User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: City Districts in Shanghai

I like the opposite of this game which is wander around on foot or perhaps on a bus or two, and when you are totally lost just find a taxi and say 'take me to X'.

'you could still just jump in and say "take me to the forbidden city", right?'

Sadly no, unless the taxi drivers have learnt English since I was last there. :)

You are right, there are some landmarks in cities where you just say the name and Bob's your uncle. But specificity is an issue in China. If I stated my full address to a taxi driver I would go exactly nowhere. There is one driver in a thousand who would know where to go. (I found him - his parents lived in my community for years.) You generally say a street (no number), or perhaps a big landmark like 'the airport' or a really well-known hotel, and then gradually become more specific as you approach the area. Turn left, turn right, go to the next corner, go another 100 metres, etc. It is rare to rely on a street number or even the name of a 小区.

Posted on: City Districts in Shanghai

公共汽车 is longer and it appears in textbooks. But I have rarely heard any one say it in two years living here. 公交车 is shorter. 交车 is even shorter. 车 is the shortest, but needs context.

Posted on: Mudslide

' I haven't given up on universal humanity. But sometimes there are nasty surprises and the differences are made impossible to disregard.'

Hi Zhenlijiang - I just want to say that humanity is not something that you can give up on or not give up on - it is what it is. 'Humanity is what unites us all' sounds noble but it is actually a tautology. Humanity only includes those things that are common to the species. All the rest is culture.

I hope you are not deleted, but if you go I go too. :)

Posted on: City Districts in Shanghai

Haha Jenny - the 区 qu1 is probably the biggest thing marked on a Chinese city map.

My city has four 区 and a new town:

五华区 - famous for 翠湖 cui4hu2 (Green Lake), Yuantong Temple and Bamboo Temple

西山区 - famous for 西山 xi1shan1 (West Mountain)

官渡区 - famous for .. actually maybe it isn't famous, but that is where the airport, railway station, main exhibition centre are and lots of good restaurants. Also the special economic zone - industry locating there attract tax concessions etc.

盘花区 - famous for Flower Expo and the Golden Temple

呈贡新城 - famous for being empty, but latest figures on the street are that 30,000 people live there now and the numbers are growing rapidly.

Posted on: Mudslide

This brings back memories of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. My daughter was teaching in a city close to the epicentre. I read reports on the Internet within a couple of hours of the earthquake and could not get through on the phone for about an hour after that. They said later that it was because so many people were using their phones the network could not cope.

Within two hours we were able to watch videos of roads heaving and buildings tottering, taken by people on their mobile phones.

The phone networks were in better shape than the roads. The roads were jammed by people trying to get away from the earthquake.

BTW, there is an error in the mouse-over English translation, should be:

保重 (to take care of oneself - particularly health-wise)

Posted on: Too Many Food Allergies

Damn Mike, you just spoiled Baba's record attempt! You interrupted his train of thought!

Posted on: Too Many Food Allergies

Why 'try to avoid discussing it'?

I don't know much about allergies myself (I have enough trouble understanding my own 'allergy' to gluten) so yes, I would like to avoid potential confusion. Blind leading the blind, that sort of thing. Also, from a personal perspective, so far I have never met anyone who understands anything at all about coeliac disease; there is not even a word for it in common usage. Some conversations I have had (eg. with the airlines) have given me a bit of a headache. Eg. Having to insist five times that I need a special meal. Me: I can't eat wheat. Them: 'You will be fine, just choose the rice.' Me: Can you order a special meal? Them: Just eat the rice.

But word of advice to anyone out there wanting to make a point to airline staff on a health matter by getting dramatic, don't. I once tried to push for an aisle seat in China by saying 'I am claustrophobic when sitting by the window' and they wanted to offload me. I had to recant, and promise faithfully that I am not really claustrophobic. :)

Posted on: Too Many Food Allergies

Chinese language is at times terribly imprecise, which makes discussion about allergies problematic. If the response is 'aren't you a bit picky?' you might need to say 'if I eat this I will become sick'.  Very matter of fact.  

But really you just have to educate yourself well about what you can eat in China, eat what you can (no one is forcing you), and try to avoid discussing it.  

Posted on: Ending, Completing, Finishing

I think that there are quite significant numbers of foreigners doing their studies in China these days (yes the thesis is in Chinese) - good way to get your Chinese up another level? :)

John must have been something of a pioneer. Although there is that book I read some years ago, by an American who completed a regular Chinese degree course in Nanjing way back in the 70s? Is it Chinese Lessons?

I wonder how many foreigners have done the course that John has done - linguistics - maybe he could let us know? There are a lot who do the 'teaching Chinese language to foreigners' courses - a teaching degree.

Posted on: A Stroll through the Hutongs

I have been showing some visitors around our city and on a couple of occasions I have pointed to some authentically old housing districts (little old crooked alleys with old architecture). These areas raise all sorts of emotions in Westerners, and the Chinese of course, but probably different emotions.

I think that in most Western cities we can only afford to hang on to limited examples of our built form heritage, unless we are very rich, and yet we tend to expect China to hold on to everything that is old. Or at the other extreme cynically assume that they are not interested in conserving anything at all.

Given the limited resources I think that most cities do a pretty good job of holding on to heritage buildings. We need to remember the per capita income of China and consider the many demands for basic health, education and housing that need to be met. (And yes, I know a moon probe was launched a couple of days ago.)

PS. Baba - I hope that you will understand that I am in no way having a go at you. I don't know the answer to this dilemma. I love the old districts but many have been built without plumbing to individual dwellings, or totally inadequate plumbing - it is obviously a lot cheaper to knock it all down than painstakingly restore a district with modern facilities.