China part II

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China - Pt II



After leaving Rilong, China, I enjoyed another all-day, hellish car ride back to Chengdu, through more badly earth quake damaged roads and towns.



From Chendu, I flew down to Beijing where I spent the reminder of my time in China. Beijing, being one of the largest cities in the world in terms of population and size, seemed like an infinite city. For the whole time I was there, not once did I come close to leaving the never ending streets of buildings, traffic and people; I never really felt I could leave all of this without a major expedition out of the city.



What Beijing does have to offer, unlike nearly every other city in China, is the fact there's still some old parts of the city left which have escaped being demolished to make way for modern skyscrapers. This gives you a slight hint of what China may have been like before their recent economic revolution. Walking around its streets really feels like stepping back in time. There are lots of shirtless Chinese men sitting around in the sun playing backgammon and chatting over cups of tea, children playing games with each other on the streets, and heaps of small shops and street stalls selling amazing food for next to nothing. Of a nighttime, some of these streets can really come alive as small street bars fill up with Chinese drinking and socializing into the small hours of the morning. Many are also very narrow to the point that driving a car down them is very difficult and in places impossible. Most people living in these areas couldn't afford one anyway; so most of these streets are instead filled with bicycles and pedestrians. Even many of the deliveries to shops are done by either electric or pedal powered tricycles that look like they've been around since the turn of the century.



Stepping out of the maze of tiny streets and alleys into the area around Tianamen square is a complete contrast. Everything is built in true old communist style fashion, to show off the power of the Chinese government. The streets are so big that fences have been constructed along the roads to prevent people from attempting suicide by trying to cross them. In order to cross the street, you have to find an underpass that takes you underneath the street and across to the other side.



The government buildings in the area are also some of the largest and grandest buildings I've ever seen in my life. Most take up several city blocks as one single building. It seems impossible to imagine what all the space inside these buildings could ever possibly be used for.



Not far from Tianamen square is the Forbidden City, which is a located right in the center of Beijing. The Forbidden City is a World Heritage site, hosting the largest collection of ancient wooden structures in the world. The city was built between 1406 and 1420, and was used to house Chinese emperors. It was in use from the Ming dynasty through to the Qing dynasty.



The Forbidden City is massive. Housed within a huge brick wall, it takes up an area of 720,0000 sq. meters and is an amazing piece of Chinese history. To be able to see a city built from wood still standing and looking as it would have five hundred years ago is quite incredible. It is also some of the best ancient wooden architecture to ever be preserved in the world.



After spending six weeks in China, about the only thing I really learnt is that I have to go back and see more. China is such a huge country, with so many amazing and diverse cities, landscapes and cultures, you could spend years travelling in China and still see only small snippets of the country. Compared to every other country I've ever been to, it also seems that every day spent in China, you see or experience something totally random and unexpected- most of which tends to go against everything you have ever read or been fed by Western media about the country and its people.



After my time spent traveling in China, there's no doubt the Chinese government has a lot of control over the freedom of the Chinese people. But it does seem that as long as the Chinese aren't questioning the government or its decisions, the Chinese are pretty free to do as they please. During my time in China I was witness to the Chinese doing everything from having sex in public parks, smoking dope on the streets and openly using drugs in night clubs.



One of the first ways you see the governments control in China is when using the internet. There's no Facebook, no YouTube, and even trying to Google where to get a back massage from will more than likely send you down a dead end, as this may mean you're after a massage with a happy ending. The last point is quite amusing, as you can walk through red light districts in China and see prostitutes happily lounging around out the front of brothels, waiting for their next customer.



The control the government has on the media is also quite obvious. When talking to many people about past events like the Tianamen square riots, you find out they have no idea about what happened or ever took place during one of the biggest uprisings in recent Chinese history.



I was also amazed when I went for a weekend away with a group of Chinese people. We headed out to a small town from Chengdu to "breathe some clean air", as I was often reminded. The town we went to, which was more comparable to a small city, was full of huge concrete and masonry factories belching out all sorts of pollutants into the air. To think this place was considered an escape to fresh air was quite amazing.



The next thing that amazed me while on this holiday was when we went swimming at a large outdoor complex called The Hot Springs. The springs were man made concrete pools with an artificial concrete stream running through them. While we were swimming in these pools, one of the people I was with stopped and asked me if I thought the pools were man made or natural. I was left completely speechless until I realised I was being asked a serious question.



