(Author’s Note: I wrote pieces here and here about my first exposure to China.)
Shanghai Pudong Int’l Airport; Feb. 12, 2017
2,000′ above the Huang Pu River, Shanghai, Pudong, looking east and north, just past where the river turns east and eventually meanders up into the mouth of the Yangtze River, just before it meets the Yellow Sea.
I packed 2 of the bags that I used to travel to Afghanistan to the absolute weight limits, plus carry-ons; and I knew I was still going to have to spend money to buy things. I was slated to be in mainland China (People’s Republic of) for almost all of the next three months, with a brief foray into Hong Kong in April to “reset the clock” on my 60 day business visa. That’s an eternity away though, because I’ve just landed and didn’t get an overseas sim card or activate my out of country cell plan before I got on the plane. And so now I’m trying to figure out how to get through customs and immigration and the sea of humanity at Shanghai Pudong, as well as meet my ride, the guy who I’m going to be working with here in China. Our mission? Set up a U.S. corporate subsidiary for CF, Inc. in the people’s Republic of China. No “local Chinese partner” or part ownership – this will be the subsidiary of another entity, but all ultimately owned by a U.S. company. Which is to say that my colleague and I will be going up against a civilization whose bureaucracy was so vast and complex it gave rise to the slang “mandarin,” rivaled in etymology by perhaps only the Ottoman Empire’s “byzantine” functionaries (red meat for comments). But at that moment I couldn’t even get a signal on my cell phone and he had emailed me instructions for contacting him. Fortunately, being as unmistakably caucasian as I am in the sea of Chinese people made me easy to identify by my colleague.
In no time at all we were navigating the parking garage, loading my bags, and driving west away from Shanghai, the teeming lights and energy of 40 million (or so) people slowly giving way to more exurban areas that led into smaller cities as we sped west along China’s toll road. My companion was amiable, thankfully, and with a strong command of English. One of his ancillary duties was translating a whole trove of foundational CrossFit documents into Mandarin, including the training guides for both Level I and Level II courses. He spoke English with a measured cadence, as if he were translating from Mandarin and measuring each word, like a baker, to ensure the proper content of the underlying idea. I had experience with interpreters and found easy common ground with them everywhere I’d ever traveled; we shared a love of languages.
Date: Feb. 17, 2017, 9:45 AMFrom: OzyTo:Cc:Bcc: Friends and Family ListSubj: First of Ozy’s China Dispatches…and truly, the language is daunting. It doesn’t have an alphabet and makes Arabic seem almost pedestrian by comparison. Arabic (at least) has an alphabet and it only took me a few weeks to be able to read and pronounce every sound it has to offer. The challenge in Arabic is that it uses glottal stops and that’s just a physical exercise in getting your throat and tongue to learn how to properly make the correct noises. Mandarin, on the other hand, has (they say) 4 tones… but of course they’re lying because there’s also a neutral tone… in addition to high-pitched flat, rising, falling then rising, and falling. And then there’s the issue of my crappy handwriting…in English! And I need to learn how to write Chinese characters, which is essentially a calligraphy course in and of itself. There are conventions on stroke order and location, etc. And I’ll just say that I don’t know if handwriting is inherited, but my bears an uncanny resemblance to someone else’s scrawl who’s just up the family tree a bit… <cough>it’snotmom;it’sdad<cough>The good news is that I have set up a DropBox folder with pictures in it and you will all shortly get an invite to that folder where I will drop some pictures of my adventures here in China. And here’s a teaser – I’m in Beijing now and visiting The Great Wall on Tuesday and The Forbidden City and Tianamen Square on Wednesday. I’ll try to drop some pics on Instagram now and again, but social media is actually blocked here by law: no Facebook, no google services at all (meaning no Gmail and no Youtube), no Twitter, and no Instagram. It’s never enforced……..unless you start running your mouth about the government. That could get you arrested in the middle of the night. No joke.Now, don’t get all worried. I’m not here for politics and I feel freer than I do in the United States, which is a great place to start the substance of……<cue the Star Wars Theme music, please!>“OZY’S FIRST LETTER FROM THE FARTHEST REACHES OF CHINA!”I arrived in China last Sunday afternoon and was picked up by a young man – 35 – named Liang Kong. I mention his name because if you should ever hear from him, things have either gone horribly awry, or he may need something. While I have only known him for a few months (I first met him on my last trip here in early December), we have developed a fast friendship, not unlike some of the ones with some of you very people on this email. Liang was a Chinese National Police officer for 10 years, 2 years of which were as a “public security officer” – basically like a state trooper on a 40km stretch of road. He saw 17 fatalities, I think he told me. (I will return to this subject in more detail below). He managed to take a test and move into immigration – handling visas and passport issues, largely – until he found CF. He left his job in the National Police Force, a rather secure and