I Left China

In June of 2019, my contract was up for my school and I decided to return to the United States of America. Perhaps you can piece together from my posts as to why or perhaps it seemed I dropped off for no reason. I wanted to wait to write this after my leave so I could have perspective on my feelings. I lived in China for two years and I also waited two years to write this post so I think it's time. 

Overall, I found my time overseas stressful. I know some people go abroad and it changes their life for the better which makes me feel bitter. I've had people tell me that I am not grateful enough for my time overseas and, "So-and-so had a great time. Why didn't you?" It makes me feel frustrated because I WISH I did have a good time so much! I met people who met the love of their lives in China and have lived there for 10+years. That just wasn't me. Truly I tried to blend in with the culture, learn the language, and only eat Chinese meals. Then Christmas happened. 

I had a Christmas party at my house with my co-workers and one of them asked me if it was hard to be away from family during such a big holiday. She lived in America during Lunar New Year and told me it was really hard for her. I expressed that I was sad that I was missing out on the holiday and another person looked me in the eye and say, "It's not that bad. Why can't you get over it?" This phrase sunk my heart to my guts and had a flood of realizations. I realized that the girl who said that would never be my friend. I realized I was the only American in my school. I was one of 200 foreigners who lived in my city of 4 million. I was going to miss out on weddings, baby showers, birthdays, and major holidays. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal and could handle it but at this moment I got incredibly homesick after being in China for 5 months. 

Lucky me I signed a two year contract with the school. 

Food

As mentioned in a previous post, the FDA in China is seriously lacking. In fact, the wet markets in China are the supposed place where Corona Virus started. (The virus struck a few months after I returned to the states.)

I remember seeing piles of meat stacked up and people using their bare hands to dig through the bloody meat piles.  There was a pig disease that came through China which pigs had to be culled for. My dad couldn't visit due to fears he could accidently bring this pig disease back to the US. Also the number of times I got food poisoning in China due to people not washing their tools or hands was high. I only chose packaged meat and used a meat thermometer at all times. I chose meals that did not require people to use their hands to handle or that I knew could be heated to safety measures. The amount of hot pot I had in China was ridiculous. Restaurant meals were not a fun time, but a point of anxiety. 

Cultural Revolution

Going back to America I see the wide open fields, the national parks, and the small little forest behind my apartments and I feel peace. I can feel my soul sigh in relief that we have preserved wildness in the states, the same can't be said about China.  

China has a 3000 year old history. It's incredibly fascinating but Americans don't learn a lot about it. Imagine my disappointment every time I went to a historic area to learn that in the 1950s-1960s Mao had it destroyed and only in the 2000s was it rebuilt. I went to a Buddhist temple out in the middle of the nowhere and saw most of the Buddhist statues had the faces and heads hacked off due to the revolution. Went to Jing 'an Temple, which states is 1,000 years old, only to see a plaque that said it was destroyed and rebuilt later. There was a national park area that had communist slogans hewn and painted into the side of the mountains. The trees were replanted. The rocks were placed *just so* around the park. When I say everything was fake I truly mean EVERYTHING was fake. It was hard not to feel jaded.

Work

Teaching overseas had its ups and downs. Mostly, I liked my co-workers and students and teaching wasn't too bad. However, if you are good at your job you are then given more work to do which is true of any job in any country. My second year of teaching I was asked to teach the idea of meta-cognition and reading comprehension. A college level class is what I was to teach to EVERYONE in my SECOND year of teaching ever. It was stressful. It was above my pay grade. It was something I wasn't trained to teach. Did I take those classes in college? Of course! Did I know how to teach this concept to others in two months? No. Thankfully a specialist was brought it to go over it more which I appreciated. 

Unfortunately, it didn't stop there. I was asked to create curriculum for the school which I also had no training on. I worked with one other woman to do this but it was stressful. We were then asked to fill the library with English books which I was glad to do, but then the librarian said she said she didn't want to sort them. Guess who got that job too? The English team all worked on categorizing books but I once again sat there thinking, "Why am I doing a job I didn't sign up to do?" 

