Notes from a big red country
Of all the countries I've been on my trip thus far it's China that's undoubtedly the heavyweight backpacker destination of the lot. During the weeks I've spent here I must have spoken to dozens of people from who knows how many countries travelling in almost every direction imaginable. Curiously though, several distinct themes appear to preoccupy foreigners in China as they appear time and time again in conversation. Here's a pick of the favourites...
The issue seemingly concerning most people are the state of Chinese toilets and the rank public conveniences in particular which regularly become the subject of dares to see if you can convince your travelling mate to step foot inside one. Even before entering in China it's impossible to escape the multitude of tales from the WC gladly shared by many others who have experienced China before you. Yet on getting here this toilet humour seems to reach new heights of if not hysteria then certainly a peculiar fascination and revulsion rolled into one. China certainly doesn't have the worst toilets in the world, but they're sufficiently of an ilk so unfamiliar to Western posteriors that it'll be some time before they're forgotten. This said, I've not yet been to Tibet where it's told you shouldn't be surprised to find yourself sharing the facilities with a Yak.
Providing more entertainment, although accompanied by much face pulling at the same time are the reactions to the Chinese favoured pastime of spitting. We're brought up in the West that spitting is a dirty habit but one we can normally allow ourselves to turn a blind eye towards. In China however, spitting and the process through which the material to be spat out is gathered is simply impossible to ignore due both to the ubiquity of the practice and the immense noise required. The vigour and effort put into hacking up whatever unwanted matter needing expulsion is quite extraordinary and to those recent arrivals to China not yet acquainted with the practice witnessing this process generally results in a combination looks of disgust and uncontrolled hilarity.
Communication tends to vex most foreign travellers to China and matters aren't helped by the seeming inability of the populous here to join in with the game of charades that normally accompanies Westerners trying to make themselves understood in a far flung land. Try as you might and irrespective of how obvious the charades in question are, be it pointing at a place name and pointing at a train ticket should you be wanting to buy a train ticket to the place in question say, all efforts are met with an equally blank response. Similarly attempts to recite words or phrases out of a phrasebook are all but incomprehensible to the native populous, even though the correct pronunciation, once uttered by a Chinese person, sounds nearly indistinguishable from what you've just said. Matters aren't helped either by the absolute absence of any similar words between Latin languages and Chinese. Even in Japan there are a good number of imported words, 'hotu cohi' being 'hot coffee' for instance, but in Chinese there's absolutely nothing to go on whatsoever. Nevertheless everyone seems to manage, if at times via routes of near desperation, in making their way through China.
On a positive note China is proving to be by far the cheapest country I've encountered to date. Nearly everything is extraordinarily good value. Find your self a comfortable bed for a little over a quid, breakfast for around 15p and transport for a price per mile you would think should be impossible; certainly it would be with British fuel prices. Unlike many other countries living down to your means doesn't require much effort especially if you're willing to frequent the local eating establishments, struggle with being understood perhaps but at the end of the day the reward will be a heap of food for prices you thought had long since ceased to exist for such nourishment.
Despite heading towards first world status with as much speed as it can muster, China is still home to many practices long since vanished from our lands. Cycle-drawn carts of anything from vegetables to apparent rubbish frequently ply the streets of towns and cities earning you would think a ppitance for their efforts. In some towns goods are still carried hanging from both ends of a pole which the bearer places behind their neck while many older people are eager to accept used plastic bottles off travellers for which its assumed they receive some money for the recycling thereof. Tractors, or at least what we would take to be tractors at home are noticeable by their absence even in rural areas, a range of contraptions instead seem to be used for lugging duties combined with plenty of manual labour. Near Yangshuo there seemed to end of people walking their two cattle, normally numbering only two or three, down the road perhaps between where they lived to wherever suitable grazing could be found. This all provides a curious backdrop to otherwise relatively well organised sightseeing, excursions and activities.
I've started using the joke that it would nice to come back to China in a few years when it's finished. Currently a huge amount of work seems to be underway more or less everywhere you might choose to go. Great new motorways in particular seem especially in evidence, unfinished bridges and flyovers awaiting connection to the existing throng of traffic. In every city a great many of the streets are in a state of being dug up and replaced, while in Beijing especially there's no end of work going on in advance of the 2008 Olympics which includes unfortunately covering a considerable amount of the Forbidden City in scaffold.
China has a funny thing going on with its mix of communist and capitalism. A great deal clearly remains under strict control, yet some of the main shopping streets in the cities could almost have been transplanted from the West. Everyone who can work is provided with a job, or so I've been told, but it begs the question how many can afford to frequent the sparkling Western stores taking ever more hold. It remains something of a mystery to me as to how China can make these seeming opposite poles coexist under one flag. Providing work for everyone is something, but when there's such opportunity to display the stark constrasts between haves and have nots it seems unlikely that discontent can be that far away. Surely the stretching a system between universal provision and a great scale of incomes has got to lead to cracks and discontentment at some point. Perhaps I'm wrong; in any case I'm unlikely to discover the truth of the matter while I'm here.
