Of China and the Free (or at least surprisingly cheap) Market.
Gather round my kith and kin and hear tell the Ode of the Hard Drive and the Hard Cycle...

Bright was the day, and light our hearts when we first set forth...

Actually, it was grey, muggy and gloomy, and I was pretty pissed-off as I'd not slept all that well and I'd run completely out of hard drive space the previous night. Both the internal 20 Gig and the external 32Gb were full. Full to bursting, and in fact I'd actually filled my thumb drive and most of my cameras memory cards with the overflow.

I take a lot of pictures. I keep about 1 in 10, but I take my time about paring off the other nine. The choice was clear, switch to using DVD's for the primary storage as well as the backups or shell out and get a shiny new hard drive.

Being as how I'm limited to a laptop at the moment, using severely bodged together tech to keep the laptop, DVD-RW and external HD talking to each other I really didn't want to get into writing even more DVD's and having to read said DVD's to access content. Not to mention dealing with re-writes every time I pare down a gallery.

So, a new hard drive it was to be. I decided I'd snag a spare USB-IDE adapter as well. No point in doing more cable swapping than necessary now, is there?

<ASIDE>
My working week now runs as follows.
Saturday : 7 hours
Sunday : 7 hours
Monday : OFF
Tuesday : OFF
Wednesday : 2 hours 15 minutes
Thursday : 2 hours 15 minutes
Friday : 2 hours 15 minutes

All these hours are actual real classroom hours. I get paid for an extra 20 minutes for each hour as that's the estimated preparation time for each class. (Academic hours as we call them).

Actually, I'm paid to do up to 39 academic hours during July and August, and up to 30 academic hours the rest of the year, regardless of whether there's enough work or not. If there's overtime that pays extra, if the hours lack, well, that's the schools problem. Yay.
</ASIDE>

So, clearly Tuesday was the day to do the shopping, monday being largely occupied with my duties as a volunteer photographer for the annual Student-Teacher football match.

I had quite a bit to do. First the high-priority/low perishability items. I went looking for clothes and books and at last i found both in abundance. Still some difficulty getting anything in my waist size that isn't absolutely unwearable for school duties, but I did get some casual shorts for lounging. I also picked up three books of random portrait sketches for about 20 Yuan (Using a realistic exchange rate that translates as approximately "free") which I look forward to using for the forthcoming personal descriptions classes. I then promptly broke the pedal on my bike when I tried to accelerate a bit without shifting down from a middle gear.

No big worries really. 3 Yuan (30 cents or less for those really interested) and 2.5 minutes later and I was back on the road. There are random bicycle repair men on every corner of every road in the city. Seriously, you can see 3 to 5 of them in every 200 meter stretch, each earning a survival wage from just those bikes that break down in their 30-50 meter catchment area. (This is important later).

I moved on to San Hao Jie (San Hao Street), the designated "Shenyang Computer Town" as the giant red sign proclaims it. San Hao isn't just a street though, and it's not even just a market. It's a full fledged institution in it's own right. Need some pirated DVD's of films not even in the cinemas in the states yet? San Hao, 2nd building on the left, green door, basement level 2, knock [just so] on the second door est voila). Need a laser printer suitable for a serious enterprise sized business network? San Hao, on the left. Has a canon logo on the store, but Canon knows nothing of them, and they don't stock canon merchandise). Don't like the business price on that printer? Give the guy leaning on the door a nod, follow him upstairs, and yes, that is the same model of printer, almost new, just a few patches where something very strongly adhesive has been sanded off, at 10% of the price downstairs.

Don't get me wrong. You can buy legitimate first hand goods from genuine dealers here, with no difficulty whatsoever, they'll even fill in the vast and complex sales receipts so you can do things about tax if you want. Just the option to do things otherwise is always there, waiting under every counter.

As a foreigner you _will_ be ripped off, but dammit, it's still a good deal. So you pay 50% more than the local before you in the Queue? That's still 90% less than you'd pay in America, and 95% less than you'd pay in Europe. And you'll be ripped off with style, grace and a level of politeness you would not believe until you see it. Interpreters are available for causal hire in San Hao. Be aware they get 10 to 20% of every purchase they persuade you to make.


With all the above in mind I entered the San Hao Building (official name unknown, but it is the center of the San Hao "zone". If you hop in a taxi and say "San Hao" you will be delivered here). Seven stories high, each story dedicated to a different form of not-quite-legalness. As polite, pleasant and respectable hive of villainy as you could ever wish to find. At least, once you know the basic survival rules. As always, beware the pickpockets. Vendors have been known to jump pickpockets, beat the crap out of them and return the takings to the victim, but this is apparently rare. When you arrive from the elevator/escalator onto the third floor (DVD's and Software) the guys who swarm forward offering DVD's are not talking about Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy or March of the Penguins. (Hint: In China a Yellow DVD is what we Europeans refer to as Blue DVD). Which is perfectly all right if that's what you're looking for. It can be unnerving though, as they will lead you away to some quieter corner before offering their wares. (No. I didn't. I'll explain in a bit why I followed them on my second visit there).

