Yuxi City Limits
August 19, 2013 by 5 Comments
I wish the weather had been better, but a promise is a promise, even to oneself. I was out the door at 9:15 this morning and headed north for the Yuxi city limits on the Mikey Bike. Yuxi is not a big city, so after only about twenty minutes of riding I was out in the near-countryside.
I was still very much in sight of the city, but the immediate scenery was quite different.
I passed by various kinds of housing, ranging from older brick row houses to more recent construction that had an almost suburban feel.
There was even a new upscale development, complete with garages. There were hundreds of units here, and from the look of things only a dozen or so were occupied.
As I continued on, the pavement turned to red clay and rocks and the scenery turned to abandoned industrial plants and derelict housing. I spent a lot of time poking around the ruins.
There were some operational sand and gravel plants, but they were also old and pretty beat.
I caught one of the workers doing bong hits on the job.
People around there were curious but friendly. Two times when people saw me dismount the bike, they came over and asked me if I needed help. I wanted to go on, but I was worried about the Mikey Bike’s tires. They are old and almost bald and I feared getting a flat on the increasingly rough gravel road. Things got pretty muddy and slippery, too.
I decided, reluctantly, not go on. I didn’t get nearly as far as I’d hoped. I made it to this point, turned around, and headed home.
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Later today, I am heading back to Yuxi Bike to get some new and more robust tires. There will be other journeys.
The Mikey Bike, Phase 1
August 16, 2013 by 3 Comments
I stripped off the old, mangled, rusty handlebars and replaced them with a new set. Since the old brakes were barely functional, I also replaced the brake levers, cables and pads with new Shimano components. Some nice handgrips completed the work.
I did the headset work myself, but the brake work was done by Sunny at Yuxi Bike–and his wife, Janice, sold me the parts. They do great work and speak English, so I will definitely be going back soon. Hoping to take a ride out past the Yuxi city limits on Monday.
Qixi Night in Yuxi
August 13, 2013 by 3 Comments
Today was Qixi, which is sometimes called Chinese Valentine’s Day. I didn’t celebrate it myself, but I enjoyed seeing others partake.
After dinner, I went to tutor my private tutoring clients, Nina, Rachel and Jenny.
It was after 10:00 when we finished. I walked down the long alley that connects the development where they live to the main road.
This put me directly across from Yuxi People’s Hospital, where all three of my clients work. This hospital’s most famous patient was a man who came in complaining of persistent headaches. Xrays revealed that he had a 10cm knife blade stuck in his brain from a robbery which had occurred four years earlier. Tough town, Yuxi. The blade was successfully removed. I walked through the hospital complex.
In a case of life imitating signage, I passed by the ER entrance just as an ambulance was discharging a patient who appeared to have been seriously injured.
I then cut through old town, which was jammed with people celebrating Qixi. Love was in the air and on the streets. I saw many couples walking with their arms around each other. Vendors were doing a brisk business in balloons, flowers, and baked goods.
Finally I came to the corner of my street where the red convenience store has served as my home landmark for the last eight weeks.
And so, to all my friends back in the States, for whom it is still Tuesday, Happy Qixi to you.
The Famous Laowai of Zhuge East Road
August 12, 2013 by 1 Comment
Back in the US when I was training for Ride the Rockies, I used to get massages once a month or so. I fell out of the habit about a year and a half ago. But since there are several massage parlors right outside my apartment on Zhuge East Road, I decided that I would see what Chinese foot massage was all about.
I stood at the doorway to one establishment. Two women, one young and one older, enthusiastically beckoned me in. When I set foot inside, there was much excited chatter and giggling. They asked me which one of them I wanted to massage me. I chose the younger one; the older one looked positively beefy and I feared she would maim me.
The younger woman, who told me her English name was Emma, led me into a room which had two reclining chairs. I sat down on one, removed my shoes and socks, and rolled up my jeans. Emma put a plastic liner inside a shallow wooden bucket and filled it halfway with warm water. She then mixed in a powder which I think was mostly cinnamon. I gently plopped my feet in. It felt nice–warm and very slightly tingly.
Another guy came in, sat on the other recliner, pulled off his sandals, and smoked a cigarette. Not my idea of a relaxing massage environment, but when in China….
As my feet soaked, Emma moved around in back of the chair and began massaging my scalp, face, neck and shoulders. This was interrupted many times as she sent and received texts on her cell phone. I eventually realized that she was texting a service that translates Chinese into English.
