I don't have anything new to report - classes cancelled because of earthquake warnings, none of which actually do much over here. I'm hoping everyone gets over it soon. So, enough about earthquakes. I can't remember if I've related this story or not, so I'll tell it again. It's short.
Sometime a couple of weeks ago I was hanging out in a park with Ariel, Yoyo and Ivy, on account of being told it wasn't a good idea to be in the apartment when an aftershock (which never came) was forecast. Parks over here have a lot of clover in them, and I thought it was curious, so I asked Ariel about it. She said that it's just considered pretty - plus the four-leafed ones are supposed to be lucky. I looked down, and picked up a four-leafed clover. Ariel spent the next few minutes looking for one, without any success.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Pictures from last week
These are the pictures from teaching a class at a university last week. First, a picture of me! The students gave me the green ribbon at the start of the class. It's meant to be a symbol of new life; it's a show of support for the earthquake survivors. Everyone in the class was wearing one.
This is the regular teacher of the class; she is the one who brought me in to teach.
This guy was pretty cool. He asked a lot of questions; only a handful of students were responsible for most of the volunteering.
In this picture you can see that the topic for the class was "earthquake & religion". Really, they were more interested in free discussion, although several students had some very moving things to say about the earthquake (yes, in English). This guy was the first to speak up, he gave a very good speech about it.
Three girls in the class! What more can I say about this picture?
The end of the class was time to take photos with everyone. This is a smaller group than the next photo -
- which is all the girls in the class. They told the boys to piss off (politely), because they wanted a girls-only photo with me. As you'll see in the next photo, there weren't that many boys to begin with.
And finally, the whole class.
This is the regular teacher of the class; she is the one who brought me in to teach.
This guy was pretty cool. He asked a lot of questions; only a handful of students were responsible for most of the volunteering.
In this picture you can see that the topic for the class was "earthquake & religion". Really, they were more interested in free discussion, although several students had some very moving things to say about the earthquake (yes, in English). This guy was the first to speak up, he gave a very good speech about it.
Three girls in the class! What more can I say about this picture?
The end of the class was time to take photos with everyone. This is a smaller group than the next photo -
- which is all the girls in the class. They told the boys to piss off (politely), because they wanted a girls-only photo with me. As you'll see in the next photo, there weren't that many boys to begin with.
And finally, the whole class.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Aftershock!
It was about 6.4 in Sichuan, which translates to mild shaking over here. Unlike previous aftershocks this one was a sizeable earthquake in its own right, and I actually felt it. I wouldn't have if I was asleep (again!), but I was teaching when it happened. I must have been standing in a stable spot, because I didn't even realise until one of the staff came in and said to get everyone out. Once in the corridor, I could feel the shaking - it lasted a surprisingly long time. We got all the kids to stand in the corners or hide under their chairs, and once the shaking had stopped for good everyone left the building. The parents were very swift in collecting their children! Most were gone before I even got downstairs. I kept one or two entertained while they waited for their parents - they didn't have to wait long, though.
I'm guessing it's pretty bad in Sichuan, especially in places where relief efforts are ongoing. I haven't heard anything about the situation there.
I'm guessing it's pretty bad in Sichuan, especially in places where relief efforts are ongoing. I haven't heard anything about the situation there.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Cherry Picking
Here are some photos from the cherry-picking expedition a week ago:
Okay, so this photo doesn't have anything to do with cherries. It was, however, what we ate for lunch/dinner after picking the cherries. Chicken not pictured. This food is even more awesome than it looks, because it turns out that what you do is get a large, thin pancake - really a soft flour tortilla - and stuff whatever you can inside before folding it up and eating it. Delicious.
Okay, so this photo doesn't have anything to do with cherries. It was, however, what we ate for lunch/dinner after picking the cherries. Chicken not pictured. This food is even more awesome than it looks, because it turns out that what you do is get a large, thin pancake - really a soft flour tortilla - and stuff whatever you can inside before folding it up and eating it. Delicious.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Being Lazy!
I have a bunch of photos to put up, but I'm too lazy to resize and upload them right now. Maybe tomorrow.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
More About Earthquakes
The death toll in Sichuan keeps rising - it's up to almost 10,000 now. Here in Xi'an there were 80-odd deaths - they must have been rather unlucky people who happened to be in the wrong place when the earthquake struck.
