Mick
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Posts posted by Mick
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I am not sure how far along you are in the visa process, but one question comes to mind. Have you had any difficulty getting a visa to China for yourself? I ask that because one of the requirements for the K1 is that you have met in person and have enough contact to prove a legitimate relationship. Have you been to China yet?
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Great article, Randy. I was not familiar with this woman, nor her writing about China. It was great to see a photo from the old days in Shantou, where we lived for our last four years in China.
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Good intro to SerpentZA and a nice synopsis of his life in China. I have always enjoyed his videos, especially the ones where he travels on his bikes. Looks like he has found a new girlfriend since his divorce from Beer Girl.
He announced on one of the videos (this one or another from this month) that they were engaged.
He mentioned she was a physician. I wonder if she was one of the docs he trained in his language/cultural classes. When I was at STU, I taught English to medical students from time to time, but most of my work was with graduate English majors and those in their graduate Journalism School. Most of my students were 22 or older as many of them had completed their undergraduate work. I suspect the same is true with his classes. He met Beer Girl at a pub in Hong Kong as I recall. She was advertising beer and passing out samples as I recall, hence her name, "Beer Girl."
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Good intro to SerpentZA and a nice synopsis of his life in China. I have always enjoyed his videos, especially the ones where he travels on his bikes. Looks like he has found a new girlfriend since his divorce from Beer Girl.
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So glad to hear things are going well, Catherine. The teaching job sounds great and the more you drive, the more you will get used to the traffic patterns along your usual routes. I echo what everyone else has said about credit cards. The key is not to carry a large balance month to month and wind up paying huge interest charges, annual fees, etc. Believe me, no matter how great a deal they send you in the mail sounds, it is always set up to profit the credit card company, be it bank or credit union. Again, good to hear from you and hope you come around more often.
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I think the ideal business is one that strikes a positive balance in which both the small business owner and the employees prosper. Often that requires the owner to sacrifice a small percentage of his or her profits early on in order to keep and develop good employees. Fact is, if you don't pay quality people what they are worth, they will go elsewhere. If you keep your quality people, your business will grow because you are turning out a consistently better service or product. Problems arise when either side gets too greedy - if workers want too much pay and benefits and drive the company into the ground, or if the owners become enamored of great profit margins at the expense of allowing the workers to have a decent quality of life. It is a tough balancing act, but one that I have seen work well time and time again, provided you have an enlightened business owner. On a personal note, after earning an graduate degree in another field, I went back to school and also earned a MBA. What I learned studying business was a shocker: I LEARNED I NEVER WANTED TO OWN A BUSINESS OR WORK IN MANAGEMENT. I did run my own consulting business, but it was a service oriented business, geared around writing grants, business plans, policies and procedures, and free-lance entertainment articles (read free concert tickets).
Here in this area, Toyota has a big plant in Huntsville and Hyundai has a huge operation just outside of Montgomery. Nissan is up near Nashville. All are doing well it seems. The Hyundai plant is running 24/7 last I heard.
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That could really be dangerous for several reasons. First, you are not supposed to drink in excess when taking Viagra and second, you can't take it if you use nitrates of any kind. It can cause the blood pressure to plummet. I have never been able to take any of those "hard-pecker" pills because I wear a nitro patch daily and also have the little sub-lingual tablets that dissolve under the tongue. I have been blessed, I guess, in that I have never needed any of those "wonder drugs." I have a friend who uses them on occasion and he says the work, but give him a terrible headache. I don't know anyone who has had one of those four hour erections they warn you about. I don't drink, but if I visited China this latest spiked drink would be a danger to me because of the nitro.
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I would agree. I don't think the guy had any right to drag her out of the car and beat her mercilessly like he did. China's roads are already far over crowded and with more and more cars on the highways, things are only going to get worse. When Li and Salina recently went to China, they landed in Shanghai and her brother drove them to his home in Changzhou, in central Jiangsu Province. It took them over three hours just to get out of Shanghai. She called me from the car several times, saying it was bumper to bumper the entire time they were in the city.
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My wife is in China now. We just spoke about Retirement on WeChat.
She said:
1. Retirement age for women has moved up to 60. For men it has incresed to 65.
2. You can no longer simply 'buy' retirement.
3. Her mom did retire recently after obtaining proof of her previous work history and paying up the difference under a special program which has since been terminated. Her mom is and was over 60.
4. My wife's older sister is not yet 60 and is still making annual payments to 'catch up' her reirement account after she also provided proof of her previous employment.
5. Retirement rules are changing at least yearly.
6. Next year family Hukous supposed to be changed to individual only Hukou.
7. Next year Chinese local ID alledgedly to start having fingerprints added.
8. Next year supposed to start 'close' cooperation between local, state and national Police jurisdictions to eliminate Chinese ex-patriot (living outside China) retirement payments.
Wow, some of these policies sound mighty familiar. . . . . .
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I had read the story about the lady in Hubei who died in the escalator. Li and Salina are in China right now and it made me nervous about them visiting any malls with escalators. Li said the public outcry over this incident has been loud and angry. I would imagine some heads are going to roll. Initial reports say screws were loose on the panel that collapsed. What a horrible way to die, and her child saw (and heard) the whole thing. He will be scarred for life. Our prayers go out for him and the entire family.
