The Night Life - Zhuhai, China

We haven't really had a busy week this week so we have had some time for fun at night. But is there really anything to do in Zhuhai at night? Not really. We've gotten to know the girls (the servers, not the hookers) at the Irish pub downstairs and they have a pretty good music DVD collection.

The other night we chose "Pink Floyd - The Wall - Live in Berlin" and played it on the big screen there. By the end of the night we were all singing along as loud as we could to the strange songs that make up that album.

Tonight the choice was "Santana - Supernatural". Once again we sang along with all of the words and then were dancing our ways back to the elevator. The concierge and front desk girls who now know us by name, politely smiled as the Chinese tend to do while we hummed and danced our way past.

As soon as we got into the elevator, the Chinese music hit us and it was an immediate buzz kill. It is so different from anything we listen to that it instantly erases anything that you may have in your head. It is a great prescription that I will keep in mind next time I am stuck on the Oscar Myer song.

Peking Duck - Zhuhai, China

We went out for dinner tonight to try another Chinese specialty: the Peking Duck. They bring this whole duck to the table, which is marinated in some sort of peanut sauce I think. While it is in front of you, they cut the skin off and put it into dumplings with cabbage and some other stuff. Then they take it away.

I was worried that they would run away with the rest of it, but then they came back after a little bit. They had sauteed it with random veggies and gave us large lettuce leaves to make our own rolls.

One thing that I didn't know before is that the locals here call it a Beijing duck. Apparently Peking is the old name of the same city. Sort of like the Mumbai-Bombay thing.

This was a short post so I added a picture too. I think one of my Chinese new year's resolutions is to put more pictures on my blog.

The Dragon Dance - Zhuhai, China

Happy new years.

This morning we saw a dragon dance at our hotel which was really neat and loud. I guess the whole point is that the dragons come and scare the bad luck away. These guys were really good. There were two dragons and two people per dragon. At one point they jumped on each others shoulders as if the dragon was standing on its hind legs.
They also did a lap around the cherry blossom tree which is what everyone is supposed to do on new years. You do three turns in one direction and then two turns in the other direction. It is supposed to give you luck in wealth and love etc for the next year.

The cherry tree is decorated with red envelopes. Apparently the parents give their children lucky money in those envelopes every year. The kids put the money under their pillow on new years eve and then it means that when they wake up, they've aged one year.

Happy Chinese New Years - Zhuhai, China

Zing naan quai lur. That's happy new years in mandarin (my own spelling).

China is one big party at new years. Last night we kept hearing fireworks but couldn't see them from any of our hotel windows. We had a few beers and a few glasses of wine and then went to the beach for midnight. The city of Zhuhai doesn't put on any fireworks, but the locals were all over it. There were so many fireworks shooting up at once and we sat and watched for what seemed like a couple of hours. They were being lit all around us and at one point the ash from some of them were falling directly ontop of us. There were also people lighting sparklers and planting them in the sand.

One type that they lit was really neat. There was fuel in what looked like one of those red chinese lanterns. They would light the fuel and hold it for a moment and then let it go and it would fly away. There were tons of these floating accross the sky. The fireworks that were lit really were like what a big city would use (High caliber stuff).

I don't think the fireworks have really ended yet as I keep hearing a few still going off and it is already 11 am!

The Dysentary and the Pharmacy - Zhuhai, China

In my last post I mention an interesting encounter with an octopus. Well now I think I am living to regret it. I think I caught something, and nothing good. I wasn't feeling good last night and when I got back to the hotel I realized that I had some pretty bad gastro stuff. Anyways, I went to work this morning and then left part way through because I wasn't feeling too good.

I took this opportunity to explore the Chinese pharmacy market. Wow. Now you may remember with my Mayflower post that when you are in a restaurant, you often have 8 people surrounding you while you order. Well a pharmacy is no different. Also, everything is in Chinese, and nobody speaks a word of English. So this experience involved playing sherades with the four clerks to try to get them to understand my problem.

First I made a drinking motion to simulate peptol bismal. The clerks brought me to the booze counter. Then I made a pill popping motion to simulate medicine, the clerk looked a little uneasy and motioned cocain sniffing back to me. No No No! Eventually I point to my rear and she brings me to the digestive system. I look at a few items, but they are all in chinese so the store clerk has to open them as there is a small blerb written in english inside the package.