respectable job, but which was sucking his soul out of him… to the weeping and disappointment of his parents…. in order to open a CF Affiliate in his hometown. This was no small thing he did – he took a HUGE ASS leap of Faith after he became a trainer – and then opened a gym. He also applied and was accepted to our Seminar Staff and he travels each week around China and teaches 30-40 people who are attending our courses here. We do one each weekend, sometimes two.The people are peaceful, almost docile, one might say. It’s very much a part of the culture. They have a Taoist saying that sounds very close to Christ’s “if a man strikes you, turn the other cheek.” Unlike most Christians in America, however, the Chinese have genuinely embraced it.Notwithstanding that, holy shit they cannot drive. Some of you have already heard this, but I truly can’t get over how bad they drive. Nothing in the States comes close. Not the worst NY/LA/Boston/Atlanta traffic, or even RI’s infamously bad rotaries and “fake-left-blinker-go-right” moves compare. They kill 200,000 people annually here in car accidents – and a big chunk of those are pedestrians, including an estimated 5,000-10,000 children. These people cannot drive for shit. (I know, I know, it’s like a terrible racial stereotype, but I don’t know what else to say! They suck, and…well… it’s pretty much the lot of them).The scooters are the worst, however, and it’s not simply because of their complete disregard for their own or anyone else’s safety – it’s because they’re all electric and you can’t hear them coming. There’s no motor noise. They just… materialize instantly next to you at night, like someone beamed them down in live motion from the Starship Enterprise’s transporter room. I nearly jumped out of my clothes when one hit a bump about a foot and a half behind me while I was on the sidewalk. I hadn’t heard a thing. I wasn’t close to being hit or anything, but I was close to crapping my pants. And the old woman on the thing blew by like she was in turn 3 at Talladega.All of the traffic rules are essentially suggestions and everyone is also on their cell phone – even while riding said scooters!Notwithstanding all of this, I’m having the time of my life!! There are over 100 people or so like Liang, who have become Affiliates here in the last three years and they are filling up the seminars every weekend… And if history with the prior 14K gyms we have around the world is any indication… well, it should be a busy year.Which brings me to the near end of this first installment. I have little to report except that most of my stuff is in my apartment in Hangzhou – rented under Liang’s name – and our mission will take us the length and breadth of China. We have Affiliates spread all over the country, including in some of the most remote regions of China. I was speaking with Liang on the 4 hour train ride up from Hangzhou – a joyously comfortable glide along the high-speed rails at 300km/hr (185 mph) – about this mission and we couldn’t come up with anyone in human history who has likely had this opportunity. Marco Polo didn’t have the benefit of modern rail, plane, etc. – nor a wonderfully generous boss and corporate infrastructure that is paying the freight – that I do, and it may well be we’re doing something unique and historic. I’m not sure it matters, but I am certainly going to do what I can to spread the word and to support these folks.They are entrepreneurs in a communist country (!!). In some cases, they are wonderful souls like Liang, who have taken a chance on a company that I’ve been a part of for 9 years now, from when there were only a few hundred gyms in the states and one or two other countries, to where it is now. They’ve taken a huge chance and I’m here to let them know we care and we’re committed to protecting their investment in our name. In short, I’m here to earn their trust and show them our commitment by being here, not simply talk about our commitment from the other side of the globe.Cheers from the Edge of the Empire,OzyWhat could possibly go wrong while transporting propane gas w/ complete disregard for signs, rules of the road, and human life?
Good story. Hope you’ve been following the ADV China guys in their recent adventures and podcasts. They keep pointing out how things started so well when they got there and went downhill so fast in the past few years. Great content.
I haven’t, Cdr. You have a link?
Podcast channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcukTqc1cJJ4K3c4uzxTzjA – you can also listen to them on itunes, but they have a LOT of visual stuff during the podcasts.
They have other channels too: https://www.youtube.com/c/ADVPodcasts/channels
Awesome! Thank you, Fish!
No sweat. Definitely recommended. They both basically got forced out of China a few years back and since then, they’ve been free to show and talk about a lot of stuff they could never touch while they lived in China (although plenty of great vids before that too).
Second ADV China and their individual channels. 3-4 years ago, I was ready to pack up and move to China and then things started looking like they were going sideways before dropping like a rock. And that was before last year.
Also, jealous of serpenza’s fashion sense.
Nice, Ozy!
It’s like:
* daredevil kids who don’t know what could possibly go wrong and they have all sorts of adventures with little mishaps or none at all. They don’t know it’s impossible or unwise, so they do it anyway.
OR
* things you know are dangerous, but something has to be done, and the only way out is through. Shit gotta get done. So you do it.
