I thought you might like to hear about the heating system here in Zhengzhou for homes and apartments. They have steam heat here. Everyone does. No electric heat, no forced air heat, just steam heat. It sounds like many homes in America, at least in the bigger cities still do. China has an added twist on the heat system. All the steam comes from one location. Yup, all the people in this multi-million population city has heat from the ONE company. Can you guess who the company is owned by? Con-Ed? Nope. Florida Power? Wrong again. It's the Chinese government. More twists...there are no thermostats in any of these homes. They have no control of the temperture, not even what days it will be on or off. The culture shock continues.
Lee and I went to dinner tonight. Her choice I said. I have to be fair. I told her as long as she honored my “cannot/will not do” list she’s ok. In case you forgot, my list includes:
Fish heads, chicken heads, chicken feet, anything that barks or meows, not spicy hot and never anything alive. She picked one and off we go in one of these way-too-small for my body taxis. The restaurant looked good from outside. Clean and modern looking. We enter and are warmly greeted and escorted to our table, a very stout wooden table with sawed and varnished tree trunks for seats, sort of like an old west flair. Lee orders. Here comes a big bowl. It seems the manager has taken a liking to me and has offered a free bowl of…of…food I think. It looks like instant mashed potatoes covered in pancake syrup with assorted veggies thrown in. Lee assures me its not on my list. It was a BIG bowl of tofu. Not MY favorite food, but I eat a little to make the manager happy. Next out was a plate that looked a little like a big sea shell. Lee explains that this is wild peppermint leaves with walnuts. I have some. Not too bad. It’s one of Lee’s favorites so I eat a few more. These last two plates of food are so healthy they have to be in the negative calories. Here comes round three. A plate with a round pinkish item 1 1/2 inches across, sliced 1/8in thick and arranged nicely on the plate. There are a few square looking items inside the pink things. It looks a little like a sliced sausage or maybe spam with a little too much fat content. I try one, with chop sticks of course. Not too bad. Not like any sausage I ever had, but ok. Lee is smiling so I get a strong feeling I’m in trouble. I look at her and just say “list”? She says no, so I can swallow now. She explains this is a lotus flower. It looks like no flower I ever saw, so I thought it was some sort of Asian cutesy name of some kind. Seems I was wrong and Lee was right. This was part of the “root” of the lotus flower that grows in lakes. The strange factor just keeps adding up tonight.







Today was haircut day. My first one in China. Lee wanted to take me to her place, it’s supposed to be one of the best salons in Zhengzhou. We walked in at our appointment time. I was promptly placed in a way to small for my body maroon salon robe. A young lady took my arm and escorted me to a shampoo area. I sat and she leaned me back. I have to say, this my first time at something like this. I’ve always been a regular barber shop in and out guy. Ok, I feel the warm water now. Hmmm…this feels good. Now shampoo and a scalp massage, a real nice one. Now rinse, then shampoo again. I can definitely get used to this. I love these scalp massages. Ok, now I’m up and wrapped in a big towel all around my head. I bet it looks dorky. I’m escorted to a chair where the stylist will try to work his magic. This guy has a leather pouch slung across his shoulder something like a shoulder holster in a Dirty Harry movie. Several scissors, hair clips, brush, etc. Nothing electric here other then the dryer. He does his cutting/styling and in 10-15 minutes he stops. Guess what’s next? Back to the shampoo area. Another shampoo and scalp massage. Another towel and I’m back to the stylist’s chair for final touches. He gets his dryer going and snips every single loose hair he sees. Lee is getting the same treatment right next to me. I’m finished a little before Lee is. I see another lady across from me getting her scalp massage in the stylist’s chair as they talk hair things I guess. It looks so good, I have to take a picture. I later find out her name is Angel and she would like me to email her a copy of her picture, and I agree. Lee finishes and she looks great. She had them add a few curls. I like them a lot. She looks beautiful. We go to pay at the counter and Lee insists it’s her treat. I see her pay 44 rmb for us both. Remember, no tipping in China. 44 divide by 2=22 divided by 8 (currency exchange rate) = $2.75. Not too bad for the best in town. Lee tells me a shampoo and cut at other places can be as low as 4-5 rmb. That’s about 60 cents. The barber I used in Orlando for years was $12 cut n go. Pretty good experience.

