Blogging from Baoding

[david_dawei]

April 18

Today we got to see a hand held light machine which seems to be able to look at your skin level and below (almost like an ultrasound); The idea is to run it around the hand at certain points which correspond to all parts of your body (just like your face and feet do too) and you can see problems in those parts... quite fascinating.

 

The big new is that my wife will get lasik surgery tomorrow... as long as they give the final ok. She had to overcome two hurdles; first was that she has 'lattice degeneration' (we found this in the US so trying to remember the name from memory), so they did a quick lasik session to strength the 'holes' that come with that degeneration. Second, her eye has a curvature which they are looking at whether it's ok to do the surgery or not.. she get the final ok tomorrow... she was told it will take hardly anytime at all to do the actually laser part and then has to protect her eyes for up to a month.. which means that she cannot even go into the pacific ocean while at Hawaii...

[david_dawei]

Traveler's Observation

I previously mentioned that this is a city of concrete, and where concrete is not used, it is tile or brick. The steps leading up to business fronts can be any number of materials... The only company I found bold enough to actually use wood for stairs, which looks like a sore spot in the midst of all this concrete, is Dell! They are putting up a new store front.

 

One thing I realize is that on each trip, I see two particular business always busy, from morning to night... even working into the dark. Those who make window casements and window arrangements seem to have no lack of work. To see this build and assembled on the street is some feat to behold.

 

The second business, which appears even busier is the welders. There seems to be little that welding cannot overcome; as well, there seems to be no end to the applications of needing this trade. For the most part, they build support structures to hold signs, whether a store front or the bus waiting areas. The more I look around, I need to promote welding materials to one of the most used building materials or store structures.

 

Today I saw a block filling in the holes left by removed side walk trees... without the trees there, there is about a 3x3 foot hole... I see all manners of filling these: by dirt, sand, brick, and concrete. most of the store front people are doing this. Usually we would think of this stretch of the sidewalk as the belonging to the "city"... here, it seems that the people will take over anything within their grasp.

 

I assume the lack of wood would create a few advantages;

- better strength is realized in the other materials

- save our trees

- no termite problem

- longer life of the material

 

I pretty much assume most cities are like this... high rise apartments and multi-floor buildings probably require it for the most part; ergo, the sheer lack of single family dwellings is easily forgotten...

[Don]

April 18

Today we got to see a hand held light machine which seems to be able to look at your skin level and below (almost like an ultrasound); The idea is to run it around the hand at certain points which correspond to all parts of your body (just like your face and feet do too) and you can see problems in those parts... quite fascinating.

 

The big new is that my wife will get lasik surgery tomorrow... as long as they give the final ok. She had to overcome two hurdles; first was that she has 'lattice degeneration' (we found this in the US so trying to remember the name from memory), so they did a quick lasik session to strength the 'holes' that come with that degeneration. Second, her eye has a curvature which they are looking at whether it's ok to do the surgery or not.. she get the final ok tomorrow... she was told it will take hardly anytime at all to do the actually laser part and then has to protect her eyes for up to a month.. which means that she cannot even go into the pacific ocean while at Hawaii...

 

There are several types of Lasik tools. The wavefront analysis tool can correct for the non-normal curvature of the eye. You might want to check into which generation of the tool they have.

[Don]

April 18

Today we got to see a hand held light machine which seems to be able to look at your skin level and below (almost like an ultrasound); The idea is to run it around the hand at certain points which correspond to all parts of your body (just like your face and feet do too) and you can see problems in those parts... quite fascinating.

 

 

I find it interesting how they build all these tools. Plus, what is the testing they do for each. I was in Shanghai once and we stoped to let a TCM docter look at me and she looked at my hand with an electrical probe that would shock you. Normally no feeling but some times strong shock. She would record on what part of the hand you feel each shock. she made her diagnoses from that and the pulses she measured. Her descriptions matched my US docter that needed treadmill and EKG and many others tools. She mixed up some mixture that allowed me to get off my heart med and fixed the issue. I had my US docter check me without my heart med and everything fine.