On top of that, there were two people I worked with that only had TEFL certificates and not education degrees. I had to teach those people how to write a lesson and unit plans, what backwards design was, Marzano, Maslow, you name it I basically taught these adults how to be teachers...while they were teaching. In two months one of these teachers was fired for refusing to work with me and with the school's guidelines. He was an American man who had a doctorate in music. I am not sure if he refused to work with me because I was a woman, or I 'only had a Bachelor's degree,' or if it was because I was younger with him, but he sucked. Straight up sucked. 

The other teacher I worked with is the same woman who said the rude phrase at Christmas. She was a pathological liar. She told me she had an education degree but when we renewed our work visas I found out she lied. She told me she was student body president of her college, it was a lie. When the school put on a concert she sent a letter to the entire school staff on how the local music teacher was horrible at her job. At that point the rest of the school hated her as much as I did. They called her 'lotus' behind her back which was a Chinese insult about people who complain about nothing. She left for a funeral but posted pictures of her and a boyfriend hanging out and later told us her family disowned her. Gee, I wonder why? So even when I did work with fellow foreigners, they were in a word...garbage. 

Now, I did work with good foreigners who did have TEFLs who were awesome so I don't want to slander everyone but the fact that I had to work with the bad ones left a bad taste in my mouth. 

Trade Wars and Revenge

The trade war began between China and America in 2018. The Chinese citizens I talked to didn't seem to care but I did because that meant American items like turkey tripled in price. Pieces of home for me just got more expensive and made me feel more isolated. 

In 2018, Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou for bank fraud related to violations of US sanctions against Iran. The US wanted to extradite her to their country to face trial. This ticked off the Chinese. How did they retaliate? They started arresting Canadians and Americans willy nilly. Every time I left my apartment I felt afraid. The US Embassy sent a message out saying that American shouldn't travel to China and those who were already there needed to always carry their passport. If Americans did get arrested, not to speak until an ambassador could represent them. When the police drove past me I covered my blonde hair. I kept my eyes down when going past security guards. I studied Chinese laws before I came to the country but brushed up on them once again so I didn't accidently break any. The level of anxiety went up another level. 

Being Watched

There are so many cameras in China. They are in classrooms, on roads, and can apparently recognize your face. I sat in my classroom wondering where the cameras were. I sent out emails but knew the government can read whatever I post on their wifi. When using my VPN my wifi would cut out, and I wondered if the government could tell I was on a VPN and shorted out my service. My brother once sent me an email slandering the Chinese government and I chose to never reply to it. Once I got home, I told him how he could have gotten me in trouble. I once went to an American wedding and described my sense of paranoia to my table and had an aunt roll her eyes at me. At that moment I felt like those people wearing tin hats spouting nonsense. How do I describe this level of 1984 insanity to people who could never relate? People in China almost never post selfies with their faces in it for this reason. That felt silly to me as each Chinese citizen is required to have a photo ID, their cars are registered into the system, and AI is constantly watching them. What is a selfie in this country of surveillance?! 

The Breaking Point

You may have heard about the Chinese Muslims being kept in concentration camps. It is a major humanitarian crisis that started just when I got there. My second year of living in China, I had Muslim neighbors. They owned some restaurants near the mall. An old Uighur man and I had the habit of nodding to each other when I walked to the gym. I left one morning for work and when I came back, everyone of the Uighurs that lived on my block was gone. Just...gone. To this day I don't know if they heard the police were coming and got out of town or if they were rounded up. 

At this point my mental health is at an all time low. My paranoia is at an all time high. I thought of the poem by Martin Niemöller.

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out,

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out,

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out,

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me,

and there was no one left to speak for me.”

It creeps into my mind that first they came for the Uighurs...when would they come for me? I teach the Uighur 'relocation program' to my current students. I try to talk about this problem as much as I can. I donate to programs I think can help. It makes me sick and it makes me afraid for those people. It was my final breaking point.

Reflection

When I came back to the states I had people say they were surprised at how my attitude changed. I seemed more pessimistic. To a point, I say I have to agree. Being in China, I felt all I saw was bad. In this post, I didn't even touch on the pollution in the area, or how the country is not built for those who are differently abled, or the racism and colorism in the country. Not to mention the broken glass that seemed to be on every sidewalk in the country. I've had people say, "If you only researched more you would have known not to go there." Here's the thing, I did research. A lot of research. Travel blogs talk about the fun cool stuff when they go overseas. Overall, when I researched I only saw the positives. You also just think that you can handle home sickness but it's different when you are 20 hour flight from home. You also don't know what can happen when you go overseas. How was I supposed to know about the trade war to happen in 2018? How was I going to know that the Uighurs were going to be rounded up when I got there? There are many unknowns when going abroad.

