User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: How Far Away are You From Understanding 离？

@barbs

Jenny had just said that she 'loses face' because they call her name for boarding, but at least she is recognised. Pete implies that he is not important enough to be named - 飞机就飞了 they just take off without him.  :-(  Poor Pete.  I'm guessing that 吃了大亏 must be a saying but taking it almost literally it means that he has has to 'eat a loss'.  He has to cop it.  Take a haircut.  I think a lot of sharemarket investors have in the several months 吃了大亏 ??

Posted on: Napkins

@light487, barbs

As barbs says you might have put the kiss of death on it！ 哈哈。 

Seriously though I may have started a fruitless discussion here - there are of course 'foreigner' places that are fun, comfortable and helpful. And serve banana pancakes for breakfast.

But 'foreigner' is difficult to define.  It is I think easier to define 'Chinese' places - those where foreigners rarely if ever stay. i have had the pleasure of a few Chinese meanderings and my preference after a while was for these cheap Chinese places, but I admit it's not everybody's cup of tea.  (Definitely not in LP.) And I admit to the occasional diversion into what is commonly considered luxury. But some of my most memorable moments of 'luxury' cost less than 20 RMB per night. Eg. a shared room up near 长白山 where the room charge included as long as you like in the bathhouse next door - an outdoor bath there is overlooked by jagged mountain peaks.  Sigh..    

The 'Chinesenese' of accommodation (of those that serve food) may be defined, and distinguished from 'foreigner' joints, by their breakfasts. There is no attempt to cater to Western tastes (thanks God).  I'd be interested in what others think.  

I'm trying to think how to get this back on topic - my experience of cheap 拉面 joints is that you don't actually ask staff for 餐巾纸 (and if you did you'd get a funny look) - you just lean across in front of a stranger (不好意思..） and grab a handful from the pile on the table, or ask the person on the next table 麻烦你，给我几个餐巾纸。。 ?.

Posted on: Napkins

@barbs

Me and my big mouth, I guess I have to clarify my comments. Ok,比如说。。 

Arrived in Leshan for the first time with just a district name from a Leshan native - 'go and find a place to stay in this district' she told me.  So I asked the taxi driver to take me there (I just knew that it was north of the station.) Instead, and despite my protest, he drove off in the opposite direction. 'Yes, yes, yes, no problems'.  Keeps driving and drops me outside a very dreary looking hotel with a large sign proclaiming: 'As recommended by LP'.  My experience is that places like this are 'exploiting' their recommendation, offering nothing like the service claimed in print!  This place really looks awful, but the point is that I don't want to stay at the place that is populated by white people taken there by taxi drivers on autopilot.  'No, I don't want to stay here - I want to go to X.' 'But lots of 老外 stay here'. 'I don't care, I want to got to X'. More argument.  Way too much argument.  Wife (feeling uncomfortable) says 'maybe we should stay here'.  But I finally get the taxi driver, grumbling, to head in the required direction.  When we got there of course we didn't have a hotel in mind so I ask if he knows a 招待所 which brings more grumbling about foreigners. '没有' he says。 So we part company, look around and immediately see a suitable hotel (one without the burden of recommendation of a dated edition of LP.) So.. what I'm suggesting is that if you really want to take a peek at Chinese culture, avoid the places recommended by LP. In other circumstances (eg. not enough time to look around) I will use the LP recommendation for the first night, then find something more suitable.

And, yes, we did pay the intransigent driver the full amount on the meter, because we got a tour round the city.  AND because my wife would say that I also can be intransigent :-(

Posted on: Napkins

@light487

Thanks for the Xi'an experience - coincidentally I posted on a Xi'an walls experience myself in the last PWP. Did you notice the cigarette smoking signs on top of the wall?  And did you notice that you are required to alight from your bicycle when riding down the gentlest of slopes!  So safety conscious in contrast to the bedlam at street level!  Very funny. 

Actually (according to the LP) the walls are essentially a recent construction - although I like to think that there are remnants of the old.

Posted on: Napkins

@light487

I like your reference to 'language tourism' - but it sounds more like swimming without your floaties!! What do mean your 'restaurant skills were severely lacking'?  When communication fails you can always walk into the kitchen and point at what you want!

I hope you always managed to get a feed, because I am interested in 'food tourism'.

Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?

@panda2

Thanks for your input on one of my 'mysteries'. I'm not convinced that the absence of kissing and hugging on parting can be put down to edicts passed down during the Cultural Revolution.  The 文革 didn't approve of consumerism either.  These behaviours probably go a long way back.  I think that Maoism found greatest success when reinforcing traditional behaviours.

Posted on: Napkins

@light487

thanks for updating us on the forthcoming edition of LP. I have lugged it around over the years. In particular it makes a gallant & useful effort to map a lot of destinations. If possible I try to avoid accommodation and restaurants it recommends, because some I encountered suffered from Lonely Planet-exposure. For those who seek immersion the goal might be to use Chinese guidebooks - the English LP does see the world through a US/Australian/UK lens.  每天努力学习！

The other useful LP companion is the Phrasebook. Generally I prefer the 'old' editions. At one stage in recent years they seem to have had a long night on the 白酒 (spirits) and decided to improve on pinyin. :-( Some of my native speaking acquaintances have 'reviewed' the phrasebook and declared it '50% correct' - high praise indeed.

Posted on: Napkins

@urbandweller

Your post about 毛巾 mao2jin1 reminds me of my experiences in 公共浴室 gong1gong4yu4shi4 (bathhouses) - two things to note: 

- The towel is normally quite small: it is more like a face towel than what we call a bath towel in the West

- The (same) towel is used for both washing and drying. You scrub yourself with the towel, wring it out and then wipe yourself with the still somewhat damp towel. 

At first I wondered why I was the only one who had a problem finding somewhere to put my dry towel!

I have lots of other observations from bathhouses in China - maybe I'll save them up for future posts.. :-)

Posted on: Boston

Several posters had some really interesting comments about the kinds of lessons, levels, teaching method - is there somewhere on the boards for this discussion to continue?  'Scuse me I'm still finding my way around after three months!  There needs to be a kind of permanent address for these discussions - like a wiki?

For example, the view that Advanced discussion of new words in Chinese is a better treatment than the kind of dictionary translation that John does at the lower levels.  I would like to reinforce that observation - but clearly it will be appreciated only if you can understand some or most of what is being discussed in advanced lessons.  But this teaching method can be applied at lower levels.  There is a level reached (I think it is actually a fairly low level) where straight translations into English are not that helpful - a discussion in Chinese (at some level) is the best learning approach.

Posted on: Napkins

@light487

卫生纸 weishengzhi is okay for toilet paper. 卫生translates here as something like 'sanitary'.