Holding in all the farts.

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Before leaving for China in August we did a lot of research on what was going to be our host city of Nanjing. One of the more interesting things was about the The Rising Sun Anger Release Bar that was featured in a story on the BBC News site. From the story:

A bar in eastern China has come up with a novel way of attracting clients - they are allowed to beat up the staff.

The Rising Sun Anger Release Bar in Nanjing lets customers smash glasses, rant and even hit specially trained workers, state media reported.

The owner, Wu Gong, told China Daily that he was inspired to open the bar by his experiences as a migrant worker.

Most of his customers were women working in the service or entertainment industries, he said.

The bar employs 20 men who have been given protective gear and physical training to prepare them for the job.

Clients can ask the men to dress as the character they wish to attack.

We asked many people about where to find this bar when we arrived and no one had ever heard of it before. In fact most thought that such a place would probably not be allowed to open. So eventually I forgot about it. For some strange reason here in Hong Kong I can access websites that were having “access issues” while we were in the mainland. So while enjoying the BBC proxy-free I thought I would look at this story up again and see what the deal was. After a little searching I came across this on a forum.

I’ve tracked it down to 127 Sheng Zhou Road. Here is the Chinese name of the street that it is on: 秦淮区升州路127号

Here is the Chinese name of the bar; show it to your Nanjing taxi driver:
旭日东升酒吧

Unfortunately I am not in Nanjing right now or else I would not be typing this, I would be in a cab on my way to break some shit. And while I have found many news stories about this bar, I have not found anything from anyone who has actually been there. I am still somewhat doubtful as to its actual existence.

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After a short two hour flight we came from the Shenzhen airport to Hong Kong on the turbo jet. Which is actually not at all a jet, but just a super fast ferry from Shenzhen to Kowloon. We spent the night in centrel Hong Kong last night and I’ll list some first impressions of the place. Most of these are terribly obvious but just bear with me:

1.This place is totally different then the mainland. There is no comparison between this and even Shanghai. I can only really describe it as kind of like New York, with a great public transportation and a Montreal like giant hill. Oh and also it’s amazingly clean and directly on the ocean.
2.Hong Kong is ridiculously rich. I can’t think of any place I have been where there is such a physical presence of wealth. When were walking around at night there was a Ferrari parked on the street. There was a line to go into the Louis Vuitton store, and would only let so many people in at a time. And I think I have seen three Burberry stores so far. And across the street from the Ritz Carlton in the Central area is a Rolls Royce dealership. I am really not used to this.
3.There are way more foreigners here then I usually encounter. I see maybe one other whitey in Nanjing on a given day, here it seems like I can’t go a block without seeing one. And also just a bigger mix of foreigners as well.
4.Almost every sign is in English and traditional characters. Of course since it used to be a British colony this makes sense. You can also see the English influence in a lot of architechture as well.

And to wrap this up here is a picture of me and a wax Bruce Lee that was outside a wax museum. It was was in the giant complex on the hill that overlooks the city.

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We are leaving for Hong Kong tomorrow, having to get up at 5 am to catch the early bus to the airport. I’m not sure of the internet situation, but I’m pretty sure that posting should not be a problem there. Just in case I’m putting up a going away kitten picture.

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We will be traveling to Hong Kong in a few days, so I was looking up information on the Hong Kong Escalator, the longest outdoor escalator system of the world. I am very excited to see this, because if there is one thing I love it is long escalators, and this is the longest in the world! I can not stress that enough. While searching around I came across this Escalators Myths & Facts on the website of the Malaysian company KONE. Those who live in Boston may be familiar with the name, as KONE is the company that strictly ensures that the escalators in the city will be broken down for weeks, sometimes months at a time. They may run the escalators in all cities, I don’t know. I’m not that traveled. But this page has some quality humor, humor I will quote in full.

MYTH: The biggest MYTH about escalators is that you don’t have to pay much attention to them.
TRUTH: Escalators are six-ton moving machines and should be treated as such. Pay the same attention to an escalator as you would to a moving bus.

MYTH: The steps will flatten out and all the people will slide down.
TRUTH: This is impossible. Each step is a full triangular structure consisting of tread and riser supported on a track and cannot flatten out.

MYTH: Many times people think that escalators move too fast.
TRUTH: They move at only normal walking speed. The misconception is probably due to the visual perception created when you are standing still and everything else appears to be moving.

MYTH: Children often think that the steps fall into the basement and have to be restacked every morning.
TRUTH: Escalator steps move on an endless chain system. At the bottom they rotate under and over up the underside of the chain to reappear at the top.

MYTH: Escalators can reach out and grab you.
TRUTH: No part of an escalator can do this. But people must be careful of loose clothes, untied or long shoelaces, high heels, long hair, long jewelry, etc. because these can get caught in an escalator’s machinery.

MYTH: Escalators will stop and restart themselves.
TRUTH: Escalators only stop if they are stopped by the specially designed STOP button, or if there is an obstruction or over speed. Once stopped, escalators can only be restarted by someone with a restart key.

MYTH: If an escalator is standing still, it is just a set of stairs.
TRUTH: Not at all! Escalator steps are not the correct height for normal walking and should not be used in that manner. The risk of tripping and falling is increased.

AHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA. I think my favorite is “MYTH: If an escalator is standing still, it is just a set of stairs. TRUTH: Not at all!”

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One of the best/most challenging parts about learning Chinese are the idioms. Think about English idioms like “when the shit hits the fan” or “the grass is always greener on the other side” and coming across those in a book without knowing the idea behind them. Chinese idioms are mostly 4 characters and called chenyu, and are used all the time, making Chinese even harder then it already is. So to advance my learning today I made probably my best purchase in China so far, a dictionary of Chinese idioms. And I am surprised that not everything in here is 4 characters. What the hell, have my previous books been lying to me? Or are all chenyu Chinese idioms but not all Chinese idioms are chenyu. Maybe. But here are some of my favorite examples I have found so far. These are favorites mostly because of the visual image that they create, not that they are actually useful.

肝脑涂地 (gan1 nao3 tu2 di4): To spill one’s liver and brains on the ground, to lay down one’s life, to be ready to die the cruelest death, willingly to suffer any form of death for somebody

赶鸭子上架 (gan3 ya1 zi1 shang4 jia4): To drive a duck onto a perch, to force a donkey to dance, to force somebody to do something, to make somebody do something entirely beyond him

画蛇添足 (hua4 she2 tian1 zu2): to draw a snake and add feet to it - to ruin the effect by adding something superfluous, to over-reach the mark is just as bad as not reaching it, to put butter on bacon, to burn daylight, to carry coals to Newcastle

猫哭老鼠 (mao1 ku1 lao2 shu3): A cat crying at the mouse’s death, the cat weeping over the dead mouse, a hypocritical show of friendship, to shed crocodile tears

血雨腥风 (xue4 yu3 xing 1 feng1): A foul wind and a rain of blood, reactionary reign of terror

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