Housing bubble in China?

That's what the Chinese government is thinking. China's current leader Wen Jiabao is in his last few weeks in his position as premier of China and is determined to make his time count. Wen is the 6th premier of China and has served ten years in his current position but now Xi Jinping is being primed to take over his position. Xi Jinping was recently elected head of the Communist Party of China during the 18th National Congress in Beijing right around Thanksgiving (also the reason I wasn't allowed to take a bus to the airport and had to hire a taxi to drive me four hours to Beijing... thanks!). As Xi is being phased into power in China Wen is being phased out. Recently Wen has been making a lot of speeches about his view on many aspects of the country, a big focus include China's military, poor, and the growing gap between the rich and the poor. Wen wonders if he did enough for his people during his time at the top, it's obvious this wonder comes form a guilty place. If you think politics in America are bad don't move to China. Wen has the ability to do even less in office than Obama does and these speeches are reminding the people of all the Chinese government doesn't do for them.

It's possible China is learning from America's mistakes. Though the Chinese people are in a bubble of their own, not being allowed to watch main stream media they have no clue about the housing bubble or the detrimental effects that occurred when it burst, in fact most of them don't really understand the financial crisis occurring all over the world. And we thought you'd have to live under a rock to not know that information... Of course the Chinese government saw the American housing bubble and the detrimental effects of its burst. The average Chinese person doesn't get up in arms about, well, anything but most people in China are very worried about the price of real-estate right now, which they should be. One of my co-workers said to me, "I'm glad I only have a daughter. If I had a son I don't know how I would pay for him." She was referring to paying for an apartment for him. Though Chinese people will not admit to the terminology the dowery system is still alive and well in China. Yet it is tradition in China for the parents of the boys to pay more than the parents of the girls. Chinese boys must have their own apartment before they are able to marry, or they had better hope they have one or else they are not really a viable candidate which can be an issue in a country with more men than women and a traditional system that makes you a social outcast if you don't get married and have kids. A friend of mine told me the other day that she dismissed a male suitor because he had the nerve to ask her to try to obtain a loan with him to get an apartment, this was unthinkable to her.

With a fixed currency there aren't many ways for Chinese people to invest, the only thing in money that is guaranteed is real-estate. In a country where more than half the population lives in urban centers much bigger than our cities in the US, buildings are never made to last, construction occurs almost over night, everyone is forced to own real estate due to social stigmas, and urban populations are rising real estate is really the way to go. If it's buying an apartment and turning it over in a few years when the value has double or if it's sitting on apartments in old buildings that you predict will be destroyed so you are guaranteed apartments in the new high rise that will take the buildings place, real estate in China is a lucrative business.

Even in the small city of Qinhuangdao where I live the real estate prices are rising dramatically  When I asked an older friend about investing in China he said forget about the stock market, invest in real estate. The boss at a local English school said the worth of the apartment he purchased only three years ago has already doubled. Though you are not guaranteed that the property value on your apartment will rise that quickly right now in China you can guarantee that it will happen within ten years. Starting to sound familiar? To me it sounds too good to be true, just like housing in the US a few years ago. Yet, in China continued growth like this is possible. In China developments go from early stages of construction to ready to be rented in a matter of months. If building happened that fast in America I think people would die of surprise, but it's reality in China. Old apartment complexes get torn down for more and taller buildings to replace them. These are the apartments you really need to get. Pieces of these properties turn you from living in a ratty old one bedroom apartment in a building that might have existed when Mao did to owning four or five brand new apartments in a new and modern building. Rags to riches - literally. But that's not what's happening anymore. People are buying these old apartments out from under the old people who have been living in them for the last few decades just waiting for them to get tour down so they can become mini-moguls. Just another ironic turn for the country who used to treat business men as pariahs. Other lucrative investments happen by luck. Buying in a new apartment building before dozens pop-up around it or before it becomes the new happening part of town. But there is one thing you know for sure, buying an apartment will make you money.

The people are worried because buying real estate has become a game and the average Chinese person who makes way less than the American minimum wage can't afford to play. Most of the workers at my school including officials in high positions make less than I do here and I make less than the minimum wage. If you think buying a house in America is out of reach imagine trying to buy an apartment in a market where 30 or 40 square meters can cost you upwards of $400,000 usd.

