Weblog Stephan Roest
Weblog Stephan Roest
To Harbin|Ha Gong Da|Sleeping in Harbin|In Harbin|Flu it is|Bargaining|China turns red to orange|Christmas in China|Fitness Ark|Hamamas|Ice and Snow|Skiing in Wuyimi|Skiing in Yabuli|World Cup Speed Skating Harbin|Recognizing people | Fake
To Harbin
For the Delft University of Technology I have been sent to Harbin to help start the double degree program and work on a typical TPM case concerning a Chinese problem. That TPM case concerns the pollution of the Songhuajiang River one year ago. Due to blasts at a chemical plant in the neighbor province Jilin, 100 tons of benzene-like pollutants were released in the River. The drinking water of the 9 million citizens counting Harbin was cut off and the city had to sustain 5 five days without drinking water. Since this is a typical TPM problem with many actors involved (even Russian ambassadors and Russian local authorities), it will be analyzed as a multi-actor-system.
My second task is to pioneer and explore the University and the city to develop a ‘student-city-guide’ for the Delft students, to motivate them to come to get a double degree here in Harbin. The work for the ‘student-city-guide’ will include two columns in the TBM quarterly, a weekly updated log on this EPA website and as mentioned, the student city guide with all information needed to have a good and efficient time here. An introduction on the double-degree-program, the classes, the university buildings, the teachers and the Chinese students coming to Delft. Also I will discuss the interesting differences between the Chinese culture and the western or Dutch culture. By describing accommodation, infrastructure, university-restaurants, libraries, sports possibilities I hope to get you interested in this extraordinary city.
Also there will be plenty of tips on restaurants, pubs, bars and clubs can be found. The tourist places will be mapped and rated. Including other nice places in China that are worth visiting.
HaGongDa
The best technical university of China is located in Harbin and is called HIT, Harbin Institute of Technology. In China they say Ha Gong Da for H I T and this is also the abbreviation of the full Chinese name of the university. Besides HaGongDa, there are many other universities in Harbin (19), but HaGongDa is the most famous and biggest one of all.
All university buildings are on one campus site, but HaGongDa has a second one and when you’re unlucky you have to go to the other site for some classes. The students, employees and teachers all live on the campus, so there are many large (6/7 floors) dormitory buildings, which are identified with numbers. So I live in dormitory 6, for instance, and other foreigners live in dormitory 13. The Chinese people live in dormitories were men and women are separated, the electricity goes of at 10 o’clock and they share a room with 7 others (See my blog ‘Sleeping in Harbin’).
The other buildings are university buildings were classes take place, were libraries are located or were people can eat. The Chinese don’t cook for themselves but eat at fixed times in one of the many university facilitated restaurants (7.30 breakfast; 11.30 lunch; 17.00 diner) every time a warm Chinese meal. At the campus site are also a lot of small shops (for photos for instance), a supermarket, a bank, a small bookstore, many opticians (all Chinese wear glasses) and I heard there is even a HaGongDa-hospital.
With everything arranged and all these certainties, life is pretty easy, we all have diner between 17.00 and 18.00 when the restaurants are open, everyone is spreading around the campus, they do not need to ask themselves questions about other possibilities or other opportunities. Or at least it seems like this. And, on the other hand, this is the way the Chinese political party wants their citizens to be, hence the result of 80 years communism.
But I like to go out and explore the rest of the world called Harbin. There are a lot of good restaurants nearby HaGongDa and some clubs and bars, making their turnover from mostly other nationalities. Chinese people do not go out and I am not yet sure where they do get their satisfaction from. One thing is probably sports. On Campus there are a lot of outside basketball-fields as well as volleyball-nets. In Harbin, basketball (and maybe the rest of China as well) is a very popular sport. Inside the dormitories are table-tennis-tables and the other famous Chinese sport of badminton can be played in a sport-accommodation-building/hall.
My office is located outside the HaGongDa campus site. In a 10 minutes walking distance in the formal Zoo, a science park is created. At this science park all research centers and offices of many faculties are located. The Zoo-area is very nice, you can still recognize old places were animals would have been presented and in the summer there are probably leaves on the trees. When I look at the map of Harbin, the Zoo area is like a green-hard in the city.
The office itself is very new and large. However there are some remarkable things in this new, quite fancy, building. Large heavy doors prevent any open communication with the hall or other rooms. The lack of windows in the offices makes it even more difficult to get in contact with other people in the office. The toilets are still the holes in the ground and no toilet paper is served. The elevators sometimes don’t work or are off for some days and they already told me that I would better not take the fourth elevator, because that one can cause trouble sometimes. Remarkable in the best technical university of China.
