I’m Mobile!!
A couple of weeks ago, I finally decided that I
needed some
sort of transportation. Taxis
are hard
to come by near my place, so, it’s black taxi’s only, and only
when they’re
around. I have waited
around up to 45
minutes for a real taxi to show up.
So, I
started going out to the market to find out what was available. I also had to go to the
police station to
look into what is legal and what is not.
Scooters and motorcycles are illegal in Shenzhen. Some E-Bikes are also illegal
in Shenzhen,
apparently, they have to be easy to pedal when the power is turned
off, and the
wheels have to be under a certain size. So,
I went back to the store, and found the legal version.
Something that I don’t really understand, is
why scooters
are illegal, as are motorcycles, and a variety of other things,
but they’re all
sold out in the open. If
they were
really serious, I believe that they would shut down the shops. I believe that it’s a cash
grab for local law
enforcement, they get to take your bike away, then resell it, but
that’s just
an assumption, I don’t actually know. I also
know quite a few people who have had their transportation taken
away from them,
but, I don’t know anyone who has been fined for riding illegal
transportation
Anyway, I purchased and immediately started
riding my
E-Bike. I’ll post pictures
soon,
probably at the bottom of this. It’s
a
fantastic little bike. It
has 3 mode
settings, one is complete manual, which allows you to trickle
charge the
battery while riding, the middle is under power and you can still
assist the
small motor using the pedals when going uphill.
On the middle selection, it does 15-20 mph, which I have
decided is fast
enough. It also has a high
output
setting, I haven’t used it at all yet, it’s quick, probably gets
up around the
25-30 mph mark. I have
zero desire to go
that fast though.
The streets in china, while paved, are not
smooth. There’s lots, and
lots, and lots of potholes,
rough pavement, etc. You
really do need
to avoid manhole covers as they are known to cave in, even if just
a little at
times, when you run them over with a car, I suspect that’s a
highly unpleasant
sensation on a bicycle. Additionally,
since
you don’t need a special license to ride these things, they are
considered to have no laws. You
can’t
get a fine for running a red light, or going from street to
sidewalk, etc. You can
quite literally ride it however you
want, and if you pay attention to the rest of them (and there are
a lot of
people on bikes and illegal scooters everywhere), you’ll notice
that they
rarely show any sign of self-preservation.
It actually seems fairly unsafe, but, I actually shoulder
check, and watch
my surroundings. People
think I’m crazy
for doing so… “That’s not how you drive a scooter!!” is what I’ve
been told!
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It was a bit of an odd day today. On my way to school, I
stopped beside a new cafe
to try out their wraps and fruit juices. It’s some sort of health cafe. I don’t get why it’s called a
cafe, they don’t
have coffee or tea, only juices, but, perhaps “Health Cafe” is
just a clever
name. I pulled up on my
E-Bike, locked
it up, but the lock on the back wheel, ordered, and sat down to
wait for my
food and my carrot juice to come out. As
I was sitting there, a Bao-an walked up and started looking very
intently at my
bike. There was no one
else around, so
it was very obvious that it was mine, and it was also very obvious
that he knew
it was mine, due to the fact that he kept looking at me while he
was messing
around with it. I didn’t
say anything
though.
(I should mention that a Bao-an is like a
security
guard. Popular opinion
treats him more
like a mall security guard, but with even less authority. Most people here ignore them,
it’s a very low
paid job, they usually have another job aside from security, and,
in many
cases, the bulk of their job is spent sleeping.
Unlike most, I have some degree of respect for some of
them, those who
actively try to do their job, but definitely not most of them, who
I think are
mostly useless.)
(I should also mention that when you lock up
your bike here,
you must use a U-shaped bike lock through your spokes so it
doesn’t get
stolen. Anything unlocked
will be
stolen, very quickly.)
The Bao-an then looked directly at me, and
kicked off the
center stand, then tried to wheel the bike away. I started yelling at him in
Chinese at this
point.
“Look you Moron, can’t you see that there’s a
lock on the
back wheel? Are you trying
to break my
bike? Do you have any
degree of intelligence? Stop
it right now, and get away from it you
useless jerk.”
(I should also mention that I used much, much
stronger
language than that, but, it doesn't translate, so, you’re going to
get the PG
version.)
Now, you may think that it was poor form to go
immediately to
ensuring that it was a very personal attack.
Also, you may think that it was improper of me to do so in
Chinese to
ensure that he understood me. But,
there
is a reason. First off, if
you speak in
English, all the Chinese people near you will think that you’re
insulting all Chinese
people. If I laid a hand
on him, even
grabbing him, I would have been in a fight for my life as I would
have been
swarmed with Chinese people. When
I say
that there was no one around, that’s figuratively. There’s never, ever “no one
around”, there
was just only a few people around, but, you can be sure that they
would have
jumped me if I played things differently.
By using Chinese and yelling at him, I showed those around
me that I was
a local. By making sure
that everyone
knew that I thought that HE was a useless moron, and not that
Chinese people
are useless morons, I just spoke popular opinion. As soon as I spoke up, I
immediately had the
attention of everyone in earshot, and I yelled to make sure that
everyone close-by
could hear what I said so that there was zero miscommunication. This is how you deal with
problems of this
sort in China:
- Be LOUD
- Make it personal
- Make sure there is no miscommunication
- Make sure that the person has less authority than you do
- Speak the local language
After he left, with his head hung low, I moved
my bike to
where he indicated that it should go.
Now, here’s the thing, if I hadn’t spoken up,
he would have
broken my e-bike, knowing that that was exactly what he was doing. He also was well aware that
he could break a
foreigner’s bike, because he doesn’t think that there were any
consequences. Of course,
if I had called
the police, he would have had to replace my bike, and probably
spent some
quality time in jail. I
would have
received a warning for parking in a place that I wasn’t allowed to
do so (I didn’t
know, there’s no signs, which is why I would have gotten a
warning.), but he
didn’t realize any of this.
China is interesting.
You’ll find that many men here do not like foreigners. It’s important to know that
these men tend to
be poorly educated, and see foreigners as coming here to take
jobs, and to be
competition to women. This
Bao-an is in
that category. What became
immediately
clear to him during our confrontation was that I understood and
spoke Chinese,
and that I understand and can use the Chinese culture. Because I’m a foreigner, I
don’t have “face”
according to the uneducated. So,
if he
gets into an argument with me, and he wins, he doesn’t gain any
“face”,
actually, he’ll still lose face, because it’s obvious to all who
see me in this
situation that I understand the culture and am abiding by its
rules. If he loses, he
loses a lot of face. His
only option is to get away from the
situation as soon as possible, which is why he put his head down,
and walked as
fast as he could away from me. I’ve
come
to the conclusion that men here fit into one of the following
categories:
- Poorly educated, low to low-middle income, hate foreigners
- Lightly educated, middle management, dislike foreigners
- University educated, want foreigner friends who can help them get ahead either through networking, or helping to improve their English.
- Master’s degree, sometimes like, sometimes dislike foreigners, but, open to actual friendship, as long as there is business networking opportunities, or business opportunities available.
Perhaps this list will change over time, just
going off of
my experience thus far. It’s
funny
though, I have many friends who are expats here and very, very few
have a good
friend who is a Chinese male. The
women
here tend to be far more open minded about friendship and having
foreigners as
friends. I have quite a
few female
friends here who I have zero interest in as anything other than a
friend. I have actually
had exactly this conversation
with more than a few of the Chinese friends that I do have here
with regards to
how many Chinese men view foreigners. A good
portion of my list above, are conclusions that we came to
together.
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