However, this experience did make me realize how lucky I was to live in the states. Is America perfect? Absolutely NOT! But the ability to vote, the FDA, religious freedom, the ability to debate and defame our leaders if we want, work unions, national parks...it makes me so glad to live here. 

I can go to the library and check out any book I want. I can go to the internet and see anything I choose. I can put a sign on my car saying my political beliefs and won't get arrested. I can pray in a public place and won't be dragged away. 

Living in China wasn't great however I learned so much at the same time. I'm actually glad I lived overseas. The reason I left was to gain perspective. To learn another culture and language. I gained all of those skills, just not in a fun adventurous way that I planned. Would I recommend living overseas? Yes, I would. My only advice, maybe don't pick China. 

Chinese FDA

When I was in high school I took a college level English class where we read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. This novel revolutionized America as it became apparent the food and working conditions were incredibly unsafe to the general public. This book eventually caused the FDA to be founded. I had the idea that this kind of idea would be worldwide and of course, I was wrong. 


China does have an FDA of sorts which started in 1998, almost 92 years after America, and has been renamed multiple times. As of this publishing it is called the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). I have not been too impressed with their work. 

Baby Formula

Chinese people have refused to buy Chinese made baby formula and will buy foreign brands instead and choosing to pay the heftier bill. The reason is that in 2008 the milk formula was found to have melamine in it which caused kidney stones and even death (Pak, 2018).

Then in 2010 it was found that Chinese baby formula was causing early puberty. 
In 2018 thousands of baby formula containers was recalled after it was found to have salmonella (France-Presse, 2017).

Most Chinese choose to go to Australia to buy formula. What happened next was that Chinese citizens flew to Australia and bought every last can of formula which lead to regulations on how much you could buy and take overseas (Vincent, 2018).

Vaccines

There is controversy in the USA right now about vaccines but it is over the fact that people are choosing not to take them. In China, the problem is that people want the vaccines but can't trust what is in them. 

250,000 vaccines which were for whooping cough, diphtheria, and tetanus were found not to be up to health and safety standards and made many people who got the vaccines to wonder what was injected in them. There haven't been any reports that the faulty vaccines caused harm unlike the milk formula crisis but it did cause serious damage to the relationship of the Chinese people and their trust in the government. America also had a trust issue with Chinese medicine as they recalled heart medication made in China just in case that too was faulty (Hernandez, 2018). 
The rabies vaccine was found not to live up the health and safety standards. It was found that the same vaccine health company that had the 250,000 faulty vaccines also faked their records to show that they had safety check-ups and their facilities were inspected thoroughly. All the rabies vaccines were recalled but left many families scrambling. One woman wrote on her social media, "My baby received the rabies vaccine in March. I only took one picture, and I didn't take down the complete batch number. I'm so panicked now! What should I do?"  (Pan & Walsh, 2018)

Meat Safety
In 2018 the trade war with America and China really began and because of that China wasn't buying American pork anymore. Chinese thought , "Well we will just buy Chinese pork," but just then a deadly pig flu came to China. 

African Swine Flu causes pigs to miscarry, have blue or red skin, and have high fevers (Ma, 2019). The flu can't affect humans, however, I make sure to avoid Chinese pork when I can, and when I can't, I cook it at home and make sure it is heated to the safety standard. Due to the swine flu about 1 million pigs have been culled and even with the government asking farmers to be safe in the way they dispose bodies to prevent the disease from spreading, farmers continue to dump diseased deceased pigs in rivers and ditches (Ma, 2019). The government is now requiring slaughterhouses, cold storage businesses, and warehouses to test for the disease (Patton, 2019). I was surprised that they weren't already testing for diseases before. People still want pork which means that the Chinese are buying frozen pork from overseas as it was found in frozen pork facilities in China that those meats were contaminated with the flu (Patton, 2019). The hygiene of meat in China has also caused countries such as the USA, Japan, and the European Union to make stricter laws about what meat is allowed in their countries. China had an outbreak of various animal illness like avian flu, pig strep, and foot and mouth disease which caused many countries to ban Chinese meat until the diseases were under control. It was found that many small town farms were unaware of how to prevent these diseases in their livestock back in the early 2000s. China is one of the largest producers of red meat in the world, but with every epidemic they take a hit to their economy abroad and at home (Worldwatch Institute, n.d.). 

