Sept 11-17, 2017 Changes in China from our First Experience

Things that have changed from when we were here the first time here: some for the good, some not.

1.  Hot running water in the kitchen!  YAY!!  This makes me so happy!  Before it was fill a large kettle with water, bring it to a boil, pour over the pile of dishes in the sink. Then boil another kettle of water for the rinse water and pour it in a large metal bowl.

2.  AC in the bedroom!!  No more hot sweaty nights!  Now if only the one in the living room would work....

3.  Cleaner streets and air.  China has made a concerted effort to clean the air.  They incentivize the leaders of the cities to find ways to clean the air and the new mayor of Jinan is really made a big push for that and for cleaning the streets and making the traffic flow better.  For every 100 meters of roadway, they hire a street cleaner person and they are very intent on keeping their section of the street clean.  If a supervisor comes along and there is even one cigarette butt on the ground, they are penalized.  With the air, they gave the major polluting industries one year to relocate their business or just to be shut down.  Some complain that this has been a burden to the people by taking away the jobs that paid a decent wage.  It has also hurt the poor, as they took away all the little street shops that were set up in odd places to bring in a little money.  If they want to sell now, they have to have a building to sell from.

Some things that have not changed...

1.  The smells.  Every so often you come across a smell that is directly from the sewer.  It is a little better than it was though.

2. The Chinese way of doing things.  They still like to drive the odd way that makes me cringe when we go through an intersection.

3.  The friendliness and kindness of the Chinese people here in Jinan.

This week we were taken out to dinner by 3 different people and had visits from some other old friends who stopped in to see us.  We saw Simon and he took us to a fancy restaurant that has a famous fish dish that was super yummy!  Eva treated us to lunch at a "noodle place" and then Lily paid for our supper at the Cafeteria because it was close by and she was on campus for the day.

David standing by one of the many sculptures on the square.  They had several that were all made form materials that they had recycled.

We had a great time Saturday also.  We went with Sue Stubbs and Kayce Fuhriman to Quancheng Square and had supper.  We just decided to go to McDonald's because it was close and we all wished later that we had tried to find something else.  We explored some shops and went to the big fancy mall called Parc 66.  We showed them the grocery store that carries a lot of foreign products that you can't find in any of the stores.

The Park 66 Mall has displays that change every month or so.  You can go climb on it and take pictures. 

Then we walked to the Square where people were doing some line dancing - Chinese style.  Kayce and Sue decided to go home, but we waited around for Eva and her husband to come and join us.  Eva got us dancing with a group that does what she calls, "Military Style" dancing.  It was interesting to do because it was a six count step.  I tried to get pictures, but it was getting dark.  There was quite a crowd gathered around us by the time we were done.  It was quite a workout!

Chinese Line Dancing

Military Style Dancing

It was nice to get together with the other BYU teachers for church today.  David and I spoke about using the Holy Ghost to help make decisions.  We had to leave a little earlier than we wanted to from the group because the mattress topper that we had ordered through a student earlier this week had come.  She had to leave before we got back, so she just left it by our door.  Crystal was so sweet to do that for us.  Here's hoping for better nights' sleep.  David starts teaching tomorrow, I start on Tuesday.

 This tower was not finished when we were here four years ago.  Now this is what it does.

Quancheng Square Water Show.