Sleeping in Harbin
20 November 2006
Arrived in the capitol of Heilongjiang, Harbin, in China, I am brought to my dorm where I will be staying the next 5 months. It is a big student dormitory; they let me have a room on the top floor which I have to share with one student. The bathroom and toilet has to be shared with the room next to mine. All people working or studying at the many universities live in dormitories. The Chinese people live separate. There are dormitories for women, men, teachers, students and bachelor students only. The foreigners also have two dormitory buildings separated from the others.
The Chinese live in rooms (about 15 square meters) with six other students (I heard the bachelor students even with eight). They share one bathroom with a complete floor and the energy supply is switched of at ten o'clock. This applies not only for the students but also for the employees, like secretaries, teachers or PhD students. And the most interesting part is that I do not notice any dissatisfaction on their situation.
Compared to their situation we foreigners (students/PhD/employees) have luxury. We have a bathroom we share with just one or two roommates, we have a real western-like toilet (the only one I can find in Harbin), a large entrance, shiny golden Chinese characters at the entrance and when the 'good-guy' has duty as doorkeeper we can come in at night every time we want (50% of the time the 'bad-guy' has duty and we have to be in at 12 and cannot go out anymore).
Inside the dormitories, as in every building in Harbin, it is very warm and well isolated. What results in an instant nap when you just arrived home from the cold weather outside. I thought it was my jetlag that was making me sleepy on strange times, but it is just the temperature. Every Chinese seems to notice this temperature effect: It seems very normal to take a nap in the middle of the day, when you are working or studying. Just place your arms crossed on the desk before you. Lay your head in the middle of it, resting with your front face on your arms. Close your eyes. Take a nap and hope you won't get disturbed in the middle of your dream. The Chinese do this in class, at work, during meetings, diner, everywhere.
The absence of a kitchen in the dormitories is replaced by many huge restaurants on the campus. Where you can have a complete warm (Chinese) dish from 3 yuan (0,30eur). Everybody can have breakfast, lunch and diner at certain eating times in these restaurants. The times are connected to the classes. At the end of a class all students go have lunch or diner in the restaurants. Kitchens in the dormitories are not needed anymore.
I could choose in which room I would like to stay (actually with which roommate) and I chose a Nigerian student. In the opposite room stays the only other Dutch guy in Harbin, with a Palestinian roommate. So we are definitely the most colourful group of foreigners on the campus and can expect a lot of attention and wondered Chinese faces.
In Harbin
28 november 2006
Arrived two weeks ago, I’m starting to find my drive in this city. First days were reserved for applying and all kind of things, mobile phone, internet, registrations, student-id-card and getting over the jetlag. The second week I started my work and tried to get used to the weather. And I think I succeed in all this. I’m not wearing 2 sweaters over each other anymore.
Next to these things I am exploring the city on my own, where do I stay and what is the easiest way to get home early in the morning when you’ve ‘closed’ the disco club. And I’m also succeeding in these things. In Amsterdam (Netherlands) I am a DJ and I thought it would be fun to be one in China as well. So I brought my cd’s (vinyl is too heavy and fragile to carry with me) and introduced myself to the owner of the newest club in Harbin, the BoxClub. I got my change on the first Sunday to show him how developed my skills are. He liked it and now I am the resident DJ every week. Quite a good start!
When Boxclub closes we always go to a place called QS Disco Club, which is full of drunken Russians and other foreigners (Chinese people do not go out that late).
They let me spin my records there as well.
Since I am staying in the foreigners’ dormitory I have already gathered a bunch of nice people around me. One Dutch guy, here for 2 months already, introduced me to a group of people that became directly my friends, so that is very nice. With this group all kinds of fun things are organised. Celebrating Thanksgiving and Sinterklaas, doing excursions (this week to a Coca Cola factory) and skiing.
The best and largest skiing area of China is nearby Harbin (200km) and this weekend the area will be open. We are planning to go next week and check out what the conditions of a Chinese Skiing Area are. For 280yuan (28 euro) we can have the ski-rental, one night in a hotel, and the ski card. We also heard the possibility of renting a Helicopter for 26 people where you would be transferred from the Harbin Airport to the skiing area for only 200 dollars all together (so 8 dollar p.p.). Hopefully this is true and we can apply for this trip. It would be perfect. (I will tell you later if it worked).
This weekend is the Speed skating World Cup Sprints in Harbin. The other Dutch guy and I are going to support the participating Dutch skaters. Yesterday we went to the tailor market to arrange us some orange suits. We found a fuzzy thick orange fabric (like a bear-fur). For 18 euro you get yourself a custom made 2 pieces suit. With a big banner with the text ‘Thialf is toch leuker’, we are going to try to get the attention of camera crews so we might get on Dutch television. So check it out this weekend.
