The Middle Kingdom

I passed my driver’s license test today. I got a 91% (you need 90 to pass). The test is composed of 100 questions chosen randomly from a pool of some 1000+. I used the China Drive iPhone app for studying. The thing that everyone talks about with the test is some of the ridiculous questions, so instead of a regular post today, I thought I would post some of my favorite questions from the study booklet. I will be including more of the fun questions in the Beijing Driver’s License eBook that I’m putting together for other China-drivers-to-be. (The eBook should be done in a week or two.) Here are seven of my favorite questions. The answers and my comments are at the bottom.

QUESTIONS:

1: When a vehicle overturns slowly and jumping out of the vehicle is possible, the driver should jump_____?
a. In the driving direction
b. In the overturning direction
c. In the opposite direction of the overturn
d. To the overturning side

2. When the driver senses he will inevitably be thrown out of the vehicle, he should violently straighten both his legs to increase the force of being thrown out and jump out of the vehicle. True or False?

3. When a head-on collision is unavoidable, the driver should free the steering wheel, raise the legs and lie sideward on the right seat at the moment of the head-on collision. This can ensure his body is not stuck by the steering wheel. True or False?

4. After a vehicle falls into water the wrong method for the driver to rescue himself is to ______?
a. Close the window to prevent water from flowing into the vehicle
b. Immediately use hand to open door
c. Let the water to fill up the driver’s cab so that the water pressure both inside and outside is equal
d. Use a large plastic bag to cover the head and tight the neck closely

5. When putting out a fire disaster that gives out erosive steam or poisonous gas, the firefighters should wear gas masks and other related protective articles and should operate from the windward side. True or False?

6. If a wounded person is breathless, it is necessary to immediately conduct mouth-to-mouth artificial respiration. True or False?

7. When a vehicle rolls continuously to a deep ditch, the driver should swiftly hide his body to the lower space in front of his seat, hold _______ to stabilize his body so that his body will not roll and get hurt.
a. The pedal
b. The steering column
c. The steering wheel
d. The gear lever

ANSWERS:

1. c. In the opposite direction of the overturn. So there are appropriate times to jump out a moving vehicle? If you must jump, PLEASE jump away from the direction that your car is overturning as to avoid being crushed; the alternative is terribly counter-productive.

2. True. Do you know anyone who has ever sensed that they were going to be thrown from a moving vehicle? I was under the impression that it sort of just happens.

3. True. If you have time to do all of that, the head-on collision was avoidable.

4. a. Close the window to prevent water from flowing into the vehicle. So covering your head with a plastic bag and “tighting the neck closely” is a good idea?

5. True. That seems like pretty solid advice… for a firefighter. Why is this question on the driver’s license test?

6. True. Girl: “Despite my injured arm, the sunset through the smoke of our burning car is so beautiful it takes my breath away.”
Guy (rushing over to her): Don’t worry; I know CPR!

7. Honestly the answer to this question is not really important because there are so many problems with this question before you even get to the answers. I will list three. 1) Continuously rolling? Has your car entered an abyss that leads to hell? How continuous can a roll be? It’s got to stop pretty soon. 2) Don’t the laws of physics sort of prohibit you from being able to “hide yourself” in the pedal well while you’re “continuously rolling”? 3) This whole thing is obviously assuming you are not wearing a seat-belt, and I know for a fact that other questions in this book said the driver should wear a seat-belt. (By the way, the answer is b. The steering column.)

Honey Ginger and Grapefruit Goo (photo by Paul Stallings)

One of the things that is incredibly rewarding about the expat experience is finding products unique to China that you love. As I find these, I’ll be sharing them with you. There’s my first.

Honey Ginger Tea

This jar of goo looks a bit odd, and I would never have pegged it as tea except that several friends had shown me grapefruit tea of the same makeup: goo and fruit slices in a jar. You take a bit of the goo, add hot water, and suddenly you have a very tasty tea. Now, the ginger one I’m currently enjoying isn’t for everyone; it’s quite strong. But being an extreme ginger lover, I have found it particularly delicious this week as I’ve been fighting a cold. What better to drink than hot water with honey and ginger?

The great thing about this goo is that it also makes a great topping for chicken. Again, this recipe is not for the faint-ginger-hearted; it was too strong in the ginger department for my husband. But I found it delicious and amazingly easy. Here’s the gist:

This technique is based on a recipe I absolutely love for apricot-glazed pork, found here on the Hidden Valley website. You simply bread some boneless chicken (I cut them into medium-sized chunks) with bread crumbs and (optionally) some seasoning (I like ranch seasoning). Then, put the meat in an appropriately-sized pan, spoon some of the honey ginger goo over the top, and bake until the meat is cooked through (for chicken, I usually bake it for about 30 minutes). The result is a gingery sauce covering the meat. Serve with some mashed potatoes and vegetables, both of which will also taste delightful in the sauce.

I know, the recipe lacks specific details, but that’s because giving you temperatures and times will probably not help; if you’re living in China, you’re probably baking in a small-ish toaster oven or at least using an oven that is less-than-predictable when it comes to temperature and time anyway. Experiment a bit with it; that’s how I figured it out in the first place. Or, if you’re feeling extra-adventurous, try the recipe with the grapefruit goo or another tea goo that you find at your local grocery store. Post your variations and let me know how your ginger chicken turns out!

Bike thievery is not as much of a problem over here on the east side or Beijing as it is in other parts of the city, but the truth is if there are bikes there are bike thieves. Especially if you decide to buy a nicer bike it’s important to take measures to keep it safe. Also new bikes are the most likely to be targeted. Check out the post today over at Chengdu Living titled 5 Steps to Prevent Your Bike From Being Stolen for some good common sense tips.