I found one pack that said dysentary on the pack so I exclaim "yes, yes!". I think she understood that because she finnally smiled and sold it to me. I tried the pill, not sure what it would do, and I think I am feeling a little better now. Time will tell.

The Octopus

Everything is going great in China at the moment. I've been working hard lately, but also finding time to go out at night. Every night is a new restaurant, and it is impossible to find any western food, which means that there is a ton of strange things on my plate.

The other night we went for sushi and one of the guys got a plate of octopi. They were a little big to stick in your mouth whole, but we only had chopsticks and you couldn't really bite them in half. I tried one and it kind of tasted like peanut butter. The gross part (the part that really made me almost loose it) was when you tried to bite on the meaty head, it would slide through your teeth so it was really hard to chew.

The New Years party

I went to my Chinese sponsor's New Years party and it was incredible. This is like their version of our Christmas parties so it was a big do. The other people in my group were trying to get me to sing a song in front of everyone. There were a lot more people than I expected (~250). We did sing a song together on stage, but it was a French song, and only one of us knew the words so we mumbled and it was really embarrassing.

We met the leader of the communist party and the leader of the labor union here and when he grabbed the microphone, it sounded like a Mao rally. Everyone was cheering and it was actually pretty fun and it was easy to get caught up in the atmosphere.

The funniest part was all of the drunk Chinese people. They have this thing called gumbay, which is their way of saying cheers and bottoms up. People kept coming over to our table and saying gumbay. Then we all had to cheers and finish our wine. I never had more than a half glass of wine poured, but we must have done that 20 times. And somehow (I don't know how), my wine glass was never empty. The waitresses would come by and pour you more without telling you, even if you were still holding the glass.

The authority who will be evaluating our product was so smashed. He kept gumboing us and told one of the guys on our team, that if he doesn't drink more, we would not get qualified. I went to the washroom and there were several people sick. It was so messy! The best part is that it was a family function. There must have been 30 kids under 10 years old.

The food was also ridiculous. We had so many dishes. I think the funniest was their favorite delicacy. They bring in a dish with a whole baby pig. There are no eyes on it, instead, they have maraschino cherries in the eye sockets. Inside the maraschino cherries, they stuck LED lights that flashed. So we had a dead pig with (alternating) flashing red eyes. It was so weird. Another weird part about that dish was that the only part that we were supposed to eat was the skin. The skin was precut so you could grab it with your chopsticks.

Afterwards we went for a beer at an irish pub downstairs in the lobby of the hotel. All of us were pretty drunk. After that I went back to work. :) I worked yesterday from 6:30 am to 4 am with my only brake being the drunk fest. It was one heck of a night.

The Language Barrier - Zhuhai, China

So I speak English and only English. I'm used to not knowing the local language, but I had a meeting today which just blew me out of the water. The chinese guys there kept speaking in chinese amongst themselves and the Quebecers that I work with kept speaking in french amongst them selves. So there I was caught in the middle, knowing a language common to everyone in the room, but understanding not a word that was said.

Now, the Quebecios from my company always speak french unless talking directly to me, which is annoying. But then one of them told me how she thought the Chinese were really rude that they tend to speak chinese amongst each other right in front of them. I responded saying that I am quite used to it (I deal with them more than anyone as well). Then I told her that it is funny, but when they read our manuals, they sound them out in english, so I end up understanding more of what they are saying than what my own team is saying. I think she got the hint.

It would be nice to learn another language, and I am trying with French. But it is also hard to just learn one more language. I mean right now I am caught between french and chinese, which do I choose? Well I live in Quebec now so I will choose french, but I spend the majority of my day talking to chinese people, so shouldn't I learn that too? But how can I attempt to learn a third language when I can't even speak a second? Ahhhhh, frustrations!