Mostly the latter. The Chinese have a tendency towards “ Just do it, we’ll figure out the details later.”
差不多
(I wish I hadn’t missed C-milk’s T-shirt campaign of that one)
You never cease to amaze me Ozy, great adventure!
Thanks for the writeup. I’m always impressed at all the different things I can read about here. As I read this, I was having heart palpitations thinking of all the things that could have gone wrong for you, in a country where you really only knew one person and barely knew any of the language. You are a much braver and more adventurous person than I.
TOK – That’s a very nice way of saying I go headlong where… angels fear to tread.
Wise Men Say
Only fools rush in…
I am happy there are people like you in the world. But I am definitely not one of them.
Heh! In, 2006, I remember thinking, “this might not be a good idea” as I hauled my fat ass up a rickety bamboo ladder onto the roof of a glass melting furnace in Guangdong. Next we crossed to the roof of the tin bath via another rickety bamboo ladder laid flat as a bridge.
Here I am,
halfway around the world,
only a handful of people can speak my language,
the few words I know of their language are cuss words and “colloquial terms of female anatomy”,
I’m two stories up from a steel and refractory brick weir,
listening to the bamboo creak under my weight.
If I fall and break my neck, it would be far easier for them to bury me under some freshly poured concrete than to fix me and send me back home.
I survived, but then developed a nice deep vein thrombosis from the 13 hour plane ride home. The clot dislodged and blocked over 60% of my pulmonary artery.
I probably will never make it back to China.
That’s some impressive risk taking.
Scooter.
I’m counting this as on topic.
Interesting read, Ozy.
Perfectly on topic. Once a week (at least) I saw or had a near-fatal encounter in scooters and cars.
And I have a base of.. ahem… experience for comparison.
No sense of self-preservation? Hoping for reincarnation into a higher plane?
(them, that is, not you)
See my reply to TOK above at comment 4.
…Only fools rush in…
I get the jury-rigging when necessary, but not the heedlessness. Suppose ya gotta step off the pavement at some point.
I have a theory as to the causes, but I’ll save it for the later episodes, after I’ve had a chance to lay some groundwork and context.
100% the scooter guy’s fault. The car driver was an idiot also, but the scooter caused it all by crawling out in front of him. If you’re the slowest and most easily damaged/killed thing on the road, you better fucking act accordingly.
Low horsepower kills
Thanks OZY, for sharing a very interesting expose that most of us will never have the opportunity to see first hand. I wasn’t aware that American companies were able to do business in China. Oh, I know about the food franchises et al but always thought the initiative was established in China and most likely by Chinese-Americans..
My experiences are mostly in Europe and always as a military Johnny-Come-Lately, after someone else had planted the flag way ahead of me.
This will get better as it unravels, Mr. Fourscore.
Next week’s is already in the queue and I’ve got at least 5 more of these, I think.
You haven’t lived until you’ve tried the Lieutenant Major’s Fried Chicken.
Have you been reading my fiction notes?
This is a recent phenomenon in NYC now. All those bicycle deliveries you used to see? They’re all electric scooters now. In many cases, a motor bolted on to a bicycle. And yes, a menace.
You can get an e-bike conversion kit for a bicycle for ~$100 (for a cheap one), I’ve looked into getting one for the girlfriend’s bike (which sits woefully unused in the garage). They can pack some power.
We have a couple of hundred electric cars at my work. There’s so much to watch for there that visual awareness is automatic, but I could imagine a city full of them, especially intermixed with gasoline cars and people walking with their cellphones.
I was just talking about riding in packs this weekend. The club guys love it, but they are riding with people who are mostly very proficient and accomplished riders. If you go to an event, the various yokels riding around crazily will turn anyone off of the idea of an all motorcycle city. I’d much rather deal with all the cars and trucks.
As an electric car driver, I drive very very slowly in my neighborhood because people walking their dogs are oblivious to the sound of the car, which is mainly the AC when it’s on. Plus there are kids who incautiously dart in and out of the street.
It’s amazing how many people walk along while so absorbed in their cell phones that they don’t notice they’re in the middle of the street or have just strolled into an intersection.
One proposal is for e vehicles to emit a sound when in residential areas under 25 mph. I don’t think this will work; pedestrians have to get used to looking where they are walking.
Besides, one of the joys of e cars is the quiet. Why ruin that?
One of the benefits of having a hybrid is that I can give the accelerator a love tap and kick the engine on if I’m driving near oblivious pedestrians. I’ve used that once or twice for joggers and kids playing in the street.
I’m all for less noise. The hotrodders around here are getting ridiculous with the noise. It started about a year before the ‘vid, and it has gotten much worse since.
