OK... perhaps this blog title is a little bit unfair. After all, half the fun of going to the post office is gearing up for battle - blue (not black) ballpoint pen - check! Customs forms written in duplicate - check! Extra customs forms with an "x" NOT a check mark next to the box for "gift" - check! Return address written in Chinese characters... NO! but they let me send it anyway! ha! small victory is mine.
For those of you who don't know how to mail a package in China, here's how it works. You walk in with everything you want to send in totally unwrapped condition, and plonk it down on the counter in front of the person with all the mailing supplies. She will then studiously ignore you while attending to every other Chinese person at the counter. Finally, she will notice you standing there, and, after throwing everything you have on the counter into one large box, will understand your broken Chinese and realize that you want to send the four different things to four different people. She will select the appropriate packaging for one of the things, and then use an exorbitant amount of packing tape and packing strips to make sure that NO ONE is getting ANYTHING else in that box EVER. She will then take a break to help the other Chinese people standing in line behind you. And then return to package your second thing. And then help other people. While she is helping other people, you will get a chance to address your newly packaged boxes using BLUE ballpoint pen. Not black. Not felt tip. Not marker. Blue ballpoint pen. Why? I don't know. Even the Germans let you use black ink.
After this ordeal is done, it's time for customs forms. They need to be filled out in duplicate, and they don't come with their own carbon paper, so you will need to ask the lady behind the counter for that (it helps to know the words for "purple" and "paper" at this point). If you're me today, you manage to align the tops of the sheets but not the sides, so the second paper comes out with all the words shifted an inch to the left. The lady behind the counter doesn't seem to care about this (unlike the Germans, where at this point you would have been sternly reprimanded, and forced to begin again). I sent a map to someone (gee... I wonder who likes maps???) which for some reason didn't require a customs form, because maps are printed material. I was suspicious of this, but didn't ask questions, because I literally didn't know the words to say. So Charlie, if you never get your map, it's not because I didn't try.
When it comes time to pay, you first pay the woman who sold you the packaging material (v. cheap) and then you pay the woman behind the counter who affixed your customs forms, stamped your packages many times with many different rubber stamps, and who then asked you if you wanted airmail or the boat. Always choose airmail. Never choose the boat. It's kind of expensive, but it's worth it (that is, it's worth it if it gets there... Charlie, if you never get your map, I'm going to be annoyed!)
So, that is mailing things in China. No problem! To follow up today's theme of "Adventures in Chinese", we took the bus out to the Summer Palace and walked around. It was just a gorgeous day to be outside, and clear enough to see the mountains, which was just amazing. Took some great photographs - one of those days where you don't need to be a great photographer to make things look good. On our way home, we stopped at a pizza restaurant and ordered a potato, bacon, onion, and cornflake pizza. This was not my idea, but my friend's, who is going home tomorrow, and wanted to order a weird pizza as sort of a final farewell to China. It was weird, but also edible (fortunately!), though I don't think I'm going to be ordering one like it again.
On the way home after dinner, we walked down the main Wangfujing Shopping Street, which is closed to traffic, and generally spruced up a bit for tourists and the upper crust (it's much more of a high-rent district than where I was living in the dorm; hence the Starbucks, Dairy Queen, Orange Julius, and even an Outback Steakhouse across the street from the former three). There is a heavy police presence to discourage pickpockets and street peddlers; how heavy it is was brought home to me tonight when I saw a woman selling roses being forced into the back of a police van together with her flowers. She looked terrified. Happy Valentine's Day from China.
