Fire fire!

While I was happily sipping my green tea over lunch, a young waitress caught on fire. I didn’t see how exactly, I think she was refilling a meths burner on someone’s table. There was a huge, ceiling high cloud of flames as a combination of her nylon uniform and the large meths bottle went up a treat.

No-one in the growing crowd seemed to know what to do with the poor girl, who had pretty much frozen from the shock.  The flames were smaller now, steadily eating away at her clothes and she was eerily silent. After the initial surprise, I jumped up and went over to try and encourage her onto the floor to help put out the fire. However, she didn’t want to go! And why would she listen to a wildly gesturing foreigner with crazy ideas?

I felt like I could hear the seconds ticking by, dreading the injuries she might be sustaining with every passing moment. Thankfully someone found a broom and began beating the flames out. She was ushered to one side and some colleagues herded her to the sink where they feebly splashed water on her arm and cooed over her somewhat reduced fringe. Very luckily, that appeared to be the extent of the damage. She still hadn’t made a sound.

Feeling like there was very little we could do, given our lack of mandarin, we retired to our tea pot. We were left wondering how on earth a hot pot restaurant, which has stoves on every table, has not a single fire extinguisher or fire blanket? Not even a handy bucket of water or sand? Why is no-one in the whole place trained in first aid, or putting out fires? And why are the waitresses all wearing highly flammable uniforms?

Half an hour or so later, the injured girl re-emerged, got into a taxi and was, I hope, taken to hospital. To my absolute horror, there was a dry, white fluffy towel draped around her burned arm. Writing this now, I feel terrible that I didn’t do more to help her. I could have plunged her arm into the fish tank! That would have been far more effective than little splashes from a tap. I could have taken the fluffy towel, wet it and put it back. But the language barrier is so great and these ideas so foreign. Why would she or her colleagues have allowed me to do any of these things? Should I have tried harder?

We might get fed up with the sometimes over-zealous health and safety laws in England, but the responsibility and duty of care that employers legally have for their employees is literally life-saving.  

Before I left England a friend, who lived in China for a while, advised me to try not to get too emotionally involved in things I might see here, because there’s nothing one can do to change it. Today, for the first time, I remembered his advice. 

Think happy thoughts!

I’ve had a few disappointments and down days recently. Instead of blogging about what has made me miserable, I’m going to grit my teeth and think of some positive things to say. Here are some nice things that happened recently:

1. Cycling home from work in the cool night air last night, I looked up at the sky. It seemed to be alive with twinkling stars. Checking no-one was about to step in front of my bike, I took a longer look. They weren’t stars, they were kites: special night time, lit-up kites flying very high in the sky, their glowing tails flickering in red, white and blue. A handsome sight which brought me a smile.

2. I met a colleague today with a delectable northern English accent. In an ocean of Chinglish, it was like listening to music!

3. Having got over the disappointment of a series of stultifyingly bad Chinese lessons, I braved a new class. It was really excellent- interesting, relevant, pitched at the right level and good fun to boot. My brain fired up at the stimulation and I relished every stimulating second of it!

4. Today, for the first time in 5 and a half months, I was cold. I got caught in a thunder shower and as people ran past me holding things over their heads, I slowed down to a stroll.  I stopped to listen to the thunder and breathe in the same earthy smell you get when it rains  heavily in England. There's something so universal and healing about heavy rain. More please! (but not too much!!!)

5. National week is coming up... To celebrate the anniversary of the formation of the People’s Republic of China, the entire billion-strong nation gets 4 days off. Given the general scarcity of annual leave, this is a real special treat. Add my weekend on top, and I now have a blissful 6 day break. Aah. Someone put the kettle on!

There- I've done it! That wasn’t too difficult! 

Water, water, everywhere and not a drop to drink!

I’ve travelled to many places and been told “Don’t drink the tap water!” only to see the locals bemused at my buying bottles of the stuff. But here in Beijing, even the locals won’t drink it. It only seems sensible to follow suit so apart from brushing my teeth in, it never passes my lips. Instead, we painstakingly haul all our drinking water up 6 flights of stairs.

It always strikes me as bizarre, in a city which is developed in so many ways, to see people queuing to refill their water containers from the water dispensing machines on the street. I haven’t figured out why people trust these slot machines to provide safe drinking water, but not their taps.

It is quite possibly due to the massive mistrust of the government here. No-one believes anything they say, despite the museum erected in the name of quality tap water (poetically named ‘The Beijing Museum of Tap Water’ which I have yet to visit). In the same way that everyone turns to the American embassy’s air pollution data, the government’s repeated testing of water samples does little to persuade anyone. "All tap water in Beijing meets quality standards," said Cheng Jing, head of the Beijing Water Authority. And what exactly are those quality standards Mr Cheng?

It comes out of the taps clear, doesn’t smell and I have tried drinking it and felt no ill-effects. I get the impression that the problem is not a biological one, more likely a chemical one. Perhaps its long term rather than short term damage that is the worry? Finding any data about Beijing tap water seems impossible. I wonder why that is?

