Furniture arrived!

The past week has been very busy again. But for a good reason: our furniture has finally arrived! One week ago, on Sunday, the moving company 'Asian tigers' came with a crew of eight to our house. They unloaded the container, put all the boxes in the right rooms, and helped us installing some shelves and closets. On Sunday, they were busy all day, and on Monday during the morning as well. After that, they went back to Guangzhou (by bus!!) and with that, for us, the moving had been completed! All in all, the whole moving took 62 days: 2 days packing in Warburg, 32 days on the way from Warburg to Fuzhou, around 26 days for paperwork and customs clearance (including some delay due to the Xmas holidays), and 2 days unpacking in Fuzhou.

Needless to say we are very happy to finally have our belongings with us again. Most of the stuff was transfered without damage, but sadly, some of our favourite pieces did not make it unharmed. Nothing really serious, though.

I will add some pictures to this post, when I find the time.

Update
On the day our furniture arrived in Fuzhou, I made a few recordings of the moving activities. Here's a short summary of it. It's quite nice to see Shiqi, directing the movers, and Mylène observing the scene carefully. Also note the shoes that the movers politely took off on this rainy day.

Chinese driving license

Studying the Fuzhou and Chinese traffic regulations took up most of my free time, last week. If you want to drive in China, you will have to get the Chinese driving license. This requires doing a test regarding knowledge about traffic regulations, just like the locals have to do. The usual practical exam is not required if you show a valid driving license from your home country.
Before, it was an easy job for the foreigners. As the tests were only available in Chinese, they were allowed to bring an 'assistent' who could read Chinese. So, practically, this assistent would do the test and the foreigners would just sit there. Sadly though, for me, an English test is available now as well. So, I was not allowed to bring an assitent and had to do the test myself.

Upon registration (which takes two visits: one for a 'physical test' (nothing more than distinguishing some numbers on a paper with coloured dots), and one for making an electronic fingerprint) you get a booklet with 776 questions in English, and on the day of the test, a computer will ask 100 of these, randomly selected. It was quite a lot of work to study all these questions!! Most of the general rules were the same as in Europe, but also many are different, like the rules on speed and vehicle dimension limits. And then there is a section with 'basic vehicle knowledge' that contains questions that are even hard to answer by car mechanics.
There are also funny questions, like this one:

'-On summer nights pay attention to both sides of the road, the bank, and ------ enjoying the cool on the bridge, to avoid causing injury.
a. vehicles
b. people at repose
c. sundries'

or this one:
'In case the car falls into water out of expectation, ------ and flee for life.
a. open the door and leap out
b. open the door and swim out after the car stands still
c. kick off the glass window and swif out after the car stands still'

Another compicating factor is that the English is often far from correct and at places hardly understandable. Luckily, the computer test is a 1:1 copy of the questions in the book, so if you just learn which answer belongs to which question, all is fine.

The event itself was quite typical for China, I felt. First of all, there were many many people sitting in the waiting area before the beginning of the test, studying and discussing while smoking and spitting on the floor. I took a snapshot with my phone camera while waiting. About ten minutes after the scheduled time, a policeman announced that the test would soon start, that everyone was requested to remain seated, just like in an airplane after landing, until your name was called. And, just like in an airplane after landing, everyone jumped up immediately and ran to the door that gave access to the computer room. This caused some commotion and it needed some shouting and threatening (I assume) by the policeman to get most of the participants seated again for a minute or so.
Once in the computer room, with at least a hundred PCs, the whole thing went very smoothly. The PCs were ready to be used. I only had to put my finger on the fingerprint scanner for identification, and the correct (English) test appeared. I filled out the test, the result appeared immediately, I could leave the room after signing the already printed copy of the results. Very well implemented!!

Again, an interesting experience. And luckily for me, also a good experience, as I passed the test! In one week I can pick up my Chinese driving license and participate in Fuzhou's traffic jungle.

Xmas & New Year

Some people have asked me if Xmas and New Year is celebrated in China as well. Before I came here I did not really know.
For sure, these festivities are traditionally not celebrated in China, but with the embracing of the globalisation by the Chinese I expected that it would have at least been partly adopted.

Right now, Xmas and New Year lie behind us, and I can say a bit more about it now.

Well before Xmas, you could see quite a lot of decoration in the city. Some people even bought a Xmas tree. The decorations were in Chinese style of course, meaning lots of different colours, flickering lights, and electronic Xmas songs integrated in all pieces of decoration. As I wrote before, the Shangrila hotel was especially nicely decorated. All in all, enough to think that Xmas is celebrated in China on large scale as well.

This, however, is not yet the case. Xmas is not an official holiday in China, and practically everybody is going to work. Asking my colleagues who did something special during Xmas, most of them answered ‘nothing special’. Yet, there are quite a few Christians in Fuzhou who do celebrate. So, Xmas really seems to be a mostly religious event here, other than in Europe, where Xmas has more and more developed into a traditional family get-together.

Also the New Year on 31 December is not celebrated by many people. The Chinese traditionally celebrate the new year according to the moon calendar. The beginning of the lunar new year is the time for the Spring Festival, during which most Chinese return to their home towns to celebrate with their families. This is the most important yearly celebration in China, in which practically everyone takes place. Because so many people work in other places than their home towns, travelling during this period of time is usually a horror. This year, it is expected that over 150 million people will be travelling by train.

Therefore, on the 31 December relatively few people celebrate extensively. Even in Shanghai, there was nothing like the New Year’s eve as we know it from Europe. We did feel like doing something, but had a hard time finding a good location and some friends to accompany us. There were some parties, but only in several bars and clubs. Of course, the uptown foreigner hangout in Shanghai, Xin Tian Di, did throw a party. But for an entrance fee of 600 RMB (60 Euro), no drinks included, and no special organised entertainment, this was hardly an attractive option. In the end, we did find two friends of Shiqi willing to join us, and one of them had arranged tickets in a club (150 RMB entrance fee, including two Bacardi Breezers). We had a very nice evening. The atmosphere was super, the entertainment very nice, and the company excellent. A shame we couldn’t stay a bit longer … at five minutes past twelve we had to go home again quickly, as Mylène woke up and had started to cry.

Apparently she also wanted some attention on this New Year’s eve in Shanhai. How right she was.