Fake Food
When I first came to China I noticed that the labeling of food here is completely different. Not all the ingredients are listed on food items, if they are even listed at all. I remember my college campus started having signs about what was in their foods and most restaurants have disclaimers about allergies and meats. You can guess, China most definitely does not and con-artists take advantage of this.

According to Export.gov China, the labeling of food didn't start until 2011 and the most recent passing of government required labeling of food came in 2015 and it is only for pre-packaged food. In 2016, the Chinese government required labels for baby formula. Imported and exported food have to have labels but anything domestic doesn't require a label for items such as canned foods, wine, nuts, or cheese (Export.Gov, 2017). 
My co-workers have bought food online here that I kid you not, the food had mud or plastic in them. In my own personal experience I have found the "do not eat packet" in trail mix and bags of chips. How is that allowed? (Side note: they are safe to eat but can be a choking hazard.)

Image from phronk.com

A study from Palgrave Communications, analyzed food safety data in a 10 year period in Beijing, China and found 99% of the food safety problems were caused by human error. It was found that these food safety incidents would not be randomly throughout the year but typically happen all at once and around the same issue. If one company committed fraud about food safety and weren't caught, other companies would copy the scheme and then an epidemic would occur. China is behind on food testing safety, food perseverance science, and food producers knowledge of food safety is severely lacking (Gao, Liu, Liu, & Zhang, 2015). 
In a 2011 study, food safety was ranked number one of concerns for Chinese citizens which outranked traffic, medical, and public security concerns. There were 174 reported cases of toxic food caused by animal and plant toxins in 2012. Illegal additives were another cause of food safety issues in China (Li, Song, & Zhang, 2014). 
There have been quite a few fake food scandals that have come out of China in the past 20 years that cause public health scares. Food appeared to be normal until they were cooked, opened, or even bit into. There were food vendors selling rice that had plastic bits in them discovered after cooking the rice and finding that the grains were still hard. There were reports of concrete filled walnut shells, calcium chloride eggs, and fake grapes were being sold (Damarla, 2014). 
There was meat being sold as mutton only to be found to be made of meat from rats, minks, and foxes. There was a tofu scandal that found the offending dish was made out of soy-milk and several gel-creating chemicals and on top of that the tools used to mix the ingredients were unwashed. Formaldehyde and an inedible dye were found in traditional Chinese duck blood tofu. Rice noodles were found to have added bleach in them to make them look fresh and were also made out of moldy rice grains. Counterfeiters were discovered taking discarded wine bottles to be filled up and sold as the real thing to unsuspecting consumers which is now the reason most Chinese restaurants and hotels will break bottles apart when they are empty. The list goes on and on (Anderson, 2015). 


The Punishments for these Offenders? 
The company that had fake vaccines in the end was charged a $680,000 fine and there were 200 arrests. Some say it wasn't harsh enough as the vaccine company made about $113 million dollars in 2017 (Pan & Walsh, 2018). 
The government announced in 2011 that those who cause food to be lethal will be given the death sentence. Those convicted of not following food safety standards and if any government official is found to have taken a bribe from these food agencies will be given harsher prison sentences. Those in charge of the formula milk scandal were given life sentences (Jiang, 2011). 
After the fake egg scandal, government officials again promised harsher punishments for criminals. There was also a stricter set of rules for food chains to follow food safety laws in 2014 when it was discovered that employees at McDonald's were found to change the expiry date of food labels (Reuters, 2014).

It may be no surprise to some reading this that the government is less concerned about punishing these offenders than they are covering them up. A food safety law in 2013 originally stated that any food safety concerns should be censored before it goes public, it should be said that this was taken out in 2014(Gao, Liu, Liu, & Zhang, 2015). Although, it is easy to believe that the government here would be more likely to cover up their mistakes than make another world wide scandal. 

I will end this saying that I know that China is still considered a developing country and due to that, it is going to have problems. It is a sad reality that Chinese people live in fear of food, baby formula, and vaccines because they could be fake or even toxic. If someone wanted to write their own Chinese version of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle they would have a hard time getting around the censors. I truly did not understand how privileged I was in the USA until coming here and I hope you express gratitude for the FDA as well. 

