User Comments - davidfong

Posted on: A Qing Wen to Our Listeners

I'd second this. Plenty of Cantonese-speaking doctors in this area, but there are relatively few Mandarin-speaking doctors compared to the large number of elderly Mandarin-speaking patients!

However, medicine is such a big language area, and it probably isn't that easy even for Chinese speakers. I remember seeing a small dictionary of Chinese medical vocabulary, for Chinese-speaking doctors! (this was Hong Kong based, since at that time the university medical course was taught in English).

Posted on: Spending Money in Hong Kong

I remember being annoyed, on first trip to China in years, the Airport hotel in Guangzhou wouldn't accept my Hong Kong dollars. In those days, HKD was worth more than RMB, and I was happy to hand over as many HKD as my meal was going to cost in RMB. Fortunately, my impromptu travelling companions were more than happy to do a one-to-one swap from HKD to RMB. Oh, in those days I couldn't purchase any RMB in Australia, and Guangzhou's 白云 Baiyun airport's exchanges were all shut by the time I arrived.

You don't know how to save money by shopping in Hong Kong? Well, that just shows you don't know how to REALLY shop....(the amount of expenditure mentioned in the dialogue is surely a clue....)

Posted on: Spending Money in Hong Kong

Ouch! The lyrics of that video are awfully derogatory. As for some of the complaints, well, they are rather familiar. To be fair, I once had a spell of 拉肚子 diarrhoea in earthquake ravaged 玉树 Yushu, 青海 Qinghai province, and the shortage of toilets soon had me very close to opening up on the street....

I had seen my father's classmates (all well into their 60s) pass around various of those 'locust' newspaper advertisements, but I couldn't be bothered to translate them before, having felt my head being filled with enough venom from that Beijing professor dude. (A google search for '香港人' and '狗', particularly in English, but also in Chinese, will soon find that interview).

The flare-up in emotions even made into the main section of a major Australian newspaper today, along with news about Chinese airlines and the EU, and some people having trouble keep land under cultivation in south-east China. Let alone even more stories about China in the business section, and an article in the opinion section about the futility of "let's get tough on China" rhetoric by US Republican candidates.

Posted on: Spending Money in Hong Kong

...and there was the strange commentary on that subway incident by a 北京大学 Peking University professor on a Chinese show, which was widely distributed amongst people of Hong Kong descent....that Peking University professor is widely regarded as something of a loud-mouth braggart amongst mainlander Chinese, though (so I'm told, I certainly hope so!).

Posted on: International Currency

when I am in China (usually in 西安 Xī'ān) I am more than delighted to receive a 1 元 coin, and hang on to them until absolutely necessary. I know they make my wallet heavier and larger than is desirable (and so makes my 短裤 duǎnkù shorts so unfashionable-looking), but I really need them for the occasional time that a 在超市外面的储物柜 zàichāoshìwàimiàndechǔwùguì locker outside a supermarket requires a 硬币 coin just to open the locker.

Posted on: New Year's Well-Wishes

Is there some sort of gift inflation going on? I know that both wages and costs of living are increases, but wasn't 100 yuan a day a typical starting salary for office workers not so long ago?

If I was to give my nephews a typical day's salary at the minimum Australian wage ($120 AUD, the Australian dollar is worth slightly more than an US Dollar, by the way), particularly if I was near the beginning of my career (I'm not, admittedly), then I think they would be rather spoilt.

My Hong Kong raised uncles, one an Associate Professor in Paediatrics at Yale, and the other a former senior dentist in Hong Kong did give me $100 AUD or $100USD, so perhaps it is a '100' thing!

Nevertheless, I also thought the typical wedding present mentioned (?was that several hundred yuan) sounded rather more, relative to the minumum wage, than I would consider giving in Australia. But, then again, many people who get married in Australia are already well-established, financially.

Posted on: Visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art

I have travelled with my parents extensively throughout China. They are both in their early-70s and have a Victorian 老人证 Seniors Card (Victoria is a state of Australia). Some parks, museums, chairlifts etc. will sill them a discounted 优惠 ticket， some only give the discounted ticket to local elderly.

Posted on: Matchmaking in the Park

There are quite a few articles about China, investment in retirement homes and foreign investmnt in asiahealthcareblog.com e.g.

http://www.asiahealthcareblog.com/2011/10/25/executing-in-the-chinese-eldercare-market/

to Australian eyes, and I suspect for most people from Western (excluding US) countries, the assumption that care for the elderly will be fixed by the private sector, to the benefit of those who are more wealthy than upper-middle class, is a somewhat jarring noton.

Posted on: Getting an Official Receipt

Thanks to unusual Australian tax laws for employees working in non-profit organizations, I can claim personal meals against my income. However, they recently decided that the receipts must be in English, what a pain!

However, I have found it fun to ask the restaurant staff （服务员）to write down the English translations besides the dish's Chinese names on the receipt, and then to sign it (请在这里签字! qǐng zài zhèlǐ qiānzì!）

Posted on: Getting an Official Receipt

In my own life, I find it very difficult to 'cook the accounting books', simply because my accounts are accurate, detailed (and computerized).

Large restaurant chains with computerized check-outs must find the same thing, because they will give me a receipt without fuss. In fact, when I have asked for a receipt, the staff have sometimes given me those lottery vouchers worth much more than the cost of my meal e.g. CSC (xiāngcūnjī 乡村基），as well as the KFC ( kěndéjī 肯德基) and McDonald's (麦当劳 màidāngláo)。