Good bye Kaidangku…

Here's an article I wrote for a European kids magazine in Jan '08. 'Kid's Wear' - Vol.26 - Spring/Summer 2008': 'Beijing - Small World'

This is Kaidangku

Only when walking through the park - after having been shopping for baby pants at this very local kids shop - things made suddenly more sense.
Pants for babies of all ages were actually being sold with the seam completely open, back to front, very strange.

One hour later I saw the ‘split pant’ in action, a baby in the park, still pretty wobbly on its feet, suddenly squatting down a little and peeing right there, on the path, in the middle of the park, through its ‘split’ pants. So this is what those are for, no need for pampers at all, just a big whole right down the middle to do No 1 and No 2s whenever they want to?

They are called Kaidangku [literally ‘open-crotch pants’], the traditional Chinese answer to pampers and toilet training babies, and they have been around for decades.
The pants split down the middle - in front and back - to make it easy for toddlers to squat down and relieve themselves. Babies that can’t walk yet are being held by their parents in a squatting position anytime they need to pee or poo.

Being a happy disposable-style-nappy-user it seems ridiculous if not impossible to think of doing it the traditional Chinese way. Just thinking about the practicalities of having your baby in the car seat, stroller, bed, on your lab… how do they manage?
Cultural differences always go both ways, the older Chinese generations that grew up with ‘Kaidangku’ certainly don’t think much of the disposable nappy.

While we wonder how cold those little baby bottoms must get in a cold Beijing winter, they wonder how horrible in must be to sit in a soggy nappy with no air reaching the little bum, developing bad nappy rash.

You can hear the new and more wealthy Chinese generations call them old fashioned, unhygienic, unhealthy or even uncivilized, where still many others call them a valuable tradition, a comfortable and less wasteful option, and simply the only right way to go.

So let’s not judge, Kaidangku certainly is the most environmental friendly solution one can think of. I don’t want to even start counting the amount of diapers we are using throughout the young life of our little ones.

It’s one of those things, which is just part of experiencing cultural differences… after all these little baby bottoms are a quiet reminder of the culture we are living in, certainly something easily forgotten when walking along between Beijing’s futuristic skyscrapers, western cars passing by and fancy looking girls in boots and tight jeans chatting to their mates on the phone while rushing to a business lunch at the Italian place around the corner.

‘Kaidangku’ is slowly disappearing though, in the big cities anyways, and more and more Chinese are welcoming disposable diapers into their lives. Is it convenience winning after all or is it simply that more and more people can afford to make that choice financially nowadays? Maybe a mix of both.

Visitors from all over the world are fascinated by the bizarre and often cute sight of bare baby bottoms, struggling to get a good shot for their photo album.
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It’s just one of those traditions that make us smile and it is for that reason sad to know it will disappear forever one day very soon. We might not even find any bare baby bottoms wobbling through the park by the time the Olympics will be coming to Beijing next year.

Good bye Kaidangku…

So much more than just one massive 'Chinatown'...

There it was again, that ‘oh my god what have we done’ feeling in the back of the van that picked us up from the airport. Why does the drive from the airport always seem so awfully ugly and not welcoming at all?

I do remember too well the drive from Bangalore airport into town, all I saw was that one big ugly road, the mess, the cows and dogs, the red dust… and all I could think of was ‘is that it?’.

Luckily it never is, but for the next few days it was a somewhat tough introduction to Beijing… grey, foggy, rainy and cold. Is that the pollution, maybe it will always be that grey? The traffic looked very organised and familiar though, which was very different from India ... but it is a rather huge city with far too many cars, a concrete jungle lined with bare winter trees (unexpectedly many though).

The view from our hotel room did not exactly help; we overlooked a huge deserted construction site, but having ‘been there before’ we took it with a bit of an 'oh well', closed the ugly curtains and let Beijing be Beijing for the night, had a beer, watched the news and went to bed.

Found a temporary home pretty quickly... a serviced flat, petty nice and in central Beijing. It was heaven to unpack our suitcases for the first time in over a month. We will stay here until the work permit has been sorted which might take a while. Only then will our stuff be shipped from Bangalore.

