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crazy swimming pool...does my entry fee go to buy a BMW?

Discussions on living in China, culture shock, locals and expats, and all things related.

crazy swimming pool...does my entry fee go to buy a BMW?

Postby shanghaisimmo » Sun Jul 18, 2004 9:53 pm

I took my first swim at East China Normal University on-campus swimming pool about a week ago and no one there had any traffic sense.

I collided at full speed with an oncoming swimmer and lucky we weren't hurt...just bruised....plus the lifeguards didn't even notice...about eight of them sitting on high viewing towers. Everywhere below these guys, people in the deep end were trying to swim laps but some people chose to swim the length ways of the deep end and others side to side.

I couldn't work out this mess and started to wonder if the guards were really there to quell unrest amongst those who sought to get angry over the stupid pool arrangement...therefore no-one got angry and they just kept swimming, stopping or colliding, and going on.

This is so inefficient...surely my 10RMB entry fee could be used to install lanes side to side of the deep end...I calculated that there were proabably 150 people there at that time....1500RMB...times that for visitors everyday and it will be something like 10,000RMB...300,000RMB per month. Why was the water also so dirty?

This fee is similar to that in my home country. Is it this high in China because the pool is not local council subsidised i.e. it is full user pays?

Or are the entry fees being channelled into the director's new flash, 300,000RMB +, BMW savings fund?
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Postby Andreas » Mon Jul 19, 2004 3:30 am

Welcome to the P.R.C. which translates to the Peoples Republic of Cheats
‘How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.’
- Sir Arthur C. Clarke
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Postby lucar » Mon Jul 19, 2004 12:36 pm

Sounds like Europe. I had the same experiences in Italy and Austria. ...No lane lines, crazy behavior. I was always worried that one of the other swimmers would wind up with a spinal injury due to a nasty collision or being jumped upon.

Tip... Swim with hard plastic training paddles and put a bottle cap between your big toe and the adjacent one. You can always slice your way across the pool. On a more serious note...I would scan the water constantly and would swim with my head and eyes up a little higher than usual. I would also give a hard kick or punch into the water to creat a splash in the face of anyone who got too close to me. If there are people playing on the edge of the pool in or out of the water you can make a huge splash when you flip.
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Postby Edgewood » Sun Jul 25, 2004 11:31 am

I know the place you mean. All I can say is take at look at 'personal hygeine' here in this place, then imagine thousands of 'people' washing and relieving themselves and God-only knows what else, all in a pool of foetid water.

Invest in a holiday to the seaside in a civilised country is my advice.
I thought about how mothers feed their babies with tiny little spoons and forks so I wondered, what do Chinese mothers use? A pair of toothpicks?
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Postby karnex420 » Wed Jul 28, 2004 7:32 pm

No wonder why Chinese people get so pissed off at you.
Trouble is when someone says something really dirty, it's usually the next guy that get's punched. Why don't you guys just be quiet and clean your own cesspool?
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Postby Rogi » Thu Jul 29, 2004 9:29 pm

karnex420 wrote:don't you guys just be quiet and clean your own cesspool?


Wow a real e-toughguy :roll:
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