[david_dawei]

yes, their methods are quite interesting and unique... I'm most fascinated by the doctors (almost shaman like) who can figure out your problems with only using their hands. In my previous trip here 2 years ago, I went to a few different doctors and all of them said the same thing; I had a back problem (which I did have and didn't tell them). I did this by running a hand over my back area and said in my lower back something was wrong (an later xray showed my 5th lumbar was out of position). Another could tell this by only looking at my eyes. A third could tell this only by using my hands.

 

And their ability to read xrays must be make much more precise due to being able to see so many people constantly (and historical transmission of previous times). I had one chinese doctor look at a neck xray and say that this closing was not good; a US doctor wouldn't make that determination without further tests.. I didn't need further tests to know, I could feel it. Another time was when a chinese doctor looked at a hip xray and said in 10 years I will have arthritis in my hip; a US doctor said it's not really possible to predict that in 10 years... I'm curious if he's willing to bet his practice on it... this particularly hip has been a problem for a long time, so I don't doubt that he sees 'something'...

[david_dawei]

April 18

Today we got to see a hand held light machine which seems to be able to look at your skin level and below (almost like an ultrasound); The idea is to run it around the hand at certain points which correspond to all parts of your body (just like your face and feet do too) and you can see problems in those parts... quite fascinating.

 

The big new is that my wife will get lasik surgery tomorrow... as long as they give the final ok. She had to overcome two hurdles; first was that she has 'lattice degeneration' (we found this in the US so trying to remember the name from memory), so they did a quick lasik session to strength the 'holes' that come with that degeneration. Second, her eye has a curvature which they are looking at whether it's ok to do the surgery or not.. she get the final ok tomorrow... she was told it will take hardly anytime at all to do the actually laser part and then has to protect her eyes for up to a month.. which means that she cannot even go into the pacific ocean while at Hawaii...

 

There are several types of Lasik tools. The wavefront analysis tool can correct for the non-normal curvature of the eye. You might want to check into which generation of the tool they have.

Interesting to know...

 

she just called and they gave the ok to do the surgery... within the hour...

[Joanne]

April 18

Today we got to see a hand held light machine which seems to be able to look at your skin level and below (almost like an ultrasound); The idea is to run it around the hand at certain points which correspond to all parts of your body (just like your face and feet do too) and you can see problems in those parts... quite fascinating.

 

The big new is that my wife will get lasik surgery tomorrow... as long as they give the final ok. She had to overcome two hurdles; first was that she has 'lattice degeneration' (we found this in the US so trying to remember the name from memory), so they did a quick lasik session to strength the 'holes' that come with that degeneration. Second, her eye has a curvature which they are looking at whether it's ok to do the surgery or not.. she get the final ok tomorrow... she was told it will take hardly anytime at all to do the actually laser part and then has to protect her eyes for up to a month.. which means that she cannot even go into the pacific ocean while at Hawaii...

 

There are several types of Lasik tools. The wavefront analysis tool can correct for the non-normal curvature of the eye. You might want to check into which generation of the tool they have.

Interesting to know...

 

she just called and they gave the ok to do the surgery... within the hour...

 

Keep my fingers crossed.

[Don]

April 18

Today we got to see a hand held light machine which seems to be able to look at your skin level and below (almost like an ultrasound); The idea is to run it around the hand at certain points which correspond to all parts of your body (just like your face and feet do too) and you can see problems in those parts... quite fascinating.

 

The big new is that my wife will get lasik surgery tomorrow... as long as they give the final ok. She had to overcome two hurdles; first was that she has 'lattice degeneration' (we found this in the US so trying to remember the name from memory), so they did a quick lasik session to strength the 'holes' that come with that degeneration. Second, her eye has a curvature which they are looking at whether it's ok to do the surgery or not.. she get the final ok tomorrow... she was told it will take hardly anytime at all to do the actually laser part and then has to protect her eyes for up to a month.. which means that she cannot even go into the pacific ocean while at Hawaii...

