How do you get yours?

[Ruth]

Water, that is.

On the days of our lives thread YG, before he was reincarnated as some hairy guy, made mention that the water in his flat comes on around 6:00 a.m. I've been pondering that comment for a couple of weeks now.

How do you get your water? Obviously QiQi and Teacher Hairy Ass have theirs turned off at some point every night, otherwise he wouldn't have mentioned it being turned on in the morning.

Mine is available 24 hours a day, from the tap, if we have electricity and if the water truck delivery guy has kept up with the demand. There is apparently a huge tank in the ground by our building. A truck delivers several times a day. We are without water often enough that I have two huge buckets filled as insurance.

Tonight water is pouring from the sky and there are several new ponds surrounding our building. But no water from the tap. I noticed this about the time I went to the kitchen to make dinner. The good news is that I have a new bottle of drinking water and my 2 reserve buckets for flushing and washing. I decided not to do the dishes tonight, hoping the water will come back on in the morning. My middle name is procrastination, so any excuse to get out of work will do.

A co-worker's water is turned off about 9:30 every night and on again about 6:00 in the morning. Her building is older than mine. Her sister lives in the country. The sister pumps her water from a well in the back garden. They have to heat it anytime they want hot water. These people do not waste water. I'm spoiled.

[con's fly is open]

Dashiqiao is pretty close to the point where this branch of the Yangtzee (sp?), I can't remember the exact name, flows into the sea; basically we're almost the lst folks in China to partake, so water supply is predictably dicey. Basically the water stops about 9 or so at night, then kicks back on around 5:30 (I guess- I tend to sleep in... okay, I always sleep in). I have a pail in my room full of water in case the toilet needs flushing, and the shower unit has its own holding tank, which I fill from the water lines during the day. If I need to bruch my teeth at night, I give myself a quirt with the showerhead.

[Raoul Duke]

You not only don't know how to spell the river (Yangtze or Yangzi) but you don't even know which one it is.

It's the Yellow River (Huang He). It flows across China and then exits into the Bay of Bohai between Liaoning and Shandong provinces. The Yangzi is down my way.

Canadians.

[George61]

basically we're almost the lst folks in China to partake

Not only that, he's got it running backwards!!

[Ruth]

Okay, back off and leave Con alone. Anyone can see he made a typo and left out the 'a' from 'last'. Figure it out from the context. I did.

At least HE answered my question, which is more than you guys did.

Thanks, Con. That's basically what my co-worker has to do.

I still have no water. Usually the truck guy starts delivering just after 8 and we get water about 8:30. I'm going to school. But if we don't have water by noon I'll have to do the dishes anyway. I can only procrastinate so long.

[George61]

Oh, poor Connie!..
I got water in the bathroom 24/7...but there is no water in the kitchen. So, on the rare occasions I do the dishes (that's when I need a plate and there are no clean ones left) I have to truck water from the bathroom, boli the kettle on my little gas hotplate, and wash them in a plastic basin....then empty the slops down the dunny. Tis Gracious Living, here folks.

[con's fly is open]

admin said:

You not only don't know how to spell the river (Yangtze or Yangzi) but you don't even know which one it is.

It's the Yellow River (Huang He). It flows across China and then exits into the Bay of Bohai between Liaoning and Shandong provinces. The Yangzi is down my way.

Canadians.

It so happens, smartypants, that the Yangtze (and the actual Chinese name is a little different) branches into three rivers in Liaoning: the Huang He, the Liao He (don't trust my speeling), and the third, whose name my vice-principal can't recall at the moment (she's not from here).

Americans.

[Newbs]

No let's get this right.

1. The Yangtze as it is known to English speakers, is the Chang Jiang (literally means long river). It's the one that goes through Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing and enters the sea near Shanghai.