Every week I’m going to post a column on this site. When you want to read more, previous or other articles and columns you can check sbroest.blog.com.
Flu it is
28 November 2006
In Xue cheng (Snow city), as Harbin is also called in the rest of China, the first inch of snow has fallen and the city is like a big skating track. Brine is not used, traffic just ride on ice, and you slip when you step out of the bus. With the snow and the ice the temperature is also decreasing. Every day it is getting colder and it looks like the temperature in buildings, as shopping malls or restaurants, is only increasing. This makes it a challenge to dress.
Outside you notice you are dressed too little, however inside these public places you wonder why scarves and hand gloves actually exist because you wish you were wearing your beach shorts.
I would not be surprised when I catch the flu due to this temperature difference.
To keep this warmth inside the buildings the doors are covered with thick heavy isolation blankets hanging layered behind the doors. In most places you have to go thru two or three of these kinds of passages. The isolation blankets are sometimes made of printed plastic fabric with advertisements on them (smart marketing), but usually made out of dirty, fuzzy, stiff, rough army green lona.
Everyone entering such a building has to push away (upside) the blankets and find a way between them without hitting someone coming from the other way. Since everybody touches the blankets with there whole body, especially hands and head, (although I try to avoid the head) you can imagine why they chose for the army green colour. Every time I pass them, I have to hold myself not thinking about the bacteria and viruses living in the isolation blankets.
So if I‘m not going to get the flu from the temperature difference, I will be getting it from one of the army green lona blankets. But flu it is.
In the Chinese culture and trade it is usual to bargain on the price for a product. They even expect you to do this and will always start with a price higher than the value of the product. This bargaining is not so new, in a lot of countries this game is part of buying stuff, but the extra ‘cheating’ of the Chinese people, however, is. Where in western cultures cheating is a shame to cheat (too much), in China one becomes a great businessman when his cheating skills are perfectly developed (all learned by Sun Tsu’s Art of War).
In my first week in China, this was directly made clear to me. Nearby the University Campus is a large electronics-tower, with several floors of electronic shops to buy all kind of computer related products. I strongly needed an upgrade of my virtual memory (DRAM) and went with the specifications to the tower, to look for it. Supported by my Chinese speaking (but also foreigner) roommate, we searched for the right one for the right price. Kingston is a western known brand in this kind of products, so that’s the one I want.
To getting to know the right (Chinese) price you have to start the bargaining game at a lot of shops, so shopping in China takes some time. Since (almost) everything in China is fake (I will come to that in another column) we were offered a lot of KinXdon, KingMax or other comparable fake names of the brand name Kingston.
After some bargaining we found a lowest price of 475yuan (±47,50 euro), we wanted it for 450yuan, but that seems not to work, so we went to another floor to look further.
We had already seen three floors and several shops on each floor, and everywhere we went, salesmen and other people in the shops (every shop is crowded with people pretend to work there, but doing nothing) looked up when we passed by. Everybody was ready for a good game of cheating the foreigners. Since we were the only foreigners in the whole electronics tower and since we needed a really specific product, every salesman knew our existence.
When you ask a shop whether they sale these things, they ask you to sit down (all employees immediately stand up, to free some chairs) and go find the right product. Because ‘no’ is not a word in Chinese, they keep offering you the fake ones, or with wrong specs. Like we are stupid and maybe sell it. Some others don’t even sell them, but know some colleague salesman who probably has it, they call them and some minutes later another fake or different products is offered.
The last shop we came did it this way. After some phone calls, a right version was delivered, however the package and the two warranty seals (package and product) broke. We discussed this, and she found a solution in a whole pack of all kind of warranty seals and labels, with what she could repair the broken seals. She really thought we would be glad to have a new label on our product instead of being sure about the warranty. But after some attempts to convince her, we stopped worrying about the warranty. They do not understand such topics in China.
Next thing was the price and the game could get started. She wanted 550yuan for it and told us there were also fake ones for about 480yuan. Again someone who thinks we are stupid. But we didn’t directly want to attack here, so asked her to show us the fake one as well, so we could choose for ourselves. Not surprisingly couldn’t she show us that one.
After a long time in the tower, we went back to the 475yuan salesman to buy that one, since it was the lowest price we reached. When we arrived there and asked for the product, he told me that it had to be picked up somewhere and that we could take a seat. When in arrived it appeared to be exactly the same one as just offered to us for 550yuan and we recognized it from the broken seals. The last salesman was lending the product from this shop and trying to sale it to us for a 75yuan increased price.
