I’m sitting here in the bar at the airport Hilton in Narita (Tokyo) with a cold glass of chardonnay in hand writing this little post and waiting on a real hamburger and fries for dinner! I’m on the return trip back from a week in Qingdao and Weifang, China. These two cities are not that large by Chinese standards. Qingdao is about 10 million and Weifang is “only” about 9.5 million. Shandong Province, where they are both located, has a population of about 100 million. Just think, one province is one third the size of the US population, and this is not even a tourist sort of area. I don’t think most Americans have any concept of the sheer magnitude of the population in China, over four times the population of the US!

On a side note, when I went through Customs in Japan, I, of course, have to get the Customs agent from you-know-where looking for a big drug bust or something! You have to watch out for those little old American Grandmas! He was most intrigued that I have a Nigerian visa in my passport. “When did you go to Nigeria?” “Well, I haven’t been yet.” Quizzical look. “I’m going later this year.” “Why are you going to Nigeria?” What I said, “I develop hospitals in countries like that.” What I thought, “Good question, beats the f**k out of me!” “Why did you go to China?” “We’re working on some hospital projects in China.” Needless to say, I didn’t even mention that this was my new passport; I had been to Nigeria multiple times on my old passport. No way was I going to open up that line of discussion.

Then he drags out the picture book. You gotta be kidding me! Drugs, “No” (Yeah, two kilos in my dirty underwear!). Guns, “No” (Sure, right there under my moisturizer and my eye cream!). Bunch of other pictures. Not even sure what they were supposed to be, but “No, no, no.” You can’t trust the old grannies, so he had better check my bags. Now the Chinese are wonderful gift givers so my two suitcases are stuffed to the brim. I actually bought the second one at the airport in Qingdao just to get everything stuffed in! (It’s a really cute German-made carry-on, but I digress.) Everything is in just right. It is sort of like a rubric’s cube; it only goes together one way.

I have two Chinese kites for the grandkids in the wonderful, decorated gift boxes and gift bags that the Chinese are known for. Weifang is known as the kite capital of China.  “What’s this?” “A kite for my grandson.” I have two of them, identical boxes and identical bags. “What’s this?” Oh God, here we go again! “That’s a kite for my other grandson.” Well, duh, how did you ever get this job? Finally, he lets me go. I am sure he was disappointed to the tenth degree about not being able to score a bust. I, on the other hand, was thoroughly irked and had to totally do some serious repacking right in the middle of the airport!

Back to China, this is an affluent, booming economy! China’s goal is to become the number one economy in the world, and they are well on the way. Now that they have their economy rolling along, they are actually focusing on the environment, pollution, etc. Some of the things I always note in foreign countries are the automobiles on the road, how new, how old, makes and models. I saw very few old rattletraps. Most of the cars are quite new. There were lots of new Toyotas and Nissans, plus plenty of Mercedes and BMW’s.   Japan must be doing a booming business in China these days. Traffic is about like Los Angeles on a bad day, but on the whole the drivers seem to be more polite than their American counterparts.

Everything is new and bustling with construction cranes everywhere.  Most of the buildings are the same height.  I learned that this is because much of the construction is poured concrete, and maximum number of floors is about 32.  Taller building call for a steel infrastructure.

Every time I have been to China, it has been a non-stop whirlwind of activity. This was trip number six or seven for me. The day starts early, usually 8:00 AM at the latest, with lots of meetings and a group lunch, and ends late every night with a group dinner. Everyone sits at a very large round table with what we would call a lazy susan in the middle. The Chinese are very gracious and hospitable; they love to serve your plate for you. The dishes keep coming and coming. Now if you have been to China, you know that this is not your PF Chang’s sort of Chinese food! I may have to do a whole blog on the food one of these days!

Some of the foods are quite good, like the clams and scallops, the little baby bok choy, the crispy fried pork strips, and the occasional lobster. Other items are, shall we say, not my first choice. That includes chicken feet, various kinds of gristle, and everyone’s favorite palate pleaser, sea cucumber! Even when I am scuba diving, I think sea cucumbers are pretty disgusting, so having one deposited on your plate is a little hard to take, but like a champ I did try a bite. Definitely not my thing! The waitresses always offer forks and knives; luckily I am pretty proficient with chopsticks, which does score you a few kudos!

There are a few other interesting protocols to the dinners, the dumplings are served early in the meal to welcome your guests, and the noodles in broth are served at the end to say a polite good evening. The main fish course, served whole with the head on, signals that the dinner is coming to an end. Dessert is always fresh fruit, especially watermelon. As you might expect, in a country with 1.4 billion people, there are many, many regional cuisines and traditions. One little side note here, I have never been served rice at a Chinese lunch or dinner; it is occasionally on the breakfast buffet but never at dinner. Bread is also not a staple, although there was a pretty tasty regional bread in Qingdao.

Another dangerous and tricky aspect of an authentic Chinese dinner is the toasting. They don’t sip on their wine or beer during the course of the meal as we do. The alcoholic beverage is only consumed during a toast, and then it is “ganbei,” which literally means “dry cup,” sort of the Chinese equivalent of “bottoms up!” Maybe that is why they do so much toasting? Most of the toasting was done with red wine, which was actually quite tasty.. On the last evening, they brought out the local white liquor. One whiff convinced me to stick with the red wine; I can chug that without any problem. I have never actually tasted paint thinner, but that white lightening certainly smelled like it. Just the fumes were enough to make me cough.

The dinner is over, and I am returned to my hotel where I finally drag my exhausted body into bed and start the entire cycle again the next day.

©2017, Eclectic Grandma