what is it about China?

Steve asked for some specifics to my growing distaste for China living. It's a cumulative thing. Some of the highlights are:

Difficulty finding restaurants with American food:
The pizzas (except for Papa John's) don't taste like American pizza. The hamburgers are typically strange. Even the ground beef I buy at the foreign food supermarket tastes different. Also too much food has to be spit out. I have given up on shrimp - they are always unpeeled with the head on. The first 2 dozen times was ok, but I just don't enjoy them anymore. And finding odd bits of gristle and ged-knows-what in a hamburger or soup - ugh. Not to mention the 2 times I found bits of metal in my food at fairly up-scale restaurants.

Buying foreign-type groceries:
I pay about $4US for a box of cereal. I pay $1 each for hamburger patties. $3-4 for a small block of cheese. I found some New Zealand cottage cheese I like; it costs $4 each (small carton) and the store gets a shipment about once every 3 weeks. It's difficult to find white or yellow onions - almost all are red here. A huge highlight was making my own enchiladas this week. Probably cost me $10 for the tortillas, enchilada sauce, meat, and cheese.

Restrooms:
I can handle using the squat toilets set in the floor. I can even remember to bring my own paper. It's the smell. You can find public toilets with your eyes closed. Even in restaurants, the toilets aren't all that clean. Between urine on the floor and the fact that used paper is put in a can next to the toilet, not *in* the toilet, the smell can be strong. And squat toilets might be more sanitary since you don't share a seat, but that's only if everyone *hits* the hole. Otherwise, you tend to stand in, uh, unsanitariness. And the general urinal rule is "flush when you get there, not when you are done".

Also tired of seeing children in split-by-design pants with no diaper and children urinating in the street or on the sidewalk as it is convenient.

Spitting:
I often have to spit when I am running outside. Or if I have a cold, I might have to cough and spit. But the amount of spitting here is extreme. And the real kicker is the vocal demonstrations that are necessary before the spitting. This is on sidewalks and in restrooms.

Language:
I can finally speak a little Chinese. And 25% of the people I meet speak some English. But it is a mental strain to do many things, even with a translator. And just because a menu is translated into English doesn't mean you can understand what the food is supposed to be.

Health:
besides the spitting and bathrooms, I'm worried about the air (the Chinese are, too) and the water. They tell me the water is ok if you boil it (looks like most of the contamination is human and animal fecal matter), but that doesn't make me feel much better. And I have yet to determine how much arsenic, lead, etc. are in the water. Boiling makes those more concentrated. There are warnings not to trust all bottled water as people will refill bottles from the tap and sell as new.

Driving:
The are two types of drivers in China. 10% are new and very hesitant, 70% are aggresive, ignore lane markings, ignore traffic lights, don't use turn signals. Ok, three types of drivers. 20% drive like US drivers. I am nervous every time I drive because people are always coming into your lane without warning. This includes the city buses who use the might-makes-right philosophy.

Hmm, what else? General quality, I guess. The Chinese don't even trust things made in China. DVDs are cheap, but I get a bad one every third time. The gates to the parking garage stopped working, so the management closed that door and everyone must use another. The security on the door to my building (card reader) stopped working for the 4th time, so they just leave the doors open. A few times, the reader stopped working and the magnetic doors couldn't be opened. I couldn't leave the building except that I was strong enough to force the door.

Enough for now.