Quite angry we turned back to that salesman to buy the one from him, but with no notion of his cheating or our anger, he told us that it was just sold, but someone will look for another one directly. When we told him we already bought the same one for 75yuan less, he still didn’t feel any shame on his behavior.
China turns from red to orange for one hour
For a first lecture in a series named 'the foreign sound' we (Marc and I) were invited to give a lecture about Holland. With the catchy title 'China turns from red to orange for one hour' and a 2m X 1,2m poster (with our picture on it) in the middle of the HIT Campus, the lecture was already a success before we even started.
With over 80 Chinese people interested in the history, culture and studying in The Netherlands, we were introduced in Chinese by my Chinese friend Qiyan (who organised this lecture).
In our fluffy orange suits and with a flashy presentation we managed to get applaus already at the start of our presentation. The lecture started with a lot of photo's for which Holland is famous abroad, like windmills, tulips and wooden shoes, but also the Haring and Bitterballen were introduced to the Chinese. After a short overview of our history (from William of Orange till now) and an overview of the relations between China en the Netherlands over the years, we explained our passion for the colour orange. With a video of Hollands best soccer goals (incl.Cruijf '76, VanBasten '88, Bergkamp against Argentina) and many pictures of completely orange dressed Dutch supporters, we assured the Chinese don't forget to bring some orange clothes when they visit the Netherlands.
The presentation was concluded with the famous Dutch civil engineering projects (flevopolder, Deltawerken) and followed by a lot of information about studying in the Netherlands (especially TU Delft and TU Eindhoven) and the Double Degree Program (EPA Master) whit HIT and the TU Delft, which will start next year. Many students are interested to come to the Netherlands. After the presentation we had to answer questions for another hour. The questions were very different: i.e. they asked why we ride bike so much, and if we didn't care that they got stolen that much, till how the love procedure/rules (like man asking women) in the Netherlands worked; If we liked oranges, because we wear orange; And how the studentlife in the Netherlands is different from the studentlife in China, if 'going Dutch' really applies for the Dutch people. After the lecture many students wanted to ask us even more questions, become friends with us, have our e-mailaddress, or even our phone number and we got invitations to visit them in Beijing, have private chinese lessons from them etc. (Marc is leaving today, so I will have all this attention for myself).
I already got several e-mails from students who named me 'their first foreign friend'. The Chinese love to have me as there friend. I enjoyed giving this lecture about my own country, it was very nice.
Due to an earthquake near Taiwan , the most important internet-glass-fibre-cabels on the bottom of the sea were distroyed. This made internet to the USA and Europe very slow or sometimes impossible. It is still not fixed, but it’s going a little faster already. So that’s the reason I wasn’t able to post the following Blogs earlier.
The Chinese don’t really celebrate Christmas, and if they do, they celebrate the American version. The communism banned al forms of religion as far as possible, so the real meaning of this holiday is not broadly known by Chinese. The Chinese love America and they want to be as American as possible, so they also spend lots of money in this holiday concerning this ‘Big Christmas Man’. With the ‘Big Christmas Man’ they mean the Santa Claus, once founded as a successful marketing figure by Coca Cola.
The middle class of China can afford such a commercial Holiday and a restaurant or shopping mall who wants to attract these people puts large inflatable ‘Big Christmas Man’ in front of it’s entrance. Christmas trees can only be found in upper-class Hotel lobbies, to please western guests, but that’s about it in Harbin.
Where I normally get annoyed of the same Christmas-songs on the radio every year, I missed them in Harbin (also because, besided of the snow, nothing is giving me this Christmas feeling) and thus downloaded some. My Girlfriend send me some christmas-chocolate-‘kransjes’ (every day one!), and with my Christmas-hat I kind of feel like it is Christmas in Harbin.
In the search to do something special on Christmas, a friend found a classy dinner in the best hotel in Harbin: the Shangri-La Hotel. We went with the three of us and had a really good dinner. Finally some real good red wine (all the wine you get in China tastes like Sangria or a mixture of cola and wine) and a very large buffet with only western food: real cheese, all kind of western-style meat, fish, potatoes, desserts, coffee. It was perfect.
The Chinese are used to get entertained during dinner, so there was live music, a lottery and a beer drinking contests (very famous in China: Old men show their masculinity by emptying a 0,5 liter bottle of beer, faster then the other 5 contestants). A female MC screamed all the entertainment together in such a way that the boxes didn’t handle it and while slowly eating my really tasty grilled pork with cranberry sauce, the all-time favorite Boney M classic ‘By The Rivers Of Babylon’ was loudly played by the band on stage.
After we couldn’t find some Candid Camera’s (this couldn’t be real), we could only laugh about it and grant ourselves with a new Chinese experience.
