(To see photos of the "Noodle King" and downtown Shenyang, go to my blog)
****
Nobody told me when I got to Shenyang that I would probably be the only person within a 500-mile radius that speaks English! Shenyang is the industrial capital of northern China and, unlike Beijing, is slow-paced and friendly. It's like 1950s America used to be -- only without the McCarthy part. Shenyang is a huge city, with miles and miles of downtown. The street across from my hotel is as big as Market Street in San Francisco, only it is just one of many streets that size.
I like it here.
If I'm not able to obtain my visa to North Korea on Tuesday and have to spend a week or so here instead, it will be okay. I found an internet cafe. What more does one need? "Food!" Oh yeah. That.
Because I don't speak any Chinese and nobody here appears to speak any English, how exactly do I manage to get fed? I went into a promising-looking restaurant at lunchtime yesterday but once inside discovered that their specialty was pigs' feet. Uh, no thank you. Then I went into the restaurant next door and tried again but couldn't think of what to do so I just stood there feeling foolish. I looked at the waitress and she looked at me. I needed to SAY something. But what?
"Gots any Kung Pao chicken?" I asked. "Or broccoli beef?" But it was no use. I pointed and pantomimed. She shrugged and sighed. Crazy American.
Here I am, right in the middle of the very HEARTLAND of Chinese food -- aside from Berkeley of course -- but I might as well be starving to death out in the middle of the Gobi desert for all the good it is doing me. Lots of food, no access.
Okay. I don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out. The language barrier is not insurmountable. I can do this. So I went into the next restaurant, smiled a lot, pointed at the kitchen, pointed at myself, pointed at some photos of food on the wall and looked pathetic, helpless and lost. And it worked. The cook himself brought me a gigantic order of potstickers. I'm saved. For now.
And then dinner time arrived. But this time I got a plan! As I walked back to my hotel, I saw a sign that read, "California Beef Noodle King". They will have to be able to understand me there. I'm from California!
But they didn't.
So I took out a piece of paper and drew a stick-figure of a chicken and some very scrawny-looking spinach. "Ah! Chicken!" said the counterperson. "Chicken!" Hurray. We had Communicated. And we both got what we wanted. She got a customer. And I got some food.
"Okay, Jane. This story is all very cleaver and and precious and entertaining, but what's your point?" My point is that if you want to keep obtaining the necessities of life with as little fuss and bother as possible, you need to learn how to Communicate. You need to learn to make mutually-understandable gestures toward others -- or at least buy a phrase book.
If you truly want to get what you need when you are abroad, you have to learn how to Use Your Words. You can't just waltz into a foreign country and grab what you want.
And you definitely can't just go into a foreign country and bomb people and steal their oil.
Stillwater is a freelance writer who hates injustice and corruption in any form but especially injustice and corruption paid for by American taxpayers. She has recently published a book entitled, "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips For Touring Today's Middle East". According to Ms. Stillwater, "It's a fabulous and entertaining book. I loved writing it. And I hope that you will love reading it too." It's available at http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719 or you can special order it at any independent bookstore.
Ahh, "Mr. Lee's California Beef Noodle" reataurants. They are all over China.
If you tire of going it alone in Shenyang there are literally thousands of expats there.
Pop into a "net bar" (Chinglish improvement on "internet cafe") and google "expat shenyang"; you'll get a bunch of sites that can connect you with other foreigners in town.
sure doesn't look like the same stuff back in California.
Jane, since you like chicken, try saying gung bao jiding=chicken with garlic, onions, and peppers with peanuts.
Do you like dumplings?=jiaozi, you can eat a bamboo steamer of 8 for 2.5RMB. baozi are steam bread filled with pork, many Chinese eat these for breakfast.
There is CBC, which is the Chinese version of KFC, Disco's is another fast food chicken place. A sandwich and fries with soda is around 20-30RMB.
You will see these hocky puck style bread that has pork struffed inside too for 1RMB a piece.
Go up to the Muslim, wearing the white skullcaps and grilling lamb sticks. 5RMB will get you a handfull. Greet him by saying Salam Alla Kum=I come in peace, they will respond by saying Alla Kum Salama=may peace be with you.
The place for you to get what you need to sustain yourself can be found with the street food vendors. Its cheap and easy since you don't know Chinese.
Go to a Xinhua Bookstore and find a phrasebook.
by
Stanimal (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 18 diaries, 493 comments)
on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 11:48:12 PM
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