Loose Ends
1. The lack of quality in people. The chinese people i met on this trip are as a whole, rude, selfish, uneducated. The spitting and other forms of public self "grooming". The ubiquitous smoking regardless of location or forbiddence. The ceaseless shoving and elbowing to position one ahead by another foot, as futile as that was in most cases. The total lack of gratitude when we offered help to people. The scammy tours. The blatant lies people will tell in spite of the obvious truth. Everywhere you look there's people cheating people, and people thinking they have been cheated, and people proactively preventing to be cheated, and people telling others how not to be cheated.
I know this is the curse of population density, that these are the natural social conditions of such an environment. But I don't have to like it. I can't help but comparing china to thailand, both similar in many of my perspectives. And the thais win hands down.
2. Lack of originality. At a tourist spot, every vendor will sit next door to each other and sell the exact same goods, lined up in the exact same way, for the exact same price. When one is hungry for some munchies, all one will find are trinkets. All the men wear black or gray suit jackets and dress pants. Everyone want the exact same shot at every tour stop. I once took a strange shot of a Ding (cast bronze tub in front of a temple), and as soon as I left a string of others were lining up to take the same shot I did, with their camera phones (it was a macro shot)!
3. Inefficiencies of many systems. There are two dozen different bank/credit/debit cards, each with a different combination of usability, lending model, area of effect etc. Just bank ATM cards alone has many types, some (like mine) charges various fees for different transactions that changes year by year. Bank of China charges people for depositing cash. Many airports have ridiculous passenger routing. For example at Chengdu we had multiple planes boarding out of the same gate, each flight's passengers board a bus first that drove around the airport in circles sometimes even doubling back before getting to the airplane in the middle of nowhere. Then they have a second boarding pass check which only served to create additional opportunities for shoving and pushing. Another airport had us land at gate 222, then walk a long way to make the transfer only to be ferried back to gate 222 for the connection. Yet another would have people board at gate x, cordon off the jetway, have everyone walk down the outside stairs, get on a bus, drive over 10 gates, climb on the jetway again, and board. Meanwhile at the original gate x a plane would sit there doing absolutely nothing.
There are countless examples of such idiocy, many too detailed to worth writing about. And we weren't the only ones flabbergasted at the glaring inadequacies or inexplicable stupidities.
However there is one system that is extremely efficient in china, one that is not controlled by the government (no surprise there). On the streets of most cities we visited, drivers take a "coordinated system" approach to driving. All lights are treated as optional yield signs, and vehicles traveling in all directions are lined right up against one another, stopping only when fully obstructed. Because everyone understands this unspoken road rule, the traffic moves non-stop in all directions, filling every niche on the street therefore maximizing space and throughput. The most surprising thing must be that we didn't see more accidents, or really any at all.
In the end, for me China held few of the exoticism of Thailand. Yet despite that, despite all my other complains, even despite the general underwhelming of the quality of food, this shall still go down as the trip of a lifetime. For the little I invested in ways of money and worries and trouble, China has given back much to feast the senses of body and mind, and nourish the seedlings of future adventures.
************************************
Total Cost for 3 weeks
11,900 yuan = 1478 USD
+ airfare 741 USD = 2219 USD.
I know this is the curse of population density, that these are the natural social conditions of such an environment. But I don't have to like it. I can't help but comparing china to thailand, both similar in many of my perspectives. And the thais win hands down.
2. Lack of originality. At a tourist spot, every vendor will sit next door to each other and sell the exact same goods, lined up in the exact same way, for the exact same price. When one is hungry for some munchies, all one will find are trinkets. All the men wear black or gray suit jackets and dress pants. Everyone want the exact same shot at every tour stop. I once took a strange shot of a Ding (cast bronze tub in front of a temple), and as soon as I left a string of others were lining up to take the same shot I did, with their camera phones (it was a macro shot)!
