Since I came to China, I have gotten into discussions about insurance on a number of occasions. Insurance is just beginning, in China, but it's not trusted by the people. Indeed, most people who are rich enough to afford a car don't even have car insurance: they just negotiate, sometime for hundreds of thousand of Yuan,  in case of an accident, injury or death.

At the university ...

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When I first came to China, I was surprised by the situation in napkins [and toilet paper]. I might go to a cafe and order a coffee, which was priced at, say, Y18, but when the bill would come, it would be Y22.

As it is, paper must be scarce, in China, I guess, when you measure it against the people. Thus, at many restaurants, you have to pay for napkins. Moreover, you don't really get napkins ... << MORE >>

Each year, China celebrates one of its most important holidays: Mid-Autumn Day. It occurs in September, on the night of the full moon, and represents the beginning of the Fall. Celebration includes, family gatherings, walks to look at the moon, and moon cake, a cake created just for that day, like fruit cake during the Western Christmas-Chanukah-New Year season.

Moon cake is a big part of the celebration, and stands at department ...

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This post addresses to observations that I have made about culture, customs, in China, which have suddenly come together in one package for me. The last time I hit a girl (female) was in 2nd grade. She was a Tomboy, and, so, I came to think of her more as a boy than a girl, and, for a reason I cannot remember, all these years later, I retaliated by slapping her. Of course, my mother, upon hearing about that, told me that boys don't hit girls, no matter what.

Sure, I remember seeing ... << MORE >>

We have just entered the Chinese year of the rabbit, and anythime I think of any animal, I think about how it is usually food, in Guangdong. Locals, in the countryside, still eat dog. At the fresh seafood restaurant, they have waterbugs and silkworm cocoons. At the local market, at the end of our street, you can see scorpions, snakes, frogs, turtles, alligators, and, of course, bunnies...

 

I ... << MORE >>

A happy life is different things to different people. Ma Yi Xing says that a happy life, to him, is having a beautiful woman and a loyal dog. Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous life in the New Year from all of us at Leona Craig Art. Hope the new year brings you your personal dream of a happy life.

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Living in China for 6 years, now, I expect to be disappointed by the simplest request. When I first got here, I needed a power strip to plug in my computer equipment. Before I even talk about that, a preliminary observation is that most apartment, classrooms, etc. have a dearth of power outlets in the wall. Anyway, I bought a power strip with four slots for Y5 (less than US$1), and I thought that I was in heaven. In reality, it lasted one week before it burned out. Quickly calculating in my mind, that would be Y260 per ... << MORE >>

I have lived in China for five years, now.  Back when I began my decade of wandering, at the beginning of the millennium, I had just had sold my eighteenth century estate, which I owned, restored and turned into an art inn, before that concept had even been coined.  Since I moved to China, I have seen countless old buildings that could be really cool, if they were restored and made into nice contemporary living spaces.  However, the vast majority of Chinese people and, apparently, the state, topped off by a new rich class, prefer a flashy new apartment with a high price tag to restoration of something old.  We say vast majority because, finally, after living here for five years, I have discovered an old section of the city where people are taking old several story houses and redoing them: some tastefully and to original character; others bastardized .  All the same, we are actually going to set up our gallery, there.

More generally, however, much of the old city of Guangzhou, which is mostly old, is getting a facelift, especially, in areas that will be seen by many visitors when driving or walking around the city during the upcoming Asian Games, next November.  Indeed, I believe that the stimulus package, much of which was directed to infrastructure, and the extremely loose credit stance of Chinese banks, this past year, combined with the desire to put up a good front for the coming games.

Mind you, it is not a real restoration of the town but, merely, a face list, and extremely facial, at that.  Old buildings, including the old up to ten story boxy cement and tile apartment blocks, as well as the early 20^th century buildings with sloped tiled roofs, are getting face lifts on the faces facing major streets, avenues, and raised highways; if you go around to the rear of the building or go inside, you will find that nothing has changed.  In addition, just about every major street has been dug up and put back together more nicely, over the past year, and is continuing.  Subway lines that were supposed to have been done several years ago have finally bee completed, and bus islands are being built on an avenue near one of the stadium complexes, downtown, which, itself is dotted with cranes busily rebuilding the athletic event complex.  In other areas, ground that had been broken but was long awaiting construction to start has suddenly spring tall buildings that are already nearing completion within the several months sine I had been to those parts of town [Guangzhou is a town of 10 million people and covers at least 10 square miles or more, in my rough estimate].  Other areas that used to have cute but dilapidated older structures have been completely razed and new buildings are already going up.

