I had to get up early so I could be ready for my first class at 8am. My students had shown me which bus I needed to take on Monday, so I walked over to the bus stop. My bus arrived really quickly. Bus service in Zhengzhou is exceptionally frequent compared with Montreal. Zhengzhou doesn't have a subway/metro yet, but it's currently under construction with 5 routes planned in all. The central east-west line is expected to be completed in 2013 and the central north-south line will be completed in 2015. Until then, buses are a really great way to get around the city. At rush hour, certain buses are really crowded, but in general it's not too bad. It costs 1 yuan ($0.15) to ride the bus, or 0.8 yuan if you have a bus card.
When my bus arrived, I dutifully paid my 1 yuan and walked to the back of the bus for a convenient 10-minute ride to my class.
One difference I noticed immediately is that there are so many people who ride the bus that the bus driver stops at every single stop no matter if people have rung the bell or not. In fact, no one rings the bell to stop the bus ever. They also have a recorded voice system that the driver activates at every stop announcing the name of the bus stop and the name of the next stop to come, just like in Montreal's metro system. Once I finally parsed the messages the voice was saying, I have found this system a little bit annoying to listen to repetitively every couple of minutes, but highly convenient for knowing where I am. There are fewer seats and more standing room, and more of the available seats are designated seats for the old, pregnant women and people with physical disabilities.
One flash of insight into Chinese culture that I had while on my first bus ride to school was just how powerful and respected the elderly are in China. An old woman sat in one of the designated chairs for the elderly and put her bag down in an open seat next to her (not specifically designated for the elderly). A young woman with her small daughter came onto the bus at the next stop and looked at the spot with the bag in it, then raised her daughter a little bit towards the seat while looking at the elderly woman. The old woman stared her down haughtily and coldly. Totally serene, she ignored the needs of the young woman and placed her hand more firmly on her bag. Instead of getting upset at this total unreasonableness on the part of the old woman, the young mother instead looked away without a word or change of expression and brought her daughter to the back of the bus. I felt totally disgusted by the old woman's selfishness, but everyone else on the bus took it in stride and no one else offered her a seat either, so I kept my thoughts to myself.
I arrived at school and taught two classes back to back, which both went very well. At this point, I had taught all of my students for the first time and they all had a chance to "oooh" and "ahhh" at the foreigner. Some more students bought me lunch, this time in the school cafeteria. The food there was great. School cafeteria food here would be a welcome addition to any Chinese restaurant in Canada.
When I got back home, I called Felix, who Vincent had sent to me the previous day to help in getting a bicycle, but who I had to blow off at that time because of all my students.
Felix showed up and took me a few blocks west from my apartment. Tucked away between some high-rise apartment buildings were some open shelters that might charitably be called shacks. Aluminum siding surrounded the compound and a mangy guard dog growled at me as we walked through the gate. We walked through the narrow unpaved, ditch-like walkways between rows of goods for sale, dodging puddles. Most of it appeared to be second-hand junk made of metal. The shops were all open to the elements on one side, with maybe one brick wall at the back or the side and the rest made of more aluminum siding. I think their owners (or squatters, whichever the case may be) live in the shops.
Winding our way through the detritus, we eventually came to the bicycles. There wasn't a particularly large selection in the two shops that sold them, but I wasn't too concerned. I just wanted a functional bike, nothing flashy, because I knew that a good bicycle would be a target for thieves.
My choices were even more limited because most of the bikes were child-sized - perfect for Chinese women, but not so great for someone as tall as me. Even so, there were a few choices, and I tried riding two or three bikes. One of the bikes was too flashy. I felt it would be a target. Another one was a lot more basic, but the brakes didn't work well. So I ended up taking the third bike. We negotiated the price down to 158rmb for a bike, a basket and two bicycle locks. I've been told this was an incredible deal.
Well, I think it was incredible for the very good reason that I believe those bike sellers were fences - dealers in stolen goods. Of course this occurred to me only after buying the bike. Sigh.
After bringing the bike back to my hotel, I dutifully lined my bike with all the other bikes. This city is filled with bikes. There are far, far more bicycles and scooters here than cars, and the number of cars is already comparable to the number of cars in Canada. It's not unusual to see an ocean of bicycles at every major residential and commercial area. There are so many bicycles that you can almost rely on the sheer enormity of the number of bikes to just leave your bike alone and unlocked on the street. I say almost because bikes do get stolen here, regularly.
I leave my bike within view of a gate guard at my hotel, hoping that may deter thieves over time. The thing is, in Zhengzhou, no one locks their bicycles to anything. They lock the wheels so the bike can't roll, but there are no bike racks or poles that you tie up to. Your bike just sits on the street, ready to be carried off. You just have to hope that your bike isn't the one that the thief chooses.
Next, Felix wanted to hang out and improve his English some more. He revealed that Vincent didn't actually know Felix except by reputation for English excellence, since Felix had recently taken part in a provincial English speaking competition.
Felix took me to downtown Zhengzhou for my first foray beyond the immediate neighbourhood. I'll talk about downtown a little more thoroughly in another post. This first time downtown, Felix took me to one of the many, many malls that dot the city centre and I noticed something very interesting. All the names of the shops were in English.
I asked Felix: "Why is everything in English? You don't really speak English here."
He said: "If the sign has English writing on it, Chinese people will think it is better."
I used this as an example of monopolistic competition in my next lesson.
Felix and I took the bus to get back, and I turned in early once again, so I could finish writing my lesson plan early the following morning.
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