3. Inefficiencies of many systems. There are two dozen different bank/credit/debit cards, each with a different combination of usability, lending model, area of effect etc. Just bank ATM cards alone has many types, some (like mine) charges various fees for different transactions that changes year by year. Bank of China charges people for depositing cash. Many airports have ridiculous passenger routing. For example at Chengdu we had multiple planes boarding out of the same gate, each flight's passengers board a bus first that drove around the airport in circles sometimes even doubling back before getting to the airplane in the middle of nowhere. Then they have a second boarding pass check which only served to create additional opportunities for shoving and pushing. Another airport had us land at gate 222, then walk a long way to make the transfer only to be ferried back to gate 222 for the connection. Yet another would have people board at gate x, cordon off the jetway, have everyone walk down the outside stairs, get on a bus, drive over 10 gates, climb on the jetway again, and board. Meanwhile at the original gate x a plane would sit there doing absolutely nothing.
There are countless examples of such idiocy, many too detailed to worth writing about. And we weren't the only ones flabbergasted at the glaring inadequacies or inexplicable stupidities.
However there is one system that is extremely efficient in china, one that is not controlled by the government (no surprise there). On the streets of most cities we visited, drivers take a "coordinated system" approach to driving. All lights are treated as optional yield signs, and vehicles traveling in all directions are lined right up against one another, stopping only when fully obstructed. Because everyone understands this unspoken road rule, the traffic moves non-stop in all directions, filling every niche on the street therefore maximizing space and throughput. The most surprising thing must be that we didn't see more accidents, or really any at all.
In the end, for me China held few of the exoticism of Thailand. Yet despite that, despite all my other complains, even despite the general underwhelming of the quality of food, this shall still go down as the trip of a lifetime. For the little I invested in ways of money and worries and trouble, China has given back much to feast the senses of body and mind, and nourish the seedlings of future adventures.
************************************
Total Cost for 3 weeks
11,900 yuan = 1478 USD
+ airfare 741 USD = 2219 USD.
posted by Billy at
perm link
2 comments:
i like comment #1. i feel exactly the same way. and i don't care that ppl keep saying "that's what they HAVE to do in china" - i think at least SOME human decency should be exhibited.
oh, and other than the spitting and self "grooming" as you call it, don't forget the peeing in public on walls in the middle of the city (outside of a university not to mention) in front of children.
china to me - great, astouding, amazing history and culture... but horrible, dispicable, unbelievably uncivilized people for a country and a people that prides itself in "unselffishness", "kindness", and as being "cultured". B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T. the rudeness is just... Unbelievable. there's no better word to describe it. just simply, unbelievable.
(and i still hate fobs - more than ever. my dad's "ai guo zhu yi jiao yu" backfired COMPLETELY. he's just lucky that it was a white guy that almost decapitated me and not a chinese guy, or i'd hate the country and it's people even more!)
by
munkee, at 4:16 PM
oh, and i agree with comment #2 too. but my example is more shallow/vain - every single girl likes the same celebrity at the same time (in 1998, it was leonardo dicaprio - his face haunted every street corner in shanghai; in 2002, it was David Beckham - he haunted all the store windows). also, once one fashion 'style' is in, all the girls who can afford it look the same. also, 3 years ago, girls who had their ears pierced (me) were prostitutes (yeepee!). now, almost every single girl has their ears pierced - follow the leader! ... i wonder when they'll start shaving their armpits... (of course, only prostitutes do that also - therefore i am the biggest whore in china - dangly earrings, shaved pits, and apparently, breast implants - BOOYA!!!)
independence? originality? - what are those??????
**********
Re: comment #3. did u take the subway in Beijing?? in order to switch trains within one station, you must: go up the stairs, go down the ramp, go up the ramp, go down the ramp, go down the stairs, go up the stairs, go up the ramp, and then finally, go down the stairs again. yes. efficiency at its finest.
they're gonna be fucked for the olympics - as i've said since 2002.
by
munkee, at 4:28 PM
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