Life in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province

This is it! This is the definitive statement that we are alive and well and covered in coal dust in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China. The WHO has lifted the Travel Advisory Warning for Shanxi, so we are no longer on the "endangered species" list and life is slowly crawling back to it's normal snails' pace as the masks come off, the temperature heats up, and Shanxi Summer gets ready to attack with a vengeance.

If you are geographically challenged, and really want to know where we are, find a map of China, locate Beijing, and look at about 8 pm for an inch or two (depending on the scale). We're 45 minutes by plane WSW of Beijing, a 10-hour overnight train ride, or 7-hour bus ride. We've done all three, plane is best and bus is cheapest. Shanxi is the coal dust producing capital of China and it all blows into my apartment, no matter how tightly the doors and windows are closed and the cracks plugged. Taiyuan is a small metropolis by Chinese standards, about 3,000,000 people but it's quite clean, the roads are not clogged like Beijing or Shanghai and there is much less chance of getting whacked by a bicycle than either of the above. We've found a number of big supermarkets that sell everything you could want except bread, butter, cheese or any other milk product, no pasta or salad dressing, but boy, can you find "preserved vegetables" and Shanxi vinegar, indisputably the best in the world (if you're into vinegar at all). In Hubei they used to make me drink that horrible Chinese white wine (gasoline tastes better) at business dinners; here they gulp down little bowls of vinegar. A different way to get pickled, I guess.

We abandoned Beijing on May 25th, after hiding out from the SARS globs for more than a month, and took the train to Taiyuan packing everything we could carry. The rest we sent ahead by truck, and to my great surprise everything arrived in one day, and in one piece except for the broken stuff. We also arrived, bent but not broken, and were immediately threatened with quarantine having come from the #1 SARS capital of the world (Shanxi was #3 at the time). Fortunately, some of the medical staff at the train station had never seen a foreigner so they decided I didn't have to go and my traveling companions were spared as well. I made more friends in 10 minutes than I had in the previous 7 years in China! A whole tribe of us walked through the checkpoint, arm in arm, chatting and laughing. Then presto! Alone again with the dust as everybody scattered in all directions at top speed.

The apartment I rented during an earlier trip in April has turned out to be not quite the palace we wanted, but met the original search criteria of close to the office, inexpensive and furnished. Nothing quite works, and the electrical system is a nightmare, making each day a joyful adventure in the unexpected. A friend of Lin's and colleague from earlier days, Vera Ren, decided in March to resign her old job and join us in Taiyuan and spent a couple of months with us in Beijing preparing for the new job. Although she had come with me in April and helped choose the apartment, she didn't quite handle the transition to Taiyuan and never really unpacked her bags after spending a couple of days cleaning her room. She resigned on Thursday and left on Saturday, so didn't make the week. The water hose feeding the washing machine is not tight, so you can wash the clothes and shower at the same time, very efficient when you think about it. I found the easiest way to clean the floor is to walk around in my socks, but then you subsequently need to thrice-wash the socks in the washing machine and who needs that many showers a day. The place comes with a TV, and is connected to cable. Unfortunately, the TV is so old that it has no provision for VHS, VCD or DVD so I may never get to watch my collection of James Bond movies again. The cable selection is very convenient though - there are 46 channels to choose from (all Chinese so no excuses for not practicing my Mandarin) and they have conveniently arranged it so 32 channels have the same program and the rest static and waves, which makes switching channels very easy. The 24-hour hot water is available from 7 - 9 am and 7 - 11 pm but cold water is available all day except when the roof tank runs dry.

The beds! Imagine the hardest thing you have ever slept on (or tried to sleep on). The landlady razzle-dazzled me during the first visit by lifting up the mattress and showing me the storage place under the bed. I was so busy trying to figure out who or what you would actually PUT there that I never tested the bed. It's hard. Rock hard. Like sleeping on a wooden board, which in fact it is, covered with a 1.5 inch (yes, one point five) piece of foam rubber. I'm actually getting used it though, as I never sleep on my side anyway, and for some reason, I snore less. Maybe harder to breathe?

I've lost about 15 pounds since moving to Taiyuan, which has helped my blood pressure and enables me to fit into some of my pants again which I need to wear to work. Drinking less coffee since there is no hot water at the office, and eating less food as the kitchen in the apartment is virtually unusable. We do eat one meal a day in the cafeteria on the 23rd floor of the office building. It's a full course meal for RMB5 (less than US$0.75) and they change the menu once/year, on June 1st, so we've actually had two different kinds of meals since we arrived. The good thing is, there is no anticipation or worry as to whether you will like the food that day. Also smoking less - the counterfeit version of my favorite Beijing cigarette doesn't burn, so as soon as you stop sucking it goes out. You can stretch a butt through three, maybe four, smoke attacks. The apartment is a 15-minute walk from the office, so at least I get a half-hour walk every day. It's fun when it rains, which is pretty much every afternoon.

We set up the new UK office during the first week, while Vera was still here, and I think we have the nicest looking and best-organized sector within the overall office. If there is any doubt as to what we are doing, a brief explanation follows. We bought into a legally licensed study abroad agency in order to set up a new United Kingdom and Ireland Department. The agency was originally licensed in July 2000 and most of the students they have advised went to Australia and New Zealand. The UK is very user-friendly for students, whereas Canada and the USA are horribly bad and getting a student visa (maybe 20% approval rate) takes four months. Anyway, we work with the students to develop a study plan for different stages - language training, high school, and undergraduate or postgraduate university. Almost all students need language training, and maybe 60% of our clients are for one-year postgraduate studies. We earn money from the student by charging a service fee (payable only if the study visa is approved) and in some cases, commission from the schools. We work 7 days a week, from about 9 am till 7 pm or later, so not much time left for getting around Taiyuan and locating the "hot spots" for R&R. Based on earlier reports from friends in Shanghai and Beijing, there are no "hot spots" to find, but the 10 foreigners in Shanxi Province have to go SOMEWHERE for a warm beer now and then.

Business has been slow (some would say totally dead but I don't want to sound pessimistic) but we have hopes that, with the abatement of SARS and return to normalcy, things will pick up. As somebody famous once said: "When you're at rock bottom, and you got no drill, the only way out is up." Or something like that.

That's it for now. I will do this again from time to time and keep you informed on our progress and success with the new business. As the famous coach Matt Mann used to say to his swimmers: "When the tough get going, the going gets tough." As my Chinese friends point out:

"Wan shi kai tou nan. Jian chi jiu shi sheng li." I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I know it's not chopped suey or broccoli and beef.

Regards, hugs and kisses, love, whichever applies Ted/Dad/Uncle

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Published on 7/4/03