Details of Life December 1999

Having been here a month, I had a chance to experience the range of delight and frustration. I still really like it here. I can feel the opportunity surging through every aspect of life in this, China's largest city. I am from Seattle, and, as such, am used to city living and big city problems.

There are very interesting paradoxes - you can get on the new freeway (Yan'an Viaduct) and largely the traffic clips along fairly quickly at 50 or so Kph. By contrast, Seattle's 4 lane southbound I5 into downtown can get backed up for miles on a normal Sunday afternoon. I guess that is because the expense of owning a car here is so much that the average person simply cannot afford it. Licensing costs as much or more than the cost of the actual car. Mass transit - buses and subway (1 to 3 RMB or 12 to 36 cents) is heavily used. There is also massive bicycle traffic at any time of day. Taxis are cheap enough that I can get just about anywhere in Shanghai I need to go. It is great not to own or need a car.

Life has been good and it has been interesting to say the least. I am in dim sum heaven here. I am a big mooncake and dumpling fan and they have the best I have ever eaten. If you are vegetarian all the stores have at least a dozen different kinds of soy bean/tofu products. Soy milk is the norm and is on the shelf as much or more than dairy type milk. The norm, however, is for Chinese to eat a broad range of meat products. Seafood is very fresh, shrimp are huge and usually bought live, pork is standard fare, and chicken is readily available. Meat tastes different here, better I think - perhaps as result of less industrial/chemical/hormonal additives and more free-range approach to growing livestock. Vegetables are very cheap and the variety is HUGE. Everyone tells you to wash the vegetables and fruit really well due to heavy use of pesticides. SO, WASH YOUR VEGETABLES! No one in the regular market talks about organic anything yet - but I see signs of people becoming aware. We bought 6 large Golden Delicious apples for about 37 cents (3 RMB) - 2 large grocery bags of stuff including bread, noodles, eggs, milk and some meat for less than $7. Rice and noodles are staples which is fine with me.

There are some things I had to get used to - and some things I am still getting used to, but the telling fact is that I only have gone to a local "American style" restaurant for pizza once in the month I have been here. Other than good coffee in the morning and an occasional brownie or croissant, I have the same things most Chinese eat and feel like I am eating better than ever!