Chinese "sleeping time'.

[SheLikesME?]

Guilin, and Guangzhou in Guangxi province.

 

We went to Bank of China in Guilin this past March, to get some RMB exchanged to $$ and had to wait until 2:30 for the full staff to come back on, just a handful working the regular windows.

 

And all the schools do go into siesta mode from 12-2:30, the school Yu worked at did, and she told me that this is quite normal.

As far South as I got. Maybe working and traveling like we did I just never saw it. They ran me ragged. Loved it down here with the earth mounds.

http://i10.tinypic.com/4tz52qd.gif

 

 

 

She was Controller/Director of a bank in Nanning. Her and her workers would eat and then sleep on cots between 12-1:30pm daily.

OK, I can see this in the 2 above comments. But 1-4? Maybe an exageration by ol Threadbare. So is a bare thread naked, or just no ink?

Edited May 10, 2007 by SheLikesME? (see edit history)

[ChinaDavid]

This is all quite interesting. My wife lives in Zhanjiang (VERY southern), and I find I try to sleep more than she does..... but that might be due to my age or the jet lag! When I am with her, she attends English school from 9:00am to 11:00am, then goes shopping for our lunch, then cooks that wonderful shrimp and fish and whatever, then we usually have something to do in the afternoon. Occasionally she will sleep late in the afternoon for a while, but I am sleeping next to her.

 

When we are apart, we are on-line together from the time she returns home from school until many hours later (mid-afternoon for her), and she usually eats her lunch while we are talking. Although it is somewhat cultural, I think it is also an individual thing. Maybe her son and her 3 dogs prevent her from sleeping more. :-)

[TootTaLu]

Guilin, and Guangzhou in Guangxi province.

 

We went to Bank of China in Guilin this past March, to get some RMB exchanged to $$ and had to wait until 2:30 for the full staff to come back on, just a handful working the regular windows.

 

And all the schools do go into siesta mode from 12-2:30, the school Yu worked at did, and she told me that this is quite normal.

As far South as I got. Maybe working and traveling like we did I just never saw it. They ran me ragged. Loved it down here with the earth mounds.

http://i10.tinypic.com/4tz52qd.gif

 

 

 

She was Controller/Director of a bank in Nanning. Her and her workers would eat and then sleep on cots between 12-1:30pm daily.

OK, I can see this in the 2 above comments. But 1-4? Maybe an exageration by ol Threadbare. So is a bare thread naked, or just no ink?

I chose "Threadbare" because it describes my entire wardrobe I have been washing in cheap Chinese hotel bathroom sinks.I came to China to wait for my fiance's USA Visa,and I planned to stay 6 or 8 months,but now its about 19 months of washing my tattered clothes in the sink.

Its IMPOSSIBLE to find suitable underwear and socks here in China.

Everything is too small.

I have Chinese friends that are HUGE,but I dont know where they find their clothes and shoes.

I just got a GREAT new pair of shoes for 100rmb,authentic army officer shoes from an army "surplus" store,but it took me over a year of searching to find a pair big enough to fit.

Thailand is a good place to buy cheap good quality clothes,but I have not found anything good in China,all low quality,except for the "ordinary" or army stuff.

In China my experience is:

Cheap=No good quality

Mid price=Good quality

Expensive=Lower quality than "no good quality".

Edited May 10, 2007 by Threadbare (see edit history)

[Dan R]

It is quite common in China for companies to give a two hour lunch break. This makes the day like a split shift when working 10 -11 hours which is actually 8 or 9. In the U.S. it is usually .5 to 1 hour off for lunch (Labor law requires .5 in the U.S.). This time allows for lunch, nap, socializing, shopping, etc.

 

THe biggest complaint I heard from people who work at companies bought by American companies was, that the first thing done to boost efficiency was to shorten lunches to .5 hours. (usually keeping at least a 9 hour work time). Next are the layoffs.

 

Europe use to have a standard 2 hour mid day break but changed in the 80's for efficiency in international competition. I remember a foreign student from Italy in 1967 who was amazed that everything here didn't shut down for mid day "siesta". Six years later in a letter she said that her town was now open all afternoon and lunches shortened to 1 hour.

 

America is the most efficient country. One reason is that we actually work more of the work day. This is in relation to white collar jobs though since blue collar is often time regulated by the nature of the work. Such as factory line work. But we invented the assembly line (Henry Ford took it from the dissaembly lines at a slaughter house). Prior to that blue collar work which was mostly cottage industry which was self determing in hours and production. Very inefficient. Some contend that efficiency is simply the degree to which a job is dehumanized.

 

WE'RE NUMBER ONE!

[naogong]

We live Chinese style in that, and most respects. Since I work from about 2 a.m. until 10 a.m., a nap in the afternoon is perfect for me. One of the helpful aspects of my odd sleep schedule (about 2 -3 hours tops at night) was that I was always up at 4:30 or 5:30 a.m. to IM with her after she got home from her work in Chengdu at about 8:30 p.m. her time. My wife is a world class sleeper, and we always took a nap when I was with her in China and her work schedule, or family obligations permitted. Now that we're together we try to fit in a nap every afternoon after I've returned from work, and her from school. I'm lucky to have both an unusual work schedule, and a flexible one. I'm done with work by 10 a.m. and have the day to spend with her, including a delicous and intimate shared nap!

