Being Beijingese.

If there's one thing you could count on in China, it'll have to be the lack of quality in Chinese craftsmanship. Things fall apart, break, or not work at all right out of the box! To add to this list, I'll have to throw in the bad quality of packaged foods like instant noodles and moon cakes. For heaven's sake, many don't even meet its own quality control measures (a standard that's placed lower than the more discriminating ISO standards) for food quality and safety, so you put your health in jeopardy when you realise later that there was something else in what you had just consumed, in addition to the foul taste of it, making your stomach churn like never before. Unfortunately, your selection is limited when you start boycotting everything that's Made in China™.



Case in point: the new door lock to my flat jammed up after only a few weeks of use, preventing Stan and I from leaving the apartment. Yes, we were locked inside of our flat because of the faulty locking mechanism. Stan pondered about what would happen if there was a case of fire in our building. I rather not think about that scenario, but jumping out our third floor window isn't an option I will want to take. If I remember correctly, one could jump out of the second floor window and still have a good chance of survival, but jumping out of the third and surviving the fall is much less likely. As a result, I used all my might and pulled the whole lock mechanism right off the door. This rendered the main door unsecured, but fortunately, there's a gated door in front of it which added a second security barrier, which still functioned well. Knock on wood.

A pipe in the kitchen also sprung a leak, leaving a puddle of water on the tiled floor. After contacting the landlady about the two immediate problems at hand, a plumber and a lock repair man was scheduled to come the day after. Of course, they came at the time when I was the only one home, and wouldn't you believe it, they didn't speak a lick of English. Oh Mon Dieu! To make this situation even worse, THEY BOTH CAME KNOCKING AT MY DOOR AT THE SAME TIME. In light of this hilarious situation I found myself in, I took it in stride and called one of my students and asked her to be my translator, passing my mobile to the plumber and lock repair man back and forth. "Sign here, pay amount, get receipt, off you go!" I did it with military style.



I've signed on several more students since my last post, both privately and at Sinoland Language & Culture Co., pushing my work schedule up to 25 hours a week. I don't know how I managed to do this, but I'm now working 7 days a week! As an award of excellence and to reap the benefits of my hard work, I walked over to the electronics district about an hour and a half away and bought myself an iDog. Yep, I've wanted one since Christmas but they were all sold out everywhere then. Now I finally own one and he sits happily on my desk just wanting to be played with and eager to dance along when I attach my iPod to him. Must love dogs... ;)

I have a new mode of transportation now. I used to take the taxi frequently (it's only 10 RMB, or $1.40 CAD for the short trips I make) and use my own two feet, but Stan took me to a place right at the gates of the Beijing Language & Culture University (BLCU) and found me a second-hand bike which I scored for only 60 RMB, or about $9 CAD. Of course, with the money I'm making by teaching, I could afford a new bike, but bikes are stolen so frequently here that I really didn't care to get a shiny new bike with all the bells and whistles which would stand out from a sea of rusty grey bikes, so I settled for something that would blend right in, complete with bicycle grease, worn out brake pads, and a fender rubbing against the front tyre.



There is one particular thing that impressed me about China however, contrarily to the rant I opened this blog with, and that is the dominance of Volkswagens on the road. Being a huge fan of VW, this was something I noticed immediately. In addition to the fleet of Jetta CiF's being used as taxis, private owners seem to prefer VW's over any other automobile manufacturer, including the cheap and ugly Chinese engineered Geely. There are VW models here like Gol, Polo, Santana, Bora, and Sagitar which aren't available in the North American market. Just from my own estimates, I think VW's market share in China (or at least in Beijing) is somewhere around the 40% mark. That's impressive! There are other foreign makes here including Citroën, Peugeot, Renalt, Fiat, Hyundai, and Buick, but none of them are as dominating as Volkswagen. It's hard to say how and why VW's dominate the automobile market here though. Could it be that VW has a strong marketing department? Maybe VW has a special joint-venture agreement with the Chinese government with the opening of the manufacturing plant in Shanghai. Do the Chinese actually have great taste in automobiles?



For whatever the reason, the Chinese certainly make up for their shoddy craftsmanship with their excellent choice in German engineering. Now, if only they could start driving like Germans too...