Conservation

We can learn much about economizing and use of available space from the Chinese. In a country were over a million people is a small town, they have had to be creative. Here are a few observations:

1. In the Suzhou New City Garden Hotel the escalators run only when approached.
2. At the toll booths on the “freeway” from Suzhou to Shanghai, two vehicles are served in each line. How? They’ve simply built a second toll booth behind the first.
3. Shanghai is preparing for an international expo in 2010. All tourists want to drive down The Bund. Already LOTS of traffic, so they are building a double-decker road! I would hope one level going each way, but that would not be very Chinese. Playing dodge cars seems to be a national sport.
4. Broadway Mansions, Shanghai—Electricity is conserved by having motion sensors in the secondary hallways of the hotel which only turn the lights on when someone is headed to a room down that hallway. (Lights by elevators stay on.)
5. Not sure if this is a safety issue or a conservation move, but the hotel elevators don’t go up without inserting a room key. I guess if you want to go to one of the restaurants or bars on the top floors, you have to have reservations. No just riding up to see the view.
6. This made me remember how the lights in shops are turned on in a cabinet when you show interest in a particular item. Why light the others?
7. Oh, yeah, and the lights in the hotel rooms don’t work until you enter and place your room key in a slot by the door. You take your room key with you when you leave; that way lights cannot be left on while you are out.

Thinking about this has put me in a quandary about something that happened at dinner last night. We treated three people: the young lady who has been our voluntary guide, the English teacher who hooked us up with her, and the young lady’s younger sister who is in the English teacher’s class. She ordered way too many dishes for us to eat. I think there were about eight platters plus a huge bowl of soup plus drinks and a crispy sweet thin bread for dessert. No rice as Chinese people seem to think that is an insult when served to visitors as that is poor people’s food.

I asked if Chinese people take home “doggie bags.” She said they don’t because food is so inexpensive here. I think we left at least as much as we ate. For the five of us the bill was about $25 USD which we think is cheap, but not so cheap if your income is less than a couple hundred per month for a good-paying job.

The retirees in SCC would blow their minds, wouldn’t they?