The government just administered a new property gains tax in China. The tax would take 20% of any profit made from the sale of property. Other effects of the government on property is making it more difficult for homeowners to get loans for a second residence. Though I think it's just about time the Chinese people are outraged. The real estate market is the only real investment strategy that currently exists in China and the government is threatening it, so much for capitalism. I think this is just the first step for the government. If they don't want an economic crisis within China then they need to act stronger and faster to stop people taking over the real estate market making it impossible for the average person to buy property any more. The Chinese government says it's trying to ratify the move of rural populations to urban areas in hopes of developing the country further but with housing prices so high and migrant worker wages so low I don't see this being possible without a large ghetto system arising in China which just defeats the purpose of the country's urbanization in the first place.

Wait, this is good for your what?

Onions are good for your skin, chicken feat are good for your breasts, eating stomach can help your digestion and eating duck heads... well they just taste good.

The most fun I have in China is when I entrust myself to my Chinese friends. I ended up drunk in Shanghaiguan having a heart to heart with a Chinese girl over duck heads one night and celebrating a man's daughter's 100th day of life in his bar the next. One day I walked around for an hour trying to get in touch with a guy I'd met on a bus who wanted to take me out to dinner but was to Chinese to admit he had no clue where I lived (oh yeah, he didn't speak any English) and another I was brought to an all Chinese variety show where I was asked by one of the women there if I wanted to get on strange (I said no). You know the interesting thing? All of this happened in the last week. 

If there's any advice I can give you it's that when you're in China just let the Chinese usher you around like a child, it's kind of fun. I mean, I'm a traditionally overly independent American like the rest of us. But sometimes it's fun to let the Chinese girl you just met that day grab on to your arm and ask overly personal questions as they tell you should eat stomach and promptly take you out to dinner. You can't get offended by it or even annoyed. Chinese people are completely harmless and honestly kind of adorable when you get used to the crazy shit they do. Sure I swear under my breath at the old men who stare at me non-stop during an hour bus ride, it's still creepy! And I get annoyed at the 10th text in one day from a Chinese person I gave my phone number to out of nothing more than reluctance but that doesn't mean I can't love the Chinese people too. 

Chinese people have a lot of ideas about what's best for a person especially what's best for their health. In fact a lot of the things they think sound absolutely crazy! But you still have to smile and nod along when you're co-worker who gave you food poisoning tells you that you MUST eat such and such because it's so good for you or you're told to wear more  layers when it's 70 degrees out and you're already sweating. Or when an old lady tells you you won't be able to have children because you're sweating from physical exertion (well that was a male friend of mine, but it's still funny!) 

No, I don't want to take advice from people who have their kids wear pants with slits up the ass in the middle of winter (when it's below freezing!) or from people who find it necessary to wear long-underwear when it's in the 50s (what are you going to wear when it gets colder?!) But at the same time, even if it's not helpful this stuff leads to good stories and every once and a while you find out you like something. I mean, who knew duck head was delicious?! Ma

Public bath houses

In China there's a huge variety of living conditions. Some buildings, even in my city, are very modern. You can walk into many apartments and feel like you're in an American apartment. Yet there are also people living in bunks in their office at my school or in the restaurant they own. In some places there's running water and hot water heaters, you can get hot water from the tap and/or take a hot shower but it still very common to live in places where you don't have your own bathroom, shower, hot water, or any running water. Because of all this bath houses are very common in China. They are especially common in a old, small, undeveloped city like the one I live in. I've heard their are ranges of bath houses. They receive letter grades just like restaurants do. In China the restaurant's letter grade is posted near the door for all to see. (I've still only ever seen one A!) As for restaurants there are a lot of Bs, almost no As and Cs are only really common in small holes in the wall, where as long as the food is still hot you don't have to worry about eating it. For bath houses I'm not so sure, I've only ever gone to one and it has an A. But I was told by the friends I've gone with that this bath house is a lot nicer than the other ones they've been to.

So what is a bath house? A bath house is a mix between a public shower (like the ones at a swimming pool or gym) and a spa. But in no way can you call a bath house a spa. If you were told a bath house was a spa you'd be very disappointed when you got to the bath house! The one I got to is very fancy and you don't see very poor people at it, but you do see a lot of older people who are not well off. Yet you also see very posh skinny Chinese girls teetering on their 5 inch heels in and out of the place.

Firstly, the bath house I go to is remarkably clean. The entrance is very warm and has all marble floors (like all the floors in China). You take your shoes off in a little pit then you can step out of it in your socks or bare feet onto the floor that is constantly being cleaned by the attendants in the room. Along the edge of the small-ish entrance room there are couches and chairs to sit in. There's also a front desk where they take your shoes and clean them for you.