Dropping this here just in response to the first, since I have to split and won’t have time to read it till later…
My work in China has mostly been in Dongguan/Guangzhou, with some in Qingdao and just going through Shanghai and Hong Kong. And this is from a country boy – one of the main things I try to impress upon friends and family here, that I just don’t think they can truly understand, is the scale of cities there. Basically, “You think you know how to picture a big city, but you DON’T. You cannot, until you see it with your own eyes.” Folks who are New Yorkers, say, or people who imagine NYC as a big city, but who’ve never seen Asian cities, just won’t grasp it.
Looking forward to the read later.
I’m going to do my best to communicate the scale, PT. But you and I are wholeheartedly in agreement.
You only THINK you understand massive scale… until you go to China.
I’ve been to Guangzhou (great city, but hell to drive in) and then we drove to Zhuhai/Macau from there. Fun drive, but I’ll cover it in a later episode.
I’ve been to Guangzhou twice.
Once was at a resort hotel out in the countryside. The second was in downtown proper.
The population density is staggering.
Conversely, 10m-40M in Tokyo, depending on where you draw the lines, and it feels like a bunch of small neighborhoods. Just hundreds of them. The stations feel like Mario warp pipes where you drop out into another world/neighborhood. And much more vertical too, like you can walk/ride around forever without seeing the sky if you wanted to.
Seoul Metro area too – absolutely nuts – and I haven’t really been back there in over 10 yrs.
I still can’t decide if the lack of urban planning and zoning in that part of the planet is worse or better than all of the central planning that has gone on in the west. My general sense is that the “tragedy of the commons” is only mostly true and that w/o central planning, things still work themselves out – just on a longer time-scale.
I had a friend stationed at Yokota Air Base in Toyko. When he came home (Texas) on leave he drove out to the caprock just to stand out in the middle of nowhere, see the sky and breath.
Thanks Ozy. My experiences in China were far more limited and didn’t extend beyond Shanghai/Suzhou.
We were not allowed to drive there for obvious reasons. I think I saw a fatality every other day I was in the city.
Suzhou is amazing. Did you see the silk manufacturing, Scruffy?
Didn’t see much outside of Shanghai. Being of middle management at the time, I was pinned to the plant during the day and attending to upper management con calls in the evenings.
It would have been nice to get outside of the city as Shanghai is so massive as to be overwhelming.
No doubt. I was blessed to have my own personal tour guide who was extraordinary in so many ways, as I’ll explain later.
Almost posted on dead-thread, but will post here without context:
She stole it from Aristotle.
Without looking there, I’ll say… Who is Ayn Rand, Alex?
Which begs the question, who is John Galt?
A cardboard cutout with logorrhea.
LOL
Elon Musk might become John Galt of the government and social media set their crosshairs on him.
That thought had occurred to me.
Alex is dead. But so is Rand. And Aristotle.
So you win…nothing!
Same as always.
In the long run, we’re all dead.
—John Maynard Keynes
Got stuck about 25 minutes ago and feel guilty about it. Got bullied into it as it was a requirement for me to attend my two friends’ birthday party this weekend (they have birthdays within a few days of one another). Have not sprouted toes out of my forehead yet, but I’m sure it’s coming…
I’m getting my second on Sunday. Mrs. A has had it. No guilt at all here. We figure that when international travel opens back up most other countries are going to make it a requirement for entry, and we want to go back to Japan again, so if that’s the price, we’ll pay it.
Got my 2nd one yesterday at 8 AM. Got a fever around 8 PM, fairly minor but some body aches. Enough that they didn’t want us coming in to the office today (ie as always folks supposed to stay home for “any symptoms”.)
Pretty much back to normal now other than a bit of a headache periodically – although this is the first time I’ve been sick since the flu in Mar 2019.
I gotta fly to FLA in July. I’m dreading the possibility that it becomes mandatory before then. I probably will need a negative test and definitely will have to quarantine upon return for work. At least they’ll pay me full pop for the quarantine time. I really don’t want to take an experimental drug to prevent a disease that I won’t even know I have unless I get tested. Fucking sucks to have to go through all of this just to enhance the dem’s fortification of the 2020 election.
Girlfriend and I will be flying to Vegas in September. She’s got enough allergies the shot would probably be bad for her. I don’t, I just don’t think it’s worth it. I’m really hoping we’re not at the point of requiring vaccines to travel between states on planes by then.
What part of september?
Vegas is the turnaround point for my planned road trip then
September 8th-14th, the girlfriend and I will be out there for Viva. That means Saturday will be pretty booked (that’s the big car show and music acts day), but we should be able to set aside some time any of the other days.
If I reuse the two-week itenery, I should be there the 12th and 13th. Though that timetable may have to change, as it was made prior to the stupididy.
