That's China for You!

During that last marathon, I lost one of my lens caps. I would even say a rather special and rare lens cap. I thus went to that big old looking indoor market entirely dedicated to photography in the west part of town. There I found only one merchant who wanted to sell me one taken from a brand new lens. He was asking 700 yuan (RMB) (approximately 100$). He knew all too well the importance and rarity of this ordinary and almost cheap looking little piece of plastic. If Chinese people may have a somewhat limited imagination and are hardly able to locate themselves on a street map, one thing they sure know is how to count. We got to give them that. It was, of course, completely ludicrous and even though haggling is part of the game, the bar was way too high to begin with. So after a few more unsuccessful visits, I was pointed out towards a merchant/craftsman who was able to help me. With scissors and pliers, a special plastic cheat, some metal wire, glue and leather, he handmade me a custom fitted one that is way better than the original one for 200 yuan (~29$). That’s China for you...

Since then, I terminated my English teaching career, at least to kids that is. It was then my most major source of revenue so why stop you will ask me? Well first of all most of my energy was dedicated to asking them to please sit down, to listen and to respect each other’s instead of constantly yapping about, to talk in English and not in Mandarin, to wait for the break before stuffing themselves with sugary cookies, cakes and chips, to stop quarrelling, to stop fighting, and to please stop yelling, so to simply CALM DOWN. Second of all these kids, aged from 8 to 11 years old, were speaking quite good English compared to the surrounding local population. So to teach them things of their level I would have need some reading and exercise books, but all I had to my disposition was a white board and beaten up pencils. Although I proved to be of extreme patience, enough was enough. From now on, IF I teach English again, it is going to be to adults who actually want to learn.

I will keep this week’s post on the short side of things since I have to prepare for tomorrow’s early departure with some clients to a week-end trip to the Great Wall of China. So my next post is promising to be a spectacular one. Stay Tuned!





The Bell Tower used to resonate through old Beijing to signal emergencies. Nowadays its front entrance is saturated with rickshaw and if those used to be a traditional mode of transportation, they are now little more than tourist’ traps.

Across is the Drum Tower which was resonating to indicate time with its water clock. It was the Big Ben of the Old Beijing.