First Sights and Tastes in China

The flight from Detroit to Shanghai was long, but good.  We had a few periods of bumps, but not anything too bad.  I had a connecting flight  from Shanghai to Nanchang.  Nanchang is the city where I will be teaching.  The Shanghai airport was an amazing experience.  It is certainly the largest airport I have ever been in and, from the size of it, may be the largest in the world.  If China has a billion people I think half of them were in the airport.  I have never seen so many people in one place.  It is one of those things hard to describe.  Absolutely amazing!  What was supposed to be a three hour layover turned into six.  

At first, I guess for a couple of hours, I was in the upstairs main terminal, but then they said the gate was changed.  I gathered up my belongings and went on a long walk downstairs into a room that in Glynn County would be rated to hold a 100 people and that had close to 500.  Al Thomas, Glynn County Fire Chief, would not have been happy!  People were smoking and the air was thick with humidity.  Bad weather is what caused our delay.  The room had windows to the outside.  It was dark and dreary and very hot and sticky.  I felt like I was in an old movie.  So not having a clue about when my plane would leave I tried to make my way to the gate agent.  I initially tried to be a good southern gentleman and wait in line.  It did not take me long to realize that I had to take a different approach.  The Chinese at the airport were not very patient.  They were butting in line and talking so fast it would make a New Yorker out to be a slow talker.  In an aggressive manner I made my way to the gate agent.  I understood enough of what he said that my flight would board in twenty minutes.  I realized later that he just told me that to get rid of me.  He did not have a clue when my plane would arrive or leave to take me to Nanchang.  It was two hours later when we finally boarded our flight to Nanchang.  By the time I got to my room at the government institute in Nanchang I was ready for a long rest.  

While I was at the Shanghai Airport watching everything take place I was reminded of the virtue of patience.  The people I saw, not all but a lot, were not patient.  The next time I see someone at the Delta counter in the States complain I will think that they have nothing to complain about.  Obviously the poor gate agent could not do anything about the weather.  Rather than complain if people took the time to listen and understand there would be more peace and calmness.  I believe there is a lesson for local government in this.  Often times we press forward with a project without fully understanding the needs of the community.  I believe it is important to take time to listen and understand an issue.  I also believe it is important for the public to be more patient with their government and try to understand why a project is taking longer than expected  or why a certain project is needed.  Like with the weather delay at the airport, somethings are out of our control.  The gate agent was doing an awesome job controlling the situation, but a lot of the people did not want to understand. They just wanted to blame somebody.  

I think Glynn County employees do an awesome job, but sometimes things are out of their control and the public just wants to blame someone..  Based on this experience at the airport and my observation, I plan to work to be more patient and to take more time to understand the issues at hand and who will be affected by our decisions.  I think more thought needs to be given in this area not just by me, but all county officials.  Just like there is a delicate  balance with our coastal ecosystem we need to delicately balance each issue Glynn County faces.

I was able to get some rest Friday night.  I slept for about four hours and then it was time to meet our hosts for breakfast.  I was pleased to find the bed was long enough for me.  However, it is very hard compared to my bed at home.  When you are tired a hard bed works well.  I also was pleasantly surprised to find a tall shower.  My room is very small and has a bed, a desk, a chair and a small bathroom.  I cannot seem to get the door to close so when I am at the sink shaving the door hits me on my backside.  I have found out that I am 2.3 meters tall.  

Breakfast here is unusual.  It is funny watching me eat a fried egg with chopsticks.  A little slippery.  They have an orange drink with every breakfast and Coke.  They also have some type of instant coffee with sugar and milk already mixed in.  They have lots of other things for breakfast, as well.  Breads, rice porridge, spicy carrots, green steamed vegetables and bacon.

Saturday afternoon we took a trip to the mountains.  Unfortunately, I am not able to send pictures at this time.  We ended up at some trail that took us up the mountain.  It was made out of what we would call brick pavers and the labor to build this trail up the mountain must have been exhaustive.  Part of the trail was washed out.  It is the rainy season here.  Our shoes got wet through one part and then we were stopped by a very strong current of water washing over the trail.  We tried to use better judgement and turned back.  It was a very beautiful place and the park host, which was a woman, said that we were the first foreigners to ever come there.  

We stopped on our way back to the institute at a very nice restaurant in a new part of our city.  The Chinese people dine at round tables, which promote unity and better conversation.  My family purchased a round table when we moved to Glynn County for the same reason and it does seem to work well.  Each table has a Lazy Susan in the middle.  All food is placed on the Lazy Susan and individuals use their chopsticks to take off a small portion of food at a time.  Since I have been here I have not gone hungry, but they must have felt sorry for me because halfway through the meal I was provided a fork.  However, I took a vow before I came here that while in China no fork would touch my hand.

Lazy Susan

The dishes were plentiful and exotic.  Whole steamed fish, rice, veggies, cooked pumkin, dried fish.  It is amazing to watch.  Our driver sat next to me and he was an amazing guy to watch eat.  He would put a  whole small fish in his mouth process the fish and the bones then spit the bones on the table.  Absoultely incredible.  Not sure how he did that.  It was a great meal and the fellowship was wonderful.  Our hosts are very kind. Very kind and a true delight to be with.

Chinese Veggies

Whole steamed fish