Image courtesy of ushistory.org

Sources

Anderson, E. S. (2015, March 15). 10 Bizarre Food Scams That Could Only Happen in China. Retrieved from List Verse: https://listverse.com/2015/03/15/10-bizarre-food-scams-that-could-only-happen-in-china/

Damarla, P. (2014). Fake, Plastic Rice in China: Facts. Retrieved from Hoax or Fact: http://www.hoaxorfact.com/health/fake-plastic-rice-in-china-facts.html

Eurobiz Online. (2018, August 6). Food Safety and Traceability in China. Retrieved from Eurobiz Online: https://www.eurobiz.com.cn/food-safety-and-traceability-in-china/

Export.Gov. (2017, July 25). China-Labeling. Retrieved from Export.Gov: https://www.export.gov/article?id=China-Labeling-Marking-Requirements

France-Presse, A. (2017, December 11). UK and China Part of Worldwide Recall of Lactalis Baby Formula over Salmonella Fears. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/11/uk-china-worldwide-recall-lactalis-baby-forumla-milk-salmonella-fears-children

Gao, J., Liu, F., Liu, Y., & Zhang, J. (2015). Food Safety Incidents in Beijing: Occurrence Patterns, Causes and Wider Social Implications. Palgrave Communications, Article Number 15029.

Hernandez, J. C. (2018, July 23). In China, Vaccine Scandal Infuriates Parents and Tests Government. The New York Times, p. A5.

Jiang, S. (2011, May 30). China: Food Safety Violators to Face Death Penalty. Retrieved from CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/30/china.food.violations/index.html

Li, X., Song, Y., & Zhang, L. (2014). Food Safety Issues in China. Iranian Journal of Public Health, 1299-1300.

Ma, A. (2019, March 15). China is Killing a Third of Its Pigs Because of a Gruesome and Incurable Fever, Which Could Drive Up the Price of Pork Around the World. Retrieved from Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/china-culls-pigs-over-african-swine-fever-global-pork-prices-to-rise-2019-5

Pak, J. (2018, October 24). Foreign Infant Milk Formula Still Highly Coveted in China 10 years After the Melamine Scandal. Retrieved from Market Place: https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/24/world/foreign-infant-milk-formula-still-highly-coveted-china-10-years-after-melamine/

Pan, N., & Walsh, M. (2018, July 24). Chinese Rabies Vaccine Scandal Sparks Outrage Among Authorities and Public. Retrieved from ABC: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-23/chinese-vaccine-scandal-sparks-outrage/10025352

Patton, D. (2019, May 15). Slaughterhouse Rules Put Brakes on China Pork Prices. Retrieved from Business Day: https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/world/asia/2019-05-15-slaughterhouse-rules-put-brakes-on-china-pork-prices/

Reuters, T. (2014, September 27). China Pledges "Harshest Penalties" for Food-Safety Violations. Retrieved from NDTV Food: https://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/china-pledges-harshest-penalties-for-food-safety-violations-696148

Vincent, M. (2018, April 26). Australia's Chinese Peronal Shoppers About More Than Baby Formula-It's a $1Billion Industry. Retrieved from ABC: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-26/daigou-chinese-personal-shopping-$1-billion-industry/9671012

Worldwatch Institute. (n.d.). China Embraces Meat Safety Legislation. Retrieved from http://worldwatch.org/china-embraces-meat-safety-legislation

If you made it to the bottom I hope you learned something from my own self-assigned report!

High five for you for getting this far. 

Thinking Critically Is a Critical Problem

When I was in college us future teachers compared other countries education to the American education system. I learned that China has a great science and math program but Americans were better at thinking outside of the box. It wasn't until this last semester that I really understood what that meant. 

At my school I am currently the only foreign teacher that has a teaching certificate and has taught and learned about reading comprehension. JNAS decided that they want to increase their reading power and asked if anyone had any experience...mine was the only hand up. I was now in charge of the reading program at my school. Little did I know of how much my fellow teachers didn't know. 

I started off by talking about reading strategies, graphic organizers, and types of reading materials and the teachers looked at me like I had two heads. The principal told me I had to simplify these ideas even more and really start from zero. I was shocked. Some of these Chinese literary teachers and even teachers who studied English education had no idea what a storyboard was, what a KWL chart was, or how do to a peer discussion. When I told the teachers, some of whom have taught for 10 years, "Students are supposed to do a majority of the work." I had teachers say, "Great! So I can take a break while the kids are in the class!" 