I’d love to stretch it longer, but it is a joint trip with my dad, who will only have two weeks vacation.
Good deal. That’s after the big insanity, the Sunday of Viva is a pool party, swimsuit competitions (the girlfriend and I have never made it to them, as there was always huge lines), and just a couple of bands playing. Monday, Viva is officially over, but you’ll still see lots of bowling shirts and wristbands around.
You staying on strip, downtown, or off the beaten path?
The plan was the Luxor.
I’ve only ever spent four days in China, in the above-mentioned Pudong, a few days to audit supplier quality in the China branch of a Japanese company I was working with.
First day we were there, I was sitting in a conference room with my two colleagues when the building alarms went off. The plant manager bustled in, said, “It’s no problem, nothing wrong, monthly test of alarm, we must all go outside.”
So we obediently trooped outdoors and stood in the parking lot while the company took a headcount.
When we went back inside, I said to my colleagues, “Guys, we can honestly and accurately say something not very many Americans can.”
“What’s that?” they asked.
“We’ve taken part in an actual Chinese fire drill.”
Damn. I wish I could use that line like that, but I haven’t been through one.
/shuffles off and kicks a pebble
I was going to squint at him and doubt.
And yes, Ozy, great tale. I’m a little envious. I would have liked to have seen more of China. Present shitty government aside, there’s just a tremendous amount of history there.
#metoo. I’d just climbed up 8 floors into a chemical system and it was like 120degF and the alarm went off, so we had to go down and stand outside (where it was only like 105degF), and then climb it all over again.
*narrows gaze*
Easy, in this context, that might be lacist.
??
Re: California, there may be a difference between “stimulus” and the mandated state tax refunds. Although I’ll be honest, I can’t find any articles referencing the constitutional article at all – other than what the policy guys were talking about on the podcast. May involve some lawsuits though.
Yes. They are saying it’s a 1979 constitutional amendment. here it is. Seems like they have scammed their way around it mostly.
Yep, that’s definitely the one they were talking about. If Newsom does want to push his “stimulus” I hope we see some genuine pushback on constitutional grounds.
It looks like the ’79 thing requires rebates for money not appropriated. Gruesome might be appropriating the “stimulus” funds to avoid having to give it back to the taxpayers instead. Literally, everything here is a scam.
There’s a chunk of stimulus money sure, but they still have to return the other $50 billion plus of actual excess revenues (largely corporate/sales/income taxes from what I heard).
Just a wonderful feeling being lectured about “decency” from a guy with a couple hundred thousand bodies (at minimum) on his CV. Go fuck yourself, Bill:
https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1392094831787323393
One of the things I find truly remarkable is how guys’ egos can render them utterly pathetic. Kristol is reduced to attacking and insulting all of the people and institutions he used to sit among. So, that his new masters on the left will gift him an occasional pat on the head. If his issues with Trump were ones of principle he could have made his most eloquent point my stating his case and walking away. I’ve no doubt he’s got a couple of million dollars stashed aside. The left is never going to give him a seat at their table. What is he deluding himself is going to happen? That the right is all going to come rushing to his door, begging “Oh, Bill, please come back. That icky Trump just got us all confused! We see your superior wisdom now!”.
They’re gonna conveniently find his trail of underage hookers and coke fueled raves if he doesn’t comply.
I’d respect him more if that were true. At least then he’d be interesting.
BTW, do we have any expectations/forecasts for gas availability/prices for Memorial Day weekend yet? I’m ready for higher prices, but I’d prefer not to leave on a trip if I could get stuck somewhere.
I’m wondering the same thing. Driving down to Florida Friday for a week.
Dammit, Atlanta – my midway point – is affected. Full gas cans it is.
Thanks Ozy, for reminding me of what I loved about China. Had trips planned to Hangzhou and West Lake but didn’t get around to them due to other things. I am still kicking myself. Have six more years on my China visa and I see it expiring already.
Gustave, if you find yourself with the opportunity to go, if you let me know in advance I can probably have my friend meet you and take you around Hangzhou. At worst, I can give you some tips on where to go and details. I had an apartment in Hangzhou for almost 2 years, in Old Hangzhou. Walking distance from West Lake, though I usually went to the far side by car.
Thank you for the kind offer. I’m more of a self guided tourist, plus it works better with my wife so we quit when bored or tired. And the joy of serendipity.
You won’t be able to go wrong in Hangzhou. Just make sure to visit the XiXi Wetlands, see the Dragon Boats on West Lake and Leifeng’s Temple, the Buddhist sanctuary (from whence the pictures above come), and a teahouse/restaurant in the nearby mountains, famous for their oolong tea.
