I bought some stuff during the weekend, with which we can survive during the time before the sea container arrives: a mattress, a garden table plus four chairs, two cocktail chairs with a matching glass table, a telephone, and some smaller items (plate, cutlery, cup, pans, knife, etc.).
I must say that it was a delight to see how much nice furniture is offered here in Fuzhou for very reasonable prices! You can find both very creative Chinese new design, as well as copies of the design classics. 90% of it is made in Shenzhen, one of the major cities in southern China. Supposedly, the prices there are even more attractive than here in Fuzhou. I really had to hold myself back a bit. I almost bought a lounge chair which has been on my list of favourites for quite a while already. The price is so attractive, that I am sure Shiqi won’t mind if I do buy it, when she sees the picture :-)
Already in Germany, I had some problems with my official name. The Dutch system of having a "baptising" name, which is usually quite long, is now really causing some difficulties. The problem is that "Arnoldus Johannes Paulus Rancuret" just does not fit into the Chinese computer systems.
This week, I wanted to open a bank account at the Bank of China. On the application form I had to fill out my name. I already saw that it would be a problem, since the available space was far too small, even if I would be writing really really small. So, I wrote down my name in short form: "Arnoud Rancuret". After checking my passport, however, the bank employee did not settle for this small fraud attempt. She insisted that I would fill out my full name. I tried "But it will not fitt into your computer system", without success. So, I did what she had asked me, and was wondering how she would solve the problem that she was definitely going to face.
Well, on the picture of my account book you can see the result The limit was reached with "ArnoldusJohanne". The bank employee therefore filled out the rest "sPaulus" by hand, thereby omitting my family name altogether. It was only after pointing out to her that "Rancuret" was also really part of my name, that she wrote this last part out as well.
I should learn how to write my Chinese name quickly, before I run into serious problems :-)
Because I did not find anyone here, who is playing squash, I had to look for another sport. I figured that the closest typically Chinese thing to squash would be badminton. So, when a Chinese colleague of mine offered to teach me some badminton, I immediately accepted his invitation.
This morning, as early as nine o'clock, I was sitting in the taxi on my way to the Fuzhou badmintion stadium, about ten car mintes away from the hotel. As I entered the hall, it was clear to me that we would not be alone. The place was very full. I estimate that approximately 20 badmintion courts had been set up in the hall, all of them occupied, and besides the courts there were still plenty of early Sunday morning Chinese, having a rest.
It took me a while before I found my colleague and his team. They were with eight person today, and when I glanced at the group that was already playing, I concluded that it would most likely become a very tiring Sunday morning for me.
And indeed, that was the case. As I am typing this article, my left arm is trembling a bit, because of the muscle ache that is now coming up unavoidably. Even though I could of course not compete with the guys by a long shot, it was great fun to play. After about 1,5 hours of playing, the time was up. Soaking wet and pretty tired I decided that I would most likely play again next week.
The last time I visited Shanghai was one and a half years ago. I was prepared to find that quite a few things would have been changed. But again, it was shocking to see how much had really changed! Before I would be able to encounter those changes, I was welcomed back in Shanghai by a gigantic queue to get a taxi at Shanghai’s Hong Qiao International Airport. It reminded me a lot of the amusement park “Efteling” in Holland in which you would see signs while standing in a queue for a popular attraction saying “from here still 2 hours waiting time”. Here’s a snapshot of it. There and then I realized how many foreigners come to visit Shanghai nowadays.
After recovering from this, I got the second shock when the taxi turned into the street of my parents in law, where I would be staying for the weekend. I did not recognize the street anymore because many Chinese small stores, and delapitated but charming houses had made place for deluxe boutiques and foreign-cuisine-bistros.
Luckily, the generous and warm hospitality of my Chinese family in law had not changed. So, the weekend was well spent wining and dining in several excellent restaurants, as well as at home with my parents in law, watching the family play ma-jiang.