On this day however, I was not seeking DVD's of any nature (well, perhaps a few PS/2 items later, depending on how much the hardware would set me back), so I went only as far as the second floor. Random and miscellaneous hardware components. The survival trick here is to note that if a vendor says "Wait" and runs off somewhere, he/she is _not_ going to a storeroom. He/She is going to another vendor who has said item in stock, from whom they will purchase the item at the going rate and sell it on to you for going rate+10%. If they do the "wait" and scuttle thing, it means someone else has the item and will probably not rip you off as badly when you follow the first vendor discretely to find them (after all, you've just given them 2 sales for one, as long as you wait for the first vendor to finish the purchase before stepping forward yourself.

I circled the floor checking prices which varied significantly, before finding someone willing to sell a sealed/boxed 160Gb hard drive at a (very) decent price, though not quite "stolen from the business across the street" decent, and the USB to IDE adapter at an amazing price, equating to about a fiver in European money. (These things cost thirty - forty Eros a pop in Ireland/England).

I made the purchase, and returned home, stopping on the way to have a nice shiny basket fitted to my bike for general convenience (and to make it stand out less).

I reached home and noticed my saddle was getting a bit wonky. No real problem, just... tilted to the left. I spent the traditional amount of time waiting for the lifts which always seem to be trying to avoid me, and finally staggered in. Snacked, relaxed, unpacked and promptly found my sparkly new drive had an interface unlike anything I'd seen before. A bit of web-hunting and querying those nice nerds at the ILUG IRC room confirmed I'd received a SATA drive. My own fault, the box clearly stated SATA on it, but, well, my nerd certification seems to have expired already.

Back on the bike and back to San Hao (about 4 miles travel) through peak rush hour traffic, moving a bit faster than I usually do, and a hell of a lot faster than anything else on the road. Then the other pedal broke. Another quick repair, and on I went. I reached San Hao at 4.35. It took 5 minutes to communicate in the universal language of point'n'gesture, at the end of which we established that the storekeeper would be glad to exchange either the drive of the USB-SATA item for a compatible equivalent, but did not actually have any USB-SATA adapters.

In the interests of moving fast without carrying vibration prone hardware I had brought the USB-IDE adapter hoping to get either a USB-SATA or SATA-IDE connection going on. No such luck. The shop locks down at 5.30 (The whole building does actually. No-one who speaks English has been willing/able to explain why). Everything else in the area is 24 hour. At this point in time it's 4:50. I run. Then I cycle. As fast as my out of shape body and poorly built bike will carry me.

Moving fast, actually overtaking busses and cars, abandoning the pavement as the pedestrian traffic is now at a standstill, I ploughed moderately recklessly through the rush hour traffic. Forty minutes for a 7 mile round trip, no wind, no severe climbs (small gradual dip in the middle), on any of my previous bikes this would have been a doddle. On my current stack of steel bars held together with cheap knock-off super glue it was going to be close. In retrospect, going back tomorrow morning would have been a sensible option, but, well, I don't work that way.

Then the first pedal broke. Again. Thankfully it broke gracefully rather than snapping off as I was accelerating away from the bus I'd just cut in front of. My only thought? "So that's how bicycle repair allows one to feed a family." 5 minutes later, new new pedal fitted and I was away again. 400 meters further, the pin/bolt holding the pedal crank on snapped. Now that one hurt. nothing severe, but I hadn't gotten up to speed at that point, and was able to essentially put my feet down and let the bike keep right on going from under me. This repair was even quicker and cheaper. Under 3 minutes and free. I think he just enjoyed the laugh.

Home was reached at 5:07. Thankfully a lift was loading just as I entered the lobby and someone was actually nice enough to hit the hold button. Packing the drive and descending put me back on the bike at 5:12. Any more breakdowns and it was over. Man, but that was stupid. Tomorrow I have no classes to 4:00 PM. I could have done the swap then, but no, back into the traffic, blasting through crossways and intersections in a manner similar to the local taxi-drivers, followed by a short-cut along the incomplete street (rubble and trenches) and back to the doors of San Hao Building at 5:27. The front doors were locked (with bicycle locks). A quick step around the back revealed a steady flood of people out of the rear doors, and a large quantity of workmen bringing in a huge display case. I walked in past the security guards who were stopping anyone entering with my head down and one hand under the case "helping to carry it". I don't know if the ruse worked, or if I was hidden entirely by the case, or the guard didn't feel like a lengthy conversation in P'n'G but, by whatever means, I was in.

Up the turned off escalators, and quickly across the semi-deserted market to the store. Where, yes, the Shopkeeper was just about done packing up the display stock. He welcomed me back with something that sounded humorous and hearty in Chinese and cheerfully exchanged the 160 Gb SATA drive for a 200Gb IDE drive before pulling out a pair of ice cold "Snow" beers, handing me one and walking with me to the exit. (I don't usually touch beer, but at that point anything cold and liquid was seriously appreciated, and I reckon my cycling exertions must have been showing.)

Anyways, to finish I crossed the road to the local McDonalds, enjoyed a standard MCD meal, and was delighted to learn that McDonalds have discovered the joy of dumping a large blodge of ice-cream in a soda of your choice. "Floats" we call them in Ireland. No idea what they are in McDonalds lingo, as ordering was a quick reversion to P'n'G. Then found that I've broken the saddle on my bike completely and lost the nut from the second pedal crank.

So my kith and kin learn well ye of this saga! Fear the EFL teacher for he is strange, large scarey and covered in hair and sweat! And liable to do strange things in pursuit of sparkly IT items...