2017 Trip to China: Some Impressions

August in Beijing, heat and humidity were a killer
combo. I was able to do my daily yoga but not
motivated enough to lift kettlebells. I felt weak
and tired.  One or two long walks during the day
were the main exercise. Forget about jogging--
the places were simply too crowded with people
seeking cool air and space in the giant sauna. I
was still able to do 10 pullups.

I learnt on this trip that, during the past year, my
mother-in-law and aunt were hospitalized for heart
disease and cerebral hemorrhage respectively and
my 90-year-old uncle passed away after a fall. 
I knew Dad visited hospital twice early this year
for cerebral infarction. Thanks to his improvement 
in diet and, more importantly, care from Mr. Zhao,
I could keep working in the Valley.

I ate well on a one-meal-a-day diet. Fasting and
sleeping helped overcoming quickly a slight cold
and diarhea. (I should pay Steve Maxwell some day
for the fasting trick.)

Fasting or even eating less, however, is unthinkable
to my people. They are such alien and even hostile
ideas to a mass that believe more and rare are better
and consider tasty and complicated meals a or the
major ingredient of a happy life. Walking along the
streets in Beijing and my hometown, I couldn't help
likening the places to daily buffets jammed with foods
from all over the world and people hungry for not
high quality fuel for body and mind but eating
experiences to satisfy some deep psychological needs.
One maxim that my mother-in-law quotes often says
that the only goal for traveling thousands of miles
(think horse-back instead of a bullet train) for office
is to eat and dress well. (千里做官，就为吃穿。）
And, boy, isn't this the age for eating and dressing well?! Personally knowing so many with the diseases of
affluence, sometimes I wonder from which people suffer
more, abundance or scarcity.

As far as living cost went, coffee was vastly more
expensive (16 RMB@KFC) than soymilk(1 RMB@booth).
Even good hard liqor (e.g., 衡水老白干) costed only half
the price of that ridiculous foreign drink. My hometown
morning markets were so much richer, cheaper, and
more accessible than its American counterparts the
weekly farmer's markets. I could live very well under 30
RMB (or 5 USD) per day.

That is, if I stay healthy. For dad, professional
care costs 150 and hospital care thousands of RMB
a day. In this light, health is almost everything.
(Isn't that obvious?) How to live a good life? Via
negativa--don't get sick.

[7grizzly]

#3: 民以食为天

[7grizzly]

My son also got fever and cold and the wife barfed a few times.
I didn't eat on the plane but that seemed not enough.
Next time I should try to fast the whole time there ;-)
But that'll upset people around me.

人是铁饭是钢. That's a good one. Haha. I guess each generation's view is shaped differently by historical events and circumstances. Our parents' generation experienced famines and hardships, so ... My dad couldn't imagine even skipping one meal. Sigh.

Thanks for liking.

[暖冬cool夏]

How could I miss such a good post? I swear I did not see this one. I went back to China in May, and both my daughter and I got food poisoning in Xi'an (vomitting and fever with my daughter). In the end, fasting helped (and of course, we lost our appetite too). But my mother-in- law could not take it, saying that "人是铁饭是钢”.：))
Yes, don't get sick, especially in the States.
Btw, this is another very well written journal. I can never catch you, :))))