Olga. China
Why did you go to China?
I followed my husband.
That was a long time ago?
It was in November 2003. My husband worked there since September. It was very hard to live alone in China. He asked me to come. I had to quit my job, the boss reacted with understanding, since he had served in China for several years and he knew how difficult it was to be there alone. In China, everything is different, not like in Russia, life is different, people are different, the mentality is different. Adaptation takes a long time. I flew in on November 7th.
What was your first impression?
It was hard. I had a feeling that I returned to the socialist system.
Why did you have that feeling?
The buildings, dull weather, all the houses were gray. It struck me that they do not wash the porches, the windows. There is age-old dust on the windows, on the doors, everywhere. At that time, the garbage was thrown away anywhere. But since that time, much has changed. During five years they made a powerful breakthrough, especially before the Olympics in 2008, Beijing has changed a lot. Three modern complexes were built for the Olympiad: the Egg-shaped building, the Nest stadium and the huge TV complex, which was called “chicken legs” for the original architecture. The “Egg” is a concert hall, there are three huge concert halls inside it. At that time these buildings struck me, in Moscow there were no skyscrapers then.
How long have you lived in China?
Overall we lived in China until 2012. We moved from Beijing to Shanghai in early 2009. Then we lived in Shanghai for three more years.
Where was it easier to live?
The two cities were then very different. Beijing had an old Chinese architecture: narrow streets and small houses – mud huts. Shanghai is a modern city, there are many industries in the area. The city lived of fast pace. Along with Chinese architecture, there were blocks with English banks, American and French quarters, where the former emigration lived in the 1920s and 30s and many skyscrapers. I remember my husband was struck in Beijing by how people dress, almost everyone was wearing black and gray clothes, women did not have heels at all. Perhaps it was a legacy of Mao Zedong, the “cultural revolution”. In Shanghai, Chinese women are different, all are fashionable. I came with his sister for the first time and he made us a trip to Shanghai, which immediately struck us with its high motorways and skyscrapers. This is a city in which Americans, Japanese and rich sheikhs were already investing a lot of money at that time. I remember the first unforgettable impressions of the views from the skyscraper, where my husband worked. Their company had offices in both cities. There was a small garden with swings on the roof: it was very surprising for us. At that time, Moscow City was still only a foundation pit, there was nothing to compare with.
We celebrated the New Year 2004 in Hong Kong. It was also very different from Beijing. The northern China had a very strong influence of socialism, while the south was affected not so much. The market economy was actively developing in Shanghai and especially in Hong Kong, which had English infrastructure and laws. In Hong Kong, one feels Britisch spirit everywhere: double-decker buses, right-hand traffic, taxis are spacious, huge cars, probably, like in London, and everything is very expensive. The roads in Hong Kong are amazing. The city is on the islands. From the airport we went by bus, the roads pass over the water at a huge height. Metro stations are also high, for example, on one island the station can be on the 32nd floor, then the train goes above the water and enters another island somewhere on the 20th floor. Beautiful and amazing.
And how is Chinese food after Russian?
It’s interesting, but I had to adapt. At first, my digestive system gave me troubles, but then the adaptation took place. After eating, you feel lightness from the Chinese cuisine and at the same time you feel full. This is because of different herbs and sauces, they also use various roots. In China, they eat everything that grows, crawls and flies. Some sauces may seem incompatible in our opinion. For us, this is just amazing.
Such as sour, salty, and sweet?
Due to these herbs and sauces there is a feeling of lightness after eating and at the same time you are full. On the very first day in Beijing, we were invited by co-workers of my husband to a restaurant. The restaurant was specializing in Ho Guo (Hot Pot) food. From the point of view of a western person, it could hardly be called a restaurant, this was a dining hall. We are used to restaurants that look beautiful with some kind of entourage, expensive furniture. This was a socialist dining room. But with time I got used to it and did not pay attention to the modest decor. I very much fell in love with such food as Ho Guo, especially in winter. Everything is thought out in terms of freshness and preservation of vitamins in Ho Guo.
What is Ho Guo?
They brought us saucepans and burners, each saucepan was set on a burner. Then they brought plates with cucumbers, cabbage, potatoes, herbs, white lotuses, and thinly sliced meat: pork, beef, lamb – all on different plates. Our Chinese friends showed me how to eat with chopsticks. When the broth began to boil, we chose what we wanted to put there from the vegetables and the meat. The meat was cooked for three minutes, no longer. All the broths tasted differently, as each of us preferred to put different vegetables and different meat. From time to time, the waiter was adding the basic broth from the common kettle to our saucepans, as in the process of eating the broth was consumed. The basic broth consisted of ganji, grass, ginseng. There are different broths, the ones with ginseng are more expensive. Over time, we got to love Ho Guo.
In larger restaurants there is a hole right in the center of the table and the burner is under the table. The pot is placed in the middle of the table over the burner. There is a partition in the pan: there is white broth on one side, on the other side – red, yin and yang. White is yang, masculine, and red is yin, feminine, it is very sharp, white broth is mild. Special chic is when fish and meat are boiled together. For us it was very strange. Over time, about a year has passed, I understood this refined taste, when both fish and meat are cooked in the same broth. But you need to get used to it.
In Shanghai there are amazing Japanese restaurants. A lot of Japanese live there. Since it’s close to the sea, there are many seafood restaurants. You come into a restaurant and the whole first floor is occupied by huge aquariums, one aquarium has fish, another one – squid, in the third one there are shrimps, scallops, mussels. You come to an aquarium and choose a fish, they catch it for you with a net and weigh it. They have a measure of weight “jin”, it’s 500 grams. The waiter immediately calculates how much it will cost, and sends the fish to the kitchen. It is only necessary to choose a sauce: there is a red hot sauce, a simple mild sauce, a soy sauce etc. The seafood is prepared in the selected sauce. By the time you settle at a table, they already bring you the food. They cook very quickly.
After I had lived for several years in China and tasted many things, I found that the most delicious were scallops, there are no such scallops in Moscow. They are so tender, they just melt in your mouth. They are served in shells. There is a very healthy sea cucumber called trepang. They are expensive, but very good for the health. In the very south of China, for example, in Guangzhou, they are eating monkey brains, turtle soup (it is also cooked in Shanghai), shark fin soup. These are considered delicacies and are expensive. Once we went on a business trip to a small town. There were the most amazing restaurants in all the years we lived in China. They had turtle soup, shark fin soup, sea cucumbers. The chef was amazingly in preparing these delicacies. In general, in China they consider that the best chefs are men, even in families it is customary that men cook. There were also freshly squeezed fruit juices. Papaya and mango are especially delicious. They bring fruits on a tray and you choose. For example, you choose a mango, they cleans and squeezes it in front of you. They were very attentive. They stand near you and it’s not annoying. You forget about them, but they are watching you. For example, if your hand got dirty, you start looking around to find a napkin, the waiter immediately runs up and gives you a napkin. This happens with a bow and a smile. The administrator of the hall strictly watches every waiter, if anything happens, they are immediately dismissed. Control in the hotels is also strictly imposed, the service was at a very high level. They had cheap labor, the population is huge and everyone values their workplace. Now, perhaps, everything has changed. But at that time, I was fascinated by their friendly service, in Moscow there was no such thing. People in China are very hardworking.