After the dinner I had to play (DJ-ing) in Harbin Boxclub, were we met all of our friends and wish them a merry Christmas.
The last funny thing of this Chinese Christmas-eve was the count-down with fireworks the Boxclub planned at 12 o’clock. All Chinese start to count down and lighted fireworks, like it was New Years Eve. At first I thought it could be some American ritual, but when I looked around, all foreigners (American, Canadian, Australian, European) were as astonished as myself and didn’t know this ritual from there country, so it must be something made up by the Chinese again.
To stay a little bit in shape and keep your condition on a certain level, I like to sport or work out once in a while. I brought my running shoes and heartbeat-belt to Harbin and normally I just run some kilometers in a circle and I am satisfied. In Harbin however, running around outside isn’t a smart thing to do. Not because of the coldness (you can wear more clothes for that), but because of the polluted air. The main energy source of the city is charcoal and thus the air is full of black soot, you don’t want to breathe in when your longs are wide open during your exercise.
The university has an indoor sporting accommodation on the campus and on other university campuses also swimming pools or bigger accommodations can be found. I choose to get a membership at a fitness club. Nearby the university (on Xi Dazhi jie) are some shopping malls: one for sport clothes and another for electronic equipment. On the fifth floor of the latter is a fitness club housing, called FitnessArk. For 300 yuan a month I can sport every moment of the day. It is quite a new sports club and still a clean place. With several separate rooms for dancing, yoga, Tai Chi and judo, and a real disco room filled with spinning-bikes for the so popular spinning classes. In this club a spinning class it not just some music and work-out on instructions on a bike, but it is a real hour of entertainment and excitement. The room is really dark and filled with many disco-lights, flower-lights, lasers and flashing wall-strips. On some late 90’s happy-hardcore music everybody follows the instructions, including clapping you hands on the music, or other arm-movements that have more to do with supporting a DJ on a concert, than doing a workout at a spinning class. So that is quite an experience.
The locker rooms are remarkable as well. Since not every Chinese has a shower in its house and going to bathing houses is still quite normal, an important reason to come to a fitness club is to shower there. So the Chinese men take their time, walk around or hanging around butt-naked in this locker room. Where I’m used to get dressed rather quick, especially my underwear, do the Chinese it in a total opposite way. Not everybody uses a towel, but they all use a hairdryer to dry their body and private parts very precisely.
In this locker room is also a Sauna. In a cold place as Harbin, I’m very happy to found one. To increase the hydrogen level in the air in every sauna is a typical wooden basket with a wooden spoon. There is some water in the basket and with the spoon you can pore some on the heated stones to vaporize it. In this sauna a big plastic garbage bucket is filled with water. The wooden spoon is thrown in a corner and the wooden basket has the function of poring water over the stones: completely filled baskets going on the stones at once, so maximum humidity is reached.
Yesterday I had entered the sauna and it was already really warm, there was I guy poring water on the stones and wetting the walls of the sauna. After a minute he did it again and now even more and complete baskets went on there. He emptied his full water bottle on it and directly left the sauna. Thanks, now I had to deal with the maximum humidity he caused.
Coffee is increasing in popularity in China; however, nobody seems to know how to make good coffee. Real sandwiches are, due to the typical Chinese cuisine, rarely available. The Chinese know bread, but consider a sweet, dry and long maintainable version of it, as bread. A smart thing to do is opening a western style lunchroom with good coffee and real sandwiches.
Nearby HaGongDa, Ronny runs such a place named Hamamas. Every foreigner knows the way to Hamamas: for it’s cappuccino, fruit shakes, sandwiches, hamburgers and desserts. And so it is also a meeting place for all foreigner friends. In a ‘series’ of reviewing some bars and restaurants in Harbin, Hamamas deserves to be the first to be reviewed. Behind a pink-orange painted front wall, hides a small place open from 9.00 to 20.00. It is decorated with Papua New Guinea souvenirs and a world map filled with pins, pricked on the countries or places customers come from or used to live. Complete with some Jazz or Blues music, it is a calm place to come.
On the menu are different kind of coffees and shakes (Hawaiian Smoothie, Kiwi-shake). The food section starts with the daily special. The fact that this one is always sold out, gives an idea how well the customers enjoy it everyday. My favorite is the Club Sandwich, but with sandwiches as TunaSub, BLT, ChickenSub and Egg Hamburger they please every western foreigner. So when you plan to come to Harbin, don’t forget to drink the best cappuccino in the city at Hamamas (and bring a Hamamas coffee mug home).
Ice and Snowfestival Harbin 2007
The festival, Harbin is most famous for in the world: The Ice and Snowfestival, has opened on the 24th of December. Harbin 2007, as they call this years edition, is the eights version of this winter festival, where Harbin found a way to explore their winter coldness and give an answer to their second Chinese name, Icecity.