There are separate rooms for women and men (duh) each one has its own locker-room. You get a "key" which is a bracelet with a magnet on it that only works for one locker of which the number is on the bracelet as well.

After the locker room there's a room with showers all along the walls and massage beds up and down the middle. Then there's a big opening into another similar room which is smaller and only has a few showers and a few massage beds but also has a sanna and a steam room. For the low low cost of 15rmb  you get entrance to the bath house for as long as you want, well I'm sure there's a limit of some sort, but I've stayed their hours before, so if there is it's pretty long. It's a really nice experience it's so warm and the hot water never runs out!

But the fun part of the bath house is the "treatments" you can get there. You can get normal spa like things, like different types of massages. There are also full body treatments, where they rub stuff on you. You can get normal substances rubbed on you like body wash but there are also strange ones, like a milk rub and a honey rub (the honey rub looks like wax). You can get a traditional Chinese treatment too, which are still common done even among the youths in China. These include having bad wind sucked out of you by putting hot cups on your back which act as suction cups leaving your skin seriously brused for up to a month, they can last longer if you get it gone regularly. There's also the repetitive scratching of your skin when you have muscle aches which is meant to help the healing process but actually is just the classic distraction method of treatment. This treatment leaves your skin with red gashes that makes you look like you've been attacked by an animal. But the best thing you can get done at the bath house is a scrub! This is one of the Chinese things that should really be brought to the US.

I mean, when you think about lying down completely naked on an extremely slippery surgical looking bed  covered in a thin layer of plastic in the middle of a large room filled with naked Chinese people showering to have a slightly clothed Chinese woman peel of your dead skin by rubbing down your naked body with a gritty mit it doesn't sound appealing. But it's the best thing in the world. It feels like getting a full body scratch. So it's a hundred times better than a head scratch. I think it might even be better than a massage. And at the end you can't stop touching yourself because your skin is so smooth. You also get really clean from it, even though you feel disgusting because the mit they clean you with ends up being really dirty and all the skin that falls off you is really dark too. But still, at the end you feel like a new person. Scrubs are slightly additive though, I know want to get one every week, which would probably not be good for my skin. Any time I start getting dry skin or start wanting to use lotion all the time I think "scrub time!"

What is Thanksgiving anyway?

Being a foreigner in a new country is interesting in many ways. One of the things I love about it is making friends is simple. In China it's pretty much guaranteed the Chinese people think I'm cool and want to be my friend because I'm a novelty. Obviously foreigners standout a lot in China, this is something I'm reminded of every day when small children or random adults point at me and say "外国人" (foreigner). On a side note - a lot of the children will actually say "美国人“ which mean American and really ticks off foreigners from other countries- understandably. When a foreigner sees you they feel instantly connected because hey- you're also not Chinese and it's a good bet you're fairly uncomfortable in your surroundings.

So, if you're having trouble making friends at home- just move to China! It's doesn't matter how weird or strange you are, you can still make friends. Also, if you're a guy, you're are guaranteed at least five Chinese girls fighting over one another for you. You know, if you're into the stuff. 

But in all seriousness I often feel way more connected to all things American as soon as I leave the country. I even feel this way about Americans themselves. It feels so nice to get together with a bunch of people from your country who speak your language. It's also nice to get together with anyone who's foreign because you have something in common- you're in a foreign country! 

So one night a bunch of us foreigners got together at a nice restaurant. Originally there were going to be about 16 of us so one of our friends who'd lived in the city for a while got a room put aside for us with a table that had enough space for everyone. To explain, in China many restaurants have rooms where people can eat. These rooms are often for parties, large groups, or simply for groups with important people in them. Most restaurants have a normal dinning area with rooms connected to it. When we found out way more people were going to show up we asked the waitresses for a bigger table. They told us we couldn't get a bigger table because the only room that had a table big enough for us had a minimum. So some of these rooms are very fancy and your party has to spend a minimum amount to be able to stay in that room. The minimum for this room was 2,000 RMB (over $300), which isn't bad considering the room sat about 20 people so that would only mean 100RMB each which is about $20- a pretty low price to pay for a fancy dinner out. But this is China, where you can get dinner for about $1 American. 

