Chinese Misconceptions and Interesting Observations

I remember telling many of you that there are more people in China speaking English than in the US, well if this is true we have not met them yet.  Some people do speak a little bit of English but normally they don’t.  Of course the hotel personnel do (although at our hotel their ability is very limited), and in the Expat areas but on the street you are on your own!!

My own perception was that people would dress very simply and in dark colors, well the dark colors is true but people really dress up even to go to the supermarket.  Fortunately the dress code at work is business casual but generally it is a nice business casual.

Although there are still a lot of bicycles on the street it is nothing like what I remember from our original visit in 1985.  A lot of the bikes have been replaced with small motor scooters (advanced mopeds) which cost only $250 and are normally electric.  Of course there are also a lot of cars but in my case I guess that is a good thing. 

People here are very polite and try to help even thought they cannot speak English.  They are also very honest and people generally do not treat us unfairly because we are different.  I will be happy when we can speak a little of the language but for now it is getting more and more comfortable as we learn our way around. 

Just learned a few more interesting “tid bits” about the culture and life among the Chinese.  The Chinese are in general atheists.  Although I thought most would be Buddhists, only about 5% of the population is Buddhist and only about 10% celebrate any type of religion.  We have not yet found a church in the area to attend but we understand that a couple do exist although no Presbyterian Church. 

Although living in Shanghai seems very expensive, the local people are real savers.  There is no such thing as a credit card here so everything is either paid with cash (which are about 90% of all transactions), or by debit cards.  The banks here offer no interest on deposits so many people prefer to put their cash is safes that they keep at their homes.  Still in spite of this they tend to save about 50% of their salary.  This is often necessary as the “social security system” pays very little and the kids must support their parents as pensions are unheard of. 

Marriages here are also interesting.  Although I am still missing many details, what I can say is that once the couple decides to get married, they traditionally ask their boss at work for permission to wed then they go to the government for a certificate and this is where the marriage becomes official (much like our justice of the peace).  Prior to this time the man must have purchased an apartment that they can move into before proposing.  So on the big day, the groom rents a fancy car and is taken to his girlfriend’s house and he officially asks the parents for her hand in marriage.  This is a special ceremony.  Once they agree, they are accompanied by their friends to the government agency where they sign the certificate.  After that they are taken to their new apartment where they perform a special ceremony to thank their parents; then on to the restaurant where they meet their friends and relatives.  These gatherings are large and they often have more than 400 people attend.  At these celebrations many people give speeches and tell stories and of course eat and drink.  The Chinese like their food.  After the wedding they go to live with their parents to be properly educated on edicate and how to behave as a couple.  Once the parents agree, then they are allowed to more into the new apartment.  This may take several months but I must admit that I like the results.  They are very family oriented and have good morals.  Divorce here is rear even though life is difficult.  As we all know they are then only allowed to have 1 child and this child is very precious.  They is an exception however, if they have twins then that is ok and also if neither parent has a sibling then they can be allowed to have two children.  An extremely interesting culture.

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Well today we went to sign the contract on our new apartment and as expected there were more issues, but I kind of suspected this one. You see one of the interesting things that you quickly learn is that they love cash.  I am preparing to visit France at the end of the month and a number of my colleagues at work will be going with me.  For me it is straight forward assuming that I receive my passport back in time.  The government is currently reviewing my application for a year long work visa which I will hopefully receive next week so that we can move into our apartment at the end of next week.  But beyond that, the trip will be simple for me.  But for my colleagues it is anything but simple.  First of all they need a visa to leave the country and to enter France.  But since we will be visiting Germany, Belgium and Austria as well, they need to get approval for this travel from the Chinese government even though those countries don’t require approval nor are there any borders between the countries anymore.   Then they will need to get their drivers licenses translated so they can rent a car (this takes three weeks and during this time they cannot drive in China).  Then you realize that there is no such thing as a credit card in China so they have to estimate how much money they will need and take it in cash!  Yes Cash.  Well this brings me to the point I tried to make at the beginning of this story, the rental agency needed three months rent up front before moving in and it must be in CASH!  But this is harder than it looks, it is very hard / impossible to get money over here, you cannot just transfer money to a bank here.  So I drafted an elaborate scheme where Allison met up with my boss while he was in the US and gave him cash so he could get the local money that I needed so that I could make the deposit.  So all that being said, We went to the bank today to get the money and guess what, we walked out with $10,000 in a paper bag!  It really is a different world.  CASH IS KING!