My Chinese Hospital Visit Part 2

This is part of my multi-part series on Chinese hospitals. I had some problems with my lungs and went to the nearest hospital which happens to be a Chinese Red Army hospital, searching for meds. I entered the place and approached a couple of ‘docs’ in the emergency room. The guys were dressed a bit casually, one in Bermudas, flip flops, and the other in jeans. They had kind of hinted at me having bronchitis and sent me to register and pay… action begins (this is actually a true story) So I’d just plunked down about the cost of 1.5 DVD’s with the latest movie title, (U$22, for meds the checkup and xrays) and returned to the office of the docs. The one doc had felt me up and down with his stethoscope, and the other had basically translated. When I arrived again Dr. Feels good with the stethoscope once again had a new patient. From what I’d gathered they still had to do some checking about my person, and then draw some blood, from there it would be xrays and then the diagnosis, the meds, and bye bye. I sat and watched the guy in Bermudas, working on some old guy and waited, the crony or doctor #2 left the office. The old guy looked in pain and was hacking up phlegm, I moved away, started to pace in the office. All of the sudden a freaking military officer enters the room, and posts at the door. I was like wtf is he doing, then i proceeded to watch the old guy wheezing and wondered how long it would take for me to be in his condition. The doc in Bermudas looks up at the officer and points at me, the guy listens then walks over, tells me to come with him. I’m thinking its going to be something like midnight run, where they take me out back and kick my ass, deport me, and then shoot me. I’m adventurous so I go with the guy. We return to the receptionist, apparently they’d undercharged me, or something like that, so I fork over another 100 RMB (15 U$), politely talk to another patient who is speaking to me in what he presumes to be is English, and then we return to the office. Returning to the office, the place is empty, the docs are gone, no sandals no old man coughing, nothing. The officer looks at me, shrugs, and points at his watch, its lunch time. He tells me to sit in the hall. The hall is gloomy and dark and no one is there. Its like being in jail. I wait – to be continued

Tai Yuan China- People as Far as the Eye Can See

I’ll blog about Tai Yuan, but for now, you’ll have to settle for photos…

Scared as Hell and Stuck in Chinese Elevators- Crappy Chinese Construction

I must be jinxed, the gods of Chinese revenge are onto me and my evil blog, it must be something like that, or some fked up kismet. I ‘ve been in China over almost 3 years and we have somewhat of a truce, China doesn’t mess with me too much and I respect her and her laws. But lately all of that seems to have changed, that evil vixen scamp of Chinese fate has decided to screw with me and I am about to declare w.a.r! Yeah, you can guess what happened, no its not the fact that another Chinese company has lied to me about wages and underpaid me, I’ll blog that later, but China has been try to screw with my sense of tranquility….in the last two days, I have been stuck in a freaking Chinese elevator, talk about freaking scary! The first time was in my building and I was on the elevator with an old biddie, and a young tart. I’m not too high up, so usually its a quick trip. I had to take a leak something fierce so was in a hurry. The old biddie is jamming buttons with her gnarled fingers and causing me to get miffed as I had to go badly. So the elevator takes off, and my building is only four years old, but four building years in China is like dog years. In other words one year for a building in this place is more like ten in any civilized country. So the state of my place is like something built in the 60s or 70’s, walls cracked, water leaking etc. Anyway, the biddie stops beating on the wall, and the old rickety Chinese elevator wheezes and starts up, then the dam thing stops, I shit myself thinking wtf.. The biddie is a little frazzled, and the tart is calm. The elevator then starts to descend, but does not stop on any floor, its kind of suspended and just bobbing. I almost had a cardiac arrest, I was like wtf, I am going to die in an elevator in chicom country? Then the thing teeters to floor two and I am ready to bolt, and then it didnt stop at floor two, but shot up to 5 and then 6 and 7 then popped back to four, paused and shot back up without stopping, none of the buttons were working.. I was ready to beat on the doors out of fear, the old lady was almost in tears and the tart nonplussed. So then all of the sudden, like something out of Six Flags, the thing descends like an SOB, I was glued to the wall. It jolts to a stop between the 3rd and 4th floor. The biddie is looking at me like she expects me to step up and take action, Im thinking, hey its your country. So I see the alarm, and I’m motioning and saying to call the authorities, but both chicks are mesmerized by it as if afraid. Then I basically pound on the thing, ready to urinate in my pants or pummel the ignoramuses in the elevator car. Some Chinese guy answers and the ladies are mum, I start squawking in pidgin Chinese and the guy hangs up on me.If I were Japanese, I would have committed hari Kari. Then the young one, touches the button and talks to the dude, and we all wait. I’m sweating like a beast and glowering at the two of them…after a little bit, some dude the size of a kewpie doll shows up, screams down the shaft and the elevator runs back up. I ran from the demon thing…. Then today, I had a similar experience,,,I just got home and the preceding section of the blog has taken all my energy, so maybe I’ll blog it later, or maybe you can just guess just what in the hell its like to get stuck in a freaking Chinese elevator.