All I know is that a small pool left to dry leaves brown stains on my white kitchen worktop. Hmm.

New guest post- check it out!

Check out my new guest post at The Middle Kingdom 

It's run by Matt and Kara who are very nice people, also blogging about life in China. They have lots of useful info if you are planning to live here or if you're new to Beijing.

Open a window

Zhu Rong Ji, ex-Chinese Premier*, said "When you open a window, fresh wind blows in. But dust and flies will also come in." He was referring to the idea of China opening up to the West about 20 years ago, and allowing more of an exchange of business, culture and ideas.

A student told me this quote this morning as part of a lesson where we were discussing the effect of the West's influence on the health of the Chinese people. I'm afraid there were quite a lot of flies!! Mostly in the shape of hamburgers, pizzas and alcohol.

Apparently Zhu Rong Ji added that putting a net over the window can keep out the dust and flies. This is where the romance of the window analogy breaks down for me, but it still has an important meaning. He was saying that if we keep our own minds, we can hold on to traditional culture whilst remaining open to new and positive ideas. You'd have to ask a Chinese person what those new and old ideas are and I suspect you'd get many different and varied answers.

I like this quote because I think it is not only true but applies to many situations. When you try something new or open your mind to new things, there will be both positive and negative things that come along for the ride.

So go and open a window and let some fresh air in... but keep the fly-swat handy!

*Zhu Rong Ji was Premier from 1998-2003, and was succeeded by the current premier, Wen Jiabao.

Taking a nap

Today was the day I took my first ever nap at work. With a full belly after lunch, sat in my comfy chair in the warm office, I fell asleep. I was serenaded by the quiet chatter of my Chinese colleagues and the regular dripping coming from the leaking ceiling (don't ask!).

When I first began working here, I remember being slightly shocked by the number of heads slumped on desks around 3pm. I talked to a student about it and I explained that its not really done in the UK and it would be both amusing and a little shocking.

James (the student) is planning on moving to England soon and so has a keen interest in cultural matters. He asked what should he do if he feels sleepy at work, and looked pretty alarmed as I broke the news to him. In disbelief, he asked "But what if you're really tired?" 

"Just carry on!" I replied, in true British spririt. As the words came out, I suddenly realised who's got it right. Is it really a good idea to soldier on regardless, producing low quality work because you're so tired that you can't concentrate properly? Why not take a quick power nap, feel refreshed and then resume with renewed effort? What a cracking idea!

And so it was in this spirit that I decided to join the club today. When I awoke ten minutes later, feeling ready to tackle that lesson plan, no-one even commented. How wonderful!

Manhole misery

Manholes in Beijing just don’t get a good press! Before I moved here, I barely gave a thought to those plates of iron which separate us from the world beneath. However, recently I can’t help but read about horror after horror caused by the humble manhole cover, or lack thereof.  The most recent stats I can find say that in 2006, 47 people were killed in China as a direct result of stolen manhole covers and 10,000 people injured. I know, I know: China has a population of 1 billion people, what’s 47? But it’s such unnecessary suffering. 

The authorities in Beijing are constantly fighting theft of the cities’ 600,000 manhole covers. According to Wikipedia 240,000 covers were stolen from Beijing's streets in 2004. Night-time robbers crept in to remove the metal covers which could be sold for scrap at a decent price (US$2.4 dollars per manhole, back in 2004). 

You don’t have to look very hard to find chilling tales of manhole hell, such as the 4-year old boy in Changchun, capital of Jilin province, who fell down an uncovered manhole and drowned in 2008. Here’s a couple of more recent episodes:

Manhole horror story #1

In the recent terrible floods, this story caught my eye: A woman narrowly escaped death after being suddenly swept 100m down a road by floodwater, and then sucked down an open manhole. She was trapped in the giant plughole, with water gushing over her head. Eventually the poor woman was pulled free after 5 or so minutes.  

Manhole horror story #2

This is the utterly horrific story of the woman who earlier this year fell down one of Beijing’s many loose manhole covers. Unfortunately, the story does not end there. Waiting below was litres of scalding steam and boiling water from a broken heating pipe. She suffered 99% burns and died later.

Needless to say, I now step around all manholes. In Beijing though, sometimes you're trapped between a herd of determined pedestrians and a front of hooting cars, and manholes are simply unavoidable. At such times, I just have to close my eyes and hold my breath.

The internet is full of news stories saying that the Beijing authorities are clamping down on manhole cover theft, but there is very little recent information available. I read that manufacturers are working on a composite manhole cover which would do the same job, but not be valuable for scrap and so be less desirable.

Even the intact manholes can be dodgy. There's a few near my office and I see the ground around them bend and buckle as cars ride over them. Indeed, general pavement maintenance leaves something to be desired, as this poor girl found out. Many pavements, designed to bear the weight of humans only, are used as car parks and so the tarmac and paving quickly cracks and breaks. Heavy summer rain pours in and washes away the soil underneath, leaving behind a very precarious situation. 

Stay safe out there folks: if the manhole cover looks loose or wobbly and the pavement looks badly cracked, step to one side!