Trip to Dongguan, Part II, and Life's Little Hick-ups! - originally published 03-24-05

Life can be like that, a bout of hick-ups out of nowhere! Yesterday and today can be counted - or should I say: discounted - as two of those days. Yesterday morning, I hurt my knee when I fell with my bike, (yes, I know, I did not mention that in my report yesterday, but I thought it was no big deal right after it happened, which in itself, it was not) - you know those dumb falls: driving really slowly in front of the school building and sliding off the asphalt with the front wheel into some tree box , conveniently situated right between the snack booth and the bike racks, and not being able to get the wheel out of there again, so the stupid bike just kicks to the side and you fall, as simple as that! Then I had a major headache for the better part of the rest of the day. And just when I thought the headaches would let me off the hook, I bruised my head in the late afternoon, while trying to squeeze by a stupid pillar, and negotiating some more rough pavement and hitting my brow against a brick pillar. On the bright side though, my bike did not incur any scratches or nicks from those two adventures. To sum it all up: I would have done better staying in bed and not going anywhere!This morning, I could not take a shower, because the electricity went out, so there would have been no way to dry my hair. This afternoon, I could not take a shower, because there was no water. Go figure....Oh, and I forgot a minor inconvenience in this concert of inconveniences: that I'm also plagued by some kind of allergy since this morning: my nose is running nonstop, but just the right nostril, and it tickles like hell. I have no idea why - I want to believe that it will all go away by tomorrow morning. There is a German childrens' song which goes: Heile, heile Gaenschen. Heal heal, my little duckling, and it ends with "in 100 years, all will be gone." So there is hope! You want to see my 'bo bo'? Ok, here it is, have a look: Yes, I know, it looks bad enough! It also hurts when I put balm on it and touch it. I figure by tomorrow, it will be green and black, instead of purple and blue, and maybe a little less swollen. You can see where the impact was, right at the outer end of my eyebrow, at the temple. Ahh, and just for laughs, should I mention that my legs are properly sore, because I climbed that darn Chang Cheng, (Great Wall) all the way up to the highest point, and where the steps are the steepest. I should do this every day, I am sure that would get me back in good shape! I walk around like a stick manneken, and going down the stairs hurts, too! Ouch! Now, you can all feel a little sorry for me, it will help with the healing process! Thanks! I'm done whining!I wanted to tell you more about Dongkeng and my visit down there. Dongkeng is the name of the part of Dongguan where our laboratory will be located.Ed found a new building near the center of Dongkeng, not too far from the City Administration Offices. It is a small, single building, on a street with offices and commerce. The owner had this 4 story house built for his son, so that he might install his own business in there, and use the upper levels for his private home. I have no idea why the son does not want to use it, but it is our gain, as it fits our needs very well. We can have our laboratory on the first three levels, and the employees' quarters on the fourth level (yes, it is customary in China to provide housing for one's employees). The top level is just a third of a level, because there is a roof garden up there, so we can have a private little studio/bedroom up there, for private usage when we are in Dongkeng. It is just a shell at this time, completely unfinished and quite rough looking, though. (For those of you who want to see the pics, go to my flickr pictures website, by the name of velvetpaws999, same as my email here.) We will proceed with the finishing of the building as soon as we have our paperwork advanced sufficiently so that we can get a building permit. This process is roughly halfway accomplished by now, and Ed will hopefully get the most of it done when he returns there next week. We will all be able to compare the 'before' and 'after' pics! I myself am curious to see the difference it will make! It can't possibly go into the wrong direction, considering its present state! Ed and I both wondered where all this junk came from and why it was up there. Not so much the remaining, unused bricks, but lots of other stuff, which you cannot make out in detail on the photos. Also, the Chinese seem to not worry about pouring a smooth concrete floor to begin with, it is all wobbly everywhere, even on the concrete stairways, which will make for more work before one can put tiles or any other surface treatment down. But that shall not be our problem, right!? Right! We will have a nice view from our office windows, a canal and across from there, a modern school building. After the inspection of our future lab, we took a stroll down main street, to see what all was going on in our neighborhood. We had a blast! I could not take pictures fast enough, left and right, so many things and events were taking center stage all over the place! One picture I never managed to take was four people on one little scooter! Threesomes are already impressive, but wait till you see a foursome! Well, I saw lots, but each time one came along, they had zipped past by the time I armed my camera! I am determined to shoot nothing but foursome scooter pics next time I get down there. I am convinced that sooner or later, those will become outlawed by the local authorities, as they should be! It is a dangerous way to travel! But go and explain that to the Chinese!Let me show you some of those Chinese pick-up trucks, too, and you tell me if you are not plain jealous of these beauts! Just imagine we would all drive around in the good ole US of A with such trucks, and imagine the parking lot in front of Lowes or Home Depot filled with them, it would be hilarious! Why would we worry about emissions safety inspections! Heck, we'd have lots of other things to worry about before we got to that topic! And I doubt that we could haul more stuff on a Ford pick-up than what these guys pack away on their home built monster trucks! And, perk! - no need to worry about that luster paint job getting a scratch from the cargo! Notice also: no steering wheel! Just a handle bar! Looking at them, I realize they could have all played in Mad Max, there would have been no need to modify anything on them at all! The streets of Dongkeng are very busy, from early morning to late at night: lots of street vendors with fruit, food, and also services, like knife and scissor sharpening, key copy service, bike repairs are all ambulant down there. And if sales appear a tad sluggish, no problem! You can hire some sales boosters: acrobats! They will help draw a crowd in no time, guaranteed. Of course, it does not necessarily help sell more, from what I could observe, but at least we can have a good time while we are not doing good business! The other sales trick that they like to use a lot and generously is the "high-tech" tool, called a microphone and a good amplifier. Boy oh boy! The most favored mode of usage is on 'echo' mode. Each syllable will bounce off the buildings at least 15 times, in cascading and weakening waves. You get the impression that you are in a Carney ghost ride, except it is not dark there. We attended a sales pitch of a "snake juice" vendor. That's what I baptised the stuff, maybe it is rather "snake wine", lol.This beverage is supposedly good for male vigor. Indeed, males of all ages stood around and gawked, in rapture from the promises echoing off the walls of the supermarket behind the sales table. I did not see anybody buy a bottle though- maybe they do that in secret, behind the supermarket, after the sales pitch is over? After all, who wants their neighbors to know that they could use a little snake juice picker upper? That's what I thought!In the early afternoon, the streets were swarming with blue-white bike riders, coming from several directions, across busy intersections. I also had noticed these blue and white outfits here in Beijing, so I assume, this is the national student dress code. For about half an hour, wave after wave of students dashed down the streets and around corners, progressively thinning out as they got further away from their points of departure and towards their individual residential quarters. I think we should introduce the use of bicycles for students in America, too. We would see the numbers of overweight students fall drastically, and no more heart diseases and weak muscles for the youngsters! And even if they did eat some junk food, they could pedal it off! Maybe we should create an incentive for the parents to not drive the kids around in their cars: some tax deduction if they can prove that they let their kids ride to school on a steel donkey! Or better yet: get some rapper idol to ride around on a bike in their video clips, I'm sure that would do the trick! We could get really creative around this topic! Well, that's all for tonight, folks! More in the next installment, tomorrow! The weekend awaits me, and I will go see Evelyne from the airplane. She has returned today and called me to invite me over to her place tomorrow after work. I am sure we will have a good time together, as she promised we would cook some Chinese food together! Zai Jian! Take care y'all!