So as you know I'm traveling in China at the moment, unfortunately with my parents but it's better than not most of the time. Anyway I posted a running cometary / list of thoughts a few days back here:
http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5825101Just thought I'd add a few more. Oh and the primer is that I lived here for about 3 1/2 years when I was a toddler and I speak enough of the language to get around.
Please ask questions!
-Currently just got into Guilin after a torturous train trip. About 30 hours on the train with a 4 hours transfer stop in between. We had hard bunks on the train but they were not in their own rooms, 6 to a "cubicle". Fairly cramped but you get used to it after a while. Thankfully the trains were air conditioned as it's 30 deg C out with 100% humidity. Using the squat toilets on the train wasn't the most fun what with the overpowering smell of urine, dirty floors and what not. And of course like every other public washroom in Asia, no toilet paper or soap. If you come traveling anywhere in Asia plan on bringing your own soap and toilet paper with you (this isn't just in china). It was interesting to see the train personnel walking up and down the isles hawking merchandise like toys, bill counterfeit detectors and more. There was also an open food cart that went up and down the isles selling noodles, rice and more. At one point the people on the lower bunk light a cigarette filling the upper bunks with smoke. They were not supposed to smoke in the cabin but none of the employees stopped them (you will find in much of Asia that such rules and laws are followed far less strictly).
-Despite what I was saying in my first post above about the street food being largely safe to eat I am amazed at some of the stuff that locals buy. I can remember one lady selling assorted meats right out of a bucket on the side of the street (chicken feet, tripe, etc...) and I mean just a bucket. I haven't gotten really sick despite eating lots of street food and at all kinds of less than clean restaurants but I have developed a rather persistent case of diarrhea. Nothing too serious though. If I stayed here longer by GI tract would likely get used to it. But I would always stay away from the most dodgy looking stuff.
-If you travel outside the major tourist cities you will get stared at A LOT and talked about openly a lot. You will hear "Louwai" a lot. This is something that is hard to get used to. This largely stems from 2 things. (1) Traditionally the Chinese are an extremely unselfconscious people (I'm not saying this as a true negative) and hence things like staring are not necessarily considered rude out right. (2) Chinese people often have a very distorted view of westerners. We are more than something of a curiosity.
-Like I was saying above the Chinese are remarkably unselfconscious about many things. The primary thing you will notice would be bodily functions. Chewing, slurping, farting, spitting, going to the bathroom. All of these in the west are considered private matters and we try to hide them from public view. Much less so in China and you will see people spitting in the street, eating/slurping loudly, talking loudly, etc etc... This is FAR more the case with the previous generation than the up and coming younger generation who much more resemble the west in every way.
-The economic boom here is mind blowing. When we lived here 20+ years ago the country was just starting to open up and people still dressed in communist attire. Shops still sold a very small range of goods. Cars were just starting to spear in numbers. People rarely owned much in the way of property. Communications was a hit and miss affair as there were few land lines. Fast forward to now and every city of size has a skyscraper skyline. Buildings are going up at breakneck pace. China has a good highways system. Cars are everywhere. Everyone and their dog has a cell phone (even farmers). The pace of growth is so fast that they don't even clear away old buildings when they knock them down. They just clear away enough to build the new skyscraper leaving a shell of rubble next to it. How often have you seen large municipal works like highway systems, subways systems, major water works, damns etc being constructed? Seems to me every city we visit has something of this magnitude being worked on. Because of this virtual explosion there are literally 2 different China's. There's the China of the 20 something generation who you would be hard pressed to tell apart from westerners and then there is everyone else older than them. They saw their country go from rural third world sleepiness to modern bustling metropolis overnight and they still hang on to their rural upbringings which also explains the point above.
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