The dinner was amazing. The restaurant was known for 北京烤鸭 which is Beijing/ Peking Duck (Beijing and Peiking are the same thing but written in different styles of writing Chinese with an alphabet). So we got three ducks, a man even came into our room to carve the duck for us, right in front of us; it was really neat. There was tons of other food too. There were even six types of animal meat on the table (duck, squid, octopus, some type of fish, lamb, beef, and pork). Though I was a vegetarian before going to China I think consuming four different animals that night really cemented my flop onto the omnivore side of consumption. In true Chinese style there were as many dishes as people all on a giant lazy-susan. This table was so big the lazy-susan actually had a motor, it was really hard to turn it yourself. The table was also so large that it took 3 mins 27 seconds for the lazy-suzan to make a complete pass around the table. Yes, we timed it. The room was huge and very ornately decorated. I felt like I was in a small parlor at Versailles, not in a small restaurant in a small city in China. The room had coaches and big comfy chairs for people to lounge in along with two giant floor heaters (an expensive luxury in China where all their heating comes form the same company and is standardized from place to place). The room also had a dvd player and projector screen resting above a fireplace. The chairs at the table were big with tall backs and velvet cushions. The restaurant even had real cloth napkins! Something I've missed very much in China. 

During the dinner we began talk about Thanksgiving plans. It was decided people were to celebrate Thanksgiving in one of our British friend's bar during the afternoon of Thanksgiving, because people had to work during dinner. Lots of plans were made. Who would bring what, what we would eat, how many people there would be, how we'd get turkey (which is really expensive here!) and so on. The four people from the UK in the room were all sitting next to one another. In the middle of us all gushing about Thanksgiving I hear form one of them, "So, what is Thanksgiving any way?" Which was answered by another Brit saying, "It's got something to do with when the Indians took over America."

So there you go, you don't even have to understand the holiday to celebrate it. Any excuse to get a bunch of foreigners together is a nice thing to do. Some of my Chinese friends even said they wanted to come!

Fun fact, the literal translation of the Chinese word for Turkey is "fire chicken." I was told this by my students today. After asking they made it clear that it was due to the color of the meat, not the color of the bird.

Sadly I will be missing this celebration because I'll be in Guangzhou. I'll be sure to write a blog about the strange, southern, Cantonese speaking part of China.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

Squat toilets

I feel as though the words "squat toilet" general induce a feeling of disgust in people. Most people see squat toilets as gross and unsanitary. I don't believe this at all. I actually think squat toilets are much more sanitary.

Sure, squat toilets are pretty gross. When you walk into a public toilet in China it's pretty nasty. It smells, there's normally a thin layer of dirty liquid on the ground and you know some of that liquid is urine. There are overflowing bins next to the toilets where the toilet paper goes (you don't flush it). The first reaction most people have would probably to cover your nose and run. But really squat toilets are great. When you really think about it having western style toilets in public places is kind of gross. I mean, you put your naked skin somewhere where tons of other people have put there's. Also, how many times do you see urine on toilet seats? How many times have you yourself sat in someone else's urine? Yeah, that's gross! I'd much rather get someone else's pee on the bottom of my shoes than on me! Squat toilets are just so simple and quick to use. I mean, who wants to sit on a squat toilet for a long time? That just hurts your calf muscles after a while. You get in, you get out, and there's no sitting on the toilet and texting when ten people are waiting in line.

Squat toilets are just so basic, there the bare minimum of what you need, which truly reflects the Chinese way of life. I have a huge respect for Chinese people and how they live. I feel so spoiled in comparison. I am guilty, like all other college students in America of complaining about how small the dorm-rooms I lived in were. I also complained (like every other student) about having to share my dorm-rooms with other people. But the most people I ever shared a room with was two other people. In China, the students share their dorm-rooms with 5 to 7 other people. That's 6 to 8 people in one room. I've visited a number of college campuses and when I do I always peek into the dorms. One of my Chinese friends made fun of me last week for doing this. "That's just a dorm, what are you looking at?" It was hard to?!" Is pretty much how my response went. He then told one of our chinese friends that the next time I was on their campus she had to show me her dorm room. Because of course me going into a mens dorm... was impossible.

