But I did okay there. Most of the time, if I got to talk to them face to face, I could understand what they were saying and I could communicate with them fluently.
The only time I had to ask for repeats was the time when I called up Da Dong Restaurant to book a table. The receptionist spoke fast, like all Mainlanders do, and I could only try to make good guesses from the words spoken and the context.
I try to jot down some learning points I have picked up from the trip:
1) When in Rome, do as Romans do.
Many Singaporeans complain about the rudeness of Mainland Chinese. We did feel that the people were uncouth as well, but we enjoyed our stay all the same. When Coco was visibly affected by their rudeness, I told her to do as Romans do - be like them once in a while ie. jump-queue if need be, 'tsk' others if they 'tsk' you back. At other times, be as civilised as you like yourself to be. Most importantly, bear in mind that they are not the most polite people in the world and you won't impose the same expectations as you have for Singaporeans on them. And you won't feel so miserable.
2) The Mainland Chinese give directions, they use North-South directive
When I asked a passer-by how to get to Middle Tibet Road, she pointed to the other side and said,"Cross the road and go towards North!"
When I asked the receptionist at the Beijing hotel about a shop, she said,"Cross the road and walk North."
I related the direction to my father and he asked me,"Which way is North?"
3) The eateries and restaurants usually do not serve rice if you do not place order for it.
It seemed to me they took it that you would just eat from the dishes without any staple food! To think I always thought rice is a staple originated from China. Apparently, it has never been true. If it ever has, it must have been lost somewhere along the line.
When you do place an order for it, they would ask 'white grain rice (白米饭)?'
We never did find out what other form of rice they had because we were shocked or puzzled each time they asked us the question: how could there be another version of rice?
4) Read the reviews about China's dishonest taxi drivers with a pinch of salt.
Just about all the taxi drivers we had met were honest. To be very sure, I always asked if they went by meter ('打表吗?') before I boarded the cabs. One or two did not and we either did not board it at all, or got off the cab immediately.
If you are not sure why you are charged differently from the meter, ask the driver. They would explain it nicely to you. The first time I took a Beijing cab, I asked why he charged me ten dollars more politely and he explained that, unlike their Shanghai counterparts, the Beijing meters were not updated yet. So they gave pre-printed ten-dollar receipts. The ten-dollar was charged as petrol fees it seemed.
5) Don't believe the locals when they tell you 'It's a short walk from here.'
For the few times we believed them, we ended up walking for an hour eg. to Yunnan Street and Shanghai Book City.
We almost walked to Lan Xin Eatery too! It was at least 2 or 3 hours of walk, judging from the distance the cab travelled.
We could not say that they lied to us. One or two hours of walk was probably 'short' to them. But to Singaporeans, it definitely wasn't!
Do yourself a favour: take cabs wherever you want to go.
6) Keep valuables and passports with you all the time.
Don't leave them in the hotel while you are out. I have read that some hotel staff might not be honest. For peace of mind, I made sure I carried everything I considered important with me wherever I went. That included my camera and flash, even if I was not going to use my flash.
7) Do bargain, unless you are in a generous mood.
Or better yet, don't think about buying anything at all. If they see that you are 'genuinely' not interested, they would be very desperate and would let go at just about any price.
I am lousy at acting, so I had to let the sellers chop my carrot. I bought some pretty glass art at a good price though because I was not interested in it at first. The stallholder at Wangfujing shouted to me,"RMB 60 per piece!" I walked on. Not keen. He shouted again,"RMB 30? Good price!" I said no and was about to walk away when he showed his two fingers and lowered his voice,"I offer you this (RMB 20). How about that?"
I had bought two pieces at another shop for RMB 50 each, so I thought it a 'good' price for me. I bought a few more from him.
8) Change your notes before you go China, or do it at the airport.
Counterfeits are common in China. Each time I passed my notes to the sellers or cashiers, they would check the notes to make sure they were authentic notes.
Xiao Yang showed me ways on how to identify an authentic note which I would not be able to remember, but a little googling helps:
9) Don't be afraid to ask.
If you see any discrepancy on the ticket charges stated on the window and what you are asked to pay, ask the ticketing person politely why it was so. To quote a few incidents, I demonstrated my courage at The Forbidden City's ticketing counter (about the difference between rates quoted and what was shown on the counter window), The Great Wall ticketing counter (about child's ticket), the Train Station ticketing counter (for child ticket to Hangzhou) and the reception counter (for the child ticket for the soft sleeper train to Beijing).
It helped set my mind in peace knowing that I was not cheated most of the time.
10) If like me, you want to take a train from one city to another, ask the hotel staff to book the tickets for you. Most hotels have this service. You just need to pay 10% of the tickets' total price as service fees.
I wasted my first day in Shanghai searching for the ticketing office on my own. And I could have saved myself some worries of not being able to get train tickets to Hangzhou on the very day.
11) If you are on a Free & Easy trip to Shanghai and would like to join their cheap and good local tours, go to the Oriental Pearl Tower the first day you are there. There would be many young men or ladies handing out flyers for local tours. And they are very cheap. You could literally book a cheap ticket and hotel to China and fly over for F&E because their local tours are just so cheap! Don't bother looking for travel agencies at Nanjing Road as what I had done. I could find none!
If you are going Beijing, go to The Forbidden City the very first day. There are tonnes of travel agents touting customers to form tour groups for the very next day. Value for money too if you are not particular like me! If I do go back to China again, I really might just try their local tours just for the experience. However, do bear in mind that their tour groups usually consist of 35 to 50 people.
12) Some new words I have learnt:
Taxi: 打的 （da3 di2)
Power adaptor: 转换器
Local products: 土特产
Airport Terminal: 航站楼
Waitress: 服务生
Receipt: 发票 (which is also common to the Taiwanese Mandarin)