Through this cumbersome method, she asked me where I was from and what I was doing in Yuxi. Then she asked if she could take my picture. Sure, why not? She took several photos of me with her phone and then shot some selfies of us together. She was very excited and pleased by this.
Then she said, “It would be my pleasure to go with you” and asked for my phone number. Wow. Yuxi women move fast. I smiled and said that she was very nice. I’m not sure she knew what to make of my reply–which was exactly my intention.
Emma pulled my feet out of the tub and dried them carefully. She then began massaging my feet with two different kinds of creams, one cool and watery and the other warm and oily. Then, from the next room, I heard the older woman exclaim excitedly in Chinese, “There’s a laowai (foreigner) in the next room!” Another woman came in as I was getting my massage and wanted her picture taken with me. She sat down on the recliner next to me, cuddled up, shot several pix, and went away giggling.
Emma massaged my feet some more. It felt good and I finally started to relax and close my eyes–but when I opened them, I was jolted by the sight of two more women staring at me from the doorway. Seeing that I wasn’t zoning out any more, they too asked if they could take pictures with me. Click, click, click–I thought the whole thing was hilarious. The women were all being giggly and silly and talking about how long my legs were. Then the beefy woman came in and wanted a photo too. By this time, I was still amused but was starting to feel like a cross between a movie star and a zoo animal. I grinned at Emma and pulled my hoodie over my face. She understood. I felt kind of bad for the guy in the recliner next to me. None of the women there were paying him the slightest attention.
After the foot massage, Emma asked me if I wanted a body massage as well–“my treat.” Well, sure. We went into another room where there was a massage table. I wasn’t sure what to do or to expect and asked her if I should take my clothes off. No, that was not required. I laid down on my back. My feet hung about ten inches off the end of the table. Emma then began a vigorous leg and arm massage, using her hands, elbows, knees and feet. I can’t say it was pleasant–it was too rough for that–but who knows, maybe it was just what I needed.
I put my socks and shoes back on, thanked Emma and the beefy woman, and left feeling like some kind of minor celebrity. It’s quite possible that I was the first Westerner ever to go into that shop. And by now, five different women have probably posted pictures of themselves with me all over Sina Weibo (Chinese Twitter).
My Terrible Chinese
August 12, 2013 by 4 Comments
My Chinese is so lame. When I speak with people in person, I can make myself understood with facial expressions, gestures, pantomimes, and little drawings. However, I just tried placing a phone order for a twenty-liter bottle of water to be delivered to my apartment. I think I may have accidentally ordered home delivery of twenty dessicated goat carcasses.
UPDATE: After three days of no water and no goat carcasses, I determined that the fault was less with my bad Chinese than my failure to dial the right number. This morning I called the correct office and had water (not goats) delivered thirty minutes later.
A Day of Firsts
August 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Today marked:
• The first time I have had a meal–correction, two meals–with Chinese people and only Chinese people.
• The first time I have seen a westerner, other than those I work with, in over a month.
• My first payday and first time using a Chinese ATM.
• My first Saturday classes.
• My first time wearing a shirt that had been cleaned, pressed, and starched at a real Chinese laundry.
There is much more to tell about each of these firsts, but the weekends are incredibly busy for me. Stay tuned to this channel for an update Monday or Tuesday.
The Mikey Bike
August 4, 2013 by 3 Comments
Thanks to the generosity of my soon-to-be ex-colleague Mikey, I now have a free pair of beater wheels.
I rode home from work today–a lot faster than walking. The bike just fit into the elevator with me and now it’s parked in my living room. As you can probably tell from this photo, it needs a few things: a new headset and brakes, primarily. I should be able to score the parts I need from Taobao, a Chinese online retail platform similar to eBay. Once it’s in slightly better shape, I hope to use the Mikey Bike to explore some of the more far-flung regions of Yuxi and the surrounding area. In the meantime, it will be a great way to commute.
The unwritten rules of the road are different here than in the States. Another colleague described Yuxi traffic as slow-motion chaos. It is indeed slow; I have yet to see a driver speeding. The concept of right-of-way is not at all what I am used to. Drivers think nothing of pulling out in front of other vehicles–and the drivers of those other vehicles calmly accept it. Situations that would cause severe road rage in the mildest-tempered person in the US don’t seem to cause even the slightest frustration here. Thus while riding home, I was far more worried about running into someone who might pull into the lane ahead of me than I was about being hit by a car from behind or when making a turn. And though no bicyclist wants to get into any kind of accident with a car, the slow speed of traffic here reduces the chances that such a collision would be catastrophic.
Stay tuned for Mikey Bike restoration reports.