A big recreational area is transformed to a huge attraction-park. On Sun Island all the snow-sculptures are situated and behind sun Island, the Ice-buildings are created. The snow and Ice festival are separated and so you have to pay a fee for both festivals (as everywhere in china, the tourism activities are exploit to the maximum). 100 yuan for the Snowfestival, 150 yuan for the Ice festival
At the snowfestival the longest snow-sculpture ever is made: a long scenery of Canadian Patriots riding horses and bulls and heading the Niagara waterfalls. The theme of this snowfestival is Canada and they have made sculptures concerning this theme (Keith Haring). A typical Canadian main street is made completely out of snow, and you can enter many of the houses.
The Icefestival is larger and seems more touristic. A big traffic jam, caused by just some taxi’s driving in the wrong direction, causing much trouble in the streets heading to the festival. With 50% reduction, because we are students, we entered the festival. A huge entrance was build out of lighted ice. Inside of the icecubes, long holes are made, to put in a coloured light-tube. This lightning gives the most impressive sight. Without it, it is harder to recognize the Norte Dame, for example.
Big palaces are made, large buildings, iced-stairs and slide-downs all out of ice: unbelievable!
After 1 hour the idea of ice construction was clear and we left the place. But when you are in Harbin once, come visit this festival!
Due to a lack of special parties on new years eve in Harbin, and due to the possibility to go skiing with a group of 20 Chinese students, I forgot my previous bad experiences about skiing in China and gave it another chance to check ski resort Wuyimi.
This Ski resort is located 2 hour from Harbin (by bus or train) and so much easier to travel. We would leave the 31th in the evening; celebrate new years eve over there; have one night in a hotel; ski on the first of January and return to Harbin at the end of the day. I can remember the ski-jumping contest in Austria on the first day of the year, so maybe we (Sven is also coming) can make a similar version of this tradition in China.
The New Years Eve we left from HaGongDa with a 20 people bus to the resort. All the chinese started to do games to kill the 2 hours busdrive. Once we arrived we got 2 rooms. One for the guys (15) and Girls (6) on another. The rooms had only eight beds, so an improvisation and reorganizing of the rooms had to be done, so 15 guys could sleep on 8 bed. That’s what you have to do when you want to save money.
After the reorganization, the Chinese students continued their games or when nobody could came up with a game, they could also play games on their mobile phones, why not. Because it was new years eve I really wanted to look for some drinks, some fireworks and some party or at least a bar. So went out looking for the hotel bar, or a place to buy some beers. A happy hardcore sound was coming fromoutside, and following the sound I landed in a ski-instructor party outside the hotel. About 70 men and women where dancing around a big fire, really good atmosphere. So I decided get my friend Sven and join this party. We danced and partyed (on Captain Jack and 2 unlimited) with the ski-instructors and went on many photo’s with their wifes.
The drinks, however, were nowhere. Nobody was drinking. Not even water. The hotelreception sold same big cartons of firework, but nobody seems to buy it. When it slowly got 12 o’clock, I was getting a bit nervous and was looking around everywhere to find the one who maybe did bring or bought some fireworks. The counting was starting and everybody was wishing each others the best for next year. There was no champagne (no drinks at all), no firework and everybody went in at 12. WHAT? Yes everybody left the party in went to sleep….
To got a little bit of new year feeling I bought some fireworks and light them 10minutes after the new year was already started. Some people came back outside, but also went to sleep short after.
The next day the skiing could begin, or snowboarding in my case, and because there was someone who could snowboard, half of the group switched to snowboard to learn this from me.
The Hotel-skiing complex was a everything in one building accomodation. On the ground floor we slept, the first was on slope level and the place to get your skiing equipment, and the second floor was for lunch. So perfect.
The Ski-resort is even smaller than Yabuli, but it is one of the first in China. With one seeted lift, some plate-lifts and one big slope, I didn’t had the difficulties I had in Yabuli and could just easily improve my technique, make nice movies (not with the typical 1st of January jumping) and learn the beginners how to snowboard.
For the 2 days (1 night and 1 day skiing) we paid 140 yuan (including Lunch). So for a short skiing experience, Wuyimi is a fine place to go in a weekend or even a
day.
In my duty to explore Harbin and it's touristic surroundings I went skiing in yabuli this week, or SKY-ing as a chinese in the train named in, with my friends Grace, Ryan, Marc and Sven. SKY here we come.