😉
Oh, it’s worth taking a didi (Chinese Uber) past Ali Baba’s “facility” – when I was there, they had 300K employees. So yes, its own city within Hangzhou that makes Apple’s digs look infinitesimal by comparison.
Not totally OT, given the subject matter. This is worth a read, although I haven’t finished it yet.
https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/origins-of-covid-19-who-opened-pandoras-box-at-wuhan-people-or-nature/
My first trip to China was Taipei, Taiwan, in the early mid-90s. What I saw of the driving, and I saw a lot, was two things. First, if every car on the road had one more coat of paint, Taipei would congeal into a solid mass. Second, and somehow more impressive: every single driver was oscillating back and forth between obsequious “oh, no, after you” and “GTF out of my way you incompetent son of a whore!” The capper was that each and every one was on their own clock cycle and they never, ever, synchronized.
Beijing was calm by comparison, some 15 years later.
I had a chance to visit Taiwan and passed on it… because at the time I thought I would be spending a good deal of the rest of my life in the far east so I would “get to it” eventually.
Fuck.
Comparable experience and later-regretted decisions for me in Beijing. I had a new staff there, thought I’d be visiting frequently, and so postponed the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Then I learned how insane and evil my bosses were and quit the company after the second trip. Sigh. Opportunities lost.
Same with Singapore.
Singapore is worth it to just fly over for a week and chill IMO – a little pricey in some areas, but amazing options – the best selections of food, etc – and you don’t have to worry about food poisoning (even cheap food courts are ridiculously clean). Easy to watch movies in a bunch of different languages, all with English subs. It’s basically my perfect place – except for being right on the equator. (and I haven’t tried getting into politics there). Lots of great tourist stuff though.
I took my wife to Singapore for our 30th anniversary.
Stayed out on Sentosa before they turned it into Disneyland.
SE Asia Chinese descended (Singapore, Malaysia, etc) causes an acute case of yellow fever for me.
??♀️??
Love this, but my anxiety level was pegged hard right for most of it.
TOO MANY PEOPLE!!
Still. very interesting observations. I love how the entrepreneurial spirit cannot be killed.
Introverts think alike.
I lived in Madrid for a couple years, 50 years ago. Near Paris before that for 5 years. I like suburban Podunkville
Ah, vraiment? No sabía, yo. What were the occasions?
I was one of two army officers assigned to a large AF Base (Now the Madrid International). I was on a communications eval team with Spain, Italy and North Africa as our area. Left in ’70 for a Southeast Asian sabbatical
In France ’50s-’60s, I was at remote radio stations, providing military communications
thumbs up, and this was next on the play list TOO FUNNY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLnUJzueBOQ
this comment should be to #20 tundra. sorry
That was hilarious!
And now, my midday OT:
Trump speed dating.
NSFW
Thanks for the laugh 😀
That’s classic. I was laughing out loud.
So, Trump got a BJ. Did Sage get a date?
*raucous applause*
The first 5-6 of these are really all background to get to the “Lessons I *think* I learned” from my time there.
Great article, Ozy. I have nothing to add except that I enjoy reading these and am looking forward to the next installment.
Cool story! I have spent a much smaller amount of time in China (only weeks totaled over a few trips) but I have had the chance to do some short road trips in the farther-out places to visit suppliers and potential business partners. I kind of like the out of the way places better–I’m not much of a fan of cities in general. The country is loaded with history and some of the true historical sites are amazing.
The things I remember most are the food in Ningxia province (great lamb!), the stark and young mountains in the area west of Shizhuishan, the hustle and bustle of Shanghai, and the Forbidden City in Beijing, our visit to the grottoes west of Datong, and the immense sense of creepiness that overcame me when I stood at the edge of Tianenmen Square and looked around, taking in the whole site, including the vast portrait of one of the greatest monsters of history still gazing out over the people his ideology has continued to strangle long after his demise.
#metoo
That was something else.
The more I hear about East Asia, the more I learn the simple lession – stay as far away from the region as I can get.
I’d go to Japan in a heartbeat. China, well, I am not sure that I can get a visa. The CCP has all of my particulars and knows my previous line of work. Not worth the risk. Korea, it would be neat to see what has happened there since 1999, awesome food, lots of fun stuff to see,
All I can think of is Quebec, standing in a French-biased grocery store, surrounded by signs I could read and people speaking words I couldn’t understand and coming as close to an actual anxiety attack I’ve ever had in my life before fleeing the place to find someplace with English. And there wasn’t even a significant divide on other cultural elements or expectations of behaviour there. I just knew I didn’t belong.
I can’t imagine how much worse I’d react further afield and with no linguistic haven close at hand.