Image courtesy of knowyourmeme.com

Um, no that is not what that means. 

These teachers and students really had no idea what critical thinking meant. They had no idea how to guide student thinking or how to get to deeper questions. Being a second year teacher this was no doubt one of the more difficult things I had ever taught and the teachers were kind of against it. They wanted to do the way they had been taught which was very surface level. My principal brought in a specialist to do a three day training on reading comprehension and critical thinking (thank heavens) and the teachers began to understand that when you ask simple questions, you get simple thinkers. If you ask more difficult questions, you get more advanced thinkers. 

This is just a big example of critical thinking skills in China. On a daily basis, Chinese people have asked us foreign teachers why we think living in China is so hard. The literally can't put themselves in our shoes to think, "This is a different country for them, this is a different language, and the way we buy groceries up to how we eat is different!" When I was in school we often had to "put ourselves in the other person's shoes" to figure out their thinking. This is a skill that Chinese people don't have. 

I've also seen it in a different way. China censors movies and books all the time and things come and go off of the "do not watch or read list." When I first came to China in 2017, the film Fight Club just got put on the black list and now in 2019 it is no longer on the list. When I asked my Chinese friends what they thought about this they said, "Oh, it's no big deal." When I asked why they think it got put on the list and taken off they looked surprised at my question, they literally had never thought to ask that before. Americans often ask themselves, "How does this affect me? Why did this change? Who is it really benefiting?" and those things are never thought of here. 

China excels at math and science because it has a set formula and a set answer/theory. China excels at logical thinking and Americans want this skill badly.
In America we ask questions and try to find answers all the time which explains why America is the top inventor of modern devices. This is something that Chinese businesses want badly. 

If you want to come to China and teach, just know that your kids will rock at science and math and learning English vocabulary, but trying to think of why and how might be more difficult. 

Children's Day

When I was a kid I asked my friends that if there was a Mother's Day and a Father's day then why wasn't there a Children's Day? Then we kids fantasized as to what Children's Day would be like. Imagine my surprise as an adult when I found out there was a Children's Day! Man, did I get cheated as a kid. 

Children's Day is celebrated on June 1st in China and usually the kids will be given gifts or go on trips. Schools will hold events for kids or even give them a half day off. Here is what we did this year at JNAS. 

Half of the day the classes went as normal however I decided to give all my students an English book as a gift to take home. My TAs, Jeanne and Lydia, were able to order the books and get them reimbursed by the school. (Thank you guys!) The books I chose and were available for bulk purchase in China were Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, Stuck by Oliver Jeffers, and Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. 

When the classes were finished for the day, the student leaders headed to the downstairs auditorium to present on The Leader in Me to parents and a visiting school journalism students. The students were from a public middle school and got to ask our JNAS students questions like a press conference. Even the local newspaper showed up to ask questions much to the delight of the parents. 

Photo courtesy of JNAS. Students in red are from the public school journalism team.

After lunch was served the kids set up booths to sell their old toys or popsicles. Parents showed up so fellow students, teachers, and parents could buy these items. The money raised when to an impoverished school in China. At the same time as these sales booths were going on, each room was set up like a different Asian country. The rooms had decorations and music from that country and also sold those countries snacks and drinks as part of the fundraiser. The kids also dressed in traditional outfits from those countries. 

Photo courtesy of JNAS

Photo courtesy of JNAS

Downstairs was an art exhibit of the students' work that we could tour through. 

Photo courtesy of JNAS

The kids took down their booths and cleaned up the classrooms while the PE teachers set up the basketball tournament. This entire semester the students have been playing in a basketball bracket competition (like March Madness) and this was the finale. The kids earned medals and certificates at the end. 

Photo courtesy of JNAS

Photo courtesy of JNAS

Next, the cafeteria and the classrooms set up for a potluck supper. 102 invited me to their class and the homeroom teacher even bought them a big cake! What a lovely way to treat everyone. 

After we ate supper, it was time for the talent show. The students signed up to show off their different skills like singing, dancing, magic, and one student dressed up like Pete the Cat and did a skit entirely in English about the book. 