Here's another way College in America and China is so different. My female Chiese friends who are in college will giggle and ask me if I've ever had a boyfriend. I try to explain to them that I've never known a person in college in America who hasn't had at least one boyfriend or girlfriend. The ideas relatively unthinkable! Relationships are such a big part of the college experience. But in China the students don't get any time to themselves let alone a room for them to go and be alone with someone. The lack of privacy in China is another thing that makes me feel like a selfish brat. Getting alone time in America is easy, most of the time I simply want more time alone than I'm able to get, but in China, I feel as though being alone is next to impossible. Parents are out of work by the time students get out of school, the students might even leave for school earlier than their parents leave for work. Many students board at school because even an hour commute to and from school is too much for the students to do twice a day, every day, six times a week. They live in big rooms with 10 or 15 other students. They go to college and have dorms full of people then they go back to live with their families or get a job where they get housing. At my school many of the Chinese teacher live on campus, the young unmarried ones. They share a room with another person, there is not kitchen area in the whole building they live in nor bathrooms or showers. They have to go to another building to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and have to go to a public bathhouse to shower. (I'll explain public bath houses in my next entry.) Other people who work on campus  like the man with the mail, the security guard, and the cleaner (yeah, I'm pretty sure there's only one for the whole school.) All of them live in a room on campus, the same room they work in, or a room adjacent. Many of the small restaurants here have a back room where the family lives, sometimes you'll even see them go into their living area to cook. You also will see washers or TVs in the room where you eat for the families.

The truth is -in a lot of ways- I wish I had grown up that way and experience that life. It's impossible to not feel like an entitled fuck looking at people living this kind of life. The thing is, it's relatively easy to live in better living standards then you're used to. It takes time to adjust, but you'll enjoy the adjustment. But living in conditions that are less than what you're used to is very hard and frustrating. No matter how open minded you are or how much you want to experience something new adjusting down is hard to do.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

Ladies and gentlemen we have a unicorn

Or so I was called by a few foreigners I met. I finally met a group of foreigners in Qinhunagdao at my very first party in China and one called me a unicorn. His girl friend finally explained that it's a word they use for young white blond haired girls like me. She explained the comment to me when I was complaining about how everybody in Qinhuangdao stares at me and makes a big deal over my looks. The way she put it was. "If you saw a unicorn would you ever be the same?" I guess this is a fair comparison, it's just strange to think of your self as a unicorn. Of course to me I'm really not that special   but in general I don't see being blond as a big deal because it's pretty common in America. But of course here it's very different from the typical sea of black heads.

I guess when I thought about coming to China I was thinking about how global our world is. I was thinking about how I hate how American culture has overrun other smaller and local cultures in the world. I felt that I wouldn't be that interesting because they saw plenty of white people in magazines, on ads, on TV, and in the movies. But I seriously underestimated China's ability to keep their own unique culture in a global world. Sure in places like Shanghai you might as well be in a city like New York or London; they're not very Chinese. But as I keep saying, Qinhuangdao is a small town. There are very conservative people here and also most people don't make much money. Not only is Americana not as popular in China as I would have assumed, it's in someways untouchable to the people here. Picture a hick from a small farm town in America (like most of New Hampshire), that's where I'm living. My town in New Hampshire has a hell of a lot more culture than this place does. These people are sheltered. To them I am a unicorn. 

I guess I just have to take it as a compliment... But it's hard to when you can't go out with out every person in the bar trying to talk to you, when you can't walk down the street with out being stared at, when you can't sit down and eat without ending up giving somebody the reader's digest version of your life, and when you can't go to the grocery store without being asked your advice on a product. I do know that if I ever see a unicorn I'll just leave it alone; the poor thing deserves it.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

Beijing Beijing

All the tour-books warn against visiting China - especially the big cities - on national holidays, but unfortunately when you are employed in China you get the same holidays as the Chinese people do. I have to say, I don't agree with the tour books. Maybe it's just because I'd been living in China for a month before my one week vacation in Beijing during the worst time to visit Beijing, but I didn't think it was bad. Sure, there were a lot of people, and even if you could get a taxi it just stood still almost the whole time you were in it, and yeah they blocked off a lot of major streets because of the National day festivities... and of course there was the fact that they shut down random metro stations. But other than that, it was pretty normal. I ended up staying in a hotel out of the main city. At the time I booked it I was thinking about how I wished it was closer to everything, but once I got there, I was glad it wasn't! In the outskirts of the city life went on like normal, and taxis didn't cost a fortune because the highways around the city weren't packed. 

If there's one thing I think you should experience when you go to China it's being stuck in a big crowd of Chinese people! It's really annoying, but also funny (as long as you don't have to be anywhere!) My last blog post I talked about how Chinese people can't be orderly to save their lives, well when there are more of them it's even worse. I got to the point where I would just weave through groups of people and run around or through them just because their slow meandering in a general direction was so frustrating. It was like no one actually had to be anywhere they were just letting the crowd push them around. 