Yabuli is the largest ski-resort of China and hosted the asian winter olympics in 2002, so a big wintersport area was waiting for us, when we took the train from Harbin to Yabuli. Well prepared our 3h20m trip with noodles, chips, candy and 'Great Wall'-wine. Arrived in Yabuli, many taxidrivers (and their assisting women) tried to get us in their taxi-busses for to much money. It took us 10minutes to get a satisfying price and we went all inside the taxibus. Once driving, they increased the price, and we let them stop the car to go out. Still the taxidriver and his wife tried to get us in their taxi and followed us everywhere we went. When we passed a closed toys-shop, we went in and asked the owner to call another taxi. We lost the previous taxi-driver, and it looked we where save in here. A new, very nice taxi-driver came to drive us to the ski-resort. But before he could bring us, the first driver came into the shop. He had found us and starting argueing with the owners of the toys-shop and the new taxi-driver.
After 20 minutes driving in a cold taxibus, we came at our hostel where we would stay the first night. This was a very nice place where we would sleep on a raised, heated floor. All five next to each other, how cosy. It slepped quite nice such a heated floor.
The next day we were brought to the 'mountain' by the owner of our hostel and were offered a deal for the weekend to rent ski's, skipass etc. Because we informed ourselves before we went to Yabuli, we knew we could get it cheaper and refused his offer. We called with the Windmill Hotel (famous hotel in Yabuli) and let them bring us to their hotel. They could offer us a weekendspecial for 280yuan, which include one night in the Hotel and skipas and ski-rental for one day. It took us almoust 1,5 hour to arrange this and made the deal spread two days (4 hours on saturday and 4 hours on sunday). After leaving many deposits everywhere, we could start to snowboard or ski. From all the slopes, only one was prepared and this was a difficult one.
After the day skiing, we were welcomed in our hotel rooms by a warm fire. We had to wait for the showers (they are only on at set times), so looked for a restaurant first and found a similar place as the hostel from the first day. We ate on the heated and well-decorated floor and had some really nice dishes.
The next day Sven and Marc went skiing, but Ryan, Grace and I where done with the unprepared slopes and looked for fun on the Hotel Bowling lanes or excersice-machines.
In the evening a 3,20 hour traintrip was waiting for us to bring us back to Harbin after a weekend skiing in Yabuli. We came in the early season and it was already really cold (especially in the lifts), but only one slope prepared. All the slope coming down from the 'mountain' are rated black (which mean maximum steapness). The learning slopes are somewhere else and there is nothing in between (so only beginner or very advanced). For a weekend Yabuli is fun and for a skiing trip very cheap (it cost us 450 yuan for the whole weekend everything included: diner, traintickets, hotel). However, the skiing is mostly done by wealthy chinese man, and in the middle of the season much more expensive than our weekend.
World Cup Speed skating Harbin
Last weekend the best speed skaters of the world came to Harbin to race the World Cup Sprints on 100m, 500m and 1000m. With 11 Dutch skaters we (me and the other Dutch student, Marc) had to support them. With no hope for other Dutch supporters we prepared a 1,5m X 6m banner with “THIALF is toch LEUKER” (Which says the Dutch stadium Thialf is more fun), two tailor-made fluffy orange suits and a megaphone with the tune of the Dutch sports program “Studio Sport”.
With this exposure we would make up for the absence of other Dutch supporters.
Arrived in the stadium, a lot of attention was on our side. First because we are foreigners (or aliens, as one of the skaters describes it, in its view on Harbin, second we wore the orange fluffy suits. Kids constantly teem around us asking for autographs. I think I’ve at least put 30 autographs on their small books. Instead of my own, I signed with ‘Sint & Piet’.
Being the only supporters, we had a heavy responsibility to support al the Dutch contesters. With the megaphone and the recorded tune, the whole Dutch crew and all Press reporters noticed us. Every time a Dutch skater had to perform we shouted our longs. Since the Chinese supporters hardly support anyone, we tried to activate them with our megaphone and some Chinese words as ‘jia you’ en ‘gen wo men’, with what me managed them to applause for the passing skaters.
Because we were the only Dutch supporters we had to get some television attention. In the Dutch sports bulletin our banner and the program-tune were recognized and mentioned for several times, and in these interviews our attendance is also recognisable.
Our work succeeded when the skaters won 4 silver and 3 bronze medals overall, in this World Cup. Of course all skaters wanted to make a picture with us and charming Annette Gerritsen even donated her price flowers to us.
Since the fluffy orange suits are really comfortable we decided to wear them in the Club that evening as well, I DJ-ed in it and had to lend the jacket of the suit to almost half of the club, so they could make a picture of it. What an attention.
The Chinese students I showed the pictures to were almost flabbergasted by the orange suit and had much difficulties understanding why one would wear such a suit. So probably Marc and I are going to do a lecture about the Netherlands, the Dutchmen and some history, wearing our tailor-made fluffy orange suits.
