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Published: November 24th 2010
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So here I am in Guangzhou – or GZ for short.
As far as Chinese cities go, it’s actually very civilized – at least on the surface. I have a magnificent view of the Tianhe Sports stadium from my bedroom window, along with a TV screen the size of a modest 3 story house that belts out a magnificent colored display – directly into my bedroom window.
Most of the major streets are wide, well defined thoroughfares connecting an endless ocean of high-rise buildings. A mixture of impressive looking office buildings and not so impressive apartment blocks.
But if you wander off these main roads, you get a glimpse of how the real people live, where the showcase facade is left behind.
This is the China that I am really interested in. The little winding streets that obviously haven’t been planned. They follow the line of the canals or just evolved that way for some long forgotten reason. Where the shops are no more than a hole in the wall, and are often crammed from floor to ceiling with the most amazing assortment of goods. Where else can you buy a recycled set of car tyres, a plastic bucket,
a fresh flower arrangement and steamed dumplings without moving more than 2 metres?
China is a country of amazing contrasts. From the buildings, to the roads, to the transportation, the food, the people. Take a short walk and without fail the entire kaleidoscope is presented .
My favorite time of day is first thing in the morning. Before the heat is too much to bear and the people are going about their early morning routines.
My first week was spent trying to organize myself, listing all the things that I wanted to do, and things I needed to do. I began to address issues and deciding how best to deal with them. I found myself brainstorming in my own head, sorting through the problems and the various ways that I could tackle them.
My days began at around 6am, when I’d wake up (exhausted) but couldn’t go back to sleep – usually because the “pedestrian crossing” Nazi’s outside my window were blowing their whistles to indicate their importance and to try and scare the masses into staying on the sidewalk until it was time to cross. If anyone dared to try and cross before the signal was
Tianhe Stadium
Venue for 16th Asian Games events. View from my Bedroom window given, they were whistled into oblivion and forced back to the sidewalk from whence they came! Pedestrian control is a serious business.
So I’d get out of bed, pull on some clothes and head over to the Starbucks across the street for an insanely expensive mug of latte and a piece of cardboard raisin toast. This would cost the equivalent of AUD $6. The same amount of money (35 RMB) would feed at least 2 people a full Chinese meal of rice, vegetables and meat from a hole in the wall store, and still have money for a pot of Chinese tea!
I’d usually sit in Starbucks – soaking up the air-conditioning – and read my book, or pick up an English version of China Daily. This was always amusing. Full of important stories about how wonderful China is and how hopeless the rest of the world is. They take great delight in reporting on all the bad things that happen in overseas countries, and usually manage to get in a little dig about how China would handle the situation so much better.
The people of China who don’t make the effort to find out news from
Autumn Festival
Someone went to a lot of trouble to organize this sign. Pity about the spelling error the outside world live like mushrooms, fed shit and kept in the dark. Even those who are well traveled and obviously exposed to news from the outside world, still view those reports with skepticism and assume that the Western news is propaganda and the Chinese news is the truth. Heaven help them. And many of these people are well educated, intelligent people. I have to believe that deep inside they know the reality, but in the end it’s just easier to go along with the crowd. It seems that the worst thing for a Chinese person is to be different, think differently or act differently than that which is expected by the system.
Not too many rebels in China let me tell you. At least not too many on the ‘outside’. Those who have expressed their views too vehemently (and thus get the attention of the authorities) almost always find themselves in new accommodation, courtesy of the Chinese Government. As an example, Google Falun Gong and read about the persecution it’s followers suffered.
I had a (very) brief discussion about Falun Gong with one of my staff, and he told me straight out that followers of Falun Gong were evil and dangerous. HELLO. A bigger crock of garbage I’ve never heard, but you see, he is simply regurgitating the ‘party’ line, and because Chinese rarely do any of their own research, they believe what they are told.
During those first few days, when Mel and I were in the apartment together, I would wake up early and go out exploring. For the first 3 mornings I walked as far as I could in opposite directions, getting my bearings and checking out what this city has to offer.
The main roads I walked down were typical big city roads. Aside from the hordes of Chinese people on the streets, I could have been anywhere in the world. Not very inspiring, until I’d take a detour and head into the back streets.
One morning I discovered a tiny shop that only sold towels and bedding. The look on the shop assistant’s face when I walked into the store was complete horror. What on earth was she going to do with me?
I started doing some pantomime actions to indicate towels and was promptly taken over to the wall full of different choices.
After a few moments, a young guy (clearly the owner) came running in and took over. His English was just enough to handle the towel transaction and in the end I walked away with 2 of everything I needed.
I purchased 2 large towels, 2 floor mats, 2 face-washers, and 2 hair towels for RMB 142, about the equivalent of AUD $24.
Looking back, I realized probably could have spent RMB 40 less (AUD $6) by buying from one of the huge department stores or supermarkets. But that would have meant missing out on the small shop transaction experience, one which I’ll remember for a long time to come. By the end of the transaction I was teaching the poor guy how to say the color purple. (Movie fans – no pun intended. To the rest of you – “suan la ba” forget about it.) Try getting a Chinese only speaking person to say the color PURPLE. Hilarious.
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