The Final Step

I now have a United States passport with a Chinese residency visa in it.  I can come and go from China now as much as I like, so I think that next year a trip to Hong Kong for the weekend might be in order. I also got an IM from a former coworker who, coincidentally, is in China for a few weeks.  He’s down near Shanghai, working on a project which, of course, I can’t tell you anything about.  Butit just goes to show, everything is coming to China.

It’s one of the reasons I took this job.  If I spend a few years here, not only will I be debt free with an assload of money in the bank, but I’ll also be able to speak passable Chinese, and THAT is going to be one hell of a valuable job skill in the future.

One funny aside:  I take Chinese classes twice a week.  The lessons are aimed specifically at people like me, businessmen living in China, so you learn useful words and phrases right away rather than “Which way to the library?” On page 48 it has the following exercise.

1.  Say the following in Chinese and give answers:
(The English is given in Chinese word order):

(1) You want whisky?
You want, not want ice—water?

See?  You learn the important things.  I’m sure “Which way to the nearest whorehouse?” will be in a future lesson.

So, anyway, getting back to the point of this post, the final step in my residency is to go to the police station and officially register my residence here. The last time I did this it was only a temporary residency permit, now I have to make it permanent.  After that, it’s all official, I’m a Beijing resident.

Every time you change locations, though, you have to re-register.  This includes hotels. So, if I went to Shanghai, the hotel would have me fill out a temporary change of residency form and let the local police know.

Funny story:  when I was in Shanghai five years ago I came to Beijing one weekend to see the sites, and at the hotel I had to fill out one of these forms.  There’s a line in there for occupation and I wrote “dog psychiatrist.” So, somewhere in the bowels of China’s massive communist bureaucracy is a piece of paper listing my occupation as dog psychiatrist.

Going to Hong Kong is considered going “from China”?

Still confident in your bet that in 50 years the US will still be the leading economic powerhouse it is today?

Still confident in your bet that in 50 years the US will still be the leading economic powerhouse it is today?

Oh, absolutely.  If there’s one thing the US loves it’s being #1 at everything.  As soon as there’s a threat to that status that the average numbnuts can understand, such as during the Cold War, the people will support the policies necessary to maintain that status.  Whether it’s military or economic superiority makes no difference.

Besides, the main economic strength the Chinese have is their willingness to work for next to nothing.  However, the middle class here is exploding, and incomes are on the rise.  The higher their incomes get, the less beneficial moving a job to China becomes.

China doesn’t create anything, they manufacture it.  Everything they have is designed by someone else.  Most of the appliances are European, most of the cars American, that sort of thing.  So they’ll grow and become interdependent with the west, but I’ll still take the bet that the US, on the average, will remain the world’s economic powerhouse for the rest of my lifetime.

The Economist had a cover story about this a few months back, that even with the weak dollar and possible recession, the US was overall still far and away the world’s dominant economic force.

“me so haaawwwneee - chop!chop!”

That should tell the cabbie where to go....