Photo courtesy of JNAS

Photo courtesy of JNAS

Finally, the kids got to camp out at school with their parents and teachers. I went home at this time but the kids always love doing this activity. 

Photo courtesy of JNAS

I loved seeing all the kids' hard work and was so impressed with how well the teachers handled the event and were willing to spend the night with the kids too. That is hard work! This is a day the kids will really treasure as they look back and I will too. 

Jeanne, Lydia, and myself

Susan, Jessica, and myself

Happy Children's Day!

What's Up Doc?

Hospitals are never a fun place to visit. For myself, I find that I get queasy at the smell of rubbing alcohol because it reminds me of being in a hospital. Have you noticed that hospitals smell like rubbing alcohol? Well, they do in America but they definitely don't in China. 

In China the hospitals are super different than what I am used to. To start, the hospitals are not as sterilized as American hospitals. They actually remind me more of public malls because there are ton of people walking through the halls, the floors are dirty, and people are smoking everywhere. 

Picture taken in a hospital in Jiaxing

Maybe its because China is so big that they need to do this but in Jiaxing there are several different hospitals that specialize in things. There is a hospital for maternity, a hospital for women and children, a hospital for men, a hospital just for plastic surgery, and a hospital for general surgery. There is also the hospital for foreigners to get their medical check-ups to get clearance from the government to get their residence permits. So if you have an emergency you can't just go to any hospital, you have to go to the one that meets your needs or you will just get transferred. In my hometown you can go to the hospital to give birth, get surgery, or for general check-ups. 

When you first go into a Chinese hospital you have to go to the front desk and get a plastic card. The card is given to doctors and the doctors type in your information and load it on the card. You also have to give your insurance card to the hospital. Despite what many of Westerners think, China does not have universal health care, it is similar to the USA insurance wise. I think the medical information card is interesting because then all of your information is on it and you don't have to fill out the same questionnaire a million times. 

Next you go to the floor that caters to your needs. There is a person sitting in front of a window who will ask you to fill out paperwork and you give them your insurance and medical information card. They will give you a number and you head to the hallway that caters to your needs. From there you wait until your number is called or shown on the screen. Then you head to your doctor who leaves the door open. Also not common in the west. I was surprised that during my visit, other patients would pop their heads in to ask the doctor questions in the middle of my visit. The doctor will sometimes only briefly look over you if they feel that they are too swamped. I had to demand a longer visit so the doctor would look at my busted knee further. 

When you are done with your visit you go back to the person at the window and give them your cards and then you pay your bill. It is typically 20 RMB but could be more depending on what it is. Then in the lower level of the hospital they have a pharmacy so you can get your medicine right there! You get a number, wait for it to be called, and then give them the doctor's script. You pay and head out. I really wish we had this in America! I hate driving across town to get my medicine. One thing I don't like is that some of these doctors will suggest Traditional Chinese Medicine, which can be a good complimentary medicine but not primary care. 

One interesting thing about doctors in China is that they are considered middle class. They aren't paid super high amounts like they are in America. That was kind of surprising to me. Even heart or brain surgeons can't be upper class in China. I think that is why so many are leaving for the USA and quitting the profession. 

If you do have end up in a Chinese hospital you will for sure need someone to speak Chinese to go with you. It is very confusing to go on your own the first time and all of the doctors in my city don't speak English. I had a co-worker last year who went to Shanghai for their doctor visit and more of them spoke English and she said the hospitals were cleaner. 

Chinese and American hospitals do have their pros and cons. Chinese hospitals have pharmacies in the lower levels and you don't have to fill out a ton of paperwork. American hospitals have non-smoking rules and you get more personal care. Chinese hospitals don't smell like rubbing alcohol like Americans one do, you can decide if that is a pro or a con if you end up for a visit. 

Up in Smoke

When you first come to China it is surprising how bad the pollution can be. According to Inverse.com one day of bad air equals 40 cigarettes. It is surprising than that despite the bad air, a lot of Chinese people smoke. 

Image from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20070829/001aa018ff9c083f0b8e01.jpg

According to the article on en.huanqiu.com there are about 316 million smokers in China and about 6.4 million people have died from tobacco related diseases as of 2015.  The same article found that those who lived in poor areas smoked more often. However, in my experience I have seen a lot of Chinese people smoke no matter if the city is Beijing, Shanghai, or Jiaxing. 

