Bowling in China

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Written by Robert Vance on March 31, 2008 – 1:06 am

My right arm area is very sore today. Hmm, I wonder why? Could it be that I bowled 10 games on Friday night? Yes, that’s probably it. You see, it was team building night, and even though the event wasn’t mandatory, I wanted to find out what it was like to bowl in China. Just after 9:00 PM, we all crowded into 5 0r 6 taxis and took a short ride to a nearby ten pin bowling alley. After a few frantic minutes of asking for sizes, slipping shoes on, and grabbing our “bowling weapons,” we headed over to the first 6 lanes and began the night’s festivities.

Bowling in China really isn’t much different than bowling in the West. Well, at least the setup itself isn’t that different. The area in front of the lanes had a computer and a mounted television screen as well as an area to sit and relax. I thought there was beer sitting on our tables when we arrived, but later, when I was thirsty, I found out it was just hot tea. As one foreigner remarked, “who drinks hot tea when bowling?” The lanes themselves were standard with dots on the wooden floor, gutters, and mechanisms for setting the pins up.

I suppose it was the method of bowling by my Chinese couterparts that was a little unorthodox. Some of them had not concept as to what a game was. They’d just take a ball and roll it down the center (or try at least) again and again without even glancing at the screen. Whereas in the West, it is impolite to begin your bowling motion if the person right beside you is just starting theirs, in China, people like to bowl together. Sometimes as many as five or six would count to three and set their balls in motion at the same time. I tried this “technique” a few times but found that my bowling became considerably worse when half a dozen people were bowling with me at the same time.

After a while, some of the Chinese people got tired of bowling (not being used to rolling such a heavy ball) and so while they went to play ping pong, I continued bowling on my lane. Eventually, I was playing three games at the same time, competing against myself. This was fun at first, but eventually it became annoying when one of the games had a high score but the others were horrible.

All in all, the night was a success and I appreciated the unlimited bowling and the chance to meet some new staff members. I think for some of the staff members, bowling was a very rare event for them since it costs so much. But I think everyone had a great time. And I’m sure I’m not the only one with a sore hand today.

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