Pizza Hut - Zhuhai, China

I went to a Pizza Hut tonight for some familiar food and it was completely different from Canadian ones. Not only were there more rice dishes than pizzas, but the pizzas that did exist all had seafood on them. Seafood? That's weird. Even the stuffed crust pizza was stuffed with shrip. It was kind of cool though. Now I have some pizza for lunch tomorrow. Anyways that is all I have on that topic.

day off and electronics - Zhuhai, China

On my day off I went exploring and got quite lost. Fortunatley I got a card from the hotel that has "drive me to the holiday inn" written in chinese. I was able to get a taxi to take me home for 10 yuan (2 dollars). I went to an underground market (that is it's name, seriously) and bought an mp3 player. It also plays movies, games and has an 8 megapixle camera on it. Grand total? 200 yuan ($40CAD). I figured it was a good purchase. I couldn't believe how many cell phone stores there are. I can't find a regular electronics store here. I think the people to cell phone store ratio here is about 3:1. I have no idea how they stay in business. Apparently I can get a good iPhone knock off for about $100. I am tempted even though I would never use it.

Getting ready for new years - Zhuhai, China

Everything is being decorated here for Chineese new years. There are tangerine trees every where and red banners and lanters. Its really neat. I read in the paper today that they expect 3.32 billion trips within china this new years season! It seems like this is their christmas. It should be fun. I guess there is a dragon dance nearby that I might go check out. I am excited to see what is going to happen. I'll keep you posted.

Drives to work - Zhuhai, China

We have a 30 minute drive to work every day and we get the same driver every time. Work is in a free trade zone and when we pass the customs post, the guards always salute us. It makes me feel important. Our driver doesn't speak english but we get by with over-the-top facial expressions and gestures. He is a nice guy and we invited him in to see some of the stuff that we work on. He was really happy and got really excited. He pointed to some buildings on our drive home the other day and said "maccau". So apparently we are really close the the city/country/island of Maccau. Too bad I don't have a multiple entry visa. I guess it is the Las Vegas of China. That would have been the perfect place to spend chinese new years.

Names - Zhuhai, China

The people here are really nice. There are a couple of guys at the hotel who know english and now know us by our first names. They give us suggestions on where to eat and where to get beer and such. They all seem to have stripper names like Candy and Carry, but apparently it's just because their names are completely non-pronounceable. The only one that does sound Chinese is Kuma. But apparently his name is huge!

The Fondue - Zhuhai, China

One of our more interesting meals was a place that had big bunsen burners sunken into the table. I had no idea what I was doing and started pointing at things on the menu. I don't speak Chinese so I wasn't sure what I was getting. Apparently I missed the point entirely. My colleagues came to my rescue. The point of this place is to choose two broths which they bring in a big bowl and place in the dip of the table. Then you order all of the things that you will dump into the broth and everyone takes what they want from the pot afterwards.

So we started off with slices of lamb, brussell sprouts (or chinese equivalents), cabbage, etc. Then they come by with a plate that none of us can name. Apparently that was what I ordered during my frenzied pointing. It had some meat with thick bones, but also had scales. It kind of tasted like calamari but I know that doesnt have much meat, bones, or scales. We eventually decided it was frog legs. Whether that is right or not, I have no idea. So that is my first taste of frog legs.

The Mayflower - Zhuhai, China

So here I am in Zhuhai, China. I have been here about a week and everyday we've had something different and a little weird for dinner. Well I went out for dinner last night to the Mayflower and it ended up as a gong show.

Now this is a seafood place (which we didn't know until we got there). But it isn't the type of place where you just order from a menu. Instead they take you to an aquarium where you choose which crab or fish or lobster you want. There is something a little strange about looking a crab in the eyes before you sentence it to be your dinner, but hey, I did it.

We ordered a ton of different dishes and each one came with it's challenges. So many challenges that the manager (who is the only one who speaks english there) came to help teach us how to eat.

First they dropped off some pumpkin seeds. I took one and ate it, only to spit it out when I heard the waitress scream. Apparently I was supposed to bite the shell and eat the pit. Then we got a plate of rice. We had no forks, just chop sticks. And this rice wasn't sticky either! So all of us loaded it on our plates and began eating it grain by grain. Someone came by and started shoveling it into a bowl and holding it up to his mouth, demonstrating how to eat that kind of rice.... okay! a little closer! Finally the crab came. I don't think I've every actually had crab, and so I had no idea what I was doing. I was trying to rip legs off and biting the shell to crack it. It was messy to say the least. Eventually they came by and helped me out by handing me one of those cracking devices. Phew. I felt a little silly that night.

Starting Off

Hi All,

I have a new job where I am doing a lot of traveling, so I am going to start a blog off all the things that happen to me during these trips.

Enjoy!