*I couldn’t read
UCS – I think it’s a normal reaction. I certainly had times that I would forget to “prep” myself (with words, phrases, or characters I might need or see) before going somewhere and then have that near-panic attack in the moment. It’s like panicking while scuba-diving… just gotta keep. breathing. slowly. It passes.
Hm. I’ve never had that reaction. I guess China would have been the place to experience it if it was going to happen but it didn’t even when I was alone.
In both Korea and Japan, you can find an English speaker very easily. Korea’s alphabet is absurdly easy to read and they use a ton of English loanwords. Once you learn the sounds you will be able to read enough to get you around. Plus in the major metro areas’ public transportation, the signs are in English.
That won’tm undo the “You don’t belong here!” vibe.
I also got that from Publix though.
Besides, I don’t want to talk to people. I don’t like people. The foreigness is what gets under my skin.
Just thinking about it has gotten me worked up. I need to get out of here.
ten minutes till the end of the workday and I can take my walk…
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335266/mediaviewer/rm3407759872/
I was expecting something like that went I went to Tokyo – alas, I’m just not any taller than the average Japanese dude.
Japan is awesome, I’d love to go back.
I have been informed that the CCP has a dossier on me as well, so no particular interest in testing the assumption. On the other hand, I could tell them the god’s-honest-truth about how fucked up everything is in DoD and I’m sure they wouldn’t believe me.
Shhhhhhhhhhhh
Apparently nothing has changed since the mid-70s
Mr. Mojeaux and I watched Crazy Rich Asians the other night and I was suddenly reminded that I had had a childhood dream to go to Singapore. I don’t know why I did, but in all these intervening years I haven’t had any desire to visit Asia. Now I want to go to Singapore again.
The Spousal Unit and I watched that about a year ago and found ourselves laughing out loud at some of the stuff she’s seen in her extended family (her Dutch/Scottish branch had some marrying into Chinese). It was a fun movie, although we both felt kinda sorry for the matriarch. And Michelle Yeoh’s one of those actors I’d watch read the local telephone book.
Thank you, Ozy, for writing this. I immediately recalled these scooters that I saw in Shanghai in 2018. And the Maglev ride to the airport was fantastic. A great city!
Grriz –
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen those websites that show flights across the world as lines/arcs on a timelapse over the course of a day? Like this one, but there are much better ones.
Anyway, someone showed me one that had shipping and flights, but was centered around Shanghai. His joking comment was that he wasn’t sure, but no matter what metric he used, it looked like Shanghai was the center of the universe.
It’s truly a one-of-a-kind city.
Man, looking back at Part 1 and Part 2 was kind of weird. Skimming the comments and reading what we were discussing about the ‘vid seems so quaint today.
Again, Ozy, you have led a goddamn interesting life. Thanks for doing it so I don’t have to!
I saw that, too, when I was digging up the links to those.
The frog is getting boiled a LOT more quickly now.
BTW, how about the Wild?!? And Kyrill Kaprizov is a lock for the Calder. Can’t wait for the playoffs to start. My Bruins get the Caps starting Saturday and all I care is that someone punches Tom Wilson’s lights out before the end of the series. (Great talent, but dirty player. Just can’t seem to keep himself from crossing the line.)
You know what? I haven’t watched a hockey game (other than my niece’s kid and Stillhunter’s kid) in more than a year. I cut my cable last year and just never found a good solution to stream the games.
My buddy always makes sure to send Kaprizov clips, though. Man, what a player. Absolutely cannot be knocked off the puck, but still has amazing hands. The Wild haven’t had a stud like that since Gáborík.
And yes, Wilson is a true piece of shit.
Hall’s OT winner last night was a gem
https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/1391937351841030146
Slum, I was watching it in the kitchen on my computer (Tundra, I bite the bullet and get the NHL streaming each season) – and had to explain the look on my face to my wife, who was cooking.
When I heard the B’s got Hall I told my daughter that I thought being alongside Krejci would reignite Hall’s career – and Krejci’s – to not quite McJesus territory, but he’s a legit 30-40 goals/yr guy, and maybe a bit more. He did that when he was playing on shit teams.
I can’t believe how good Sweeney did at the trade deadline with Hall, Reilly, and Lazar.
I’m a casual fan, at best, but I’m usually good for every playoff game.
I watched that goal and said “holy shit” out loud – the pass, the hustle to get in position to get it back, 5-hole on the defender & then the flick in at the end – even I can recognize that as stellar work.
Whoa. Thats was silky.
Although Leddy needs to call Scott Stevens for some remedial work.
Dredging up memories now. Cancelled trips to Sanya and Phu Quoc. Sigh.
This is great stuff, Ozy.
It’s a good story. The pictures are good too.
I was on a tour in 88 and we spent about a week in PRC. The funny thing about looking at pics is that I think the Shanghai i saw was closer to the pre-WW2 city than how it is today.