    

Westerners see pictures of China, they usually are shown the tall buildings that have sprung up in major cities, mostly over the past two decades or less.  However, most of China, even most of the interiors of those picture postcard skyscraper cities, are old smaller buildings, mostly in great need of repair.  It is a shame, to someone, like me, who appreciates the art of older buildings and who has restored a two hundred year old country estate to its original glory, to see such great old structures go to waste or become lost forever.  It is shameful, in my opinion, to see the kind of face lift that is now on-going: saving face for those places likely to be seen by visitors, leaving the rest to continue to rot.  Looking at what has been done, on its face, it will probably last no longer than a few years, at most.

We have China telecom service for our land-line phone and DSL.  I also have a mobile internet card for my computer for a PC card modem.  The mobile internet was transferred from China Unicom, a mobile phone provider, to China Telecom about a year or so ago, in a government reshuffling of the telephone business, in China.

When we added ADSL, about two years ago, we were required to pay a year’s service, upfront.  Six months or so into that contract, Ayu noticed that China Telecom had also been charging one of my bank accounts for the ADSL.  She called and went visiting China Telecom for several weeks before they refunded the money, which took several more weeks.  Over the ensuing year plus, Ayu has discovered repeated events of overcharging my account for services, and it always takes repeated visits and phone calls, in order to get it straightened out.

Indeed, part of the overcharging and other problems has been problems with charging, not charging, or overcharging my bank account for my mobile internet service.  Then, about two months ago, I reprogrammed my computer, and I lost the software for the PC card.  After repeated misleads by China Telecom, we were not able to get new software.  Part of the problem has been that they have moved on to 3G, and the card did not support that. So, we asked, what can we do to get 3G card, and more quickly and efficiently solve the problem.  After several misleads by China Telecom, on that, we just went to the computer center and bought a new 3G card.

While that should have solved the problem, it turned out that there was an ongoing problem with charging the SIM card from my bank account.  Remember, now, that China Telecom has been deducting charges for telephone service, internet service and mobile internet service for over a year.  For several weeks, Ayu has been spending several phone calls a day trying to get the SIM card charged, but the telephone company keeps telling her that they cannot charge my bank account for the SIM charges because the name in the account differs from the name on my bank account.  This is not even a new problem.  Even though China Telecom had been deducting money from that bank account, they said they could not refund money to that account because of the name difference, never mind that they also have my passport number on the accounts.  The problem in name is simply that the Bank stamp on my account puts my middle name last.  All tolled, it has been about a month and a half of this nonsense. The problem is still not resolved, including two phone calls from different people at China Telecom, today.  And the easiest thing to do, in my mind, is just to go back to the computer center, tomorrow, and buy a new SIM card, not registered to anyone, with one year’s service built in.

Anyone who thinks that China will rule the business and financial world has, obviously, never been to China.

When I first moved to China, I would go to Shamian Island, which is the island that foreign traders were confined to, in the 1800's, in Guangzhou.  The architecture is very Western; it has cafés and restaurants; and it is very peaceful and pretty.  It has a nice feeling, and, although it is small and separated by small bridges from the rest of the city, it feels like you are in a different world.

I noticed, even on my first outing, that there were photographers taking photos of girls or couples, dressed in wedding attire.  Moreover, since there were many such girls dotted around the island being photographed, I naturally assumed that it was just a good place to do catalog photo shoots for wedding attire.  The first time that I saw it, I even got a phone number from one of the girls.  However, I couldn't have been more wrong about what it actually was all about.

As it turns out, wedding photographs are much more important than the wedding, itself.  In the West, we, too, like to take photos at our weddings, but that is not the case, in China.  The photos are actually staged and taken many months, or even years, in advance of the actual wedding event.  As I have witnessed this phenomenon repeatedly and in more than just Shamian, I have come to also realize that even the wedding attire are just props.  The wedding photo studios actually provide the dresses and tuxedos as part of the photo album package.  In fact, sometimes I have noticed that the bride is wearing jeans under her dress.  Often, in certain locations, you can see many brides and grooms around, just waiting until it is their turn for their "wedding photo" shots.  To me, as a Westerner, it is a very peculiar phenomenon.

I have been told, in addition, by friends that, at the wedding, some photos might also be taken, but it is these staged photos that are the ones that end up on walls, tables or desks, in the end.

We have included some photos from both Shamian Island, in Guangzhou, and outside a castle near jetty, in Qingdao, where it is also popular to have wedding photos taken.