The earthquake itself struck in the early afternoon on Monday. There was an aftershock at 4am the next morning that I slept through, and was much milder. People here are really not used to earthquakes - or any sort of natural disaster, by the looks of it, because yesterday everyone went crazy.
Because of the earthquake the day before, everyone went outside. People left their apartments in droves, and a security guard knocked on my door and suggested (ordered? I couldn't understand a word he said, so I'm not clear on that part) that I go downstairs. Outside, lots of other people were leaving too, and some of them had packed their bags. I'm guessing a bunch of people left for more Northerly provinces. Throughout the day I kept hearing (from my English-speaking friends) reports that there would be another aftershock (it never came). The library square, normally quite empty at that time of day, had people all around the edge, resting in one of the places not right next to a high-rise building. Classes yesterday were cancelled (the school is on the 16th floor).
Everyone was very seriously freaked out by this. I haven't lived in Wellington much but I was born there, so a little earthquake (and in Xi'an it was little, even if it wasn't elsewhere) doesn't faze me, especially when I don't even feel it. It just ended up leaving me somewhat bemused at everyone else running around like a mad chook.
Things seem pretty normal today. I don't know if I have work tonight or not; everyone else seems to have calmed down, but I hear that some parents are going to keep their kids away until after the weekend. Mind you, if an earthquake did strike while classes were on, I don't fancy trying to herd 60-100 kids down 16 flights of stairs using about 12 adults without losing any of the kids.
The earthquake itself struck in the early afternoon on Monday. There was an aftershock at 4am the next morning that I slept through, and was much milder. People here are really not used to earthquakes - or any sort of natural disaster, by the looks of it, because yesterday everyone went crazy.
Because of the earthquake the day before, everyone went outside. People left their apartments in droves, and a security guard knocked on my door and suggested (ordered? I couldn't understand a word he said, so I'm not clear on that part) that I go downstairs. Outside, lots of other people were leaving too, and some of them had packed their bags. I'm guessing a bunch of people left for more Northerly provinces. Throughout the day I kept hearing (from my English-speaking friends) reports that there would be another aftershock (it never came). The library square, normally quite empty at that time of day, had people all around the edge, resting in one of the places not right next to a high-rise building. Classes yesterday were cancelled (the school is on the 16th floor).
Everyone was very seriously freaked out by this. I haven't lived in Wellington much but I was born there, so a little earthquake (and in Xi'an it was little, even if it wasn't elsewhere) doesn't faze me, especially when I don't even feel it. It just ended up leaving me somewhat bemused at everyone else running around like a mad chook.
Things seem pretty normal today. I don't know if I have work tonight or not; everyone else seems to have calmed down, but I hear that some parents are going to keep their kids away until after the weekend. Mind you, if an earthquake did strike while classes were on, I don't fancy trying to herd 60-100 kids down 16 flights of stairs using about 12 adults without losing any of the kids.
Earthquake and Cherries
Yesterday was certainly exciting. At 7:30 in the morning I was picked to go and teach at a university - one I hadn't been to before. Like all the universities, it seems, it was way South of Xi'an, which is why I had to get picked up at 7:30 to go to a 9:00 class. I thought I was going to be teaching three classes, but it turns out that by "three classes" what they meant was "the same class, but three times as long". There was a break in the middle so the extended periods of talking weren't a problem, but it meant that I didn't have as much material as I needed.
However, it turned out really well. I taught the students Kiwi slang, so now there's a class full of Chinese students running around saying "g'day" and "sweet as". Some of it was hard to grasp ("you can't talk" needed the Chinese teacher's help to explain), but they picked up on it really well. Maybe they won't use it much, but at least they should understand it when it's used with them, which is the real goal. Now I need to plan for next week.
After the class I went to go and pick cherries with the teachers from my regular job. As it turned out, the cherry-picking was in roughly the same direction as the one I'd just come from, but further. We spent a long time in a bus, until the land stopped being so flat; then we spent more time in a "mian bao che" (bread car - the Chinese name for a van) until we got to the top of the hills; and then we walked halfway back down the hills until we got to the cherries themselves.
The cherry-picking was a lot of fun, and afterwards we sat in the shade of the trees and ate our haul. The crazy old lady who ran the plot we were on sold us a few bags of the ones she had picked (they were deeper and redder than our own), and we left. There are many plots in this area, each of them with a small garden of cherry trees, and a person or two to take care of it and charge for the cherries.