Apart from a visit to the Yu Garden in “the old” city of Shangai, I I did not do a lot of sightseeing. Of course, I did visit the Shanghai museum again, which has a marvellous collection of Chinese porcelain.
Looking forward to the next visit, but then with Shiqi & Mylène.
After reading this title, most of you will probably be thinking about a beautiful girl in a qi-pao dress carrying out a century old massage technique which makes the body feel as good as new again. Although I am looking forward to be writing about that later ;-) ... this time, I am referring to something quite different. If you want to know more, just check out this small clip.
Thanks to our relocator Rose, I have had the chance to get into contact with the Fuzhou art scene. Already during the first trip Shiqi and I took to Fuzhou together, we visited the studio of a well-known Fuzhou artist. It was interesting, especially because we were able to see the paintings in the surroundings in which they were created. Later, during the first weekend in Fuzhou after leaving Germany, I visited a few very interesting art exhibitions. The first two were in the Fujian museum, a modern building complex which is located across the Fuzhou West Lake, right opposite of my hotel. In fact, it is the building complex that I have already looked at so often through the windows of my hotel room, during several business trips, but of which I never knew what it was. So, now I know. Anyway, the first exhibition was about Chinese shadow doll theater. Before, I only new shadow dolls from Indonesia (the “Wayang” dolls). The museum displayed an interesting collection of dolls, including some very old pieces, from different regions around China. In the main hall of the building, there was even a show held every so many minutes. As a souvenir, I took a short video clip with my mobile phone camera. You can check it out here.
It was really that noisy. Even Rose, who is a Chinese, could not understand the story that was told, because the “music” was just too loud.
The second exhibition was housed in another building. Upon entering, I was wondering how this exhibition could be interesting. On display were rocks from a mountain close to Fuzhou, that were made into faces with a few cuts here and there. Each rock had been fixed on a stick. The rock faces even looked a bit scary at first. But then, the exhibition became more interesting the longer we were inside. There were hundreds of faces and it was really stunning to see how every face was different. In each room there was a list on which people were invited to write down if they saw a face the resembled someone. So after looking on those lists we were looking for Elvis, Deng XiaoPing, Bruce Lee, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Einstein, etc. We did not really find them, but we did get fascinated by those rocks; unexpectedly.
After a good lunch in restaurant serving food from the north of China (remember the silk worms?), we headed for another exhibition. This one was housed in the Fuzhou institute of arts, and displayed oil paintings by an artist from Fuzhou, with the theme “subway”. The exhibition hall was almost empty when I entered. There was only one man, indeed, the artist. He came up to me immediately after seeing me. He knew some English and told me that I was the second foreigner that had come to visit his exhibition. He was a very kind man, and during our visit he accompanied us to explain his thoughts and emotions behind the paintings. This was a wonderful experience! How often do you have the chance to be accompanied by the artist when you are visiting a gallery or museum? And doesn’t it happen often that you ask yourself “Now, what on earth was the idea behind this painting?”. This time, we found out all about it.
It is my impression that in a "small" city like Fuzhou, it is much easier for a foreigner like me to get into contact with Chinese culture and its people than it would be in cities like Beijing or Shanghai, in which you are bound to be shielded from it by a typical expat life. In my eyes this is a big plus for Fuzhou.
One week on the job and I already have the first business trip behind me. I had a meeting in Beijing on Monday morning, which gave me the opportunity to spend the Sunday in the city. In the morning and early afternoon I checked out the Beijing Capital Museum, a brand new museum with a collection of Chinese art that was produced in and around the city in the course of many dynasties. The museum shows a fine collection of ancient Chinese arts and crafts, as well as an interesting display of the history of Beijing. My personal favourites were the porcelain collection and the section on Beijing folklore. For those who know the Shanghai museum and have liked it, this new museum is definitely worth a visit.
After the museum visit, I met up with Shiqi’s uncle, who is living in Beijing. He gave me an excellent guided tour over the TsingHua university campus; a beautiful place where the old world and the new, tradition and modern life meet in good harmony.
