Our China – Page 2

Our China: The Knife Guy

June 24, 2013 by Carey Jane Clark

We sold pretty much everything we owned when we moved to China. At the time, we figured we’d be here for at least five years. Now if you ask, we’ll shrug and say we’re not sure. We understand now that things can change in a moment here, but we foresee a longer stay.

I did keep a few things for my kitchen when we came–like a favorite paring knife or two. But soon after we arrived, I had some dear Chinese friends show me how much better it is to use a cleaver. Now, if for any reason, I use a paring knife, and JavaMan happens to be around, he’ll say, “Why are you using that?”

A cleaver really is a wonderful thing. And the one kitchen utensil I really missed when we were back home in Canada.

To keep my cleaver kuai (fast), it’s gotta be sharpened. But never fear, at least once a week, the knife guy comes to the neighborhood. He carries his work station with him, and a megaphone. The megaphone blasts out a message, but it’s not the message itself that draws attention, it’s the sing-songy way the canned announcement goes out over the megaphone. When we returned to China last year and heard the message blasting around the neighborhood for the first time, Pumpkin confessed to having missed his little song.

Recently, the knife guy came by and I had my knife sharpened. Though I know better, I left a thumb in its path the following week. So, in case you should be convinced of the need for a cleaver, you may want to follow these safety tips:

Our China: Haircut

May 27, 2013 by Carey Jane Clark

When we first moved to China in 2008, I had short hair–hair that needed to be cut every six weeks or so. So not long after our arrival, I booked myself a haircut. I went to a fancy salon, and was very pleased with the result.

Six weeks later, my hair was butchered by the same hairdresser.

Following that experience, I was very nervous about getting my hair cut here. My solution was to let my hair grow out, and when it finally became too long to manage, I stood in front of the mirror and cut my own hair. I was already cutting my children’s hair as well; it was the next logical step.

When we returned to Canada, I finally saw a real hairdresser, who said I didn’t do to badly. Since returning, I’ve taken the scissors to my hair again.

Recently, a friend invited me to her house for a spa night, where several expats had their hair cut by an excellent hairdresser, so I’m finally back to a professional haircut again. But there are other options: Forgive the quality of this picture. It was speedily taken on my un-smart phone. When I turned around after taking it, I discovered someone trying to sneak a picture of Sweetpea–the risks of acting like a tourist.

Our China: Grass

May 13, 2013 by Carey Jane Clark

Remember when you were a little kid and you ran around outside barefoot? Me too.

But my kids really have little idea what that’s like. Here in our city, grass is pretty sparse. Nature seems carefully controlled. One of our laughable memories is a trip we took to a mountainside park to get away for a little nature break. The paved paths through the park were no surprise–we see those everywhere. What shocked us was the piped-in music blaring over a loudspeaker system, covering up the sounds of the sea below, the birds, the wind. The speakers seemed to be cutting in and out, so the kids and I said a quick prayer that it wouldn’t play while we were there. Soon the music stopped, and we were able to really enjoy all the sights, smells and sounds.

There are large, sprawling parks here, but they often have firm reminders posted:

There are one or two parks where it’s fine to sit on the grass, but people usually don’t come into direct contact with it, because as my son discovered recently, human and animal influence in such a populated place means you really should be vigilant at all times. On a recent outing, he came home with quite a bit of doggy doo-doo on his clothes. (Yuck!)

So we were thrilled that our Mother’s Day outing included a trip to a local golf course. The day included a tree-planting ceremony, a buffet lunch, and afterward, while JavaMan turned into the resident golf pro, the kids and I shed our shoes and socks and ran in the glorious grass! A few people looked at us like we were crazy foreigners, but we didn’t care.

Grass. Glorious grass.

tree planting — Tree planting: Sweetpea digs in.

Our China: A Taste of Chinese History

April 29, 2013 by Carey Jane Clark

I have mentioned before the unusual things that happen to us here. On Saturday, we experienced another one of those unusual events. We tasted pu’er tea. What’s so special about that? We have tasted pu’er tea before.

In fact, as JavaMan has developed his coffee business here, it seemed he’s learned just as much about tea as he has about coffee. His coffee roaster is housed in a friend’s tea shop, and simply by virtue of spending time in the tea shop and with his friend, he’s learned an awful lot about tea. There are many similarities, in fact, to the growing, processing and tasting of tea and coffee.

For the uninformed, pu’er tea (also written some places as pu-erh) is a darker variety of tea, distinct because after the leaves are dried and rolled, they are fermented. The older it gets, the better–and more valuable–it becomes. Pu’er is grown in the Yunnan province of China, the same province from which China’s best coffee is grown. The very best pu’er tea, when brewed and steeped, should be a rich amber color.

Tasting History

So what was so special about the tea we tasted on Saturday?

It came from the Qing dynasty (1644 to 1912)! pu'er tea

We tasted it at the home of some friends, a husband and wife. The husband used to be a government employee, and at that time, received a gift from someone who, when he saw the price of pu’er rising, decided to invest in an old tea factory. After the purchase, he found a room no one had entered and inside was a huge storehouse of pu’er tea that had been kept there, dating back to the Qing dynasty. The tea was believed to have been fermenting since approximately 1800.

How did it taste? Well, I’m hardly a tea expert, but I do enjoy pu’er. It was delicious, and although this will sound odd, I think it did taste old.

And now I can truly say that I have tasted Chinese history!

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