The New Beachhutman Blog

New Years Eve saw the inaugural meeting of the “Bridge Circle”. N and I had been talking about this for a while, and largely thanks to N’s organisational determination, we had assembled a small but select mob group of part-time-“I-used-to-play-a-bit” players (to wit, me and N) and some tyros, who wanted to learn. So we had established the meeting, and beforehand me and N went across the road for the essential supplies, that is to say beer (“Good grief, what’s that Coke for?”) and peanuts and snacks. We’d been quite restrained I thought, but at the checkout I think even N was a bit surprised - as he’d only taken out a 100 kuai note - when it was about 120.

It’s very obvious now.

I’m taking the day off, as it is a holiday, although I suspect someone is working in the office, and got up late, before strolling up to Lotus stores to replenish the freezer. I also bought a few treats,

(Which as I may have mentioned before, are pure evil, but indulgence)

And some necessities like prawns. But what I noticed was the pork. You see, in common with the entire Chinese nation, my favourite pork cut is the belly strip. Yes, it’s fatty and low in “meat”, and it has an almost inedible rind, and all of that I love. Chunked into a simple soup at night, grilled, red cooked in a Chinese stew, roasted and sliced when cold for a sandwich or salad, I love the stuff. When I arrived in China a tray of about six belly pork strips, say 400 grams, would have cost around 9 kuai, which at the time was equivalent to just under one Euro.

Today, the same quantity in Lotus was marked at 21 Kuia. That is now just under 3 Euro.

True, a lot of the hit for me is that the Euro cost is a lot higher, and that is partly due to the strengthening of the Chinese currency against the Euro. (The Chinese currency has been hit by global recession too, when the world stops buying, the workshop of the world has problems. But most of the world does not take a rosy long term view of the Euro, so even in these times, the Euro has fallen against the Chinese currency).

However, even if for me the price in Euro is three times what it was. In a way I don’t mind, because now it’s a bit of a treat, and Australian steak is really quite cheap. As are prawns. But for the Chinese it is still over twice as expensive as it was a bit over a year ago.

Other little clues abound. In the restaurant our daily lunch has gone up from about 70 Kuia for the five of us to about 100 - a 35% increase over a bit under 2 years.  More and more people at the checkouts are obviously saying, “Are you sure?” when told the costs. Restaurants are reprinting menus that have been set for years. Taxi drivers rather expect you to round up to the next five kuai.

Only in the markets are the prices fairly stable, for there is no exchange rate impact on local food yet. But it will happen. This is going to be a tough year in China I fear.