I sat next to a SW airline pilot on one of my (all too many) flights back from Shanghai to SFO. Besides being an airline pilot, he owned a company that made (get this!) rubber rafts for serious whitewater rafting on rivers like the Colorado. Yes, they sent their manufacturing to China in the 80s and it was still cheaper to have them made and pay the shipping from China, than to try to make them in the US. Simply not possible, he said.
Anyway, he had been traveling to Shanghai since the 80s and he told me much what you just said. That the Pudong I saw now simply did not exist 30 years ago. That’s the point I tried to make in one of the earlier pieces, or in the comments. It’s not so much that I’m impressed with massive buildings because I’m really not. I’m not a city guy anymore. BUT, if you can appreciate just what’s been done in such a short time, then yes – IMO, Shanghai Pudong is an unacknowledged wonder of the modern world. It’s outpacing the entire rest of the world in major architecture in a 30-year span, including the US.
They lapped the fucking field.
I once counted 18 sky cranes from a single vantage point in Shanghai.
Nice, Ozy!
https://www.nj.com/camden/2021/05/foodborne-illness-sickens-60-of-nj-districts-teachers-after-school-luncheon.html
Does that seem odd to anyone else?
Deep cleaning from a foodborne illness?
Chicken juice everywhere so no place is safe?
Must have been quite a wild luncheon.
Teachers malingering? No, it doesn’t seem odd to me at all.
https://www.kcrg.com/2021/05/11/iowa-to-end-participation-in-federal-pandemic-related-unemployment-benefits-programs/
Governor Kim Reynolds announced on Tuesday the state will end its participation in federal pandemic-related unemployment benefit programs by June 12.
. . .
That means Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), Mixed Earners Unemployment Compensation (MEUC) will end on June 12.
The state said it will continue to provide regular unemployment insurance benefits to anyone eligible under the applicable state code.
. . . .
“Federal pandemic-related unemployment benefit programs initially provided displaced Iowans with crucial assistance when the pandemic began,” Gov. Reynolds said. “But now that our businesses and schools have reopened, these payments are discouraging people from returning to work. Our unemployment rate is at 3.7 percent, vaccines are available to anyone who wants one, and we have more jobs available than unemployed people.”
Republicans are monsters.
Missouri too, June 12.
More for us 🙂
/New York
Ohio is going to force people requesting unemployment to get back to showing they’re looking for work and interviewing.
I’ll be one of the first to ditch the Emergency Relief checks and go back to the job market as soon as the state removes their idiotic and useless COVID measures. Heck I’d even be considering going back if they just remove those stupid mandatory safety goggles.
Great article Ozy. My experience with the Chinese people was wonderful while visiting. I truly liked meeting, talking, and socializing with my co-workers. The big cities like Shanghai were monsters, you felt like it would take a lifetime to know the city.
Other cities were much different. Suzhou was great, I got to see it transformed from a older smallish mostly vacation/resort city to an industrial powerhouse like Detroit, then to whatever it is now, similar to Boston.
I still disliked the newer cities like Shenzhen, it felt very fake and cookie cutter, like it could have been any other city in the world. The dammed place had over an order of magnitude increase in population over my lifetime, no-one is from there.
I saw the poor driving as well. My two cents are that a large portion of the population never drove in their lives and now have cars. Imagine your grandmother or mother only rode a bike, bus, or train for 65 years, but then her only son buys her a Audi A8 for her birthday.
Oh yikes. I’m teaching my son how to drive, but we’re still in parking lot mode. He’d gleefully get on the streets if I let him.
Imagine he has never rode in a car for the first 50 years of his life.
Concur with everything you said.
I remember wandering around Suzhou and being dismayed by all the hideous skyscrapers going up – and that was 20 years ago. I can only imagine what it’s like today.
And it’s not like here where there’s usually at least some token effort to “fit in”. There, you’re walking around a pleasant city neighborhood and suddenly there’s a gigantic unfriendly skyscraper surrounded by oceans of emptiness that you want to get as far away from as fast as you can.
And possibly a skyscraper that is not built very well, either.
Since we had recent discussion about the Dunbar number.
I suspect that the Dunbar number is an attempt to quantify an inflection point on a size v. tight-knittedness line. Set the filter for social group differently, and you get a different number.
The underlying truth behind the Dunbar number still remains. Once a social group reaches a certain size, be it 150 or 200 or whatever, it begins to lose its sense of closeness.
Yes, that, and also think about how that translates to how a community governs itself and functions.
I missed the discussion, but I do think there is very much a critical mass at which communities break down.
Great article! Thanks for sharing.
Ozy never ceases to amaze and inspire. I have scooter stories of other lands but I will save those for the zoom happy hours.