I Love China

As it’s Fashion Friday I should start with some news about WoAi’s favourite UK clothing brand Superdry, which has enjoyed a 94% growth in turnover in the latest 6 months of the financial year, helped by numerous mentions on this blog as well as high profile customers including David Beckham and Zac Effron. Of course, I was raving about the brand way back in 2008, well before its recent success. I gave up wearing FCUK years ago because it was everywhere. Now that Superdry has grown, I might have to search for another new brand to wear!

On the back of this amazing success (in a global recession) of course helped a lot by my blog posts, the company is planning a stock market flotation. I’m happy to see a brand I endorse do so well, especially iven that it’s British and Britain’s economy needs all the help it can get. No seriously, there’s talk of a double dip recession and a collapse of the British currency. Thank God I am in China – will the last person to leave England please turn out the lights!

And on that cheery note, let me wish you all a fabulous weekend. Next week, more on my Hong Kong / Singapore trip with mum (the HK part) and details of the worst journey of my life so far – the flight back from HK to Shanghai, which took 16 hours!

Travelling around Asia during the lunar new year when millions of Chinese are also travelling has had its ups and downs. Okay, it’s mostly downs. But it’s also quite amusing.

My mother was freaked out on the flight to Singapore which was almost completely full of mainland Chinese on a package tour. She pushed open the door to go to the toilet only to find someone already in there and of course, they didn’t bother (or didn’t know how) to lock the door. So she tried the next one along and it was exactly the same: door unlocked and someone inside going to the toilet!

Then on the way back from Singapore, she pushed open the toilet door and there was a guy inside the toilet reading a newspaper. I couldn’t control my laughter when she returned to her seat, shaking her head with a disapproving look on her face.

On the same flight, as we were taxiing to the runway and seconds from taking off, one woman decided it was the perfect time to go for a stroll and I watched in shock and amusement as the flight attendant came running down the aisle shouting at the woman to get back to her seat.

And of course, the man in the seat in front of mine decided to recline his seat as far back as it would go just before we took off. On a bad day I would have just used a firm arm to push the seat back to the upright position forcibly, but I was with mum and on my best behaviour, so I just let that one go.

Ah the joys of lunar new year travel … actually, it wasn’t all bad. When we arrived at Singapore airport to fly back to Hong Kong, there was a massive line to check in and my heart sank when I realised we would be lining up for hours. Then something weird happened. One of the security officers made an announcement for any English speakers to come forward. Almost everyone stayed where they were and I was led to a separate area to be taken through the security questions and then ushered to a check in counter and was checked in withing 3 minutes while the huge line was still there. I have no idea why. Perhaps there were only a small number of  security officers who could speak Chinese.

I was flying with United by the way and was surprised when boarding at HK airport to find an additional security check at the boarding gate. Is this normal procedure for American carriers? I had a bottle of water (that I had taken from the airside lounge) taken away from me which was a bit disappointing.

Perfect weather again for day 2 and once again, we took it at a leisurely pace, starting with a south east Asian buffet lunch at Straits Kitchen at the Grand Hyatt which was recommended to me by several Singaporeans including Miss Beverly. It was quite convenient too as I just happened to be staying at the Grand Hyatt for my two day stay.

I did each region one at a time. This was the Indian selection. By far my favourite though was the Laksa.

After lunch we walked around Orchard road a bit more and amazingly, bumped in to Singaporean blogger Jill and her cousin in a shopping mall. I mean, I know Singapore is small, but not that small!

Dinner consisted of Mez’ze, falafel and kebabs at Cafe Le Caire, an Egyptian cafe on Arab Street in Kampong Glam, near Little India.

A mosque spotted on the short stroll from Arab Street to Little India.

And well, that was about it for Singapore. We had a 6.50am flight back to Hong Kong, which meant waking up at 4am in order to make the 4.30am car pick up. Ouch!

More on the flight in a separate post. Goodbye Singapore, it was short but sweet …. and hot! I’m missing Chili crabs and Laksa already.

I have to say, the two days I spent in Singapore with mum were an absolute delight. The weather was gorgeous – hot, sunny, blue skies. The people were warm, polite and friendly. And the food was not exactly difficult to cope with. Here are a few pictures from day one.

With mum atop the world’s tallest Ferris wheel, the Singapore Flyer (yes, it’s even taller than the London Eye).

