Some sharp-eyed Belgian girl spotted an “olympic” manhole cover on the streets of Beijing. I was in doubt but yes, here it is. I now pay attention where I walk but did not see a second one. Who can tell me the place gets a beer in Morel (certain Belgian girls are not allowed in the competition).

BOCOG has a sharp eye. Maybe not for cast iron manhole covers but for attractive girls, sure. See here an official Olympic beauty (no joke – she is one of the selected Olympic beauties), during a private BOCOG party. I did not dare look at her too much as Sun was in the vicinity. Guess what, Sun made the picture as I discovered later in my camera. Damn, I could have made a real good close-up. Now I am really eager to attend all birthday and anniversary parties with BOCOG.

Another print – a poster this time – also follows me since a couple of years and always hangs in my office: it was the official poster of the “Gentse Feesten” of 1993, a special design that still raises questions like “why?”. You have to admit – kind of funny to have this one hanging in Beijing. The “Gentse Feesten” are the annual summer holiday festivities in my hometown, Gent (Ghent in English).

Always big fun to attend the colorful fair, lots of things to see, enjoy, buy and of course lots to eat and drink. It wouldn’t be Belgium!

Twenty-five years of China. Swell. Of course the first question/reaction I get: “So, your Chinese must be perfect?!”. Aaaaaaaaaah. That always hurts.
My standard answer is (in Chinese if needed): sorry, always too busy, 7 days a week, no time to learn. But I try. So sorry.
Yes I do try. Living in a country where you stare at the TV without having much of a clue what is going on is a frustration. Not to even mention the strong interest to be able to talk with any Chinese. I do defend myself with taxi drivers (my best teachers) and sometimes I wonder how we manage to talk about so many things. Worst for me: seems the pronunciation of my limited vocabulary is pretty good, so Chinese assume I am really fluent and rattle on with full enthusiasm. Help! Ting bu dong!!!! (= I don’t understand)
Most foreigners come here and have the best of intentions to learn Chinese. They look down on me as a kind of retarded, anti-Chinese expat of a bygone era. One year later they still try to order a taxi.
The truth is, Chinese is very hard to learn. I got a devastating look at reality when I bought a nice Pinyin/Chinese-English dictionary. Looking up a word I understood that it would be foolish to learn the language by spending 15 minutes a day. I meet so many bright young people who have studied Chinese for many years. When we interview them, the overwhelming majority is unable to independently use the language for business (except the ones you pay far over US$ 4,000 a month).
Of course some foreigners really master the language and their numbers increase by the day. But discuss with them and you discover it took them years of hard work, passion and dedication. You can’t (seriously) work in Beijing and learn the language. You have to chose.
Frustrating it is and I try my best every day.

China Daily is running some funny and interesting articles about foreigners trying to cope with Chinese. See here an illustration in the article of 29 September 06, it looks much like that devastating moment I had with the dictionary. Sun rubbed the salt in the wound by commenting, “Oh there are many more characters!”. Yes, dear, you are ALWAYS right. Amen. Lesson 1: Chinese is VERY hard to learn; lesson 2: never argue with a Chinese lady, even less if you are married to her.
(FYI: I speak some 6 languages quite decently, NOT including Chinese).

In an earlier blog I wrote about my sad observation a number of new rich Chinese – often youngsters – behave like thugs. I actually got one experience with such a BMW in Beijing, coming from another province, that thought it ruled the city. We were in a taxi and the hooligans wanted at all cost to start a fistfight. After some rough moments the taxi managed to go away and the BMW followed us, looking to attack us at the next stop. We managed to avoid an ugly fight by entering our (guarded) compound.
Well, it did not only happen to me, I quote here the full article of Shanghai Daily dated 17 July 06. Nothing really to add to that:
Thugs in BMWs as deadly as street corner choppers
Last Wednesday, a BMW sedan bumped into a cyclist in Beijing – the cyclist was beaten, raising questions about the upscale mob.
The BMW driver stopped the car, darted out, and beat the cyclist to the ground.
As if this were not enough, two men darted out of the BMW, dragged the cyclist into the car and beat him black and blue, reports said.
When the cyclist managed to crawl out of the car, the three assailants restarted the car and fled. According to Beijing Times, the license number was Beijing CG6789.
It was neither the first, nor the only time that a BMW driver angered the nation by bumping into a crowd or injuring a pedestrian.
It’s not that BMW deliberately sold its cars to hooligans.
The point is that many hooligans drive luxury cars and look for every possible chance to bully the weak.
A nation that is getting rich quickly can’t go very far if the rich does not know how to handle his or her money properly.
Being rich is not a sin. But bullying the poor and the weak is.
Unfortunately, those hooligans driving a luxury car won’t easily accept moral lessons. But this time, there’s a hope that local police will get them very soon according to their car plate number and teach them a good lesson.
End of quote.
So far for the BMW stories.
A couple of weeks ago I went to an Amcham event close to Ritan Park South Gate. Waiting at the entrance a good friend of mine arrived, all upset. He is an old-timer in China, a very respected US businessman and always diplomatic and friendly (more than me I guess). He had just been tackled by a parking attendant/security guard when he tried to park his car. The guard had simply dragged him by his tie telling my friend to move his car away. My friend, being not exactly of small size, grabbed the guy and gave him a good lecture. But he was all upset because he could not accept the extremely rude and aggressive attitude, he thought it was so contrary to the old good ways – when something like that would not happen. He had to admit China was changing.
The thousands of so-called security guards are indeed becoming a public nuisance, to say the least. Most earn about 100 USD/month, have no education, no training and eagerly take the jobs because they basically don’t have to “work” and just hang around, according to Chinese friends. Many are totally useless and a nuisance. If you need them, they run away. Or worse, they harass people. The most feared are the ones working for nightclubs and discos. Quite a number of foreigners have been badly beaten up by those, including one of our interns, a nice and friendly American who had no clue why it all happened. He promptly took the plane back to the USA, two days later. End of his internship in Beijing.
The authorities really need to regulate the profession and stop those private gangs before more serious accidents happen. Unfortunately the rumor goes some are “well connected”…