The weather turned around quickly and days with sun and blue skies are not rare, even though it was still freezing cold for about two weeks. Now the magnolias and cherry blossoms are blooming, the grass and trees are turning green, Chinese couples are getting their wedding pictures taken everywhere and families are out and about enjoying the spring temperatures.

You can't really go to the post office spontaneously here, I did remember to have someone write the chinese characters for 'Sweden' on a piece of paper, but had forgotten to have them write down 'airmail'... so I ended up imitating an airplane in the middle of the post office. Not great! But it worked. Must be more organised next time.

We spent our first saturday afternoon at IKEA, and yes, it was that same blue and yellow building, the usual products, the same little food store at the end and the same restaurant serving meatballs, salmon and pasta bolognese ... just that those dishes were here eaten with chopsticks... I must admit it did look pretty funny.

People here dress the same way as people in the west do, and religion is not very prominent either, which makes it in some way much more easy to feel 'home'. India felt so very foreign and far away... religion there is embedded in every aspect of life, very visible, everywhere, all the time.

We had our first language lessons in spoken Chinese (= pingin), level 1 'survivor'. Feels like back in school when on page 2... 'My name is Sabine' and 'I am from Germany'.... even Joshua thinks its great fun, so we stopped organising a babysitter for those 1 1/2 hours in the morning. He seems highly entertained observing us trying to speak Chinese. Hope we will ever make it to level 2 'street fighter' and 3 'smooth talker'... right now at least the ambitions are high.

It can be tricky to get around without knowing any Chinese, but for those of us who don't, great books like the 'taxi book' have been published which hold addresses of useful placs such as restaurants, hotels, sights, supermarkets, shopping malls, etc. So it's really just about finding the right page and pointing at it with a friendly smile or nod.

Shopping is great here, for those with size 34 (6) and small feet anyways. I am left shopping at 'long.com' and 'big shoe'....that's so not fair! Zara's opening last months rescued me though.. as they do have European sizes, for about two seconds when hitting the shelves, guess I am not the only 'needy' person here... but I managed to find out on what days of the week the new stuff comes in, so dont try to get me on a wednesday morning.

Found some moms on the 'Beijing cafe' yahoo group I have joined recently and will have a 'mama&baby' blind date with some moms next week, am kind of looking forward to it, but my mind is painting rather weird scenarios... but hey, we can always talk about pampers and poo for 2 hours if all goes wrong!

There is an international newcomers network (INN) here, but I somehow did not feel like going yet, maybe next week for the German breakfast they organised. My days are pretty busy as they are, and being in a London-like city somehow we dont feel like expats in the same way we did in Bangalore. Maybe because expats here are much more diverse, it's not just people on work assignments, but also journalists, many students, artists, etc.

Informtion on Beijing is available everywhere and for free. TimeOut and That's Beijing (TBJ) are just some of the magazines around.

Trying to find a home is a bit tricky when not knowing the place well enough, looked at many places so far and some pretty nice flats ...all very high up, had viewings mainly on floors 26, 32 or 18... and I must say it was not always overly relaxing to stand right next to the full-height windows... having been here for a month or so now we have petty much decided on an area we would like to live in, with nice parks, restaurants, a supermarket, some shops and nice cafes within walking distance... which is more imporant to us and seems a pretty nice thing to have in a traffic-heavy place like Beijing.

We ultimately fell in love with the city when we found 798, Beijing's art zone. This huge area initially designed by east German architects in the Bauhaus style is an amazing ground to stroll for hours on end contemporary art and design, and to hang out at one of the many cool cafes. Especially after India it feels a bit like heaven to be part of this world again, it's something we did miss.





Beijing is certainly not short of interesting architecture either, especially in the run up to the Olympics some amazing buildings are being finalised. This can also be experience by all the construction dust flying into ones eyes ... lovely.

I will write more soon, whenever Joshua's nap time will coincide with me sitting in one of the many free wifi cafes.

Zai Jian for now...