IllinoisDave

Excellent! Congrats.

Rog. I cannot see these incidents you speak of from my front porch. Therefore I must conclude they are not happening. It really is naughty of me to post this kind of thread while Jesse is still asleep... Jesse sleeps? B)

I'll try almost anything but I draw the line at eating Fido. You can eat Fido if you want and I won't be offended but don't ask me to join in. Same here. Would never knowingly eat dog. And if told after the fact I would not be happy.

Yes, great post. My wife has been very flexible when it comes to eating "American" food. Her current favorite is Olive Garden. Of course the all-you-can-eat soup and salad has nothing to do with that.

Rog. I cannot see these incidents you speak of from my front porch. Therefore I must conclude they are not happening.

Hopefully a good sign. Seems like a prudent strategy to avoid the hot-button issues at the beginning and focus on establishing a framework of trust and cooperation. Give the rest some time to work itself into the dialogue.

Exactly. Even the Chinese gov't is beginning to acknowledge the depth of this scandal (as reported in the Chinese medai) and to start down the road to correcting it. IMHO this supposed anti-China bias in the Western media is way over-stated and too often a convenient meme to fall back on when folks don't happen to like the news coming out of China. Sometimes things ARE as bad as reported.

And those of us who don't pray send our best wishes as well Charles. This is your time my friend.

The Odyssey by Homer.

So the Chinese get 45% of your earned income each year? No - Just like in the US, if you're in the 45% tax bracket, it means each additional dollar is taxed at 45%. Say, you earned 100,000RMB and paid 15,000RMB in taxes. Your tax bracket (or tax rate) would be 45%, but you would only pay 15% of your total income in taxes. This is a prgressive rate structure, similar to what we have in the US. Jesse's 15% is probably an overall 15% of his income, and NOT his tax bracket. Honestly guys, I've checked with several of my ex-pat associates, and like me, all of them are being paid substantially more than 40K RMB per month. Not a single one of them has ever paid more than 15% tax. Shhhhhhh...

Ya, but that was for animal food. Different thing all together. Say Don did you pick up any PILLS in Shanghai??? http://shanghaiist.com/2008/11/02/10_men_i...from_illega.php "The men were aged 21 to 97."

Great movie. Better soundtrack.

maybe he needs a history lesson... And a few on the present as well.

I guess I should've made it clear in my first post. I didn't start this thread as a compare/contrast, who's country/culture is better thing. I was asked to name 10 things I liked about China and that's what I did. I didn't list any of the things because I liked them better in one place or the other. Those were just ten of the dozens of things I happen to like about CHINA. In fact many of the attributes I cited for China could just as easily be applied to the US as well. We have some great food and some incredibly beautiful women here too. It's not about differences or which is better. Sorry for the confusion.

When talking about honesty I think it helps to keep in mind that one culture favors bluntness and the other prefers a little more subtlety. They both end up in pretty much the same place.

It sounds like you would be happier in China. No? Sounds like it. I know my wife could come up with a list of 10 things she likes about the US and not be telling me what she thought I wanted to hear. I guess if you want to be happy where you are you will be.

sorry to interrupt WA LA= American ARMY??? I hear alot in the movie Maybe he meant VOILA!?

Interesting post Bill. And I mean that. As an "outside observer" to the various religions and their practices, I have to say from my experience that the reaction of the respective mothers in your life is very telling. Many of your comments reflect what I've noticed. Your mother-in-law seemed to mirror what I've noticed about Chinese and the way they treat life in general, not just religion. For the most part (there are always exceptions to a rule ) they seem to go out of their way to not push their beliefs/ideologies onto other people. I'd go so far as to say that they'd be just as happy going through life without anyone else knowing what their particular religious belief is. This is reflected, along with simple consideration and respect, in mother-in-laws's reluctance to have your parents even see her prayer area. When it comes to your mother, first let me say that I thought it was very understanding and human of her to request that your mother-in-law uncover her prayer area. Not every person of a different faith would do that IMHO. But your mother also had no problem leaving the picture of her particular religious symbol for all to see. Not a criticism, just an observation that points out Christians' (and some other religions) willingness to let others know just where they stand and which messiah/prophet/savior they happen to stand with. The two are pretty good examples of what I believe is one of the things that most separates Chinese and American thinking when it comes to religion. In the East, just talking about something so personal, let alone prosthelytizing or trying to convert others, is avoided religiously (pun intended ). In the West many people of religion have, for the most part, no such reluctance. In fact some see it as a requirement as part of their faith. I wouldn't include your mother in that group by the way. Just a non-believer's two cents.

Great to hear Jany. Good luck with your new life. It sounds like you've found happiness. You deserve it. I'd say your choice of business is very timely to say the least. Best of luck with that, for all our sakes.

Wrong again. Is this a habit for you? Sales tax is built into prices from the moment of manufacture. Only a moron would not recover the tax he paid when purchasing the products he sells from his supplier. Whatever negative aspects people would like to imply about Chinese merchants, they are not stupid. You are thinking of the receipt merchants give customers make a purchase. This is called a "fapiao" and is in no way an indication of whether or not someone pays sales tax. The money you save -- if any -- when not obtaining a fapiao is directly related to the money the merchant saves on income tax and the approximately 5% additional levy for the fapiao fee levied by the tax bureau. Bill - he's gone - hit the road - unregistered Too bad. Mike and I disagreed...often. But he never made it personal and IMHO didn't spew a lot of BS just to keep a debate going. Sure, on occasion he could be fairly earnest in making his points but, then again, aren't we all sometimes?

Skip the foot massage (IT FEELS SO GOOD WHEN IT'S OVER BECAUSE IT HURTS SO MUCH WHILE THEY'RE DOING IT) and go for the full body massage Dave... So I should spread the pain over my whole body? Yeah see you whole body can absorb the pain better than your poor little tootsies... Yeah, my tootsies are total wusses.

Nice list Jesse. I gotta get me one of those foot massage thingies sometime. BTW, since Christine's still asleep, I can't ask her what maidan is. What's maidan mean? From your post it looks to mean "Check please"? According to my limited Mandarin thats exactly what it means. I thought it refered to the server... So Christine is up now. She says it's actually Cantonese and means essentially "I want to pay the bill." Jesse can confirm this but she says the reason it's funny is because restaurants in China are usually trying to hurry you to leave after your done so they can move in the next customers. So they're a little surprised when you're actually ready to leave before they start nudging you toward the door.

Skip the foot massage (IT FEELS SO GOOD WHEN IT'S OVER BECAUSE IT HURTS SO MUCH WHILE THEY'RE DOING IT) and go for the full body massage Dave... So I should spread the pain over my whole body?

Fortunately we took taxis/buses everywhere so my amusement definately came at the expense of others. If I had to drive in that it would be far less entertaining.

Thank you Amanda. Say Ni hao to Shanghai for us. Are you from Shanghia? If not, ever been before? Hi,Dave You are welcome. We will say hello to Shanghai for you. I am not from Shanghai, And it will be the first time for Richard and me to go there. We are very excited to talk about traveling there!!!!!!!!! Amanda, I think you'll enjoy Shanghai very much. The obvious places to go are The Pearl Tower/Pudong area and NanJing Road. NanJing Rd at night is a must-see. I'd also recommend the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center. I know the name sounds kinda boring. But it has a huge scale model of Shanghai, present and future, that is really neat to see. There's also some exhibits that show the history of Shanghai.