Tipping? And some other fun facts.

Learned something important last night. Tipping is illegal. That’s why the lady in the restaurant was so adamant that I not give her a tip. It has to do with reporting income. Apparently they don’t have a method of reporting tips and they can get in trouble, soooo, lesson learned there. It won’t be the last. I owe her a big apology. Maybe flowers? No can do there either. Cut flowers are for funerals and I’ll probably get the “who died” look. Making it worse I was told today that giving a tip is common place in prostitution, so forcing a tip on someone makes them feel like you think of them as a prostitute. So I got that going for me. Ugh.

It was just Jeremy and I last night for the game at the Homey 88 bar. It was super late. The game didn’t start until after 11:00pm. Got to sleep last night around 2:30am. It was a good time and the food was great. Owner of the restaurant was South African and he was pretty excited that the Springboks won decidedly. It was different to be out and about and be in a place with no Asians anywhere to be seen. The majority of the crowd was from Africa. I met folks from Mozambique and Congo last night. A truly international affair in China. I didn’t get any pictures. Dang.

Jeremy has hooked me up with some helpful information in getting around and navigating commerce. He and his wife Tia spent the past two years in Beijing. They are about to be empty nesters as their youngest of three is off to college this fall. He passed along a golf contact that will help get me on a course soon. Perhaps later this week. Cheapest round of golf I can find so far is around $200. Will definitely do that if I can’t find anything else. That said, might not be playing that much until I can make some contacts in the golf community here.

Fun fact #1.

Turn signals are NEVER used by anyone. Seriously. Never. Also, it’s typical for a car to straddle two lanes as they decide which lane they think is going to move faster. Wouldn’t have believed these without seeing them. They’re both a real thing.

Fun fact #2.

All land in China is owned by the government. All of it. To use land for anything you have lease it from the government. Nobody can actually buy any property here. If someone says they are buying a house, what they are really doing is leasing it.

Fun fact #3.

Foreigners can’t be the sole owner of any business in China. They have to have a Chinese citizen be a partner. The South African owner I met last night filled me in on this.

I got invited to lunch today with math teacher Matt and his family. My new principal Fursey was there too. Matt’s wife Justine is a science teacher at the school and they have a five year old boy named Like. Lunch was a TON of food. Three kinds of splatter dumplings that would squirt wildly if you weren’t careful when you bit into them. Veggies a ton. Two desserts, oat milk ice cream and no-bake oat bars with peanut butter and chocolate. To die for. :drool:

It’s stoopid hot out again. I’m going to crash on the couch and fall asleep watching Netflix.

Tomorrow I may go explore the Powerling mall. It looks like they have a few food options there…