T.I.C. "This is China"

There is really no way to convey how strange China can be at times... Coming from North America, there are so many things that are just done differently, or were lost in translation, or just plain mistakes. I try to take pictures of these things when I can. T.I.C. or This is China is what people say here when we find another westerner trying to understand what they are seeing and to make sense of it through a western lens, so it seemed like a good title.
Anyway here are a few of my favorites, there will be more to come I am sure.

If your car is going to explode, you cannot allow it to happen here... 

This sign says "caution extremely hot water" the spigots are ~2 feet off the ground and have no safety lock on them. Basically they were made to entice and scald children. 

Paunch of Pig anyone? (now with Egg)

1 box tissue... so that has always been what has been missing from the combo meal at the bar

That'll teach you to drive on the side walk. (The hole under this car goes down ~5 feet and that tire is basically in mid air)
These holes in teh side walk are everywhere, and often do not have covers or they have broken covers. You cannot "zone out" while running or walking or you will fall in a hole. 

This was taken from the car as we drove by... the sign is ~200 feet long and 50 feet tall, and of course misspelled. It says:
"Dalian Best City Biodiverse/Emerging/Sciience/Technology  

The mad driving the fork lift is on the phone and has just crashed into the shelf. The  other man is also on the phone and run under the ropes blocking the isle and was under the forklift when the driver hit the shelf. Neither person seemed to notice this event.  

They just leave the "caution wet floor" sign up next to the urinals now

This guy wanted to have his picture taken with me... who am I to say no. 

While guys in the back of trucks is nothing new to me... guys in the back of a box truck, sitting on chairs and waving at us was a little novel... 

We were in a club, an up scale dance club, the kind you would find in old town Scottsdale, at 2am, and I turned around and this guy was behind me making balloon animals...  

One of many "Do not pee on the floor" signs that are ignored everyday

This shirt looks like Hitler... so they added a little arrow that indicates that it is in fact Charlie Chaplin. I still don't get it. 

These guys were balancing on top of a scaffold, and every time the guy on top ripped out a roof tile he almost knocked the guy below off. I don't know what the guy in yellow was doing, he never seemed to do any work in the 5 min I watched him almost get hit with things.

DIY plumbing (yes, that is a flexible hose running from the urinal to the drain)

This picture was 5 feet wide and 4 feet tall, and can be yours for only 2,800

This woman was selling gloves stolen from Intel on the street... she was wearing them to show how good they are. 

This guy was the only one on this scaffold wearing a fall harness... but he had it wrapped around his neck. 

Face to Face Squatty Potty

For those of you who may not know, the Chinese and many others, have a different idea about how to use the space Westerns usually reserve for a toilet in a restroom. The Chinese prefer to squat over a open hole in the ground, rather than sit on a pedestal when doing their business. The Chinese seem to prefer the squatty potty so much that even if they have an opportunity to use a pedestal toilet they prefer the squatty potty or they literally stand and squat on the pedestal toilet. The Chinese also are not shy to use the restroom when needed. Just this afternoon, I saw a car park in the middle of a busy three lane street to get out and pee in the bushes on the other side of the sidewalk, right in the middle of the city; something someone would get fined and maybe arrested for in the United States.


For some Westerners this type of toilet can create some challenges. Some avoid squatty potties at all cost, such as changing their plans and driving to a different location to use a Western toilet if nature calls. Other Westerners embrace it as a fact of life while living in China. I'm in the second category. I attribute my ability to be able to embrace the squatty potty and to pee on the side of the freeway or gravel road to my days as a child spending family vacations camping in cow pastures and spending time on my grandparents farm. I've learned there are no reasons to avoid the squatting position when needing to use the restroom.  


That being said, I can still be surprised by toilet situations in China. For example, the introduction to the trough squatty potty. I encountered this at the Great Wall Marathon. Basically there was a trough built into a cement ground along the entire wall of a free standing shed and people do their business squatting next to each other side by side with no dividers between them. This past weekend I was again surprised by a toilet situation... face to face trough style squatty potty. Let me explain... imagine the trough style, but instead of sitting side by side you squat face to face about 3 feet apart with another bathroom user and straddle a urine filled trough built into the floor. They do exist. Again, there are no dividers, so not only are you face to face peeing with someone else, but there are 10 other woman standing watching. Again, good thing I'm not shy about these things...

Spoiled

Spoiled... is how I feel after a week in Thailand. About a month ago my friend Leon volunteered to plan a vacation for our mutual friend Sinead. Sinead was willing to give her a budget and the places she's been and let Leon do the rest. One afternoon while we were sipping champagne & crocheting (I know my life is tough), we thought we should join Sinead on her vacation because what else do we have to do being stay-at-home wives? Our friend Audrey decided to come as well. It was a great vacation, despite the less than perfect weather. We stayed at a 4 star resort, ate good food, sipped cocktails poolside over looking the ocean, and got a tan. 

I am spoiled.

First day on the beach these men were loading six Bull Sharks into a pick-up truck.

It's 11:00 a.m., yes I'll have a drink. I'm on vacation.

Sinead, Leon, Audrey & I at an Irish bar in Thailand.
(I was the only non-Irish.)

Opps, 20 seconds after renting four motorbikes Sinead had a little accident.

Getting fuel from old beer bottles. 

Renting a motorbike for the day= $12.00
Forgetting your driver's license at the hotel= $17.00
Hopefully the first & last run in with the law I'll have in a foreign country.

The famous James Bond island.

Views on the town on stilts.
1,500 inhabit a village in the ocean completely built on stilts in the ocean.

Thai boxing match.
I wasn't too keen on the young children fighting, but I liked the
"dance" routine the boxers do before the match & the live music
during the match.

Girl fight. 

North Korea

Andrew & I took a day trip with our friends Liz & Gerry to Dandong, which is a city on the border of China and North Korea. The only thing that separates China and North Korea is a river.

These are some of the views from the China/North Korea border:

Yalu River Bridge, which use to connect North Korea & China.
This bridge was destroyed by the American's in the 1950s
during the Korean War. It was never repaired. 

A ferris wheel on the North Korean shore. It appears to be only 2 dimensional.

North Korean shoreline.

North Korean watch tower.

Great Wall. The eastern end of the great wall. It is completely reconstructed.

China, River, North Korea.

Great Wall, Andrew, China, River, North Korea.

Some portions of the wall were a bit fun.

This group of Chinese men asked to have a photo taken with me.