The issue seemingly concerning most people are the state of Chinese toilets and the rank public conveniences in particular which regularly become the subject of dares to see if you can convince your travelling mate to step foot inside one. Even before entering in China it's impossible to escape the multitude of tales from the WC gladly shared by many others who have experienced China before you. Yet on getting here this toilet humour seems to reach new heights of if not hysteria then certainly a peculiar fascination and revulsion rolled into one. China certainly doesn't have the worst toilets in the world, but they're sufficiently of an ilk so unfamiliar to Western posteriors that it'll be some time before they're forgotten. This said, I've not yet been to Tibet where it's told you shouldn't be surprised to find yourself sharing the facilities with a Yak.
Providing more entertainment, although accompanied by much face pulling at the same time are the reactions to the Chinese favoured pastime of spitting. We're brought up in the West that spitting is a dirty habit but one we can normally allow ourselves to turn a blind eye towards. In China however, spitting and the process through which the material to be spat out is gathered is simply impossible to ignore due both to the ubiquity of the practice and the immense noise required. The vigour and effort put into hacking up whatever unwanted matter needing expulsion is quite extraordinary and to those recent arrivals to China not yet acquainted with the practice witnessing this process generally results in a combination looks of disgust and uncontrolled hilarity.
Communication tends to vex most foreign travellers to China and matters aren't helped by the seeming inability of the populous here to join in with the game of charades that normally accompanies Westerners trying to make themselves understood in a far flung land. Try as you might and irrespective of how obvious the charades in question are, be it pointing at a place name and pointing at a train ticket should you be wanting to buy a train ticket to the place in question say, all efforts are met with an equally blank response. Similarly attempts to recite words or phrases out of a phrasebook are all but incomprehensible to the native populous, even though the correct pronunciation, once uttered by a Chinese person, sounds nearly indistinguishable from what you've just said. Matters aren't helped either by the absolute absence of any similar words between Latin languages and Chinese. Even in Japan there are a good number of imported words, 'hotu cohi' being 'hot coffee' for instance, but in Chinese there's absolutely nothing to go on whatsoever. Nevertheless everyone seems to manage, if at times via routes of near desperation, in making their way through China.
On a positive note China is proving to be by far the cheapest country I've encountered to date. Nearly everything is extraordinarily good value. Find your self a comfortable bed for a little over a quid, breakfast for around 15p and transport for a price per mile you would think should be impossible; certainly it would be with British fuel prices. Unlike many other countries living down to your means doesn't require much effort especially if you're willing to frequent the local eating establishments, struggle with being understood perhaps but at the end of the day the reward will be a heap of food for prices you thought had long since ceased to exist for such nourishment.
Despite heading towards first world status with as much speed as it can muster, China is still home to many practices long since vanished from our lands. Cycle-drawn carts of anything from vegetables to apparent rubbish frequently ply the streets of towns and cities earning you would think a ppitance for their efforts. In some towns goods are still carried hanging from both ends of a pole which the bearer places behind their neck while many older people are eager to accept used plastic bottles off travellers for which its assumed they receive some money for the recycling thereof. Tractors, or at least what we would take to be tractors at home are noticeable by their absence even in rural areas, a range of contraptions instead seem to be used for lugging duties combined with plenty of manual labour. Near Yangshuo there seemed to end of people walking their two cattle, normally numbering only two or three, down the road perhaps between where they lived to wherever suitable grazing could be found. This all provides a curious backdrop to otherwise relatively well organised sightseeing, excursions and activities.
I've started using the joke that it would nice to come back to China in a few years when it's finished. Currently a huge amount of work seems to be underway more or less everywhere you might choose to go. Great new motorways in particular seem especially in evidence, unfinished bridges and flyovers awaiting connection to the existing throng of traffic. In every city a great many of the streets are in a state of being dug up and replaced, while in Beijing especially there's no end of work going on in advance of the 2008 Olympics which includes unfortunately covering a considerable amount of the Forbidden City in scaffold.
China has a funny thing going on with its mix of communist and capitalism. A great deal clearly remains under strict control, yet some of the main shopping streets in the cities could almost have been transplanted from the West. Everyone who can work is provided with a job, or so I've been told, but it begs the question how many can afford to frequent the sparkling Western stores taking ever more hold. It remains something of a mystery to me as to how China can make these seeming opposite poles coexist under one flag. Providing work for everyone is something, but when there's such opportunity to display the stark constrasts between haves and have nots it seems unlikely that discontent can be that far away. Surely the stretching a system between universal provision and a great scale of incomes has got to lead to cracks and discontentment at some point. Perhaps I'm wrong; in any case I'm unlikely to discover the truth of the matter while I'm here.
posted by Daniel at 5:11 am
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