yay jing is back so i have internet at home... =P i guess i still can't really get over how cheap food can be. on way to subway today walked past residential area and sat down in one of street stalls to have lunch... and whole meal only cost shu and i like 13 RMB or like around 3 Sing... and food was ok. pretty sumptuous restaurant meal yest evening also wasn't that ex....maybe 7 Sing each? but then even though we think things are generally cheap and ppl here can buy a lot of stuff... i guess it's actually not the case. was curious and asked waitress what her monthly pay roughly was? and apparently it's around 500RMB.... which is a mere $100 Sing... so like even though things are cheap, it's prob only cheap to us (cos we're used to paying more for food) and to other well-off local ppl but perhaps not to many locals....
also find it quite ashamed that i kept stumbling trying to converse in Chinese! like i have no clue what certain terms are in Chinese. then at restaurant some things look totally foreign. like though we're all Chinese (somewhat...) cultures are still very different. haha when i asked what this drink on the menu, xiao3 xue3 bi4 (Sprite), was, waiter gave me weird stare and had to bring me the can of Sprite...
also felt sorry for the poorer ppl cos like met quite a few kids/old persons collecting empty cans/ plastic bottles from passers-by... and saw some beggars in underpass who really look very ke lian. like ppl begging with kids with deformities... but sometimes really dunno if should give them money or not.
2 comments:
help me say hi to them
hello mints,
yuppie, xue3 bi4 = sprite in chinese; alternatively, i think qi1 xi3 refers to 7-up. :)
and to answer your 2nd question, well as far as possible, u shouldnt donate to them. while it seems abit cruel to do so, but for your own safety, its sometimes better to just walk away quickly. i remember once when my family gave them a few dollars, they grumbled tt it was too little, and started following us down the street. also, u may unintentionally attract other beggars nearby to come approach you too cos they know u are kind-hearted. hmm...i did a case study on beggars in china last semester, and sadly, some of these are beggars syndicates too, where the adult leaders intentionally hurt/deform young children to work as beggars for them, so yeah, its really quite ke3 xi1 for them.
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