In the evening, we went to a vegetarian restaurant with the whole family. The restaurant served wonderful food and the atmosphere of meeting again was very nice. A lovely day.
Being in Beijing, you sometimes wonder how long China will still differ from the rest of the world. I have seen almost more foreigners than Chinese, and if it wasn’t for the Chinese characters on billboards, you can almost forget that you are in China. On the way back from Beijing to Fuzhou, though, I was happy to notice that I was most definitely still in China. The process boarding the plain was abolutely chaotic, because everyone brought far too much luggage, and nobody was queueing up. This, the plain was packed with people and luggage (no living animals, though). During the flight, the Chinese were chatting busily. And when the plain landed, they made a contest out of unfastening their seat belts and turning on their mobile phones: “Wei?! ... Wei?!” Typically China, I would say.
On the first night after my arrival, on Friday night, the Chinese celebrated the so callled mid autumn festival (zhong qiu jie), also known as the moon festival, or the moon cake festival, because it takes place on the day that the moon is at its fullest, and because of the traditional food that is eaten: moon cakes. The history of this celebration goes back around 3.000 years. Originally, it was a festival to celebrate the abundance of the summer harvest. Nowadays it is mostly a holiday that is used to celebrate and spend time with the family. The week around the festival is one of the three "golden" weeks of holiday for the Chinese. This means of course also a week during which massive crowds are almost unavoidable on popular spots.
After dinner on Friday night I had a walk in the area around the Fuzhou West Lake. The buildings around the lake were beautifully lit, there was a new fountain in the lake, dancing on an orchestra of lights, and there were fireworks on several spots. The atmosphere was cheerful and relaxing, despite the crowds (the Dutch word would be "gezellig").
What impressed me most, though, was what was going on on a square besides the lake. I saw that quite a few people had gathered there, so I decided to see what was going on. I noticed some loudspeaker boxes, but did not pay much attention to it. After all, it was a festival, right? I sat down somewhere in the middle of the square, watching the people: kids, youngsters, middle-agers, seniors, they were all there. Until suddenly, music started playing .... and all these people (well, most of them) started dancing (pas de deux), in the open air. I sat there for a long time, enjoying the evening of the moon festival.
Yes, it's true: the Chinese eat many things that we would not think about eating, in Europe. Yet, with a little bit of courage, if you you give it a shot, many things are not so bad as they seem on first sight.
Like these silk worms, or rather, the cocoons of silk worms, that I ate last weekend in a restaurant in Fuzhou that specialises in northern Chinese cuisine. The cocoons are fried, with a bit of salt I think, and then eaten after dipping them in a mixture of salt, pepper and sesame. Ok, it will never be my favourite food, but ... they were quite tasty!
Here I am! After a hectic time of arranging many things and saying goodbye to friends and family, I have arrived in Fuzhou. I was happy after I made it through all formalities in Germany and in China. I brought quite a bit more luggage than I was actually allowed to take, for which the German airport staff might have made some trouble. Also, I had some items in my suitcase that I was not allowed to bring into China. And, it was not very clear whether the documents I had would be enough to make it through Chinese immigration. Luckily, I was not checked very thouroughly and got through without any problems. The first hurdle was taken.
At the airport at took a taxi to the Lakeside hotel, besides the famous Fuzhou West Lake. It's a very comfortable hotel on one the city's finest locations (to my opinion). Also the inside of the hotel is of a high standard. Here is an impression.
As I had stayed here several times before, everything was very familiar. I was happy to find out, that the bag I had left here for safe keeping, three weeks ago, was still there.
I checked into my room, called home to chat a bit with Shiqi and Mylène, then took out a book and went outside to enjoy the evening sun in the park beside the West Lake. All is fine!
I bought some stuff during the weekend, with which we can survive during the time before the sea container arrives: a mattress, a garden table plus four chairs, two cocktail chairs with a matching glass table, a telephone, and some smaller items (plate, cutlery, cup, pans, knife, etc.). 
