Ask Me Anything: Visions of Terrik
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North_Ranger
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Are you a spy? 
Are you a spy?
Are your national secrets are belong to me.
Hrm..this is a hard one. I liked most of his Michael Jackson parodies...I really liked the American Pie parody...White and Nerdy is awesome...I just like Weird Al 0_o
This is also a hard one. Id say some of my most fondest memories were from Huangshan---aka Yellow Mountain in the Anhui province of China. I think just the sheer beauty of it imprinted itself on my memory. I spent several days there---saw from truly amazing sights--rather than tell you about them, I'll simply show you some of my favorite pictures that I took where there:
As far as bad experiences...hmm. I don't really often have experiences in China that I could label as terrible, but I do have plenty of minor annoyances. Oddly enough, 95% of them happen when I'm visiting Beijing. I find Beijing to give me a heap load of more trouble than Tianjin or Wuhan ever did. For example, It's a common occurrence for my friends and I to watch as empty taxis roll right by you or outright ignore you . From what I've heard, Beijing taxi drivers are avoiding foreigners for fear of swine flu--although in Tianjin this has never happened to me. I've had hotels in Beijing refuse me because they apparently don't take foreigners. I had another hotel have issue that I was staying with my girlfriend because we weren't related. I've had taxi drivers, leaning against their taxis, smoking a cigarette, tell me to take a bus when I ask them to drive me somewhere.
There are other annoyances that are common throughout China--such as the constant need for bargaining. You can be pretty much assured that the first price you're given is much higher than the real price. Hell, I went to a Gome (国美电器） electronics store a couple months ago to buy a new TV. I was looking at a nice Samsung HD TV for 6,400RMB---after my girlfriend, who apparently breathes dragon fire, argued with the guy, I got the price down to 5,200RMB and free delivery on the same day (for reference, current exchange rate of 6.8RMB to 1 USD). While it's great I got the price down, It's somewhat annoying to have to bargain while even going to larger stores. Plus you can't forget the laowai (foreigner) tax--essentially your white face automatically jacks up the price even higher than what they'd do to other Chinese--so it helps to either know the value of what you're trying to buy, or have some Chinese with you.
Which brings me to another annoyance...there's a lot of Chinese who feel that if they're Chinese, and you're Chinese, you must automatically support each other over a foreigner. Period. Doesn't matter if you're being a jackass or you're ripping someone off--you must support. On more than one occasion a Chinese person asked my girlfriend in Chinese (thinking I didn't understand) to help them cheat me and get me to pay a higher price. Of course, my girlfriend refused but it irked me the same.
Another example: We were taking a taxi from my apartment to E-mart to go to a restaurant for dinner. A trip to E-mart typically costs around 11.40-13.00RMB. This particular taxi that we took decided he'd take us the looong way around. Halfway through the trip we questioned his particular route. He quickly became defensive, claiming he didnt know another way. My girlfriend claimed that it should only cost 13RMB going the other way--to which he countered that it wouldn't--it would cost 15RMB, thus proving he's a lying scumbag and did actually know another way. By the time we got to E-mart the bill was at 22RMB..we refused to pay, he got angry, and we called the police and waited for them to come. Another taxi driver, seeing the commotion came up and started shouting at my girlfriend saying that she was making Chinese people lose face, supporting a foreigner instead of another Chinese--to which she said that it doesnt matter if she's chinese and he's chinese--that I was her boyfriend and that was it. Thankfully the police sided with us and we paid 13RMB, but that kind of attitude annoys me to no end.
But these honestly, are relatively minor annoyances. For the most part life is pretty easy here. You also have a high degree of personal freedom (probably has something to do with not having to fear being sued for looking at someone the wrong way).
Being old enough to vaguely remember the Cold War, along with the occasional horror stories I've read online regarding the Chinese government, I guess I'm somewhat surprised that you say you have a high degree of personal freedom. Would you say that, on the whole, dealing with the government isn't any worse than in the U.S. (assuming that's where you're from)?
Being old enough to vaguely remember the Cold War, along with the occasional horror stories I've read online regarding the Chinese government, I guess I'm somewhat surprised that you say you have a high degree of personal freedom. Would you say that, on the whole, dealing with the government isn't any worse than in the U.S. (assuming that's where you're from)?[/QUOTE]
Yeah I'm from the U.S.. Florida, actually.