2. The Huang He (literally the Yellow River, by which name it is known to English speakers) is further north. It goes through Shandong, and I think Liaoning, but of course it starts life way out west in all those other obscure provinces. Without a map in front of me I can't be sure about it branching near the sea but I think that over the past millennia or two it has changed course, by some hundreds of kilometres. What happens is that it floods, and then when the waters subside it decides "Oh, hell, I may as well take this path to the sea now."

So, much as it pains me to admit it, the septic (Raoul) got it right.

So you North Americans just go off and discuss it further, whilst God's Chosen sit back and have a pijiu or two.

[Ruth]

I have a shower nozzle over a bathtub, a bathroom sink AND a kitchen sink. The hot water tank is in the bathroom, but there is a line to the kitchen. The only time I've had to heat water for washing was during the three weeks when our old water heater broke and the school and the landlord were deciding who would pay for the new one, and when we have NO running water at all and I have to dip into the reserve buckets.

Water came back on at 10:15 this morning so the kitchen is all sparkly clean now. Today was dry until about 20 minutes ago when the heavens opened. Thunder is setting off car alarms (gosh, that's funny). Wonder if my private students will swim here or not?

[Raoul Duke]

Right, Con. I think the Amazon joins it near Dashiqiao, too.

At least you and I come from countries that have rivers.

Ruth, I remember my days in the water-starved Northeast all too vividly. I liked it there but the water thing sucked.

If you guys stay on in China, consider something down this way...the Yangtze (or Yangtzee, as Con would have it) valley. We have so much water here that within the next few years we will start piping it up to you and selling it to you at Perrier-type prices.

[hankuh]

Yeah Ruth, water comes on at 6 AM and is turned off around 11 PM sometimes as late as midnight during the weekend.
Your water problems sound incredibly exasperating. We do have water delivered every few days for drinking.
Tonight,
While we were in the health club, QiQi received a phone call. Apparently, a dynamite factory which is right next door to the college (I swear to god I am not making this up. Why the bloody hell have a dynamite factory next to a college? Just one of thousands of questions that hit me everyday here) had a MAJOR ACCIDENT. There was a big explosion, and as of now, word here is that at least 30 people died. No one here on campus was injured.
On the way back on the bus from our exercise, the bus could not get on the road that goes to the college, and instead it took this really unorthodox detour and then suddenly stopped and all the passengers had to get out. After that, we walked the streets of a dirty neighborhood until QiQi quartered a taxi. Apparently, the dynamite blast had blown a few gas lines. I could actually smell the gas. Anyway, we got back to campus. Everything seems normal. I mean, our computer works, and anything else isn't that important right?
What the hell does any of this have to do with water? Well, I didn't feel like starting another thread, and thought that my dynamite problems would go well with water.

[Lotus Eater]

I have a shower nozzle and a sink with tap in the bathroom. There is a sink with tap in the kitchen, But the hot water heater is a gas thing that leaps into life when the hot water in the shower is turned on. So to wash up (as above - as rarely as possible - eat out 98% of the time) I have to boil a couple of jugs of water and use a bowl - as there is no plug in the kitchen sink, and I haven't yet managed to find one in the market that fits.

I have my turtle lodging in the bathroom in a large red bowl, and for some reason she has hysterics whenever I shower. I have decided she thinks it is a tropical storm and she doesn't like them.

I am considering buying one of those water cooler things, but so far make do for drinking wtaer with boiling jugs of water and filling up large bottles to ensure I have a ready supply.

[Ruth]

Oh, I forgot the drinking water part. We have a heater/cooler machine and the school provides our water. Whenever we are near running out, I tell a teacher and he sends a couple of students over with a full bottle. The catch is they bring it at 7 a.m. before school starts so I have to make sure I am up and dressed.

Sounds like I am privileged to have a kitchen sink with running hot water. I, too, avoid doing dishes as much as possible.

[Newbs]

Why the bloody hell have a dynamite factory next to a college?

Hairy Ass, I don't know if this applies in the case of your college, but I have heard of fireworks factories being placed next to schools so the school children can go and work in the factory. The school and the factory will be owned by the same bloke. It's convenient, see.

