One Hard-working Country

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So we have been here for just over a month and I have had a lot of observations of China, of the language, of the living style. Now I have one observation of the people. The local people around us are very hardworking. Everyone works, most work more than one job.

Take for example our driver. He works 6 days a week and is available at our wim. Takes Bryan to work 30 minutes away at 7 am and some days stays to have to drive us to and from dinner. He jumps out of the car to help with the baby, put the stroller in the back, unload the grocery cart, whatever. And has to deal with our one word sentences as we learn the language!

One of the more interesting jobs (to me) is the farmers who come into "the city" to sell fruits, veggies or flowers from right off the farm. They load up a truck, van or even this thing that looks like half bike, half cart (there's no motor, they literally pedal into town with 100s of pounds on the back of this thing. It's pretty amazing). They park and sell their goods to passerbys. They aren't aggressive about it because everyone knows "the good ones" and goes back week after week to the same person, parked in the same spot to buy what they need.

Stores are all open 7 days a week from 10 am to 10 pm generally. Restaurants are too. Servers in restaurants placate to the kids so the parents can eat!

We drove downtown Shanghai around lunchtime once and I will say there were probably 100 people waiting to cross the street to go to lunch from one of the high rise "corporate" buildings. The buses going downtown are packed, people sitting, standing, cramped it so people can get to work.

Whether it's a corporate job, a service job or selling your wares, people here really focus on working hard to get by. It's because of this spirit, that I like to buy local, as challenging as it is to someone who is struggling with the language. Maybe I can give them a laugh with my one word sentences too!!

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