The smoke that comes off Chinese cigarettes is very different than American cigarettes. I would say it smells heavier and more like chemicals than American brands. This could be because Chinese cigarettes have more metals in them. 

Whatever you might be thinking, there are rules about smoking in public in China but they are not as strict as they are in the USA and the smokers are a bit more...aggressive. In my own apartment there is a sign in the elevator that says 'no smoking' and it has been torn down by angry smokers three times now. It is amazing that there is someone in my building who is so desperate to smoke on their 30 second elevator ride that they would tear down a sign so they can have deniability. No matter the place people will try to say that they didn't know that smoking was not allowed.

Smoking in restaurants, in elevators, and in parks are commonplace. As an American, this was a culture shock for me since the only places you can smoke are in outside designated areas or in your own home. There are smoking bans in China; the non-smoking areas include schools, temples, and subways. Children's hospitals are a non-smoking destination, however regular hospitals seem to be exempt. I was shocked when on my first hospital visit people were smoking in the lobby areas and in the halls there were people lighting up. That would never be possible in America!

I have also noticed that most smokers are men and I found this observation was correct from the article on chinaplus.cri.cn. I couldn't find a reason as to why this was; it is clearly a cultural influence. It is surprising to me that even my male friends who like to lift weights or play basketball smoke almost a pack a day. When I asked them about it they said they understood the dangers of smoking but didn't plan on quitting. 

One last item I noticed about smoking is the boxes they are sold in. In America, the boxes have a General Surgeon warning on the box telling people the dangers of smoking. In Australia the boxes will have grotesque pictures on them showing what can happen to you if you continue to smoke. 

Image from https://wwwassets.rand.org/content/rand/blog/2014/09/graphic-warning-labels-on-cigarettes-are-scary-but/_jcr_content/par/blogpost.aspectcrop.868x455.cm.jpg/x1495294905259.jpg.pagespeed.ic.POT8cuccwL.jpg

Chinese cigarette boxes are actually pretty. The popular brand is made of shiny red paper with a gold building on the front; no warning, no gross pictures, just shiny red and gold. I know Chinese people who like foreign smokes but refuse to look at the boxes because of the warnings.

Image from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d5/Chunghwa_Filter_Kings.jpg

Smoking is so prevalent that it is common for brides and grooms to give out cigarettes as party favors during weddings and they are a popular gift during Chinese New Year. Smoking is a cultural phenomena that you will definitely have to get used to when you are here. 

So if you come to China, try not to get smoked out. 

"Ancient" Water Towns

One of the biggest tourist attractions in Chinese cities would most definitely have to be their water towns. 

Moon River in Jiaxing

Water towns are tourist areas that are supposed to look like ancient Chinese cities complete with bridges with dragons on them, booths selling traditional Chinese goods like fans and jade, and of course a lot of food. Type in any Chinese city on TripAdvisor and I guarantee that one will pop up. 

Courtesy of TripAdvisor

These places are really cool and bring in a ton of both Chinese and foreign tourists. A popular thing to do in water towns is to go to a store that rents traditional Chinese clothes and you can walk around the town taking photos. 

Tourists wearing traditional outfits

Some of the water towns will also have small theatres where the actors are all in traditional outfits. However, I have yet to find a single Peking Opera in China. They will sometimes have more gimmicky places to attract customers like a dinosaur museum with a moving dinosaur robot in front. 

In a new water town in Jiaxing, Xin Xitang.

Almost all of these water towns have their own "specialty" as well. In Huangshan they were famous for wood carvings and in Jiaxing they spin sugar into animal shapes. 

You can spin the arrow and it will land on an animal that the sugar maker can draw. 

Sugar spun animals

Shoe store in Huangshan

These water towns look old and sell old items and promote how they have these ancient scholars that used to live there, but in reality most of them were probably made in the last 20 years or so. There are a very few original water towns left in China. There may have been more water towns today if it were not for the cultural revolution. 
If the town is original they will most likely be gated and will charge a fee at the door. 

I do really like going to these water towns. They are very beautiful and versatile! During the day they have a lot of family friendly events and at night they will have bars and pubs to visit. After a while I do admit, the water towns all start to look the same but after two years I still like to visit them once in a while. 

Eat your heart out Aaron. Hangzhou water town. 

Xin Xitang