We’ve been to many hospitals in Shanghai, and most of them have a VIP section. This is just a reception area where you tell them what you need, and they will assign a nurse to you who will take you to all different departments you need to go to: doctor visits, x-ray etc… These sections are the same ones everybody else goes to, the difference for VIP is that you don’t have to wait.

To get a VIP treatment you just pay more. I don’t think there’s a similar service in Italian hospitals, at least not most of them. But it makes sense here in China. There is a majority of people who aren’t wealthy, and who can barely afford a bike. So obviously they’ll be happy to wait a long time for their turn, if it costs less. On the other hand there are also wealthier families, who can afford to pay more for a faster service.

Another sign of the different culture.

For some reason we often received wrong calls at home. I don’t know if it’s the phone lines, or the phone itself, or it’s just people can’t use the phone. All I know is that periodically we get wrong calls, and all from different people. So it’s not a case of someone who used to have our number.

Normally this wouldn’t be too annoying, however the way people deal with dialling the wrong number is highly annoying. Here’s a typical dialogue:

Receiver: Hello?
Caller: (angrily) Who are you?
Receiver: (even more angrily and loudly) Who are YOU?!?! You called me!! (hangs up)

It’s as if they can’t understand that they called the wrong number, that THEY made a mistake, not the poor person who answered the phone.

Becky mentioned this previously, but I want to explain in detail what this is. For Chinese people women who just give birth must be confined inside the apartment and eat healthy stuff and lie down. If they don’t do this properly they risk to ruin their body, and they will suffer later on in life.

There are many other rules, and all of these have their own rational explanation:

• Cannot wash hair for a month. This is because the locchia solidifies and is harder to get rid of.
• Cannot shower for 2 weeks.
• Cannot watch TV or read books.
• Must lie down. This is better for the organs repositioning.
• Cannot get out of the apartment.

Of course the modern generation does not follow these rules very closely, however their mother will force them to, because when they were young they also didn’t follow and now they are paying the consequences.

The most difficult part for Becky is not washing her hair. She’s already planning a big washing on the 24th June, and asked me to help her wash her hair on that day, she wants to use at least half a bottle of shampoo.

For the food we hired a company who specializes in one month confinement food. They deliver the food once a day, we just need to warm it up. Our ahyi helps doing that.

Overall I think Becky’s recovery is going good now. She was really hurting the first few days, now she can feel that the pain is getting better.

Taken from Shanghai Daily:

Consumer complaints about MP3 players have been rising as they have become more popular and cheaper. Consumers complain about poor batteries that run down easily, buttons that don’t work after a while, frequent shutdowns and poor after-sale service. [..]

Samples checked include major brands, such as Sanshui, Benq and Newman, as well as some smaller names.

“The quality of MP3s sold and produced in the city is not up to standard,” the bureau said in a statement.

This is why I bought an iPod. Even though it’s much more expensive, its quality is garanteed, and you won’t have to buy a new one every 3 months. I had one of those cheap MP3 players, they just don’t last long.

First go read Brad’s post about a couple of street food vendors. Street food is nasty, I think everybody knows this. However I think local people have been eating it since they were young, so their stomach is used to it. Not so for us foreigners. We literally don’t have the stomach to eat street food.

My wife is from Taiwan, and she has no problem eating street food in Taiwan, but she doesn’t dare to try it here. I wonder if it really is better in Taiwan, or is it just psychological? You feel more comfortable in your own country, and very uncomfortable in a foreign land. I am from Italy, and I don’t feel comfortable eating street food anywhere, be it Taiwan or SH.