After picking the cherries we walked back up the hill again, and started to hear more about the earthquake. We'd found out about it earlier, when we were on the bus there - an earthquake had struck, and various people had called to make sure others were ok. We didn't even know until all the phone calls, because the bus was driving over rough road at the time. Earthquake, potholes, all the same to me. More about that later - first, we had dinner.
We found a little restaurant a short way from the top of the hill, and we all rather gratefully sat down, and the Chinese speakers ordered food. This was the closest I've come to a Chinese back-country restaurant - while we were eating the entrée, they killed and plucked the chicken we were to have for dinner - and I know this because I could see it, we were eating outside. Dinner was delicious, though. Now, on to the earthquake:
The earthquake had struck in Sichuan province, and there are many casualties there - some 8,000 dead. At ground zero it was 7.8 on the Richter scale, I'm told! Over here, we just got the ripples. When I got home I found the air conditioner on the ground, and two particularly silly light fittings hanging from the ceiling had broken by swinging into each other. There were reports that a building had cracked in half, but we couldn't see it when we came home.
We were also told that we'd get an aftershock - first we were told at 6pm, then somewhere between 11pm and 1am. The dorms at all the universities had turned all their students out when the first earthquake struck, and now they weren't letting them back in for fear of the aftershock. At 1am, I got a message from a friend in a university, saying people had given up hope of their beds and were just sleeping outside.
When I got to my apartment I discovered the elevator was down, so I walked up 30 flights of stairs, to discover that I hadn't looked closely enough - only the first elevator was down, the two next to it seemed to be working fine. At any rate, I'd quite tired myself out, so I crashed and slept perfectly soundly.
This morning, after a few concerned phone calls, it turns out there was an aftershock, at about 4am. It wasn't as strong as the first earthquake, and I slept right through it without feeling a thing.
However, it turned out really well. I taught the students Kiwi slang, so now there's a class full of Chinese students running around saying "g'day" and "sweet as". Some of it was hard to grasp ("you can't talk" needed the Chinese teacher's help to explain), but they picked up on it really well. Maybe they won't use it much, but at least they should understand it when it's used with them, which is the real goal. Now I need to plan for next week.
After the class I went to go and pick cherries with the teachers from my regular job. As it turned out, the cherry-picking was in roughly the same direction as the one I'd just come from, but further. We spent a long time in a bus, until the land stopped being so flat; then we spent more time in a "mian bao che" (bread car - the Chinese name for a van) until we got to the top of the hills; and then we walked halfway back down the hills until we got to the cherries themselves.
The cherry-picking was a lot of fun, and afterwards we sat in the shade of the trees and ate our haul. The crazy old lady who ran the plot we were on sold us a few bags of the ones she had picked (they were deeper and redder than our own), and we left. There are many plots in this area, each of them with a small garden of cherry trees, and a person or two to take care of it and charge for the cherries.
After picking the cherries we walked back up the hill again, and started to hear more about the earthquake. We'd found out about it earlier, when we were on the bus there - an earthquake had struck, and various people had called to make sure others were ok. We didn't even know until all the phone calls, because the bus was driving over rough road at the time. Earthquake, potholes, all the same to me. More about that later - first, we had dinner.
We found a little restaurant a short way from the top of the hill, and we all rather gratefully sat down, and the Chinese speakers ordered food. This was the closest I've come to a Chinese back-country restaurant - while we were eating the entrée, they killed and plucked the chicken we were to have for dinner - and I know this because I could see it, we were eating outside. Dinner was delicious, though. Now, on to the earthquake:
The earthquake had struck in Sichuan province, and there are many casualties there - some 8,000 dead. At ground zero it was 7.8 on the Richter scale, I'm told! Over here, we just got the ripples. When I got home I found the air conditioner on the ground, and two particularly silly light fittings hanging from the ceiling had broken by swinging into each other. There were reports that a building had cracked in half, but we couldn't see it when we came home.
We were also told that we'd get an aftershock - first we were told at 6pm, then somewhere between 11pm and 1am. The dorms at all the universities had turned all their students out when the first earthquake struck, and now they weren't letting them back in for fear of the aftershock. At 1am, I got a message from a friend in a university, saying people had given up hope of their beds and were just sleeping outside.
