packed, they appeared to be sprawling car parks.

Major tourism sites were so crowded that some visitors could see little more than the backs of people right in front of them.

There were plenty of horror stories of people being stranded, on top of mountains and other places, for hours without food or drink, only for them to then be ripped off by unscrupulous businesses. As holidaymakers recover from their vacations, many of which turned into nightmares, internet users and state media have started a new round of soul-searching over the holiday system. It is high time they did.

The central government introduced annual week-long "golden" holidays in 1999, after the Asian Financial Crisis, as a way to boost mainland consumer spending and fuel economic growth.

But mainlanders have long seen that the negatives of such holidays greatly outweigh the positives, as several hundred million trips are made during just seven or eight days.

These mass movements have not only sucked the fun and relaxation out of trips, but also resulted in unbearable pressure being placed on the country's infrastructure. Moreover, they have caused serious environmental damage to the country's heritage sites, which cannot handle the influx of so many people at the same time, even though the tourism industry rakes in billions of yuan in revenue during the holidays.

To be sure, given the size of the population and mainlanders' intensified yearning for holiday travel as they get richer, holiday rushes are sometimes inevitable, particularly during the Lunar New Year holiday, when people traditionally travel home for family reunions.

But there are several steps that the central government can easily take to make holiday travel more fun and enjoyable for mainlanders.

First, it is time for Beijing to review and fundamentally overhaul the holiday system. It should abolish the current arrangement of giving people entire weeks off for the National Day and Lunar New Year holidays.

But before that, it should increase the amount of paid leave that people receive. Ironically, China may be known for having a week-long National Day holiday, but that fact is that only the first three days are paid for, and the rest must be made up by working the weekend preceding the holiday.

And this year's National Day holiday was a day longer because the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday fell on September 30.

In fact, despite China's long-standing claim that workers are the masters in a socialist country, mainlanders enjoy one of the lowest levels of paid leave in world, ranging from five days for people with less than five years of experience to 10 days for people with five to 10 years of experience.

Second, the government should encourage mainlanders to take paid leave at times of their own choosing.

Currently, mainland employers, including multi-nationals, do not encourage their workers to take paid leave, except during the golden week holidays.

This means that mainlanders have little choice but to hit the road if they want to do any travelling during the year, even though they know they are likely to get caught up in the mayhem.

Third, the government should implement a better early warning system to help handle the holiday rush, such as using social media and other electronic media to give timely updates about road conditions and the size of crowds at major tourism sites.

I have had so many conversations this week, it seems about why China will never be a world leader. To me, this is just another item on that list.

Hengsha Island, An October Staycation

Those of you who tuned in last year at this time may remember that the beginning of October is a very big holiday in China: the National Holiday, coinciding with the Mid-Autumn/Harvest Festival. (Mooncakes anyone?) Typically businesses shut down for at least a few days around the 1st of October. Heinz took the "Golden" week off. For many, it's similar to a Spring Break in the Fall: elaborate travel plans are made around the kids' school vacations. For us, since I had returned from the States at the beginning of the holiday, it was an opportunity to relax and take it easy. (And battle my jet-lag!!)

Earlier this spring the local Swiss Club sponsored a cycling trip to a nearby island where the Yangzi meets the South China Sea. Their brochure read as follows:
"Hengsha island is the smallest of the three islands at the mouth of the Yangzi. Apart from a military base and a couple farms it doesn't have much else on it. There is not a single factory on the whole island. Granted it's not that big, yes, but it's nice. Swiss people know that a place isn't measured by size of the area. And since the military runs the show the whole island is kept like a public park. Seriously it looks like one big garden! Hengsha Island has been called the least polluted place in Shanghai. I think that's true." 
We missed that event, I can't remember why but we were intrigued by the description and have been wanting to check it out ever since. So one day during the "Golden Week" we loaded the kids' bikes in the car and headed out.  After about a 25 minute ride in the car, we reached the coast and took a tunnel from the mainland to Changxing Island and then a ferry to HengshaXiang (Hengsha Island).
On the Ferry to the Hengsha.

There is a resort (I use the phrase loosely) on the northeast coast of the island, Angel Bay Vacationland, billed as the ideal getaway, offering clean air, private cottages and a few extracurricular activities so we headed there and rented bikes for Heinz and I. 

I know riding a bike does not come naturally to everyone but, really, who needs this instruction?? (And why does it have so many characters in Chinese?)

Riding down the main street of the "resort"

 Angel Bay Vacationland, as seen from across the lagoon.

Riding next to the "golf aquatic exercise court", basically a driving range into the lagoon. Bet that's great for the local marine life!

We stopped beside the go-kart track to eat our lunch.

Then Daddy and Conrad went for a ride. 

Vivi got in on the action too! Girls can do!

Is that the Little Old Lady from Pasedena who can barely see over the steering wheel?

 The island is mostly made up of peanut and orange farms. We rode down a few lanes between the groves. 

The houses line up in long blocks along the roads with the farmland stretching out behind.

There is an elevated sea wall that seems to ring the island and it makes a nice bike path. Here we are riding out to the seawall.

Passing backyard farms on the way out to the seawall.
    
My intrepid little adventurer. I know I'm biased but...isn't she cute? Pretty good on her two wheels at 3 1/2!

A view from the seawall.

Looking back to the island

On the seawall

The view out to sea. I wonder what the nets are for.

Along the way we passed an old WWII bunker.

And then we passed this thing. I saw the food at first, realized it was an ancestral offering of some kind but on our return trip, from a different angle I realized that the black charred thing next to it resembled a body. (At least I hope it only "resembled" a body!) It totally creeped me out!

 I mean, really, could it be any creepier??

Conrad and Vivi went for a pony ride.

The farm nextdoor to the riding stable.

Goodbye Ferry, thank you for giving us a ride today!

Two tired adventurers after a lovely day on the island~

It took us about an hour to get home from the ferry, but other travelers in China were not quite so fortunate during the holiday. Taken from zerohedge.com: 

"This one is for the the no good Keynesian deed goes unpunished files. As part of its 8 day Golden Week celebration, China's central planners decided to do a good thing for the people and remove all tolls from expressways. That was the populist explanation. The fundamental one was that this act would somehow spur the economy. Alas, while the same people may have saved some transit money in the process, what they did not save was on transit times. As South China Morning Post reports, millions were promptly stuck in traffic jams as a result of the politburo's generosity."

Thankfully our drive home did not look like this:

First of all the Chinese love free stuff but for some, the free tolls meant saving as much as 300-400 Yuan, or about 50-65 USD on their holiday travel. And the traffic jams are only part of it. The crowding at all forms of tourist sites during the major holidays in China has gotten so bad that I feel the need to dedicate an entire blog just to that! Stay tuned for the next installment...

Happy Golden Week to you all~