My trip to China was interesting in so many ways. It was a place that I probably would not have gone on my own. There are places I would not visit again, and places I really enjoyed. Shanghai was by far my favorite city, but it was also the cleanest and most modern. I enjoyed the mountains in Guilin, and was amazed by their beauty, even with the pollution.
I don’t know if I would go back by my own decision. Maybe one day I will do it with a job, but there are so many other places in the world I want to visit that this may be my only visit. Maybe in time if the country is different I will feel differently.
Pollution is a major problem, and it’s everywhere. The air, the water and even the soil. The government is trying to take some steps to make it better, but they have a long road ahead of them. All of the water that you drink has to be treated and bottled, as most tap water is not of good quality and can make you sick. Soils have to be treated all the time, as the soil is leached.
People prefer organic vegetables because they believe that it’s safer, because many chemicals were used unethically and people got sick. There is corruption in the food system, and sometimes processors cheat to make a product cheaper to make. What they don’t think about it how this will harm people, even kill people.
Traffic in China is not a joke. Everywhere you go you wait in traffic, and sometimes what should take 20 minutes takes more than an hour. People in China drive like crazies as well. Lanes are optional, as are turn signals, lights, and really any other measure to regulate traffic. People don’t speed because they can’t with so much traffic. Roadway regulations are non existent. Semi trucks are habitually overloaded, and can cause major wrecks if something happens. A heavier load equals a bigger profit.
Money is the main motivator. Many people will do whatever it takes to try and get ahead. China is a very expensive place to live, and earnings are much lower than in the U.S. People struggle to make ends meet and to provide for their families, especially their children. .
We met some very nice people, but in general when people are in public, they don’t care about anyone but themselves. They will push you over to get to where they need to go, run each other off the road and cut each other off in all places: at the store, in the airport, on the road, you name it. I think it’s a cultural thing.
It’s strange to me because they are completely opposite at home. They care very much about their family, and parents will do whatever it takes to make life better for their children. I know that we do that in the states as well, but it’s at a different level there.
Many people want out of China, if they can afford it. Visas are hard to get because people don’t come back to China. Many times they have to put down a 200,000 yuan deposit (which is about $33,000) to go to the United States. So many people leave and don’t come back, so that is their ransom basically.
People in China are not afforded the same freedoms that we are. So much of their life is controlled by the government that they don’t get a say. We make jokes in the U.S. about “Big Brother,” but in China the government is more like a father. You do what you are told and don’t question anything.
Corruption is rampant in the government. Officials take money under the table all the time, and the relationship with a government official is more important than following the rules. Breaking the rules can result in fines and prison time. If you have a good relationship with the government official in your area and have a little money, life if much easier. The government has a lot of money, collected from the people through duty and taxation.
There is talk among the locals that things will change in the next 15-20 years. People are unhappy with the current system, and many, especially those of the younger generation, seek change. It will be interesting to see how things develop in China. There are areas that are modern and developed such as Shanghai (which is a Tier 1 city), and areas that are still very rural and barbarian (there are more than 300 Tier 5 cities). Cities are ranked according to their development.
A lot of the development of products is focused in the first and second tier cities, when it sounds like the lower tier cities are the ones who need the most help. First tier cities are the following: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzou and Shenzhen. Then there are 20-30 cities that they second tiers, and these are more developed provincial capitals and richer non-capital cities. There are 20-30 third tier cities, and these are less developed provincial capitals and bigger non-capital cities. The fourth tier cities include 200+ cities and productive level cities. The fifth tier are county level, undeveloped cities.
Another thing I found interesting was the poor quality in which many things are built. Building maintenance is not a priority, and many of the places that we visited were only 20 years old, but you would have thought they were built more than 50 years ago. I wonder if part of this is because the better quality materials are sold elsewhere. This seems to be the case in a lot of things, which is why many Chinese people want American products. Many of the buildings had not been painted since they were built, and wallpaper is falling down. This was really obvious in the Terracotta Museum, which is really sad because it is such a big tourist attraction.
Many of the places were not heated in the main areas. I assume this is done to save electricity, which reduces pollution. However, this made some of the places we visited very cold. The university in Xi’an was not heated, only the classrooms and only when they are being used. Many of the restaurants were not heated until we arrived either.
I think the biggest thing that I learned while in China was that we really do live in a great country, and the freedoms that we take for granted every day are not enjoyed by everyone. We really are truly lucky to be born into a country and into a society that values personal freedom.
