A few more notes on China and Shanghai
Paperwork, interactions styles and open doors…
I’m in Shanghai, working with colleagues at Shanghai Jiaotong University and a variety of others including folks at the U.S. Consulate and Purdue students on study abroad (and no, I’ve not posted a status update to Facebook or twittered about it). We are working on projects associated with collaborative instructional efforts and World Expo 2010. Things are going well. It’s been about 8 months since my last trip and the usual observations still apply… the roads are better, the smog is the same, the traffic seems a bit worse, and the people are still great… and of course the construction noise outside my window began in earnest about 7:15am local time.
One of the many things I’ve noticed on my last few visit is the extent to which Chinese society embraces electronic records while simultaneously keeping much of the old bureaucratic, very manual, and human intensive record keeping intact. It’s almost like keeping a second set of books…
Check into a modest guest house/hotel (not a 4 or 5 star hotel mind you) and it still takes a very long time to work out who you are, copy documents, write up new documents (with carbon copies… haven’t seen those in a while have you!). Then there is the discussion about those “extras”. Ask about “internet access” and that’s another form with another fee upfront… Ethernet cable… maybe it’s in your room maybe its not… another “deposit” if not and another form to fill out… always expect a new form even if you’ve stayed there before… this time it was another form for my room key and a 100 RMB deposit.
It’s good to have a local with you when you check into a small ‘local’ place… it’s so much easier to have support next to you when “hello” and “good morning” are the only English words for the night clerk, and the security guard is almost asleep (and grumbling) on the couch in the front lobby. However, be prepared… the two star hotel staff are not what you will encounter in a major hotel. Service is redefined… especially late at night when they are tired and the staff has to turn on the lobby lights when you arrive and if anything and I mean anything is “out of the ordinary”…or “beyond basic”… this is when it really comes in handy to have a local there to fight for you… and it looks like a fight to me… my Chinese is limited but the verbal style on the part of some of these folks looks pretty aggressive… however, the staff are usually much friendlier in the morning (and they are the same people 24-7 as far as I can tell).
Breakfast… I really missed eggs, rice, dumplings (I know I’m being simplistic and generic here), soup and vegetables for breakfast… coffee is usually extra unless again, you’re in one of those big places. Order anything that’s not covered by the “breakfast coupon” and it’s more paperwork… for each item… two cups of coffee, two pieces of paper that have to be signed, dated, etc… and run over to the front desk. Good thing there are a lot of people in this country.
Doors… if you’ve not spent a night in a middle level hotel in China you’ve not seen the guest room doors propped open and everyone sitting in their rooms, smoking, watching TV and mostly watching the hallway and you or anyone walking by… wouldn’t want to miss anything. On this other hand you get a chance to look at all their stuff… and there is usually a lot of it… so, it’s really a two way opportunity.
It’s swine flu mania out here and I almost missed my connection from Tokyo Narita to Shanghai… don’t ask about how long we had to sit on the plane in Narita, filling out paperwork, having the locals look us over, measure our body temperature… and what’s with the blue gowns, sealed with masking tape in the back and everyone wearing the big industrial goggles?… I felt a bit like I was stuck in a Michael Crichton novel. But that’s another story…
I’m in Shanghai, working with colleagues at Shanghai Jiaotong University and a variety of others including folks at the U.S. Consulate and Purdue students on study abroad (and no, I’ve not posted a status update to Facebook or twittered about it). We are working on projects associated with collaborative instructional efforts and World Expo 2010. Things are going well. It’s been about 8 months since my last trip and the usual observations still apply… the roads are better, the smog is the same, the traffic seems a bit worse, and the people are still great… and of course the construction noise outside my window began in earnest about 7:15am local time.
One of the many things I’ve noticed on my last few visit is the extent to which Chinese society embraces electronic records while simultaneously keeping much of the old bureaucratic, very manual, and human intensive record keeping intact. It’s almost like keeping a second set of books…
Check into a modest guest house/hotel (not a 4 or 5 star hotel mind you) and it still takes a very long time to work out who you are, copy documents, write up new documents (with carbon copies… haven’t seen those in a while have you!). Then there is the discussion about those “extras”. Ask about “internet access” and that’s another form with another fee upfront… Ethernet cable… maybe it’s in your room maybe its not… another “deposit” if not and another form to fill out… always expect a new form even if you’ve stayed there before… this time it was another form for my room key and a 100 RMB deposit.
It’s good to have a local with you when you check into a small ‘local’ place… it’s so much easier to have support next to you when “hello” and “good morning” are the only English words for the night clerk, and the security guard is almost asleep (and grumbling) on the couch in the front lobby. However, be prepared… the two star hotel staff are not what you will encounter in a major hotel. Service is redefined… especially late at night when they are tired and the staff has to turn on the lobby lights when you arrive and if anything and I mean anything is “out of the ordinary”…or “beyond basic”… this is when it really comes in handy to have a local there to fight for you… and it looks like a fight to me… my Chinese is limited but the verbal style on the part of some of these folks looks pretty aggressive… however, the staff are usually much friendlier in the morning (and they are the same people 24-7 as far as I can tell).
Breakfast… I really missed eggs, rice, dumplings (I know I’m being simplistic and generic here), soup and vegetables for breakfast… coffee is usually extra unless again, you’re in one of those big places. Order anything that’s not covered by the “breakfast coupon” and it’s more paperwork… for each item… two cups of coffee, two pieces of paper that have to be signed, dated, etc… and run over to the front desk. Good thing there are a lot of people in this country.
Doors… if you’ve not spent a night in a middle level hotel in China you’ve not seen the guest room doors propped open and everyone sitting in their rooms, smoking, watching TV and mostly watching the hallway and you or anyone walking by… wouldn’t want to miss anything. On this other hand you get a chance to look at all their stuff… and there is usually a lot of it… so, it’s really a two way opportunity.
It’s swine flu mania out here and I almost missed my connection from Tokyo Narita to Shanghai… don’t ask about how long we had to sit on the plane in Narita, filling out paperwork, having the locals look us over, measure our body temperature… and what’s with the blue gowns, sealed with masking tape in the back and everyone wearing the big industrial goggles?… I felt a bit like I was stuck in a Michael Crichton novel. But that’s another story…
posted by hsypher at 5:07 AM
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