When I got to my apartment I discovered the elevator was down, so I walked up 30 flights of stairs, to discover that I hadn't looked closely enough - only the first elevator was down, the two next to it seemed to be working fine. At any rate, I'd quite tired myself out, so I crashed and slept perfectly soundly.
This morning, after a few concerned phone calls, it turns out there was an aftershock, at about 4am. It wasn't as strong as the first earthquake, and I slept right through it without feeling a thing.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Crazy Days
Today was a kind of crazy day. At the last minute I had my class changed for a K1 class - which means that the kids are about 3-4 years old. As soon as I walk in the class a kid starts crying, and two or three more follow soon after. The powers that be decide that hey, maybe it's not such a good idea for me to teach this class, and pull me out and put me into another class I didn't know I was going to have - this time, kids around 8-10. They have a much better reaction to strange foreigners walking into their class, although I was a bit stuck at first because I didn't know what I was supposed to be teaching. Anyway, it worked out ok.
It turns out I have a secret admirer. I often walk home with Ivy, another foreign teacher, since she lives in the same building as me. Yesterday, a girl walked up to Ivy and asked where I was (I'd gone to the shops), since she usually sees us walking together - then went on to say that she wants to talk to me but doesn't know how. She walked with Ivy back to the apartment building. I still haven't so much as seen this mystery girl. I'm very curious, now.
It turns out I have a secret admirer. I often walk home with Ivy, another foreign teacher, since she lives in the same building as me. Yesterday, a girl walked up to Ivy and asked where I was (I'd gone to the shops), since she usually sees us walking together - then went on to say that she wants to talk to me but doesn't know how. She walked with Ivy back to the apartment building. I still haven't so much as seen this mystery girl. I'm very curious, now.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Xi'an City Wall
On Monday I went to the city wall, and took a bunch of photos. I'd originally planned to go to Wild Goose Pagoda with Dane (a classmate from my TESOL course, now working in the same city as me), but we spent so long finding a place to have lunch that we ran out of time, and the city wall was closer. Since I hadn't planned on this, I didn't have my camera - these photos are from my phone.
A few Chinese girls coming down the stairs as we came in:
This is what all the rubbish bins inside the wall looked like. I didn't recognise it as a bin at first; disappointingly, it's made of plastic, not metal.
The wall is stable! Honest!
A street just inside the wall, as seen from the wall. The houses along the street all have this nice quaint design, unlike the bricklike high-rises more common around Xi'an.
This is a view of one side of the South gate. There are several gates in the wall, but there is a main one at about the middle of each of the four sides of the wall. This is only one half of the gate, because Northbound and Southbound traffic go through separate tunnels through the wall, and I'm shooting from the middle.
This is the top of the wall. This gives you a little idea of how wide it is, and how long. The top of the wall is about the only place in Xi'an you have an unbroken line of sight for any great distance.
The building in the silhouette is directly over the South gate. I don't think it's any kind of temple (all the surviving ancient buildings seem to be temples), so I guess it is a gatehouse of some kind.
A few Chinese girls coming down the stairs as we came in:
This is what all the rubbish bins inside the wall looked like. I didn't recognise it as a bin at first; disappointingly, it's made of plastic, not metal.
The wall is stable! Honest!
A street just inside the wall, as seen from the wall. The houses along the street all have this nice quaint design, unlike the bricklike high-rises more common around Xi'an.
This is a view of one side of the South gate. There are several gates in the wall, but there is a main one at about the middle of each of the four sides of the wall. This is only one half of the gate, because Northbound and Southbound traffic go through separate tunnels through the wall, and I'm shooting from the middle.
This is the top of the wall. This gives you a little idea of how wide it is, and how long. The top of the wall is about the only place in Xi'an you have an unbroken line of sight for any great distance.
The building in the silhouette is directly over the South gate. I don't think it's any kind of temple (all the surviving ancient buildings seem to be temples), so I guess it is a gatehouse of some kind.
Monday, May 5, 2008
A Night on the Town
Alex and I went out for a few drinks last night - we started at a youth hostel, then moved to another youth hostel, and finally ended up at 1+1 Club.
The first hostel was pretty uneventful. At the second hostel I met two of Alex's friends - an Australian and an Englishman. The Aussie went home to his girlfriend around midnight, and the Englishman kept drowning his sorrows (it was never really made clear what had gotten him down - he didn't seem to know himself) for a while longer. After that we found a guy in a side street selling barbecue, so we had a bite to eat. There aren't so many people eating at that time of night - we were the only ones in sight - but it's heartening to know you can still get freshly cooked food at 2am in the morning over here. After helping the Englishman to his taxi, Alex and I headed off again.