I must confess, I’m a bit of a lazy traveller. I’m not the type to get up at the crack of dawn and proudly tick off 4 or 5 places on a must see list by noon. So we actually started day one rather late, around noon, with a cheap lunch at the Food Republic food court on the 4th floor of Wisma Atria on Orchard Road. Then we did a bit of shopping but after an hour or so I was ready to go back to the hotel for a rest. We didn’t head out again until around 6pm, just in time to catch sunset on the Singapore Flyer (tickets are $29.50 Singapore dollars for adults, and $23.60 for senior citizens – I anticipate lots of immature jokes about me being a senior citizen, so go ahead and get it out of your system).

Our capsule. We all took turns to get in the way of eachother’s photos, although there was one woman in particular who did a fantastic job of ruining our shot by walking in front of my camera not once but three times – you stupid dopey bitch!

Enjoying a Singapore Sling at The Long Bar, Raffles Hotel

We walked from the Singapore Flyer to Raffles Hotel to try the world famous Singapore Sling cocktail. The walk was a bit longer than I thought (about a kilometre) and perhaps given the heat, a taxi might have been a better bet (sorry mum).

The cocktail was of course invented in this very bar and it seemed like almost every customer was on a pilgrimage to try it.

Exterior of Raffles Hotel

Newton Circus Hawker Centre

After cocktails at Raffles we headed for chili crabs at the Newton Circus Hawker Centre where there are scores of tiny stalls selling all sorts of local specialities. Mum’s a small eater so all we had was chili crab, tiger prawns, a plate of kai lan vegetables and some rice.

Yes, it is touristy, no, it’s not particularly cheap, but it was still well worth including in a two day Singapore itinerary.

Then it was straight to the hotel for a much needed rest so that we’d have enough energy to get up before noon on day two ….

I usually fly Dragonair which is more popular with Hongkongers as it’s a HK based airline with HK flight attendants, but today, my flight to Hongkong was exclusively mainland Chinese on a big package tour. I know this because I have a HK ID card and bypass the HUGE immigration lines at HK airport, but it was at least 20 minutes before the first person joined me at the baggage reclaim carousel. I guess all the HK people left for their home city before the holiday started.

It’s fun watching Chinese venturing outside of the mainland for the first time and seeing their reaction to certain situations. And so I was quite amused when the guy in front of me had a look of both horror and surprise in equal measure when the flight attendant came round with the food options and informed him there was no fried rice! I should add it was barely 10am and fried rice was the last thing I would have wanted to eat.

Of course my own relatives are no better in this respect and I do remember being very disappointed on a road trip from Toronto to New York City when I was much younger with a bunch of older relatives. Every city we came to, the first mission was to find Chinatown and get some rice.

One thing you have to get used to when living in China is saying the phrase “happy new year” for about 2 months from December till February. First comes the regular new year at the end of December and then about 5 or 6 weeks later, the lunar new year which this year fell on 14th February. And so on Friday there was a sense of deja vu when I wished my colleagues a happy new year and said once again “see you next year” as I did 6 weeks ago.

It’s a 7 day holiday again here in China, the biggest and most important holiday for all Chinese people. The view across the city at midnight on the 13th was quite spectacular as the entire city let off fireworks and firecrackers at the same time. If you’ve never experienced it, I can highly recommend it.

And now that’s all out of the way, I’m heading south to Hong Kong where my mother has flown to from London for a few weeks. I’ll be picking her up and then heading even further south to Singapore for a couple of days, just so I can remind myself what it feels like to have the sun on my skin – it’s been about 4 months – and then it’s back to HK for a few more days before heading back to Shanghai.

There’s not much on the agenda other than eating and shopping and spending some quality time with Mrs WoAi senior before she heads back to London.

So all that’s left for me to do is to wish you all (again) a happy new year.

I was interviewing this week and as part of the selection process we usually get the candidates to prepare a short presentation to the directors to assess their potential.

In total there were 4 girls and the variation in their presentation and data analysis skills was quite wide. But one thing they all did without exception was keep their thick puffy overcoats on for the entire interview / presentation process.

It was only a few days ago I mentioned on this blog how a group of Chinese people were in the Blue Frog for an entire evening and kept their coats on the whole time.