 

There are several types of Lasik tools. The wavefront analysis tool can correct for the non-normal curvature of the eye. You might want to check into which generation of the tool they have.

Interesting to know...

 

she just called and they gave the ok to do the surgery... within the hour...

 

Keep my fingers crossed.

 

Good luck, you should know in a few days how well it worked.

[david_dawei]

she came back faster than expected; she was taken as the #2 person out of 30 waiting today; she said because of her 'curvature' issue.

 

She goes back tomorrow for a follow-up; she took a nap and already had a nightmare about the surgery; no surprise since many chinese don't like surgery of any kind... she claims she can see so clean and is being optimist... yes, a few days will really tell..

[Don]

she came back faster than expected; she was taken as the #2 person out of 30 waiting today; she said because of her 'curvature' issue.

 

She goes back tomorrow for a follow-up; she took a nap and already had a nightmare about the surgery; no surprise since many chinese don't like surgery of any kind... she claims she can see so clean and is being optimist... yes, a few days will really tell..

 

It sounds like she is really bouncing back fast.

[david_dawei]

BTW: the cost is $7000 RMB for both eyes. Should of done it a few years ago...

[david_dawei]

This observation may be a stretch.... but I'll share it anyways...

 

Given the already known gender gap which exists and will plague their social issues for some time... tonight I felt like I realized why some chinese ladies just don't care to have a chinese guy...

 

If they are in a group, the lady is for the most part ignored at a time when she would like some attention; obviously if they are alone together eating, the guy must pay attention to her; but in a group, where guys are together, they prefer to act as kids and pay much more attention to other guys.

 

I saw this lady sitting among a group and bored to death as the guys appeared to have a great time...

 

The moral of the story is: No need to pay too much attention, but there is a need to NOT pay too little attention. There is a middle way which ought to be applied in most cases.

[Dennis143]

This observation may be a stretch.... but I'll share it anyways...

 

Given the already known gender gap which exists and will plague their social issues for some time... tonight I felt like I realized why some chinese ladies just don't care to have a chinese guy...

 

If they are in a group, the lady is for the most part ignored at a time when she would like some attention; obviously if they are alone together eating, the guy must pay attention to her; but in a group, where guys are together, they prefer to act as kids and pay much more attention to other guys.

 

I saw this lady sitting among a group and bored to death as the guys appeared to have a great time...

 

The moral of the story is: No need to pay too much attention, but there is a need to NOT pay too little attention. There is a middle way which ought to be applied in most cases.

So, I assume from what you write that there is a noticeable gender gap?

 

It's quite curious then why the too many men would not be falling over themselves vying for the woman's attention. Is the pressure to conform to the manly ways more socially important than the need and desire to find a mate? Interesting.

[david_dawei]

This observation may be a stretch.... but I'll share it anyways...

 

Given the already known gender gap which exists and will plague their social issues for some time... tonight I felt like I realized why some chinese ladies just don't care to have a chinese guy...

 

If they are in a group, the lady is for the most part ignored at a time when she would like some attention; obviously if they are alone together eating, the guy must pay attention to her; but in a group, where guys are together, they prefer to act as kids and pay much more attention to other guys.

 

I saw this lady sitting among a group and bored to death as the guys appeared to have a great time...

 

The moral of the story is: No need to pay too much attention, but there is a need to NOT pay too little attention. There is a middle way which ought to be applied in most cases.

So, I assume from what you write that there is a noticeable gender gap?

 

It's quite curious then why the too many men would not be falling over themselves vying for the woman's attention. Is the pressure to conform to the manly ways more socially important than the need and desire to find a mate? Interesting.

I would say her city is strong on 'face value'... but I think part of it's going to be upbringing; the girls are probably waiting and the boys are playing...

[Smitty]

BTW: the cost is $7000 RMB for both eyes. Should of done it a few years ago...

 

That would be about $1000? If so that's not a bad price for both eyes. How would you rate the place that did it? Top quality? Medium? Bargain?