On our way to the club, we ran across a group of Portuguese businessmen. There are a lot more tourists around these days. These tourists, though, asked where the clubs were, and since we were going anyway, we showed them the way. They were looking in completely the wrong place, in case you're wondering. While chatting to them I discovered that they are in the insurance business, and are at the tail end of a trip to several countries. We got to the club, and by passing the message from the Portuguese guy, to me (I could understand his accent better), to Alex (who knows Chinese), to the waiter (who is Chinese), drinks were ordered. Alex and I danced, the tourists didn't seem so keen on it, and they left after they finished their drinks. Alex and I stayed on for a while, and made it home around 5.
So now I know the best way to have a good time in this city. Never go to the club straight away, because they charge through the nose for the drinks. Get dinner at one of the many nice, and dead cheap, restaurants or roadside cooks; gets drinks at a youth hostel or bar; and finally, go dancing for free at the clubs, since they don't have a cover charge.
The first hostel was pretty uneventful. At the second hostel I met two of Alex's friends - an Australian and an Englishman. The Aussie went home to his girlfriend around midnight, and the Englishman kept drowning his sorrows (it was never really made clear what had gotten him down - he didn't seem to know himself) for a while longer. After that we found a guy in a side street selling barbecue, so we had a bite to eat. There aren't so many people eating at that time of night - we were the only ones in sight - but it's heartening to know you can still get freshly cooked food at 2am in the morning over here. After helping the Englishman to his taxi, Alex and I headed off again.
On our way to the club, we ran across a group of Portuguese businessmen. There are a lot more tourists around these days. These tourists, though, asked where the clubs were, and since we were going anyway, we showed them the way. They were looking in completely the wrong place, in case you're wondering. While chatting to them I discovered that they are in the insurance business, and are at the tail end of a trip to several countries. We got to the club, and by passing the message from the Portuguese guy, to me (I could understand his accent better), to Alex (who knows Chinese), to the waiter (who is Chinese), drinks were ordered. Alex and I danced, the tourists didn't seem so keen on it, and they left after they finished their drinks. Alex and I stayed on for a while, and made it home around 5.
So now I know the best way to have a good time in this city. Never go to the club straight away, because they charge through the nose for the drinks. Get dinner at one of the many nice, and dead cheap, restaurants or roadside cooks; gets drinks at a youth hostel or bar; and finally, go dancing for free at the clubs, since they don't have a cover charge.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
A Big Wind Blows
Yesterday, the classes in the morning were cancelled because of a sandstorm. How awesome is that? A sandstorm!
It wasn't one like in Hidalgo, but it was still pretty cool. The days before had been hot and sunny, and dead calm. Yesterday I woke up to the howling of the wind, and stepping outside was nearly blown over. In front of a building next to my apartment were two dust devils, given more permanence than normal by the storm, and five times the usual size. One of the Chinese teachers told me it's because of deforestation inland (to make disposable chopsticks!), and that the Japanese government sponsors tree replanting in China because the storms reach as far as Japan itself.
Today I went to the sports park with Alex - it's a nice park, and has a gym attached. You can pay 200RMB per month for membership in the gym, or you can use the exercise machines scattered throughout the park for free. Go figure. Apparently exercise machines are a common feature in Chinese parks, although they're more clunky and solid than the equivalent inside a gym. I'm going to start trying to get up early enough that I can go to the park to work out without dying from the heat.
It wasn't one like in Hidalgo, but it was still pretty cool. The days before had been hot and sunny, and dead calm. Yesterday I woke up to the howling of the wind, and stepping outside was nearly blown over. In front of a building next to my apartment were two dust devils, given more permanence than normal by the storm, and five times the usual size. One of the Chinese teachers told me it's because of deforestation inland (to make disposable chopsticks!), and that the Japanese government sponsors tree replanting in China because the storms reach as far as Japan itself.
Today I went to the sports park with Alex - it's a nice park, and has a gym attached. You can pay 200RMB per month for membership in the gym, or you can use the exercise machines scattered throughout the park for free. Go figure. Apparently exercise machines are a common feature in Chinese parks, although they're more clunky and solid than the equivalent inside a gym. I'm going to start trying to get up early enough that I can go to the park to work out without dying from the heat.
