We were warned.
They told us it would take at minimum a week to recover from jetlag when we returned to the States. They weren’t exaggerating. In fact it took me closer to two weeks to feel relatively normal after moving my body clock forward 13 hours, getting used to that and then turning the clock back. [...]
Posts under ‘Steve’
Jetlag from China: Expect a week or more of misery
The best way to get custom-made clothing
Dr. Rasheed advised us to go to Sally’s Tailor shop at the Yashow Clothing Mart in Beijing to get suits, shirts or dresses made to our measurements. With Dr. Rasheed’s help, we were able to get suits made for 700 yuan (about $100) and dress shirts for 100 yuan (about $15). I believe these prices are [...]
Scorpion on a stick. Bon apetit!
At a busy little street market in Beijing, apparently mostly intended for tourists based on the abundance of souvenirs, we saw several concession stands selling some interesting snack items. Most notable: fried scorpions on a stick. And the scorpions were still moving. Several members of the group came back later in the week and tried [...]
A nervous ride through the dark streets of Suzhou
After my visit to the Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou, I found myself on a crowded shopping street. It was getting dark, and businesses were starting to shut down. I was looking for a taxi when an older gentleman pedaling a rickshaw offered me a ride. I tried to explain that my hotel was too far [...]
Haggling: A real-life demonstration of comparative advantage
The price of just about everything, except the menu at the Western fast food chains for example, is negotiable. Over the past week and a half we’ve become pretty good at haggling. It’s something you have to just dive in and try, and if you get taken, you learn from it and do better next [...]
Adjusting to Chinese food
Chinese cuisine is wonderful. Even so, for many Westerners who visit China, the hardest obstacle to overcome is the food.
It’s not that the food tastes bad. In fact, most of the dishes I’ve tried have been delicious. It’s just so different from what we’re used to. It’s prepared differently and it’s served differently.
We’ve been told [...]
Photos of Humble Administrator’s Garden
Here it is, the post I promised the other day. Sorry for the delay, it has been tough blogging from here. Computer and internet use has been an ordeal.
After the taxi ride from my previous post, I got out of the cab and right there in front of me was a fellow in a suit, [...]
Taxi ride through Suzhou
Here are a few short videos of the taxi ride through some of the smaller streets of Suzhou on my way to the Humble Administrator’s Garden. The taxi darted around and in between cyclists and scooters. At one point I looked out my window as we took a tight corner and found myself two feet [...]
Suzhou: Worlds apart from Shanghai
There are two sides to Suzhou, a city of 6 million people. There is the Suzhou Industrial Park, a shiny, ultra-modern city in itself with a population of 700,000. Did you get that? It’s an industrial park and it’s almost twice the population of Fort Worth. It’s home to facilities belonging to more than 2,500 [...]