Can someone please help me out here? I don’t quite get it.

The Internet is a wonderful source of information and Wikipedia is one of my most used sites. How else for example, would I know that Will Smith was born in the same year as me, or that Martin Luther King Jr died a month before I was born and that he was younger than I am now when he died.

But it’s also useful for other things, like the page about Chinese table manners:

• Strong alcohol, called baijiu [pronounced "by joe"], is often served throughout the meal; and it is customary for the host[s]/hostess[es] to insist that guests drink to “show friendship.” If the guests prefers not to drink, they may say, “I’m unable to drink, but thank you.” [in Mandarin: "Wo bu neng he jiu, xie xie." {whoa boo nung huh joe}] The host may continue to insist that the guests drink, and the guests may likewise continue to insist upon being “unable” to drink. The host’s insistance is to show generosity. Therefore, refusal by the guests should be made with utmost politeness. Beware: If a guest drinks alcohol with a subordinate at the table, the guest will be expected [if not forced] to drink a glass of the same alcohol with each superior at that table, and possibly at other tables too—if the guest has not passed out yet.

• When the hostess says her food is not good enough, the guest must disagree and tell her it is one of the finest foods they have ever tasted.

• Belching, smacking, and sipping is allowed. Talking with a full mouth, eating with the elbows on the table and tasting from a table guest’s plate is also allowed.

• When eating food that contains bones, it is customary that the bones be spat out onto the table to the right of the dining plate in a neat pile. Spitting onto the floor is almost never acceptable.

• When people wish to clink drinks together in the form of a cheer, it is important to observe that younger members should clink the rim of their glass below the rim of an elder’s to show respect.

These are all very helpful, but I have a few of my own to add:

• It’s perfectly acceptable to rest your foot on the adjacent chair, or even on your own chair.

• When the bill comes, it’s polite to make at least a weak attempt at fighting to pay the bill, although you should allow the host to eventually win the battle and avoid losing face.

• Playing on your PSP / Nintendo DS, reading magazines or sending texts while ignoring your other dinner guests is perfectly acceptable.
• Screaming at the waitress to bring you more beer while she’s busy taking the order of the table next door is completely okay.

• Bringing your own food and drinks to consume in the restaurant is perfectly fine.
• Finishing every last bit of food is NOT fine as it indicates to your host that he was not generous and did not order sufficiently.

So there you go. You can learn a lot from Wikipedia, but you learn twice as much from WoAi’s blog! And if you attempt to say “whoa boo nung huh joe” I guarantee you nobody will have a clue what you’re talking about.

The title should get me quite a few Google hits, so if you’re new to this blog, welcome and come on in, but please take your shoes off first.

A good friend of mine has just found a new apartment in Shanghai and after she’d finished telling me about the new place, I realised I had not asked her why she was moving in the first place.

“It’s complicated” she replied, which of course aroused my interest and prompted me to ask for the juicy details.

It turns out she has a Chinese room mate who is from Anhui, a neighbouring province. The room mate’s brother came to Shanghai with his girlfriend to look for work and of course had nowhere to stay. Shanghai is an expensive city compared to Anhui which is one of China’s poorest provinces, so it was agreed they could stay at my friend’s apartment “for a few days”.

I know most of you will see where this is going. We’ve all had experiences of guests overstaying their welcome, but there’s a bit more to it in this case. You see, one day my friend was getting ready to go out and happened to pass her room mate’s room. The door was wide open and inside, the room mate’s brother and his girlfriend were having sex.

Surely this was an accidental oversight on their part, forgetting to close the door, but apparently after that, it happened several times more. Sometimes they did it on the sofa (very distracting if you’re trying to enjoy a DVD), sometimes in the room with the door wide open.

Now, I know the Chinese are quite open about going to the toilet in the sense that many times I’ve seen people not even bother to close or lock the cubicle doors when they are going for number two, hell, some toilets don’t even have doors, but I always assumed sex was still something that Chinese were pretty shy about. Maybe it’s an Anhui thing. I think I need to make a trip to Anhui to investigate!

Anyway, it all worked out, my friend has found a great new place and is going to inform her room mate that she’s moving out this weekend. I really do feel bad for her. It’s just so selfish and inconsiderate of them to be having sex all hours of the day …. and not inviting everyone else to join in!