The exploitation of the Chinese lower class is also a topic often raised about China. Most of the factory and construction workers in China are workers migrating from the country, in hope of earning a living and making an income for their families. There is no doubt these people are being horribly exploited and are working under terrible working conditions. But we seem to forget that we are directly linked to their exploitation and poor working conditions, through our demand for cheap flat screen TVs and five dollar pairs of shoes, to go with our twenty dollar outfits bought on special at Kmart.



I also find it hard to see how you can have a population of 1.3 billion people living in one country and provide equal employment opportunities. In fact, it does seem that the Chinese government tries reasonably hard to provide people with employment. One of the ways the government seems to do this is through construction. Everywhere you go in China, there is construction of immense roads and buildings.



Sometimes I wondered if the Minister for Buildings received his or her education playing Sim City. Everywhere you go, even in the smallest villages, there is or has been recent construction. Quite often it seems with not too much thought. You can walk through a small town and come across a huge hotel or apartment block that has never been occupied just falling to pieces, and go to many other small towns where more huge complexes are still being built.



As mentioned in my last blog, I even went to a town completely destroyed in China's recent earthquakes that was reconstructed in themed ancient architecture in the hope it would become a tourist attraction, bringing income into the town. China also hosts an entire city called Ordos, which was constructed by the Chinese government and lies mostly empty because the government couldn't convince people to go and live there.



Most of this construction is still done with a lot of manual labour compared to Western countries, which can only happen if labour is cheap enough to replace machinery. It's also hard to think what would happen if all of China's population was to become first world consumers like the rest of us over night. To put this into perspective, the third largest population in the world is America at 300 million. If all of China was to become first world consumers, that would mean over four times America's population would be eating, wasting, polluting and consuming like the rest of us do, on an earth already stretched to its limits.



People also like to compare China to India, as both countries are developing rapidly and have similar populations. But in terms of India becoming the next superpower, I think they have a long way to go in comparison to China. The Chinese government and the Chinese people seem to be highly organized as a whole. They are an extremely hard working, conforming people who want to see their country succeed. There also seems to be very little sexism within the country. It is normal to see women doing any job a man would usually do and vise versa. Even going to the bathroom in many pubs and clubs could possibly mean going into a large unisex toilet where there doesn't seem to be any sexual discrimination or harassment.



If you look at India, they still have a very disorganised government, terrible infrastructure, and are still dealing with many social issues such as sexism, racism, and religious issues. They also still live in a class-based society, where there's huge social barriers between the rich and the poor.



How Western culture is playing such a large influence on the new middle class and younger generations is also quite interesting to see in China. As with most Asian countries, many women have an obsession with white skin. Apart from tanned skin historically being associated with women from lower and working classes, some women see white skin as being western and tend to go to vampire like precautions to prevent their skin from ever seeing the sun. Both genders also seem to have a distinct attraction and wanting for European looking people. Going to a nightclub in China is probably where this is most evident. Apart from places like Shanghai and Beijing where their are many European expats and tourists, heading to a bar or club in many cities as a group of westerners can often lead to management providing free drinks, as having Westerners in your club somehow means that it’s a cool place to be and good for business.



If management isn't giving away drinks, it will probably be the Chinese in the clubs themselves. By the end of the night you seem to get pulled from one side of the room to the other, getting asked to sit down and being force-fed drinks by complete strangers. There's no doubt part of this is due to the fact the Chinese are very welcoming and friendly people, but it’s also a little sad to think that quite often the reason for this friendliness is because to be seen hanging out with Westerners is cool and looked on by others with envy. However, it definitely makes for a very fun and interesting night out. In fact, the whole concept of the Chinese even going to a nightclub seems to be something passed onto them from the Western culture as well. This statement may be wrong, but I couldn't imagine that it was common to go to a nightclub in China twenty or even ten years ago. But it seems that in every city there are huge areas full of lavish nightclubs, packed with young people every day of the week.



Traveling around China also means you're going to get your picture taken, mainly by the huge amounts of Chinese that can now afford to travel within their own country and do so in huge numbers. I think I lost count of the amount of times I spotted somebody taking my picture, and to my amusement, I was asked on several occasions by complete strangers to come have my picture taken with them.



As a place to travel, China can sometimes be a little difficult compared to other countries. Many people don't speak any English, and not being able to read Chinese creates some interesting barriers. However, a bit of planning before you leave to go to a new destination usually gets you through with minimum hassles. If you do end up getting stuck somewhere, chances are you'll find someone who will go out of their way to help you in any way they can. I also felt very safe everywhere I went within China.

There's no doubt China still has many social, environmental and governmental issues as a country, but if you look at the fact they've possibly just been through more changes and development in a shorter period of time than any other society in recent history, it's hardly surprising, and it is one of the reasons why China is such a fascinating country to visit.

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