User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Toothache

We get strong whiffs of chlorine some times, but flouride I think is odourless isn't it? Don't know if they add it, but if they do I wonder if it survives boiling? No everyone drinks bottled water RJ, but I don't really want to open that one up again. Actually I'll be talking to my class on Thursday about the bottled water industry - maybe I'll take a straw poll of family life and whether they boiled their water or 'ordered in.'

Posted on: Toothache

Hi RJ

I'm back - let's see if I can create another medical controversy! :)

We had two young unrelated Chinese people living with us in Sydney - they grew up in mainland China, came from different cities. I guess you would describe both families middle class; at least the families amassed the funds required to send their children overseas to do the last two hears of high school, and university, in Australia. Now both 26, neither have ever had a tooth filled, or pulled. They say they have never had a cavity. The contrast with our own children of the same age is startling. Oh, and Sydney has flouride in the drinking water. Two words: Coca-Cola. I think the story for current pre-teens and teens in China would be different.

Posted on: Toothache

Chinese dentist in my old suburb in Sydney: Dr Fang.

Posted on: Second-hand Bicycle

Not exactly, I thought I was being more clever than that. :)

First visit... first visit ... are you a 'newbie'?

Second visit ... second hand (reference to lesson)

I meant that they can't claim 'first time visit' when clearly it was a second post. The post could be said to be second hand.

I was just playing with the language.

Posted on: Toothache

Hi abelle

This is discussed at some length in the lesson. No, dentists are not only located at hospitals. There is generally a choice between hospital and dental surgeries. But listen to the lesson for more information.

Posted on: Blind Massage

'your job might show you the bright side because it's an enclosed and protected society with it's own rules'

Just having a think about this - I have a Chinese employer true, and the Chinese workplace (danwei) does tend to be enclosed, perhaps you could say protected. But of course there are outside influences, and it doesn't shield you from the outside world.

Why this would show me the 'bright side' I am not sure - I haven't had any briefings from the employer about disability facilities. Maybe I should investigate - there is much I don't know about disability policy in my workplace, that is true.

Do you have a Chinese employer (if you don't mind me asking)? I assume from your comment that you would consider a Chinese employer would do more to shield you from real Chinese society than would a foreign employer - I have never had a foreign employer so I wouldn't know for sure.

Posted on: Blind Massage

hi azzote

I don't spend all day at my job!! do you? :)

anyway.. I am happy with the veracity of my post, it is purely observations. I haven't speculated about anything, just posted what I see. (Sorry if it has got your back up. I try to remain conscious of my biases and keep an open mind about everything I see. Particularly interested in the stuff that conflicts with my memory bank - that is how we discover the truth in my experience.) So for instance, not seeing something, take it on board, put it in the back of the memory, but it does not prove anything - inductive reasoning, no?

'[my job] reminds me every day of the realities and issues of China.'

I would like to hear what you have seen through your job (architect/planner your blurb says?) .. you should be well placed to shed some light on these things. Your blurb I think says living here since 2006 - must have seen quite a bit over four or five years.

My experience is actually not limited to Yunnan - I have lived in the east and also travelled. But always happy to learn from other people's observations.

Posted on: Toothache

I went to a hospital in Hangzhou with my daughter for dental work.  Cost to see dentist, 5 RMB.  :)  We had to pay 35 RMB, separately, for an X-Ray.  There was also a separate charge for an anti-biotic gel - no, I think in the end they just gave us a tube.  Maybe they thought that we would never find the window for paying for the anti-biotic.   

Posted on: Toothache

I thought 补牙 bu3ya2 was to have a cavity in a tooth filled.  BTW - in the vocab list you show the English translation as 'bull'.  

Posted on: Blind Massage

There are distinctive rubber brick paths on seemingly every footpath in China - a different texture and colour to the surrounding footpath (see magaofoshan's post). I read once that the system was introduced first in Hong Kong and then to the mainland. How useful they are is a moot point - they feel slippery to me in the wet.

Disabled toilets (separate rooms not separate cubicles) are right through the campus I teach at.

I think China's propensity to re-build helps - you will find disabled access in most new buildings.

The problem I see is the love-affair with tiles - they are treacherous in the wet. Interestingly (according to readings in social anthropology) the Chinese attribute the practice of tiling everything to recommendations of foreigners, way back when Europeans were trying to civilize cities like Shanghai, and improve public health. I wonder how many people these tiled surfaces put in hospital with cracked skulls?