So my first week in China has almost come to a close. So far, so good. A lot of it has consisted of sleeping. Who'dve thought jetlag could be so severe :-\
Yesterday was my first trip to the supermarket - Auchan. Although it makes ASDA look small in comparison. Imagine Costco, but bigger. I mean, there is literally everything you could imagine to buy all under one roof. So much so in fact, I didn't know what to buy!! I ended up getting some basic household items, coat hangers, a pair of gloves (it's bloody freezing at the moment!) etc. all came to total 180 kuai which is about £18.
But the things I saw in the shop was unbelieveable.They had live fish ready for eating. Talk about fresh! The crabs were practically climbing out of the tank. The dried duck was laid out in rows on a counter just as you walked in... I honestly thought they were plastic. They had 2.5L bottles of baiju, a 50% rice spirit, drunk on special occasions, in a plastic bottle. I swear it could have been meths. Also, it only cost 26 kuai (£2.60) which is cheap as chips for even the most hardened alcoholic to sustain their addiction.
Cigarettes are also dirt cheap. 8 kuai for a packet of mid-range branded ones. Cigarettes are seen as a social status indicator in China, with certain (more expensive) brands being seen as a status symbol. Also a 6-pack of Tsingtao beer (China's national brew made from rice) being only 20 kuai. Alcohol is consumed in China not for the taste as it is in most western cultures (even Britain to an extent), but for the sheer purpose of getting drunk. Also it is very rare to see girls in the bars, as it is a social stigma.
In the sweet section, they had "beef sweets" which are effectively sweetened bits of beef jerky, marinated chicken's feet freeze dried, tofu sweets.. One of the girls in the office had beef sweets the other day, and they're actually not that bad, as strange as the concept sounds.
There are definitely things I want to try when I get a chance to go there again, but I was on the back of Beth's E-Bike (electric scooter), but today I will be picking up my from Katy who is selling hers. 500 kuai used, when they normally go for 2000 - bargain. They have every type of meat and every cut you can imaging, and they sell offal too - pigs intestines, lovely stuff :-\
Tomorrow I have the fun of having my medical examination at a Chinese hospital. Apparently they don't know how to take blood properly, so I'm bracing myself and my brachial arteries. I also get to have a chest x-ray, So I'll be able to know if I've given myself lung cancer through years of abuse.
Wish me luck
Regards
James