[SheLikesME?]

I chose "Threadbare" because it describes my entire wardrobe I have been washing in cheap Chinese hotel bathroom sinks.I came to China to wait for my fiance's USA Visa,and I planned to stay 6 or 8 months,but now its about 19 months of washing my tattered clothes in the sink.

Its IMPOSSIBLE to find suitable underwear and socks here in China.

Everything is too small.

I have Chinese friends that are HUGE,but I dont know where they find their clothes and shoes.

I just got a GREAT new pair of shoes for 100rmb,authentic army officer shoes from an army "surplus" store,but it took me over a year of searching to find a pair big enough to fit.

Thailand is a good place to buy cheap good quality clothes,but I have not found anything good in China,all low quality,except for the "ordinary" or army stuff.

In China my experience is:

Cheap=No good quality

Mid price=Good quality

Expensive=Lower quality than "no good quality".

Sounds like you need a care package from the USA.

[dnoblett]

I chose "Threadbare" because it describes my entire wardrobe I have been washing in cheap Chinese hotel bathroom sinks.I came to China to wait for my fiance's USA Visa,and I planned to stay 6 or 8 months,but now its about 19 months of washing my tattered clothes in the sink.

Its IMPOSSIBLE to find suitable underwear and socks here in China.

Everything is too small.

I have Chinese friends that are HUGE,but I dont know where they find their clothes and shoes.

I just got a GREAT new pair of shoes for 100rmb,authentic army officer shoes from an army "surplus" store,but it took me over a year of searching to find a pair big enough to fit.

Thailand is a good place to buy cheap good quality clothes,but I have not found anything good in China,all low quality,except for the "ordinary" or army stuff.

In China my experience is:

Cheap=No good quality

Mid price=Good quality

Expensive=Lower quality than "no good quality".

Last time I was in China Yu took me to a local public market not the big department store, in Guilin and bought me several pairs of socks, underwear, and a nice winter jacket.

 

The underwear was XXXL which translates to about 32-36" waist, I ware a medium shirt so the Chinese size for the jacket was XL.

 

You need to look in more places.

[tonado]

Siesta is healthy. Maybe 1 hr but over 2 hr is too much. I do it everyday.

 

http://sciencecomm.blogspot.com/2007/02/nap-for-health.html

Edited May 11, 2007 by tonado (see edit history)

[RLS]

Same here. She slept around noon in China and here she sleeps in the afternoon. I was concerned at first, but I see that I am not alone.

[izus]

i think i will start to go to china for lunch everyday so i can take my nap......

man their lucky!!

[jasal]

So it's a deep-southeast thing then--probably like Mexico and Central America: too hot to do anything else. My visit to Guangzhou was my only SE experience. I've only been a little south of Shanghai, southcentral as far as Shangri-la, central to Jiuzhaigou, and northeast to Shenyang.

 

 

Many years ago I dated a Korean woman from Seoul. She napped EVERY day. She had live in U.S. for about 2 years, attended graduate classes at an American University.. but she still napped for about 2 hours EVERY day. My Chinese fiancee takes naps also. I know that many times when we've talked on the phone, she's told me that she's going to take a nap.. normally around noon.. but sometimes later. The company where I work only allows 30 minutes for lunch. An hour would be much better. I may want to take a nap after lunch but I know that if I was given a one or two hour nap time, then I wouldn't want to go back to work.. my momentum would have been broken and my desire to work would be gone. I live in the deep south and our summers are HOT and very HUMID. If anyone should need a siesta, then it's us. But alas, work is called that for a reason.. you work and naps are taboo. When my SO comes to live with me in America I'm sure her nap routine will continue and if/when she goes to work, then it'll be hard for her to adapt to not being able to take a nap when she wants to.

[tonado]

My wife naps around 3 PM. I nap around 5 PM.

[izus]

isnt it the japanese who get naps in the afternoon at work?

[dnoblett]

isnt it the japanese who get naps in the afternoon at work?

Yu worked as a vice-principle at a private language school, I remember chatting with her on line, she would eat lunch, and about 12:00 or 1:00 pm would say, that she will take a nap, not a problem for me, I usually needed to get some sleep my self at that time, East coast USA is 12 hours different than China.

 

The school she worked at had an American as a president he had a problem with the nap thing at first, but had to adjust to the way they do things in Guangxi province.

[SirLancelot]

Haha.. this thread brings back old memories.

 

I taught English in Guilin for 6 months. I remember this "napping" ritual. Everything indeed closed and most of my students would take a nap right after lunch as well. Classes ended at 11:40 am and didn't resume until 2:30 pm. They'd have lunch finished by 12:30 pm and nap an hour to 90 minutes.

 

This really bothered me initially as I had nothing to do during those "napping" hours, but eventually I went with the "if you can't beat them, join them" motto. I started taking naps too.

 

I believe more laid back regions practice napping but bigger cities, such as Shanghai, do not. Living in Shanghai, nothing closed during lunch time except for government offices, and even then, it was only for an hour. Everything else pretty much stayed open. But I suspect colleges in Shanghai probably do accommodate this practice as so many of their students are from all over China. But I believe classes start back up at 1:30 pm in Shanghai, verses 2:30 pm in Guilin.