Out and About in Shenyang

Trying to pull out a hundred-kuai bill at the restaurant today, I accidentally ripped it. The waitress watched in horror. She made me pay with another bill.

Is this a metaphor for the strength of the Chinese currency?

Every month we celebrate the birthday of people in the Consular section.

The birthday candle is shaped like a lotus flower, and like a lot of things in China, is over the top.

Ouch. I guess that I won’t be walking to work today after all.

A group of middle-aged guys were shoveling the snow off plaza around the Mao statue today. Just another day in the Dongbei.

If you have to ride a bike in order to get around, but you live in a cold climate, how do you keep your hands warm?

The ingenious Chinese have figured this out: get bike mittens! They mount on the handlebars of your bike or motorcycle, and keep the wind off your hands as you cruise down the frozen street.

Sure, they make you look like a dork, but that’s the price that you have to pay if you want to avoid frostbite.

Bike Mittens: they’re cool because they’re warm.

Bike Mittens: because being warm is better than being cool.

There is a funny-looking creature that lives at the bottom of the ocean. It’s an animal, but the name of it is “Sea Cucumber.” The name is misleading, however. It tastes nothing like a cucumber, which is too bad, because I like cucumbers. I do not like the taste of 3-year-old rubber bands, which is too bad, because this is what sea cucumbers actually taste like.

There is a belief among the Chinese people that eating this poor disgusting animal is healthy for you. I of course find that very hard to believe, but nevertheless it’s unfortunate for the little bugs, because that makes them very popular among certain segments of the Chinese population.

The hotel where I live is having some sort of sea cucumber festival this month. Here’s the promotion picture that is in the elevator. I will have to look at this for the next month.

Does this look appealing to you? Me neither.

Today I saw an apparel store that is going out of business. The store was selling their stock off to clear out the inventory.

Going out of business

What was funny to me was one of the signs in the window. It means “going out of business,” but the literal translation is “I quit!”

“I quit!”

You know how when you want to shape your hedge plants into animal shapes, but you accidentally cut off all the leaves, thus killing the plant? We’ve all been there, right? Don’t you just hate that?

What a lush green color!

No problem: just cover the dead plant with plastic leaves. No one will ever know that it’s fake.

Sure, we all are completely fooled by this very authentic shade of green.

We celebrated birthdays for everyone in the section who had a birthday this month. Chinese birthday cakes are really spectacular.