Recognizing people
The last thing I hoped for, achieving or learning during my stay in China, was recognizing all the Chinese people. I thought I would never manage to do that, because I used to have trouble distinguishing Japanese from Chinese from Korean.
Living here for 5 months now, this is my biggest achievement. It’s easy to distinguish Japanese and also Koreans (although I sometimes still make mistakes) from the Chinese. You even find more variety within the Chinese, maybe even the most variety of all other countries and people. There are very tall ones, fat ones, with small faces, tall faces, big round eyes, or very small eyes, everything. Of course there is this big of a variety (how could you be so stupid, stephan), but the first opinion in other countries is: ‘they all look the same’.
I still have difficulties with all the Chinese names though. First, they all sound the same (but I can also read them, so that’s not the biggest issue), but, second, I’m not able to identify a name as a boys or a girls name. Somehow, during my life, my brains are trained to remember names of almost all the people I’ve ever met. They were able to remember, because a very clear and little distinction is made just before I had to remember it: the distinction of a boys name or a girls name. This separates the ‘name-database’ in two groups, and so more than double the amount of names can be remembered. With the Chinese names I cannot make this distinction, and so the remembering process is not getting started correctly. For this reason I have many e-mail addresses and phone numbers with very nice Chinese name, but I have no clue from who they are. Luckily the younger (English-speaking) Chinese boys and girls choose themselves a fancy (American)English name, like Sandy or Bill, so I can remember these names much easier.
On the other hand, the Chinese cope with the same problem. Since this is a Russian style city, close to the Russian border, many Chinese think I’m a Russian and start talking in Russian to me (so I learn some Russian words as well). When they notice I’m not answering there request or talking in English they think I’m American. When I also forgive them for this insult, they try Englishman. Well, with that one I can life, but usually I reply with ‘Wŏ shì Hélán rén’ (I’m a Dutchman). Than they directly understand.
Fake
The Chinese people seem not to be very creative and thus very good at copying the creative. This copying didn’t come as a surprise to me, although the amount of fake products did. Almost everything is fake and you have to look good to find some real products. For example in nightlife, the drinks on the menu seems quite cheap (compared to western prices) for 300yuan (30euro), you can order a complete bottle of whiskey with some soda’s and lots of fruit on the side. Brands like Johnny Walker, Jack Daniels and J&B, so it seems to be a good deal. However after emptying half of the bottle of strange tasting whiskey and not being drunk yet, you start to wonder. They just fill identical bottles with fake whiskey (or vodka). The beer seems okay, so I am usually drinking that, however Corona is replaced by a fake Cerona and I also drank a fake Heineken already.
In clothing they are the best in copying, because most the production of the real brands is all done in China. So you can find Nike everywhere, but mostly the fake ones. Some have just copied everything, other are a little more subtle and changed some things. So you also can get HIKE, PIKE, NEIK or shoes with a little Dracula-tooth on the Swoosh, or with two tooth’s on the swoosh. The Chinese brands that have achieved their own brand status, like Li-ning, are in China just as big as Nike. However they al use a swoosh-kind of white-stripe to identify their brand (as if a sports brand is supposed to have such a sign) and they all make their exposure in the same way: the white sign on a big red background (a wall of the shop or a banner), like Nike used to do it (now Nike uses orange, so next year the rest will probably also use orange).
There are sports brands with all kind of Jordan-esque basketball players stitched on the shoes. Sport brands made out of other successful western brands, like Playboy (and even a fake one on this: Pearlboy) and G-Apple (with the Mac-apple as logo). This last brand has shoes with the KNVB-logo on the site; ‘because that’s a successful logo’ they probably thought. In the absence of creativity they all have the same (very large) collection of models. So the old-school basketball shoe, the sneakers, the Gucci-like sporting shoes, the high-tec running shoes, the ugly hiking shoes, the girly LA Gear-like shoes and the Puma racing shoes. Everything is in every shop the same, so non of these brands have their own signature or style. Most hilarious are the taglines they make up for their brand. The Playboy sportsbrand uses this ‘catchy’ tagline: “Dare to want to dare to move” (got it?).
In order to accept china on the international trade market, a lot of western companies and brands are asking attention for this copying-behaviour, for example with lawsuits. However, still with no success: Lacoste tried to get there right in court by suing a brand called Crocodile with identical clothing and a mirrored crocodile on the chest. The Chinese court said there was not enough evidence. The only western company that managed to win a lawsuit against a Chinese company was Starbucks. But In don’t know whether it was against U.S.A.Bucks, Arbucks, Starbucks Café or Starbucks Bar.
