The Dividing by 6 Principle

I haven’t quite adjusted to thinking in the local currency (renminbi, yuan or kuai) yet, but instead think of a Rmb 100 bill as a $15 or $20 one.  The conversion factor to Renminbi is approximately $1 to Rmb 6, so I suppose it’s natural that I think about dividing by 6 a lot. The problems start when the division becomes too automatic. I start thinking: “So that’s Rmb 600 so you divide by 6 and get $100 so that’s still a large number so you must divide by 6 and get…wait a second…” It’s kind of sad how frequently I do this… Or: “The train ride is 18 hours long so since it’s a Chinese train you divide by 6 and it must be only 3 hours…” Apparently my brain works in funny ways.

My dad and I both landed in Shanghai at the same time yesterday evening and met up at the airport before taking the maglev train into the city. We found the hostel without too, too much trouble (though I did start us off walking in the complete opposite direction when we first got out of the subway) and headed back out for noodles at a hole in the wall restaurant where I surprised myself by ordering entirely in Chinese.

We headed to bed fairly early and then got going in good time this morning. We took the subway over to the Bund and wandered over into the Old Town through hutongs filled with vendors selling everything from freezers to nails and kites to cats. We stopped off at a street stall for lunch – dumpling soup – and a coffee shop for a mid-afternoon rest, before heading towards a much more touristy bazaar and then back to the hostel for a curry dinner and a game of chess.

Our plans for tomorrow include more good food, the propaganda museum and the French Concession.