Friday, May 2, 2008
You Never Know Just How You Look
Today was Labour Day in China. In previous years people have had three official days off, but this year the government changed it to one. Various workplaces exercised their own discretion, so some people got up to six days off. I get one.
So, I spent my day off hanging out with Yoyo (it was going to be Yoyo and Ariel, but Ariel cancelled at the last minute). In the evening we met up with Ariel at a youth hostel, had a few beers and several interesting conversations, and then left for the 1+1 club. If you only want to dance - and we had already had our drinks - you can get in free, so we did. Then we went home.
And, as it happened, I'd lost my money somewhere along the way. I have no idea what happened to it - the pants I'm wearing have both velcro and a zipper over the pockets, so I think it unlikely that I was pickpocketed. At any rate, I had a very understanding taxi driver who understood the mad gesticulations that were my attempt to explain that I would go to my apartment, fetch money, and come back. He was still there when I got back, so he must have believed me too.
Earlier in the day, I made lunch for Yoyo and me. Then, I very cleverly broke the glass lampshade above the table, showering the virgin food with shards of glass. I threw everything out, and we went to Pizza Hut instead. I've been very curious as to what Pizza Hut in China is like ever since I discovered the lack of cheese here. So, here it is:
Some things change, and some things stay the same. The pizzas themselves are the same. You can't tell them apart. The garlic bread is not - instead of a delicious greasy loaf still dripping with butter and garlic, you get a few modest slices that have been baked, not fried, and have no trace of grease remaining. This might be an improvement if I didn't happen to like the greasy, tin-foil-wrapped garlic bread better. I've got no idea if the sides are the same - I'm not familiar enough with Pizza Hut back home to be able to tell.
The biggest difference, though, is that Pizza Hut here is a fully-fledged restaurant, not a fast-food joint. I know Pizza Hut has been following this trend in the West, too, but it really shows here in the prices. At McDonalds, for example, you can get a meal for 20RMB. At Pizza Hut I spent 150RMB for two people - just one pizza, garlic bread, and drinks.
Last, but not least: I was very curious as to where they got there cheese from. As I said, even in cheese-free China, the pizzas were the same. Yoyo asked one of the waiters, and he said it comes from Australia.
So, I spent my day off hanging out with Yoyo (it was going to be Yoyo and Ariel, but Ariel cancelled at the last minute). In the evening we met up with Ariel at a youth hostel, had a few beers and several interesting conversations, and then left for the 1+1 club. If you only want to dance - and we had already had our drinks - you can get in free, so we did. Then we went home.
And, as it happened, I'd lost my money somewhere along the way. I have no idea what happened to it - the pants I'm wearing have both velcro and a zipper over the pockets, so I think it unlikely that I was pickpocketed. At any rate, I had a very understanding taxi driver who understood the mad gesticulations that were my attempt to explain that I would go to my apartment, fetch money, and come back. He was still there when I got back, so he must have believed me too.
Earlier in the day, I made lunch for Yoyo and me. Then, I very cleverly broke the glass lampshade above the table, showering the virgin food with shards of glass. I threw everything out, and we went to Pizza Hut instead. I've been very curious as to what Pizza Hut in China is like ever since I discovered the lack of cheese here. So, here it is:
Some things change, and some things stay the same. The pizzas themselves are the same. You can't tell them apart. The garlic bread is not - instead of a delicious greasy loaf still dripping with butter and garlic, you get a few modest slices that have been baked, not fried, and have no trace of grease remaining. This might be an improvement if I didn't happen to like the greasy, tin-foil-wrapped garlic bread better. I've got no idea if the sides are the same - I'm not familiar enough with Pizza Hut back home to be able to tell.
The biggest difference, though, is that Pizza Hut here is a fully-fledged restaurant, not a fast-food joint. I know Pizza Hut has been following this trend in the West, too, but it really shows here in the prices. At McDonalds, for example, you can get a meal for 20RMB. At Pizza Hut I spent 150RMB for two people - just one pizza, garlic bread, and drinks.
Last, but not least: I was very curious as to where they got there cheese from. As I said, even in cheese-free China, the pizzas were the same. Yoyo asked one of the waiters, and he said it comes from Australia.
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