I'm convinced that Chinese people just go places to say they've been there. They show up, buy the ticket, then take pictures in front of random stuff and that's it. There's no gasps of wonder or even much reading of information. They're all about the picture taking, especially when it involves them standing in front of stuff. That way they can prove they were there!  Another thing they like taking pictures of? White people! Honestly I didn't get asked to take my picture with nearly as many people as I thought I would, but it still happened. It was also very common to get pictures taken of me. There was an especially memorable guy who I caught taking a picture of me and I started laughing at him, he sheepishly walked away. As he walked away -with his girlfriend- I saw him show her the picture then promptly get smacked. People not only think it's okay to take a picture of me (and my friends) without asking, they will visibly get angry if you get in the way of them taking the picture. I was walking around with two friends who are black, that was the photo op of the year. A blond and black people?! It was like Christmas in china. I would get annoyed and cover my face with my hand and people would get pissed at me. Oh, I'm so sorry I got in the way of you taking a picture of ME! 

It was so crowded that the first time I went to the forbidden city I wasn't even able to get tickets, the ticket windows closed while I was in line. Wangfujing street, one of the most famous streets in Beijing was very crowded. Walking down the street reminded my of the time I tried to walk through time square a few days before new years. I have to admit though, I didn't get as claustrophobic in Beijing because the people are so short you can look over hem and forget you're in a big crowd. This is dangerous, it can lead to collision with the young and elderly (who are the same size). I think the coolest part was a huge line of "Chuar" stations set up all down a transecting road. There had to be hundreds! Chuar is Chinese Kebab, but don't picture a kebab shop you'd find in Europe or even real Kebab. It's just meet and veggies on sticks all set up and then you pick what you want and how many and they throw it on a grill and put spices on it and give it to you. Chuar can be foudn everywhere (well  all over the north at least). It's really delicious too! Especially if you find a place that does "Qiezi" or "Doufu" (eggplant and tofu). Though I have delved into the "Yang rou" (lamb) and "cong" (scallions) and they're also pretty good. There were just people and sticks everywhere! It was an amazing sight to see. 

Another food related high light of the week was visiting a famous Hot Pot place in Beijing, it's a chain and there was a restaurant right near the hotel I stayed in. Hot Pot is a new love of mine since coming to China. You sit at a table that has a huge pit in it with a burner at the bottom. The burner gets lit and a big vat or two (this restaurant had two) get put in the pit. The vats look like sinks, they're really big and filled with broth. At the restaurant in Beijing their were two types of broth, one was spicy (really spicy) and the other was milky. In China "La" or spicy doesn't just mean hot spicy, it means that there is a lot of spices in the dish or a lot of flavor. (Note for French speakers: it's the very same meaning as the French épicé). So the spicy side had not only spicy peppers but also a lot of ginger, I never knew ginger could hurt so much! 

So, you get a sheet of paper full of all the ingredients you can add (a lot like a chuar place, though at a chuar place you tell them verbally) and check them off. At this restaurant you could get a full or a half portion of each thing, which was really nice. There are a bunch of meats, fish, veggies, mushrooms, noodles and types of tofu. In China there are a TON of types of tofu, even if you don't think you like tofu you'll find a type you like here. There are also a lot of different types of mushrooms- I love most of them and a lot of styles of noodles. The noodles are different shapes and also made of different things. This restaurant had soba noodles which I have an affinity for after falling in love with the food at a Korean/ Japanese restaurant near my house. 

So you order all you want then they bring it too you on plates- raw- even the meet (can you say health food violation?). You get to put the stuff in the water as you'd like. I like putting it all right in so they turn off the burner quickly, because it's so hot when it's on! After observing the chinese people I found out that they place things in the water and eat them much slower. Also, there's a bar with seasonings, you take a bowl up and fill it with sauces and other seasonings and spices. I really like the peanut sauces. It's really delicious! You just pull the stuff out of the water and slather it in sauce and eat. I can't believe we don't have it in America! 

Being in Beijing is really nice because it's such an international city. You can get any type of food you want! I've even tried new types of food I'd never tried before coming to China. I got to go to a German restaurant, they're popular in Beijing, there are a few. There are also a lot of areas you can go and meet a lot of foreigners in. This is something that is seriously lacking in my city. In Qinhuangdao I have met a total of four foreigners and two of them work at my school. Getting to speak English with native speakers was wonderful. Though when I had lunch with a bunch of native speakers I kept forgetting the English food vocabulary, which led to them thinking my Chinese was much better than it is and also to them thinking I'd been in China much longer than I had been. I ended up teaching a lot of chinese during my trip to fellow Ciee-ers, I guess living in the Chinese-boonies has its pluses!

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/