There are both positives and negatives to the Chinese government. It's not all good, but it's not all bad either. I generally dislike the Chinese government but I don't really find it to be the monster it's often made out to be. For example--the personal freedom thing. You can, more or less, do whatever you want in China as long as you aren't bothering someone else, and even then, that might not matter. You'll note that I said personal freeedom--not political freedom. There isnt a whole lot of that for sure. I just mean other things.
For example, if you're a smoker, you'd love China. I've often seen people smoking right next to a no smoking sign. Nobody cares. You want to smoke in the resturant or in the park, or on the bus---whatever.
You wanna waltz into KFC with McDonalds food and then study for your test--go for it. There are laws in China---but they seem to be selectively enforced, and then only sometimes. Some would call that corruption, but in many ways the lax nature of a lot of Chinese laws for day to day living takes away a lot of the hassle. Now Mr_The Hun might have another story since he deals with the government on another level--that being business---but from where I'm standing, the Chinese government doesn't really give me a lot of trouble.
It doesn't usually give the average Chinese person all that much trouble either. There are a lot of Chinese that are perfectly happy with the present government. After all, they're making money, they have a nice place to live, they can get married and have a kid, have a career---they got everything they want---and who to thank but the Chinese government? Keep in mind that the older generation went from mao-era destitution to deng-era openess and prosperity and many are quite thankful for the improvement. My father visited me up here last month and he himself said that for everything that he had read and heard about China, nothing could have really prepared him for just how inaccurate what he had read and heard had been. Visiting China for him had radicially altered his opinion of the nation. I dont think the government gets enough credit for how much they've improved the standard of living and infrastructure of the country. As I said before living here is incredibly easy and the times I do go back to the states, I miss the simplicity of how I did things in China.
That said it isnt all roses and butterflies---the government can and will disregard the wellbeing of its own citizens if its suits them. For example, right now Beijing is gearing up for its 60th anniversary. Streets are being closed off--its getting harder to get into beijing--subways are closing earlier--if you're inconvienced...well sucks to be you. A few of my Beijing friends are complaining about it and one told me that her entire office save for herself couldn't show up for work since they had now way to get there due to the government preparations for the big celebration. My girlfriend also openly acknowledges that the government isn't really celebrating the Chinese people---just itself (she doesn't like the government very much either). However, for a lot of Chinese--this is ok since the wellbeing of the country overrides the wellbeing of individuals---something that isn't totally out of line with a heavily confucian culture.
Regardless, I think that dealing with the Chinese government isn't too much worse than dealing with the U.S. government---dealing with government in general usually sucks--the problem is in China--there's just a whole lot more of it.
Oh yeah...I find Chinese resturants to be a lot more relaxing when I don't have an impatient waiter/waitress waiting for their tip and trying to move to the next person in. i can go into TGIF, order a drink and read a book for an hour and no one will blink an eye.
Guanxi has its advantages. It's just kind of like a "who you know" thing. I've used it to my advantage in a few places. For example, I've got good connections at a hotpot resturant resturant here in Tianjin--I've literally cut 60 people waiting for a table and been seated within 2 minutes of my arrival--and usually get free drinks and snacks as well. I also have a good relationship with a game shop owner where I can get most things fixed for free if I need it, as well as replacements and discounts on my purchases.
Quite so.
I'm heading up to Beijing airport saturday morning--taking a trip to Yangshuo (near Guilin) for a few days with my girlfriend. Kinda worried that it's gonna be hard to navigate Beijing. Even been to Guanxi province, by the way? I hear it's beautiful.
There's a fair bit. I see more on some days than others. Obviously you'll wanna go to the shopping areas for the highest concentrations. In Tianjin, that place is Bin Jiang dao (滨江道). Go there on any given day and you'll have plenty of Eye candy..or hell, just hit the club at night. They'll be there. I will admit though, I saw more sexy ladies per capita in Seoul, South Korea than I have in Tianjin---although I heard in Shanghai there's a high occurance, as well as places like Hangzhou/Guangzhou/Shenzhen...oh and don't forget Sichuan province (Chengdu/Chongqing)...what do you think about Beijing, The Hun?
Maybe something alone the lines of, "Heeeeey! It's-a me! Terrik-o!" ala Super Mario.
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