Mastering Mahjong

(Abby)

Hello readers! Because our days are becoming more or less the same structurally, most of the blogs from now on will be about our thoughts on cultural happenings here in China rather than retellings of our adventures. We will have some more adventures, however, so stay tuned for those stories! If you do like tales of adventure and can’t wait for the ones to come, click the “next page” button located at the bottom of the blog homepage to scroll back to the blogs about our days of travel!

To get started, I want to talk about the dining culture here in China. In America, people typically don’t go out to eat very often because food is expensive and not too good for you. It’s a nice treat when families go out to eat. In China, however, people go our to eat dinner very frequently because the food is very cheap and relatively healthy for you. Hundreds of restaurants and take-out food windows occupy every few blocks you walk. Most of them offer the same dishes, but you can always find one gem of an eatery. You really have to be on the lookout for them because many are tucked away three stories above clothing stores and mini-marts. The food offered usually consists of boiled or roasted meat in some sauces, steamed and fried dumplings, steamed buns, noodles, and fried vegetables. You are always satisfied with your meal, yet don’t feel like you’re going to explode. And you only end up paying $35 for a six-dish meal, which isn’t bad at all. No wonder eating out is so popular here!

I will also point out the service in these restaurants too for it is quite interesting. You enter the restaurant, tell a hostess how many people are in your party, and sit yourself down at a table of your choosing. Menus will be brought to you by a waitress, who will either stand over your shoulder as your group works its way through the offerings, or just disappear. To gain one of the worker’s attention, one must waive her down like you would a taxi and yell “fuyuan!” The waitresses also don’t make too much effort to be very pleasant to you. They are in no means rude, but they don’t work for tips and therefore don’t show the same hospitality they do in the States. You must also ask for the bill or else it won’t be brought to you.

I will now tell of an adventure we had on Friday. It was my host sister’s birthday, so she took us out to dinner with her family and family friends. Dinner was held at a huge, two story restaurant in a private room that seated about fifteen around a round table. Twenty dishes circled their way around as we quickly took what we wanted with our chopsticks from the center plates. After dinner, the whole party moved over to one of the family’s apartment right beside of the restaurant to play mahjong. Let me tell you these parents mean business when they play this Chinese tile game. This family had a fully automated mahjong table that stacked one set of tiles below the surface as you played a fierce round with the other. We each had a mentor that taught us the rules, which were more or less the same as rummy. I won the first round, which people were very impressed by. Little do they know I play a mean rummy back home and thus had much practice matching these tile sets. Soon, all of the adults were helping us and getting rather intense about the games. My host parents are known to stay late at their friends houses no matter what day of the week it is to play. It was interesting to see how passionate they got about mahjong. I can’t blame them though. I will be playing when I return as well.

~Zaijian for now!