- Always carry a pack of tissues with you for the bathrooms when you're out and about, it's rarely supplied. You can buy little packs for about 1 yuan. Also, some bathrooms charge .50 yuan to use.
- These are the common crops I've identified so far: rice, corn, sunflowers, lotus root, sweet potatoes, chilies, watermelon, pumpkin, Plus many other green vegetables I've seen on display at restaurants, watermelon, and green beans.
- Chinese people seems to be refreshingly practical, more worried about whether something works than how it looks.
- There is a vast variety of clothing styles: traditional minority, very modern,"party" green and blue, school uniforms, casual modern, lots of women in pants, some in short skirts, Chinese slippers, very high heels.
- It's helpful to have paper and pen on hand for people to write down prices, times, dates if needed. Also, to jot down notes for the diary.
-
Many houses have solar panels that are attached to water tanks. However, I haven't been able to have a hot shower in either of the guest houses I've stayed in so far.
- In Dali I saw toddlers being suspended over the earthy area beside the sidewalk to poop.
- I've seen tai chi and mahjong in the parks.
- I've seen women driving buses and taxis, rowing fish boats, and on road crews.
- Being a passenger is not for the faint of heart - it often feels like the vehicles are playing chicken with each other.
- There are huge walls of webs spanning between trees that can contain 50 or more fierce looking spiders. The wasps here are also fierce looking - larger and thinner than ours with black and orange stripes.
- There is a beautiful aquarium that takes up an entire wall in the Vancouver International Departures area that is topped by a First Nations design and contains salmon, red snapper, a wolf eel, starfish, sea anemones and other varieties of fish.
- On the China Eastern Airline flight the meals were good (I had fish and noodles for lunch, omelette with sausage and hashbrowns, yogurt and fruit for breakfast), we were handed warm damp faceclothes at the start of the trip, and at the end there was a video that took us through some exercises to invigorate us after the long journey.
- The Moonshine Inn had several Chinese TV stations with very western looking newscasters and commercials for such things as electronics, make-up, clothing, cars (including Chinese manufacturers), food. Chinese drama series seemed to be popular.
- In the Shanghai Airport there are hot water dispensers for people to make tea, noodles and just drink plain.
- My $4.00 international plug adaptors from the Dollar Store worked fine.
- School kids start their day at 7:45 am with approx 1/2 hour of singing and exercises together. Kindergartens are very academic; however, some kindergartens are trying to take a different approach.
- Gluten is tasty. In Shaxi I had a dish of pea jelly cut in strips with chilis and cabbage and it was tasty too.
- Sign at construction development site in Kunming: "Urban renewal, Life more beautiful".
- There is a lot of trust involved when neither of us know the other's language - I'm putting myself in the hands of strangers who give directions and offer assistance, take money for payment and make change. It has worked out very well so far.
- There are many Muslim Chinese women wearing headscarves, and I've noticed that bull clips can be used to secure the scarves under the chin.
- I haven't seen many Chinese people with tattoes or men with earrings, but have seen some.
- There are many long above-ground viaducts and cement irrigation channels carrying water to farmed areas.
- At a farmhouse outside Dali I saw many rods with noodles hanging over them drying outside.
- There are lots of tiny mosquitos here - I stopped counting at 39 bites on my left ankle and foot. Luckily they're not very itchy, and this isn't jungle area so I'm not worried about malaria.
No comments:
Post a Comment