Final Thoughts on China

Girl Wearing 70th Anniv. Patches

We are flying back today but I thought I would add some random observations about China. I had some time on one of the train rides so I jotted down things I have noticed.

The first is that they actually seem to get things done here. You can say what you want about an authoritarian government but in terms of building, it works. New roads and new buildings are put up at a rapid pace mainly because the government can dictate it. If they want it done, they just make it happen. They select an area, move the residents out, compensate them and put up high rise buildings. None of the bureaucratic red tape that slows our development down to a snail’s pace. Their public transportation system is vastly superior to ours and purchasing is more digitized, to the point where they pay for almost everything from an app on their phone.

High Speed Trains

The Chinese we met seem to be happy and very proud of their country. They work hard and have a dream. Some of them wanted to come to America and others just to get married and own their own home. Roger told me in great detail of the movie "My People, My Country" that came out in honor of their 70th anniversary and how it made him cry from pride at the end. They are very proud of the achievements that China had done to rise from abject poverty 70 years ago to become a world economic and political power.

Ordering Line at McDonalds

Is there strict government control? I would have to say so but it isn’t that visible. Everyone has an ID card and it is checked frequently. In addition there are facial recognition cameras everywhere and you must be recognized just to check into a hotel. You can even get updates on your flight status just from facial recognition software (didn’t work for me as I'm not really in the system I suppose).

China has been a tea culture since ancient times and still is. They served tea eggs at breakfast (not bad), soaked their feet in tea and drink it constantly. They say that switching from hot to cold isn’t good for you so they only drink hot tea even when they are hot. So why so much tea? One reason is very practical. The water isn’t safe to drink here so it has to be boiled and hence the tea.

American Culture is Everywhere

We have noticed that fashion is a little different here. Big round glasses are in style and everyone loves to wear clothes with English words. When we were touring I would say that 25% of the people had English on their clothes, much of it not making any real sense. I mean, what exactly does “Relaxed Diverting”, “Waste Youth” or "Fair World" really mean? And speaking of English, there are American chain restaurants everywhere. KFC is the most popular but followed closely by McDonalds, Starbucks and many others. Their menus are adapted for Chinese taste of course. McDonalds has some kind of egg on a bun with soy milk that they really like. We didn’t get a chance to try it.

Floral Display at Shanghai Train Station

Finally everything is very clean and very well controlled. The obvious reason for this is that they have an army of people who clean and police the area. You can hardly walk a block without seeing someone sweeping and a security guard walking around. Part of this might be the holiday season, but part of it is also the idea that everyone needs a job and that every job is important and to be respected, even those picking up garbage. And speaking of the holiday, we have reached the conclusion that it was actually better for us to visit during their holiday week because it gave us a chance to see China at its absolute best. There are floral displays everywhere that you can't see but every 10 years. That was worth putting up with the crowds in spots.