About China
Now that I am out of China I can write a little more about my experiences there. I really wasn't sure what to expect since I knew they were communist and the first 10 years of my life were brought up in a world afraid of the Soviet Communists.
Crossing in to China from Laos, it was definitely like stepping into a different world. First of all, almost no one spoke English and few things were written in English. When we would have trouble speaking to someone, they would dutifully write out what they were trying to say in Mandarin! Thanks. They also had these peculiar hand motions for different numbers. We would ask how much and they would make the shape of a gun pointed left. I think that is 7 or 8. Sometimes it would be the pinky and thumb pointed up with the rest curled. That is 6. 5 is all five fingers pointed up and bunched together and so on. We would hold up five fingers and they would get confused. Overall it was very hard to communicate in China which resulted in us not eating very much for a lot of the time because it was just to hard to order at a restaurant.
The Chinese also have a very different idea of common space and common courtesy. Mostly that there is none. I had several people walk straight through me like I wasn't even there. I used to wonder why Singapore had the no spitting law. I wonder no more! In China they hock lugies constantly and it sounds absolutely disgusting. Beijing has recently passed a no spitting ordinance as well so hopefully it will improve soon.
Sidewalks are also public trashcans and toilets. It was not at all uncommon to see children or people older than children going to the bathroom in the middle of the sidewalk. I remember seeing a pile of poop on the sidewalk and thinking that someone didn't clean up after their dog and then thinking that it probably wasn't a dog.
The "No Smoking" signs on busses apparently means that it is optional to actually smoke a cigarette on a bus but you have to endure a bar rooms worth of second hand smoke. I must have smoked at least a pack of cigarettes worth of smoke on each bus ride.
Okay, enough griping, now some genuine insight into China. China is the most capitalistic (they call it modernizing) of all the nations I have ever been to. True they are good about giving lots of opportunities and equality to most people (women had the same jobs as men EVERYWHERE) but there was nothing that the government provided for free. You had to pay to use the roads, pay to get healthcard, pay to go to school and pay for just about everything. I thought communism was about "to each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Apparently communism means something else in China.
Overall it was a great experience though. China is a wonderful place even if the great firewall of China does block half the internet (including this website!) and there are almost no religious or personal freedoms. Hopefully with rising prosperity and education, the chinese will start demanding more freedom. On the plus side, the underground church is really fired up about reaching out to other nationalities. Hudson Taylor would be proud.
Okay, enough about china.
Crossing in to China from Laos, it was definitely like stepping into a different world. First of all, almost no one spoke English and few things were written in English. When we would have trouble speaking to someone, they would dutifully write out what they were trying to say in Mandarin! Thanks. They also had these peculiar hand motions for different numbers. We would ask how much and they would make the shape of a gun pointed left. I think that is 7 or 8. Sometimes it would be the pinky and thumb pointed up with the rest curled. That is 6. 5 is all five fingers pointed up and bunched together and so on. We would hold up five fingers and they would get confused. Overall it was very hard to communicate in China which resulted in us not eating very much for a lot of the time because it was just to hard to order at a restaurant.
The Chinese also have a very different idea of common space and common courtesy. Mostly that there is none. I had several people walk straight through me like I wasn't even there. I used to wonder why Singapore had the no spitting law. I wonder no more! In China they hock lugies constantly and it sounds absolutely disgusting. Beijing has recently passed a no spitting ordinance as well so hopefully it will improve soon.
Sidewalks are also public trashcans and toilets. It was not at all uncommon to see children or people older than children going to the bathroom in the middle of the sidewalk. I remember seeing a pile of poop on the sidewalk and thinking that someone didn't clean up after their dog and then thinking that it probably wasn't a dog.
The "No Smoking" signs on busses apparently means that it is optional to actually smoke a cigarette on a bus but you have to endure a bar rooms worth of second hand smoke. I must have smoked at least a pack of cigarettes worth of smoke on each bus ride.
Okay, enough griping, now some genuine insight into China. China is the most capitalistic (they call it modernizing) of all the nations I have ever been to. True they are good about giving lots of opportunities and equality to most people (women had the same jobs as men EVERYWHERE) but there was nothing that the government provided for free. You had to pay to use the roads, pay to get healthcard, pay to go to school and pay for just about everything. I thought communism was about "to each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Apparently communism means something else in China.
Overall it was a great experience though. China is a wonderful place even if the great firewall of China does block half the internet (including this website!) and there are almost no religious or personal freedoms. Hopefully with rising prosperity and education, the chinese will start demanding more freedom. On the plus side, the underground church is really fired up about reaching out to other nationalities. Hudson Taylor would be proud.
Okay, enough about china.
posted by Randall Knutson at
5:49 PM
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