It’s hard to decide to pick up and move overseas. The thing that makes change hard is fear, specifically fear of the unknown. We like things that are predictable. It’s the reason that Starbucks is much more appealing to me in China than it is in America. Everywhere in the world, Starbucks stores have the same green and brown color scheme and the clean, modern atmosphere. It’s familiar and it reminds me of America, which is comforting. When I go to Starbucks in America it reminds me of mediocre coffee and how I wish I was at Caribou Coffee.

To westerners, China is the epitome of the great unknown. We worry about what to bring with us, what won’t we have access to, what we’re going to have to give up, and what we’ll have to do without,  and it starts to make living overseas seem like a big sacrifice. Usually it’s little things (like our favorite brands of shampoo or Taco Bell) that we miss, but really, giving up those sorts of things isn’t that hard. The great thing about moving to China is that when you get here you start to find things you love that you don’t have access to in your home country.

This is my list of things that I love that I couldn’t have if I lived in America:

1. An Electric Bicycle. I love riding my e-bike to work and around the city in the summer time. I love that it’s quiet and fast (comparatively) and that when I get to work I’m not all sweaty like I used to be when I rode my regular bike.
2. Hot/Cold Water Dispenser. Everyone here uses large Culligan-style water jugs for their drinking water. We’ve got a great dispenser that dispenses cold water for drinking or hot water for tea, both of which are already on-tap 24/7.*
3. Gong Bao Ji Ding (Kung Pow Chicken—the real stuff). There are a lot of different food dishes that I could name, but truly I have never found authentically-good gong bao in America, and when I lived there I constantly craved it.
4. Watson-Brand Ginger Ale. When I was growing up, I thought ginger ale was just another name for Sprite, but when I tasted Watson’s Ginger Ale, I realized I had been deceived. Let me just say that ginger ale should taste like ginger. Shame on you, Canada Dry.**
5. No sales tax or tipping. No offense to restaurant servers—you guys work hard and deserve the tips that you earn, no question—but I love being able to walk into a restaurant here, look at the menu, see that my guacamole caesar steak wrap is going to be 52 RMB, and know that when I leave, I will have spent 52 RMB (plus 12RMB for my Watson’s Ginger Ale). No tax, no tip—just the price on the menu.

You’re always going to miss out of some of things that you loved about wherever you used to live, but you’ll gain new things wherever you end up. It just takes some faith to go and trust that there will be good things when you arrive, even if you don’t know what those things are yet.

For those of you who live in or have lived in China, what’s the best perk to life here?

*I know you can get water dispensers like that in the States, too, but I think if the tap water is drinkable, it’s an unnecessary luxury.

** I know that there are good ginger ales available in America, but here you can get Watson’s Ginger Ale at most restaurants that have any significant foreign patronage.

A brand new development at TaiYangGong in Beijing.

In April I went out looking at apartments thinking that maybe we could find something closer to a subway stop or something just a little nicer. There are hundreds of new housing complexes that have recently been finished and hundreds more currently under construction. Currently it may be as high as 1 in 4 urban housing units are empty. Common sense told me that if there is so much supply out there prices should be pretty reasonable.  Think again.
Everything I looked at that was in or slightly above our current rent was smaller and most of them were not as nice. What I couldn’t figure out was why is everything so expensive if there are so many vacant apartments? Here’s are some great graphics showing the state of the housing market in Beijing.

Michael Kurtz at The Wall Street Journal wrote an article recently shedding some possible light on the situation. He says it’s not a bubble, but it’s still a problem. He gives the following reasons for why the Chinese housing market is acting like it is:

1. Low interest rates at Chinese banks. The Chinese government owns and operates the banks and only offers low 2.3% interest rates, which is below the 3.0% inflation rate. Essentially, putting money in a bank account in China results in a net loss.
2. High growth in the Chinese housing market. The nationwide housing index has been rising at a consistent rate of 10% every year since 2001.
3. Low incentive to rent out an apartment. There are no property taxes so the cost of owning an unrented, empty apartment is basically nothing. 10% percent capital gains per year, minus the hassle of dealing with tenants can be pretty appealing.
4. Few other investment opportunities for a typical Chinese family. A middle income Chinese family doesn’t have access to foreign markets so real estate might be the only place to invest savings.
5. A preference for tangible assets. Even when Chinese people do have access to stock options or other financial instruments, there is more perceived risk in putting your money into something intangible like that. A Chinese family which probably has no experience with complicated financial options, and plus there is a history of power shifts in China and maybe the are worried about the possibility of their wealth being simply confiscated or stolen from them in some way.

Essentially there is demand for “houses” but not necessarily “housing.” The reason Kurtz says it’s not a “bubble” is that there is no reason to believe that demand will slow until China starts opening up other investment options for it’s people. He calls it a “supply overhang (that) inhibits economic restructuring.”

The only way currently that the Chinese government gets money from home/apartment owners is by selling land to developers who then sell the units to individuals. There is no ongoing access to funds in the form of property taxes, only from continual new development. If it slows development that source of income drys up.

This week one of my favorite blog/podcasts, NPR’s Planet Money, had a story that China has begun conducting stress tests of their banks to see if they could handle a drop in prices of up to 60%. The Chinese government may soon start taking measures to fix the problem, and it could result in a sudden drop in prices. One solution may be to institute a property tax so there is more incentive to rent out empty apartments, another option would be to raise interest rates so that putting savings into the bank is more appealing, and the third would be to allow greater access to overseas investment for the typical Chinese individual. Kurtz says none of the reforms are terribly appealing to the government, so the cycle continues.

As for would be renters searching for an apartment, they are hoping something happens soon so they can continue to afford to live inside 6th ring road.