I think the Chinese have a different perception of what is an illness, they visit the ‘hospital’ for the smallest of problems when I would either grin and bear it or stay at home for a few days.
I have had this discussion many times in class and the believe the reasons behind such thinking are complicated. From a western perspective this could be considered a form of hypochondria, but I think it is more likely due to a a lack of understanding/ basic education when it comes to medical issues and a fear of getting sick.
I have noticed that much ‘knowledge’ on such issues here spreads through old-wives-tales, conjecture and of course the media. TV adverts , especially for the older citizens, maybe the only ‘education’ they get when it comes to medicine, and we all know how misleading they are. Also I believe questionable medical ethics have a part to play in this – the more things prescribed the more money made. Perhaps doctors not being able to say ‘just go home rest and keep warm and drink plenty of fluids’ without first prescribing something.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some really nasty bugs going around here that warrant seeing an expert and drugs being prescribed. But its how things are done that disturbs me. Here, the medical staff will give you an saline drip for pretty much anything.

Does this work? I’m told it does but I’ll take thier word for it! 🙂 Is it necessary? Who knows.

Maybe if I’m dying or something like that then I’ll have to have it, but before then I won’t. I’m not a great fan of needles but I’m more concerned of contracting something from a dirty needle, especially so here. I also believe in not doing something to my body unless it is really required, is it effective, will it work? Or is it just a way to get me to spend more money?

Most of my students think I am weird in having such beliefs, for them it is totally normal and all of them have had this at one time or another. I’m no medical expert but It begs the question: If this is such a wonderful way to make you better, then why have I never seen people in the UK walking around with colostomy bags like I have in Changchun?

The good side to this distrust is that it has gives me an opportunity to try out various alternative remedies.

Recently I’ve been taking this really good Traditonal Chinese Medicine (TCM) for a cold I’ve been trying to get rid of for the last week or so. Before I came here I knew very little about TCM and I was pretty cynical about whether it actually worked.
I have become somewhat of a fan of Chinese traditional medicine and I believe that there is much to be learnt from this.

I have previously relied on these black compound licorice tablets to relieve a bad cough and have found them really effective. They cost less than 4 yuan for a bottle with over 100 tablets, but what is more appealing to me is that this remedy is 100% natural. At the moment I am taking some yellow coloured tablets that are made from the extract of apricots. This apparently has some medicinal values that I was previously unaware of, as my cold and saw throat disappeared within 24 hours of taking the pills.
Luckily I have been pretty healthy throughout my time here in Changchun so I’m yet to try out some of the more ‘exotic’ solutions – I’ve been told that snakes gall bladder is one of the best things to cure a fever.

Yesterday evening on the way back from the supermarket I found a mobile phone lying on the ground. I looked around, picked it up and put it into my pocket. Once I had got home, I kept the phone on expecting the owner to call it the moment they realised it was lost.

I checked out the number by calling 10086 and discovered that the SIM had over 200yuan on it, so I was expecting a call. I checked the phonebook for possible contacts but found that it was empty.

Come the next morning the owner must have realised what he or she had done because the SIM was blocked. There was never a call made to the phone, the owner probably figured that ‘what good would it have done anyway!’ and simply made sure to cancel and transfer the SIM to a new phone.

I’ve had experience with this before and It doesn’t really surprise me that nobody called the phone back. When you lose a phone it’s gone, whether that be in the back of a taxi at a restaurant or in any public place (I’m yet to hear of anyone getting their lost phone returned). Even if you can place where you last had it, this is of no use. Nobody will accept liability, the chances are much more likely that it’s been switched off and sold for a couple of hundred yuan at the black market.

I think this touches upon a vein of dishonesty that runs through so much in life here, a type of selfishness that most outsiders consider obnoxious. People acting without conscience and being able to justify almost anything.

The ‘If I don’t do It then somebody else will’ attitude.

Sure there are always dishonest people anywhere in the world, however I find it difficult to believe that there is another country where it is so rampant, for me it is like a disease. Perhaps this stems from a basic lack of morals and/or spirtual influence being replaced by raw materialism. Money = morality. Maybe having no rule-of-law and a corrupt justice system makes things very easy to get away with. It is fair game; finders keepers, losers weepers.

It’s probably a sign of how conditioned I am, that I don’t feel bad about this anymore. I do have a conscience and I do have morals, though I you have to be pragmatist. But I still believe that once I chose to pick up the phone and put it into my pocket there was nothing more I could do. If the person won’t even call their old phone and ask for it back it is no longer my problem.

I certainly won’t be handing it to the police, that’s for sure. There probably isn’t even a system in place for handing-in lost property and I might end up get accused of being a thief!

Stocked up on 15 boxes of Earl Grey tea (伯爵茶) the other day after an impromptu visit to Wal-Mart during the work lunch-hour. The price of them had been cut to only 7 yuan a box, when the normal price is usually more than 20 yuan. It’s actually pretty good tea and Is the only tea I drink regularly. Usually I avoid Wal-Mart as I think it’s more expensive than other places and the fact that their stores in Changchun are a little out of the way for me.

The thing about Changchun is that it can be very difficult to know whether a particular shop will be expensive or cheap, without actually going inside and finding out.

From a western perspective you would expect the large supermarkets to be cheaper than the smaller stores – economies of scale and all that. However in Changchun I would say that it is much cheaper to get your things at the local market, or at a variety of different locations. Another thing is that the price of goods differs quite a lot depending upon where you buy from. It is quite reasonable to be able to walk around the corner and get something for half the price. You just have to shop around. A good example is the Hengkelong supermarket (恒客隆超市) at Guilin Lu. This is perhaps the most expensive place to buy daily groceries in the whole city!

Perhaps the deal with supermarkets is that you pay a little more just for the convenience of being able to get everything under one roof? Or maybe the supermarket concept is considered ‘upmarket’ and hense stores can charge more?

My personal belief is that this exists as there is no real competition. Prices are set not depending on what the market expects, but what the retailers think they can get away with! It may also be true that the Chinese consumers are not as savvy as consumers in the west, perhaps in part to the whole supermarket thing being very new. I think that many Chinese consumers place a high value on loyalty and will keep on coming back it they like a place – perhaps this is why they are prepared to pay more? In the west if a supermarket is 20% more expensive than its competitior and they are selling essentially the same stuff to the same market, It would be out of business in no time.