April 17, 2021 to May 12, 2021
Hainan
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It's been a busy few weeks.
I have actually completed the process of picking up my social insurance card, gotten my second Covid jab, picked up a five year employment certificate, visited multiple national heritage sites, got caught in traffic outside a music festival, gone swimming in a waterfall, attended four out of the five days of the China International Consumer Products Expo¹, finished Chapter Five of the science fiction novel, apparently had my translation featured in an advertisement that aired on one of the screens in Times Square (the one in New York), flown in a hot air balloon, been on national TV, and had my court case go on the docket.
I've also got a new Residence Permit. Which is very much not for the length it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be five years. Which is—I admit—the Holy Grail of residence permits but seriously I'm at 19 years in China, 17 of which are in Hainan, 14 of which I've had a work related residence permit for Hainan, 10 of which I've owned a company, 7 of which I've been an American Consular Liaison volunteer, 5 of which I've run the largest expats' WeChat group in the province, and 3 of which my company has been provincial level instead of municipal. Separate from also paying all my taxes and having social insurance for all my employees including myself, my list of recently acquired clients includes both the provincial TV station and the provincial print media conglomerate.
Instead of 5 years though, I've got 51 weeks. Which is what they do when they're being nice to people who only get a year (as it's one price for 1→364 days, another price for 365 days to 2 years, and a third for anything over 2 years) except that I'm not only qualified for five, I just finished having two....like the English teachers currently get when they renew at the same school.
Not to slag on English teachers or anything like that cause not only did I used to be one, I'm mostly not one because I don't have the necessary patience for dealing with students. (Also, because translation doesn't require that I ever put pants on to work.)
However, it's a field with a traditionally nonexistent barrier to entry (see: I used to be one) and, even though it pays really well, it also has limited career advancement opportunities for anyone that actually cares about advancement.
In terms of biking related stuff, the quest to discover why I turn blue at not-very-high altitude has continued with a lung function test and an asthma diagnosis. At least at sea level, I'm technically not asthmatic by Diagnosis Criteria #1. However Criteria #2 (does your breathing improve after taking asthma medication and, if so, by how much) puts me square in the very definitely asthmatic category.
Even with my Mom's bizarre not quite asthmatic lung ailment (hypersensitive pneumonitis) being the whole reason I knew about fingertip pulse oximeters and had had the thought "this is something cool I want to take with me on the road", I never realized that you could be asthmatic without having asthma attacks. I'm looking forward to seeing what an extra 10% of lung volume will do for my hill climbs.
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¹ On the basis of never having held a large scale trade fair in Hainan, the provincial government and the Ministry of Commerce decided it would be a great idea to put together a fresh faced team of people who mostly had at least attended trade fairs in the past (not necessarily worked at or organized) and put on the fourth largest² Expo in China. More than anything else, I'm astonished at how little went wrong.
² It was no Canton Fair, but there were roughly 180,000 attendees over 4 days.
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