The "selfie"

For people who know me, I am pretty slack when it comes to taking photos of my travels.  For some reason, I never think to get the camera out and squeeze off a few snaps.  Hey, I lived in Bangkok for a year, and have about 30 photo to show for it.

So, since moving to China, I am trying to change my habits and take lots of photos.  Of course, these days it's easier as the iphone has a reasonably good camera, so I don't have to rummage through my bag to find my camera.

I was going through my collection of China photos the other day, and I realised something - I am turning Chinese.  How do I know this?  I am taking far too many photos of myself, what the world has renamed as the"selfie".  One of the things I noticed when I first moved to China was the amount of time the Chinese, especially girls/young women, spend taking selfies.  You look through the photos on QQ (Chinese instant messaging) or Weibo (another social media site) and most of them are selfies.  How did this happen to me?  Is it something they put in the rice that makes you do this?  How have I not realised what I am doing?

Anyway, after getting over the initial shock of what I have been subconsciously doing these last 11 months, I decided to dedicate this blog entry to a collection of selfies I have taken since arriving in China.

This is one of the first selfies I took, aboard a fast train from Tianjin to Nanjing.  As I have mentioned before, train travel is one of the things they do well in China.  Efficient, always on time - and fast!  Well, that's if you take the fast train.

The photo on the right is my first visit to the bank to transfer money back to Australia.  They make it so difficult, it takes a whole day.  First stop, the tax office (20 minute taxi ride one way) to pick up proof I have paid tax.  Next, I have to take my passport, contract, tax certificate, endorsed salary slips, and my first born into the bank.  On this day, I made the mistake of going in at 2pm - and waited 3 hours!  Now I wait until the next day, and line up at 8:30 in the morning!


I am writing this blog from my hotel in Changchun. The last time I was in Changchun was in late December, when the temperature got down to -35 degrees!  I took this photo at the subway in Beijing as I was going to the airport to catch my flight.  As you can see, I am rugged up and so looking forward to spending 36 hours in -35 degree weather.  Thank god for central heating!

One of the lessons I learnt from travelling in China, is never arrange to arrive back in Beijing during peak hour.  I made the mistake once, coming back from Tianjin via fast train.  To get from the fast train station to home, I have to take the subway.  You can't get the full experience from looking at this photo, but let's just say that when you have luggage and a backpack, and you and 20 million Chinese are trying to squeeze in the train, it's not very comfortable.


OK, the next series of selfies were taken at various airports in China.  I travel by plane to 6 of the 7 cities I visit regularly, so I spend alot of time in airports.  The bad thing - most of the flights are usually delayed.  The good thing - I'm still thinking of a good thing.

During the recent QingMing holiday (tomb sweeping), I decided to try somewhere different, and flew to Beihai.  Beihai is in Guangxi province right down near Vietnam.  It is warm and humid in Beihai.  Felt just like Kuala Lumpur.  This photo is standing by the sea with my hotel in the background.  Nothing great about Beihai - it was just nice to get out of the Beijing cold for a few days.



The St Patricks Day Irish Ball is one of the biggest social events of the year in Beijing, so a group of us got 2 tables and decided to party like it was 1999.  Only problem was I was suffering from food poisoning, and wasn't 100%.  I think I only had 2 or 3 beers and a shot of whiskey.  Let's just say it didn't help the food poisoning.  But I scrubbed up OK!

The last photo pretty much sums up the last few months in Beijing.  I can't remember what summer was like, but winter and now spring has produced some of the most polluted days since I have been here.  They measure the PM 2.5 particles in the air (particles that can get into your lungs) on a scale of 1 to 500. In January, it got to 728!  So, I bought a mask.  I used to laugh at people who wore masks, and now I am one of them.  It is one of the real low points of living in China.  I heard the other night that 700,000 people a year die from pollution related illness.  It seems rather high, but afterall China has 1.3 billion people - so maybe not that high.


Well, there you have it.  A quick blog dedicated to the "selfie".  It's as Chinese as Chairman Mao and MSG. As I said, right now I am in Changchun for 2 days of music research.  It may not sound that special, but Changchun is pretty close to the border of North Korea.  So if anything kicks off, let's hope that South Korea don't over shoot.

Zaijian!

The silver fox gets the silver!

Ni hao! Huanying wo de blog (This means welcome to my blog, except I don't know the Chinese word for blog)

If you've been playing along at home, and following my Chinese adventure via my blog/facebook/twitter rants, you will realise that I have now been living in China for 10 months!  And this month, due to all my travel within China, I notched up my 40,000th kilometre with Air China.  You know what that means? The silver fox is now a silver frequent flyer! Woohoo!