[Ruth]

So Teacher Hairy Ass, is there anymore news on the explosion?

[con's fly is open]

Happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place,
happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place, happy place...

No munitions factories in town here... so far as I know. This is a happy place.

[hankuh]

Well this morning, my FAO told me around 30 people were killed, but how many injured I don't know. Then, QiQi heard the death toll was around 20 or so. If the explosion wasn't bad enough, the gas leaks were.

You remember I said I smelled gas when we were dumped out from our bus last night? Well, it was in the middle of the gas fog. Hell, you would think it was business as usual here. The local denizens were all out strolling through the gas fog--some even smoking.

A student said this morning that the explosion caused a second floor window in the Foreign Language Building to shatter, which frankly, doesn't make much difference to improving the aesthetic quality of the building.

Then, I heard the Central Government--the big boys--are making a trip down here to investigate the factory, the gas lines, and the municipal government handling of the whole fiasco. This city suffers from wanting to promote itself as an international business city, which is a hoot, until something like this happens and you realize how utterly vulnerable you are to a bunch of good ol' boys in power who wield face and image over something that could jeopardize people's lives and health.

My students this morning called it, "China's own 911." I wanted to respond with noting the obvious chicanery of the municipality here and industries, but I kept my mouth shut.

[Mr Nobody]

Just for no reason, since I bought the water today, I report thusly : 8 kwai, distilled or spring water, huge water cooler type.

Don't want spring water, hoping this chinese writing says distilled. The tap water is probably more potable than spring water.

We have taps in kitchen, bathroom and soon on the balcony which will serve as a laundry. Plumbers are cheap.

I think the water on tap in Nanning may actually be potable. Looks and smells it. Wish I could remember the website to check.

[Wolf]

The older Lonely Planet said don't drink the water in the PRC. Hong Kong was supposedly ok (though not yummy) and I remember a few China Daily reports about trying to have drinkable tap water in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

Give it a good boil first, just like in the Good Old Days.

[Lotus Eater]

Red Cross freinds in Nanning always boiled the water. Play it safe - no matter how pretty it looks.

The only unboiled water I drink is from rushing mtn streams - and even then just a sip for the sake of saying I did it.

[Hamish]

We've been in Baoding for three years and have always used the tap water. No problems so far. I agree with George Carlin on this too. We are civilizing our immune systems down to the point that we are less able to survive. A little "runny stomach" is good for one sometimes.

It's like a free high colonic.

In LA they cost $100, or so I’m told.

[Mr Nobody]

I know that many of the capitals have potable water by western standards, and also that the standards are unneccessarily high. But I tried to find the website that lists all thsk and I failed.

I would rather trust tap water most places than mountain streams hereabouts.

Yeah, George Carlin is right about a lot of things. Only funnier.

[Ruth]

Out of water again. It's becoming more frequent. I found out why. We apparently have a new water company and they are trying to save money, so don't deliver as often.

I'm learning to take showers and do the dishes when I have the chance. Waiting until the morning is not always a good idea.

[acjade]

ruth said:

So Teacher Hairy Ass, is there anymore news on the explosion?

If so it was me. After a week without power and water I took my empty drinking water barrel down to the bo bos downstairs with the necessary 7kwai for a new one.
Eight staff were sitting around navel gazing. They couldn't get me any water as the manager didn't come to work today. There's never any drinking water available on Saturday... it's the manager's day off and ditto Sunday.
I wanna screammmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mr Nobody]

We get water delivered within 1 hr any day of the week. Not sure how late at night, though.

Still can't find the potable water site. Damn. That would be fine. Drinkable tap water.

I also promise faithfully to cease and desist manufacturing home made munitions now I am in China. Anyway, I left my Anarchist's cookbook at home. Oh, wait, I have an e version of the second edition on my HD.

Maybe ......