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We have never had trouble bringing seeds back. Never attempted to conceal them in any way. Also, our local Chinese food store has a stock of seeds from China that we use as well. Our garden is like the one described earlier in the thread - huge veggies and vines that just go on forever. Last year, we planted a type of gourd that was huge. The vines climbed all the way up our back deck and I had to keep cutting it back like it was Kudzu.
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Glad it is finally issued. Congrats and best wishes for a smooth future!
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She sure doesn't look anywhere near 50, does she? Very pretty lady.
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What, no tongues???? Tongues should be required, or at least a separate category. I could think of a number of most interesting categories, but then, I am somewhat demented.
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Yulin's town square along the river is VERY active EVERY night - I took this picture tonight while waiting for our grandson's tae kwon do class
There are pool tables, kite flying, kiddie activities, soccer fields in use, karaoke, and, of course dancing grannies out there
Randy, what is that blue half-oval shaped light in the back of the photo? Roller coaster?
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Looks like a nice getaway for a long weekend or something similar. Keep the photos coming as it continues to develop.
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Glad to hear things went smoothly at the interview. Good luck with the CCP process - hope it is resolved quickly. The time line for that seems to vary a good bit.
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Awhile back I read an article describing how many young Chinese are turning to Buddhism as a guiding force in their lives. An most interesting was the fact that the article said the the most popular form of Buddhism among the young was Tibetan Buddhism. I wish I could remember where I read that article so I could post a link. I think this may be one of the articles I read:
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/856367.shtml
What will be interesting to see is how this new wave of Buddhists in China may react to the government attempting to choose the new Dalai Lama. I know when I lived in China there was a huge temple complex next to our campus that occupied most of a small mountain. It was jam packed with worshipers every day and many were in their 20s and 30s and this was back around the late 90s and early 2000s.
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What they put this poor girl through was horrendous. Lord of the Flies, indeed. I was aware that a number of kids were attending American high schools in similar circumstances, but never heard the term "parachute kids." I hope the girl that was victimized will be able to get some quality psychological as well as spiritual help in order to heal from her ordeal. As for the kids that perpetrated this horror, they should receive a stiff punishment. The system must not send a message that this sort of thing can be done without severe consequences.
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Thanks for the clarification, Dan. They used to have a Saturn 5 at the Welcome Center years ago. I forgot they changed out the rockets at some point. The Alabama Space and Rocket Center is in my hometown (Huntsville) and back when it was just getting off the ground, in the early 70s or so, a couple of my buddies from college got jobs as night watchmen on the 3-11 pm shift. The Center was much smaller in those early days, but had the various rockets on display. We used to go in there at night and actually smoke joints sitting in the engine ports at the bottom. How things change. Now, the woman who is the head of the Space and Rocket Center is the ex-wife of one of those very friends. Salina goes on several field trips there each year and has attended the yearly space camp several times. If you or anyone is ever in the area, it is well worth the visit. It has really grown over the years. Oh, and thanks for the links to the photos, they are all within a couple miles of our home. Huntsville, and the Space and Rocket Center, is about 25 miles south of Ardmore, which is right on the state line.
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Very familiar with those Alabama rockets, Tom. In fact, there is a decommissioned Saturn Five at a little park on Interstate 65, located very near my home. Tsap saw it several times on his visit to these parts, along with the Big Chicken and the Boobie Bungalow. And Tennessee, home of cotton candy and country music.
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Great photos, as usual. Keep them coming.
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Thanks for the clarification on why the dog meat is consumed at the solstice. Like I mentioned, in other places it is considered at food that raises the internal heat and combats cold, thus December is a common time to chew Fido.
I found the statement by the Yulin Municipal People's Government somewhat humorous in a strange sort of way. When I lived in China, I noticed that local governments often dealt with sensitive issues by simply denying that they existed. This, unfortunately, can have tragic consequences. We lived near Ground Zero of the first cases of SARS back in 2002-2003 (the same time, by the way, that we were buried deep in the visa Black Hole created by the immigration dominoes falling subsequent to 9/11). The initial response to SARS, at the local level, was denial that it even existed and was nothing more deadly than a common cold. Further, early research pointing to the Civet Cat as being the likely source of the virus was discounted and largely ignored. Interestingly, as soon as the official denials came out, there was a run on face masks and vinegar (to burn indoors to kill germs). Price gouging was rampant. The point, however, is that the locals knew that official denials meant something was up.
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Where we lived in Guangdong, dog hot pot was always served in December and never in the summer. I never ate any of it, but it is supposed to raise one's fire and help combat cold weather. I wonder why Yulin has the festival in the summer?
Cleavage Out, Close-ups In
in The Middle Kingdom - 中国
Posted
Ah, beautiful Hefei, Anhui - it is where Li and I met and fell in love. We lived there our first year in China, but moved to Guangdong the following year as Anhui was, at that time, a bit too conservative for our taste. Looks like things have changed somewhat since 1997-98, when we were there.