Thoughts on China

Noisy, crowded, dusty, smoggy
I've been mainly posting the things that we've done but not given you any indications of our first impressions of China.  Please note that these have been formed mainly from the capital city of Beijing and with a country the size of China, it's impossible to make generalisations of the whole country based on a couple of cities. 

Beijing though, I can say without reservation is big.  Huge.  And noisy, crowded, dusty and very smoggy.  The post in wikipedia on smog shows pictures of Beijing just before and after it rains as an example of the smog.  During our entire stay there we didn't see the sky once, which must be bad for our lungs.  Xi'an isn't much better, though watching the traffic on the big roundabout around the Bell Tower in Xi'an can easily distract you from the smog.  Today we stood on the top of the Bell Tower and watched in amusement as a couple tried, unsuccessfully, to cross the road at the roundabout in the traffic.  Don't feel too sorry for them, there are several strategically placed pedestrian subways that they could have used to safely and easily cross the road.

Incomprehensible
It won't come as a surprise to most that Chinese is a very difficult language to pick up.  We have been here for 5 days now and I can just about say hello and thanks in Chinese.  I think that I now know the symbols for China (though Johan isn't so sure I'm right) and exit.  Thankfully, everyone seems to understand numbers so it is possible to provide the right amount for your bill and understand telephone numbers but that's about it. 

In hind sight, it was an excellent idea to go to Japan first.  I'm sure that we will suffer from culture shock soon, but for the time being, we have got over the fact that it will take us twice as long to do simple tasks like buying a train ticket or ordering food.  Japan was a good intermediary, as many more people could speak a little English and were always very willing to help. 

Now, don't get us wrong, we are enjoying it, and although some things (like the Great Wall) do stand out as particularly special, sometimes even the small things, like finding a reasonably priced, delicious hotpot restaurant in a random shopping mall yesterday, are making our journey memorable.

Sometimes Surprising
When we went to the famous Beijing duck restaurant, we discovered 5 minutes before our reservation time, that the map in the guidebook was completely wrong (again).  So we jumped into a taxi and phoned the restaurant for them to give the taxi driver directions.  Who knows what they said but the place that he pointed to was definitely not Da Dong.  So we were 5 minutes late for our reservation, the hostess from the restaurant was asking us what time we would arrive and we had no idea where we were!  We went into a nearby hotel/restaurant and said Da Dong? and the hostess there started to explain, in perfect Chinese, how to get there.  When she realised that we were quite clueless, she walked with us for several minutes before pointing out he restaurant to us.  

Modern, ancient
I was reading the China Post on the plane on the way here to Xi'an and there was an article written by a foreigner who meets up with a Chinese friend every week to practice English/Chinese.  While they were talking the Chinese friend started to speak about how he felt about foreigners who came to China and only wanted to see and speak about the historical sites and were not the least bit interested in the modern, new China that has been emerging and which the Chinese people are so proud of. 

It was an interesting article because I, like the author of the piece, must admit that I am very interested in the history and ancient culture of the Chinese and that it was a large part of the reason why I am here.  I know that China will be a very different place in 10-15 years time when it crosses the boundary from developing to developed country but I don't want to see yet another developed, modern country!  I want to see somewhere that is different from what I know.  I hope that the Chinese people truly appreciate what they have in their rich history and in the mad rush to modernise, they keep the reminders of where they have come from.

National Holiday
My final observation (for now) concerns the preparations for the National Holiday on October 1st .  While we were in Beijing, it was evident every where that we went that the entire city was getting ready for a great day.  In fact, the 60th anniversary of anything is special, this is the 60th anniversary of the formation of the Peoples Republic of China and an event which I'm sure the government is keen for the people to enjoy. There are flowers and flower arrangements being put up everywhere as well as big screens in many public places.  Repairs are being made to roads and I read in the newspaper that the people taking part in the parades on the day have already been practicing for 2 months!

I guess that when the eyes of the world were on China for the Olympics that the lengths that they went to were special, but now I see that this is just the way that they do things in China.  Everything is big, everything is practiced and practiced and nothing is left to chance.  There have even been notices given to people who live on the route that they cannot watch the parades from their windows as a security breach, no one is allowed to fly kites until the celebrations are over and even the nations pigeons have been rounded up and locked up for the duration.

Personally I'm glad that we will be celebrating the holidays on the Yangtze River (I hope) and then spending the rest of the holidays in Shanghai, a city known for it's affinity with foreigners!