Today was Mahjong and noodles day. I wanted to see if I could spot some friendly locals playing Mahjong on the street as I went for my trip to my contact for instant noodles. I get them from him cheaper and for the same product, then in the Super Market. Neither one of us speaks the other language, but we manage to get the point across. I walk into the market near my apartment, the REALLY big one. It has to be ½ mile by 1 ½ miles at least. I walk up the alley my noodle guy is on and here comes the stares and smiles. Up ahead a little I see a small group huddled together over a very small improvised table of sorts and 4 real small seats. I gesture with my camera towards the Mahjong board. One lady jumps up and runs behind me out of camera view, while all the others smile and nod their approval. This has to be the milder game…no money showing, no yelling, etc. I take a few pictures and someone offers me one of those really small seats to sit and watch a while. I say a few quick prayers that I do not crush their little chair flat to the ground. I ease onto the seat. I hear a little moaning, not sure if it was from the seat being maxed out or the person on my right that appears to have just lost. A few more pictures, and I’m back on my journey for the lost noodles. I rarely go anywhere alone, usually with Lee, but not today. I feel sort of like half of the Lewis and Clark expedition, traversing the unknown. Ok, I think I see my noodle guy’s place ahead. Looks like it but there is a woman outside. As I get closer, I see him resting inside. He looks at me a moment, then recognizes me and jumps to his feet to greet me. I try to remind him I do not want spicy hot ones. He grabs a bag and we start to rummage through them for the lost, perfect noodles I’m searching for. About 2-3 minutes looking and we decide on four packages of them. He loads them in a bag and he waits for his money from me. I reach into my pocket for my bargaining note pad and pen. No bargaining here today. I did that last time and he remembers. I pay 2.5 rmb each, as I did before. That was a good, fair deal. He tries to hand me the noodles, but I refuse and he is stunned. I gesture I want him to stand by his noodle rack so I can take his picture. He shyed away, but the lady that was there immediately dragged him to the spot I wanted him in. I’m guessing it was his wife.
I start to walk back the way I came by following the breadcrumbs I dropped. (kidding, but it did cross my mind) I hear a woman call out loud and proud…”hello, how are you”? It was clear English so I had to turn and look. There was a big smile on the face of this woman in her store. She was so proud of her English. I was too. I walked her way and had to take her picture she was so friendly. I looked at the containers stacked all over in her store. I could not be sure it she was selling paint, or baby formula. The containers looked a little like either. No one here sends ME to the store alone until I learn more Chinese. A little farther and I come across another group playing Mahjong . My highly observant mind caught the flash of money. Gambling. Ahaa a cut-throat game. Three women and one man playing. Much nicer looking game pieces. I think I have just stumbled on Zhengzhou’s “The Strip” like in Las Vegas, but the casinos are a little more humble looking. Soon as one saw I was a foreigner, all looked at me and said Ne hau (spelling?) for hello. I stood and took a few shots. No one ran. After a few minutes someone here offered me one of those really small Mahjong seats like I had before. Another hail Mary, a quick prayer and one “father wherefore art thou?” and I sat. it held. Whew !! a woman approached holding a small baby maybe one year old. I have just noticed a pattern I was ignoring until now, especially when we were in some stores shopping. It seems it’s perfectly acceptable to tote, carry, push, pull or whatever…your baby with no bottoms on at all. No pants, no diaper, nothing. It just took me a few seconds thinking to imagine what happens at that time. It seems, if he/she has to go, well go it is. Another place for my Chinese driving rule “anywhere any time”. Same for babies I guess. It must save a lot on diapers. A few mahjong tiles thrown on the table, a few rmb exchanging hands between players, a few pictures of kids and players and I’,\m on my way again. It’s hot. Hot only like 88-90, but humidity says 80% and weather person says it feels like 104. I whole heartedly agree. It’s back to my apartment and the ac there. Just one quick look at one the less modern stores in this market.

It's all filled up here, so on to part 5. Click here
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