Jonna's China blog: May 18th - The beauty of China

I woke up fairly tired, but my new, healthy, Chinese brekkie consisting of soy milk, nuts, grapes (they don't really have cereal here) and copious amounts of coffee woke me up. Interview number one this day was at a very prestigious spa, where we met the manager who revealed a little bit about Chinese beauty secrets.

Turns out that a lot of celebs come to this spa. However, since my knowledge of Chinese celebs is very limited, I can’t say that any name made me raise my eyebrows. After the interview we were shown around and oh my, this certainly was a nice place! I desperately wished that the lady would offer us a free treat, but she never did, and I had to leave the spa un-detoxed, un-exfoliated and un-happy. There were some translation problems too, so maybe not the best interview. But in order to get a better, inside view, I am definitely going to treat myself to a spa sometime in the near future. Maybe not this one though, as the prices even made me wanna go 'ohmigod....'.

Back at the CRI office I had an interview with DTZ, a major Chinese real estate agency, about buying property in China. The interview went well and I got a lot of useful information and tips for prospective western buyers. Actually not so many property laws in China -might be worth looking into. But when I, just out of curiosity, asked how much a modern, 3-bedroom flat in a major city like Beijing or Shanghai would cost, and she said 10 million RMB, all my visions vanished.

I spent the rest of the afternoon doing research and preparing some new questions for my next interview -with a health expert/doctor that was going to tell me about how China is battling their obesity problem. However, I was feeling a little bit bad about this interview, as I hadn't seen one obese person since I stepped off the plane in Beijing. Rather, I had seen an impressive number of Chinese girls with great figures, feminine style and beautiful faces -which made me feel like the obese one! (175 cm certainly gives you a potential 'jedi' nickname in this country of petite people)

Anyways, after some hours of preparation, perspiration and severe obesity-online-forum-chat-participation it was time. I was in the studio with my headphones. Panda was dialing the doctor's number and then... Just when I was about to go 'Ni hao, wo jiao Jonna, wo shi Rey dian ren' (just for fun! After all, this Chinese has been very useful in terms of getting ppl to like me!) Panda hung up the phone! 'The doctor had a cold. We have to call back tomorrow'.

A cold? A COLD? Doctors get colds? I thought their job was to educate ppl so that they don't get colds. But how does that make sense when they catch them themselves?

Oh well. I just spent 2 hours having serious discussions about if the Chinese ppl are getting fat or if it's just the children that are in the danger zone -so I wasn't looking forward to grilling this Dr with my well thought-through and sharp questions at all!

Aware of my disappointment, Panda reminded me that we had another important interview to conduct, and we departed CRI.

We went back to the Shi Cha Hai Lake area that we had visited the day before, in order to meet two beautiful young Chinese girls (Nancy and Spring) that were going to enlighten me on the topic: 'love and beauty in China'. I had been looking forward to meeting those two ladies all day, as Panda had told me they were really fun and chatty, and that they had majors in English.

One plate of chicken wings and a jug of ice tea later, I must say I was feeling just as full as I felt satisfied with my interviewees. Nancy and Spring were spot on! Girly, chatty, giggly and, of course, extremely pretty! Nancy had the face of a doll and spoke in a very calm and serious manner, making her sound like a beautiful geisha that you just want to worship.

Spring, on the other hand, was taken from (what would have been) the Chinese version of Sex and the City. Pink shoes (with a rosette -what a doll!), jean miniskirt, pink top, gloss jacket, and flawless makeup that consisted of copious amounts of rouge and (of course) pink lipstick! If the director for SnTC would have seen her -he would have recruited her on the spot!

The two pretty ladies told me immaculate stories of their previous relationships, their idea of love and beauty, and when we finally stopped chit-chatting and went on to conduct the actual interview, we rented a boat and paddled out in the Shi Cha Hai Lake.

Surrounded by the distant music from the bars and restaurants they told me everything I wanted to know, in order to understand how the Chinese look at beauty. The interview was great, as the girls certainly did everything to give me the best answers. (Maybe I should have realized how excited they were about the thought of being on Swedish radio a bit better though. When I turned on the microphone and asked them about their name and personal details - as part of the soundcheck- they went: 'Hello everyone in Sweden! My name is Nancy and I am a Chinese girl from Beijing....' But it was so sweet that I didn't have the heart to interrupt)

The boat interview dragged on and I didn't get home until late when I, with all right, passed out.