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Published: January 1st 2010
The crapping pants
No comments, but this is how it works... :-)Ok, we have left China and to be honest: It was about time! China is cool, but a change of setting, view, mentality and food is really appreciated after being there for ~2.5 months. We came up with the idea to gather and compile some general rambling/loose thoughts about China and its people.
Chinese people:
* Fond of 'poo and pee' jokes: While in the train 'talking' with hands and feet we figured out the they like these jokes. You point at someone's private parts and symbolize it's small with your fingers and they laugh like hell.
* Snorting and hurling are indeed pretty common. But the weird thing is that they not only do it on the streets, but also in the buses, trains and eating places: Yummie!!
* My shoes are considered HUGE (okay, size 47)! People point and very "discretely" talk among themselves these huge things. It's always a good thing to place then a shoe next to theirs and then they laugh again like small children...
*Small children wear pants which are open between the legs, so the diapers can be changed without removing the pants. Or the bigger ones without diapers just squat on
Squatting toilet
One of the examples. And this was a "clean one". the street when need comes... This can be very handy I admit, but sometimes you just see the kids' private parts (boys) hanging through the whole. Does not look too hygenic and when they sit down, actually they can catch a cold I think.
* All public toilets are squatting types, which is OK. But the strange thing is that normally you can close the door of the toilet to have some privacy, however, the local ladies favour to do their things with wide open doors. I am not sure if they are afraid of being locked in (claustrophoby) or just wanna share the experience... But sometimes there is no choice, simply the door does not exist... ooops.
* Chinese people speak at very high tone or we can also say that they are shouting (compared to average Europeans). Sometimes this can be really irritating, especially if they are shouting to us and we have no clue what they want. And they also shout into their mobile phones, so for example when you are traveling on a bus the whole crowd can listen into the intimate (or not) discussions...
* Traffic rules are hardly obeyed, especially by cyclists or motorcyclists.
Car on 3 wheels
Typical mini car all around China, but especially North East. Very funny... It does not matter to them if the traffic light is red or not, as long as their is no obstacle in front of them, they just go. Knowing this mentality the railway crossings are really really closed/blocked when a train is to pass as the simple traffic lights and beam would not be enough to stop people crossing the rails...
* Chinese most of the time are really friendly, we had a lot of laughs with them either about us or about them, they find us an attraction and we find them an attraction. People in general say that they cheat over everyone, but we met really a lot of chinese persons/vendors who were very honest and gave us the price which the locals pay. This is nice. Of course we also had counter experiences, especially when in the train restaurant car they only wanted to serve us expensive food, while they served the locals with the cheap stuff... but this was more like an exception.
* Whitening facial creams are really hot now in China, all ladies are buying these to make their faces chemically whiter. I don't agree with this as I think they are beautiful as
Oh those great muslim noodles...
Not a chain, but everywhere the same and damn good! they are, but still, they wanna look more white. As a result, almost all facial creams, body lotions and sun creams contain whitener, so shopping can be really difficult for westerners who want to remain as they are. One extreme thing we saw was at the beach in Sanya, some ladies fully covered their faces (looked like ninjas) and one of them had a full body suit made of the same material as swim suits + ninja face, she looked really weird...
* 70% of the people wear face maskes all the time (especially the ladies), we pretty much got used to the sight, but this would be really weird back in Europe. I don't know if they wear these because the bad air or the 'swine flu threat' but there is a whole market now on this. You can buy face masks in every color and size, some of them are really funny.
* Chinese people have some problems with digesting alcohol. We heard that they might not have an enzime in their body which helps to digest alcohol. However, they like to drink, so their fun drinking nights end up with nasty visits to the toilets (if they
Typical transport
Yes, the load is bigger than the guy, this is the garbage man... can make it that far). We have seen a few examples. But the word "Gambei" (we think it means 'bottoms up') and a small bottle of Beijo opens doors... Beijo = Chinese disgusting liquor of ~45%!,(MISSING) but after 5 shots it actually starts to taste pretty ok...
Overall, China is really a great country with lots of contrasts compared to Europe. The people are nice and friendly as they are and their food is delicious. We got so many cooking inspirations, are looking fwd to the time when we are back in our own kitchen and try to make all those goodies at home! We had a wonderful time there and wanna go back for sure (you might have noticed no mention of Terracotta armies... yes, they are waiting till our next trip, or Urumqi in the north-west).
Footnote: we have not made any mention about Tibetan people and customs, this is because when we were in Tibet it felt like a country really different from China. Even though we were reminded by the marching Chinese soldiers very often that our perception is wrong... Anyways, Tibet comes in a different blog entry.
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JOhan
non-member comment
sounds like fun
He you guys, seems like you are having a jolly good time. Good for you! We are having snow over here which is also beautiful. When do you leave Asia and go more west, of even more east? We are going to NYC in 2 weeks time for a couple of days. Walking down memory lane for me, but it will be thrilling for Manja. Take care.