This has inspired me to write my latest blog entry.  After all the flights to the many cities I work, I thought I would share with you what air travel is like in China.  Seriously, I am hoping that someone in the Ministry for On Time Departures (I am sure there is such a place in China) will read this.  

For those who have come in late, let me recap the story so far:

1.  I am from Australia, and live in Beijing

2.  I travel alot inside mainland China.

3.  I work in radio, teaching local Chinese how to do world class, format radio

3.  Apparently, according to my Chinese teacher, I now know between 700 and 1000 chinese words (this has no relevance to the story.  I just wanted to brag!)

4.  I like reading, eating out, and long walks on the beach (just in case there are any single girls interested)

The Airport

I think I have now been through about 12 airports in China.  They are generally big, scary places and are generally pretty busy.  Hey, with 1.3 billion people, everywhere is busy!  In some of the airports queues are non existent when checking in.  It's every man for himself.  I learned very quickly the benefits of a strategically placed elbow.  Don't get me wrong, not all Chinese push in, but you need to be aware of your surroundings.  If your attention wanders, 1000 Chinese will jump the queue in front of you.

I recently went to Beihai (south China, near Vietnam), for some R&R, and took this photo of the check in area.  Probably the quietest I will ever see an airport during my time here.

Security, as you can imagine, is very strict at all airports.  You have to show your boarding pass and passport at security, then your bags get scanned, and of course you get patted down.  And EVERYONE gets the pat down.  Usually it's just a brush over your clothes with the scanner, and some light patting.  However, in Xi'an, it's a little more thorough.  Let's just say that normally when I get that sort of attention, I have to buy the girl dinner first.

The Inevitable Delay

The first flight I took in China, which from memory I think was to Changchun in the northeast, we boarded the plane on time, then sat there for an hour before the plane took off.  The reason? "Due to air traffic congestion".  This has now become my least favourite saying in China, because pretty much 90% of the flights I have taken have been delayed due to air traffic congestion.  It's also a very sneaky tactic by the airlines.  If they make you wait inside the terminal, then they have to provide you with food, drinks etc.  

Coming back from Beihai yesterday, the incoming plane was delayed, so of course the flight back to Beijing was delayed.  Watching the clock and waiting.  I think I spend too much time doing that at airports.

Of course, one of the many benefits of spending alot of time waiting in airports is you get to do a lot of people watching.  Waiting yesterday at Beihai airport, this guy sat opposite me.  No, his pants were not too short, he just decided he would hitch them up.  More comfortable obviously.

Carry On Luggage

Most airlines around the world, especially Australia, are fairly strict when it comes to the size of your carry on luggage.  Not in China.  There seems to be no limit to how many carry on pieces you can bring.  And sometimes, they don't even fit into the over head locker.  I learned very quickly that if you want to get some space in the overhead locker, you need to get on the plane early.  If you're the last one on, it's very hard to find some space.  Yesterday, I watched a guy try and squeeze a rather large box into the overhead locker (in addition to the bag he had already thrown in there).  Just as I took this photo, it squeezed in.  Obviously didn't contain any priceless Ming vases.

The food

I have a confession to make. I don't mind airline food.  Yep, there, I said it.  Of course I wouldn't eat it everyday, but most airline food is bearable and I have never had any problems with it.  The problem with flying Air China is their lack of imagination, or maybe it's the customers lack of imagination.  As I said, I have now racked up 40,000km's on Air China, so I am drawing on a pretty good sample size.  It comes down to this, there is a choice A) Beef with rice, B) Chicken with rice, C) Pork with Rice, or Beef, Chicken or Pork with noodles.  There is usually only 2 choices per flight, and it's normally with rice.  OK, I know I am living in China and rice is the main food, but surely every now and then they can surprise the customers.  Yesterday coming back from Beihai - pork with rice, or chicken with rice.  And by time they got to me, chicken was gone. And after trying the pork, I know why.

A few other interesting pieces from my travels:

- Everytime the plane hits a bump, however small, the flight attendant will come on and say "we are experience some turbulence.  Please remain seated."  On one 2 hour flight, I counted them saying it 8 times

- God help me if they allow people to use mobile phones on planes.  Let's just say that being without a phone for a period of time, some Chinese have withdrawal symptoms.

- If planes allowed people to go out on the wing and smoke, however dangerous, some Chinese men would take the risk.

As interesting and as quirky as I find travelling in another country, the bottom line is I do feel safe.  With the amount of security (they have a very conspicuous air marshall that is on every plane) and regulations from the government, plus the number of planes actually flying all over China, it's probably one of the safest places to fly.

And what benefits do I get from being a Silver flyer? I'm still waiting to find out, but I am pretty sure I will still  only get a choice of beef or chicken...with rice.