Speaking of

Speaking of parties, we live right next to the biggest party school in Qingdao--that's right, it is known as the Party School of Qingdao city. Despite the austere appearance and sleek black cars we see constantly entering the main gate, Dan and I think we might stop on a friday night to see if they have any nice keggers going on.

Speaking of other things, I often talk about how cheap everything in China is, and to a great extent, that is true. China in most respects has a much lower cost of living. Yet at the same time, China isn't THAT cheap, and it gets more expensive all the time. For example, although I buy cheap clothes, they are respectively not that much cheaper than the clothes I buy in America. I shop in the bargain bins and second hand clothing stores in America; I shop in the bargain bins (or as Dan pointed out, I bargain furiously) in China too. (They don't have any second hand clothing stores in China, no one really wants to wear clothes of possibly dead people, and probably not clothes that some person would want to throw away. Also, people seem to wear the clothes they have pretty well, I couldn't even imagine how worn out any second hand clothing would be). In some ways, buying a 6 dollar sweater in China isn't all that different from buying a 6 dollar sweater in America: people are pretty amazed that you could get a sweater that cheap. The main difference of course is that a six dollar sweater in China will be new and from a slightly nicer place than a 6 dollar sweater in America. In fact, there are plenty of opportunities to spend loads of money on things, especially in the ritzy area around our school. There is a Prada and a Louis Vuitton store; there is an expensive Japanese mall with western shops like Esprit; there is an even more expensive mall a couple of blocks away selling more designer wares; and there are many Korean boutiques and consigment shops catering to the large Korean expat community in our area (I heard that Koreans spend something like 22% of their household income on clothes. I don't know if that percentage is correct, but from what I've heard and seen on TV and real life, I can say it's probably very high). Of course, most Chinese people could not afford to shop in any of these stores. The average income in Qingdao is about 1000-1500 yuan a month ($175-$200). Even doctors make only around 3000 yuan a month. In fact, Dan and I earn about the same amount as a senior government bureaucrat would. That said though, there are also many Chinese businessmen who make high western salaries, and basically have money to burn, not to mention all the western expats earning western salaries and the scores of wealthy Koreans. For example, Dan and I frequently go to a Japanese-Korean restaurant near the school. It is quite expensive, except for the basic sushi which is a pretty good deal. Dan and I mainly just order the sushi, but often when we go there, we see people with platters of sushi, sashimi, teriaki, fish, beef, etc. One time, we saw a table of middle aged Korean men and women who were sitting around talking. They had probably about 8000 yuan ($1,000) of food in front of them: huge ice blocks of raw fish; sushi; basically everything on the menu, and none of them were touching any of the food. They just sat there talking and smoking and sipping cocktails. After about half and hour, one woman picked up a small piece of tuna with her chopstick, looked at it, and then put it on her plate. After about another half an hour, they left leaving the table heaping with food. Dan and our roommate and I wanted to run over and eat some, but instead we hoped the servers were able to get a good meal out of it.
That level of conspicuous consumption is somewhat extreme, but we do see similar things as well in bars and other posh places that cater to foreigners. It seems to me that China is an interesting country in that the gap between the upper middle class (people like me and Dan and doctors and lawyers etc.) and the truly wealthy business man is quite large. Of course, the gap between the middle class and the poor is also incredibly big. (And probably of more social concern).