Empty Cities, Envy Issues and Flame Throwers: A Year in Review


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Asia » China » Guangdong » Guangzhou
July 13th 2015
Published: July 13th 2015
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I just realized that the next time we will be posting we will be in Canada! It is amazing how quickly the year has passed. This afternoon, I spent some time lost in quiet reflection thinking about the things that I have learned during our time in China. Although there are a ton of things to speak of, I decided to narrow it down to three main things.

Top 3 Things I Learned While in China

1. The Chinese economy is an empty city.

Sean and I traveled like time bandits this year. We were here, there and everywhere. The one thing we could not help noticing as we fluttered about is that while there were cranes everywhere putting up these incredibly massive skyscrapers, the large majority of these buildings sat empty. And this wasn’t in one or two outlying cities. Large sections of brand new buildings in every city that we visited were vacant. There were even entire constructed cities that were sitting empty! When we asked around, we realized that the average Chinese person considers this a normal state of affairs.

“You don’t have empty cities in Canada?”

“No, why we would build something
we don’t need?”

“Well, for future people to live in of course!”

“How many vacant units are there?” I ask, curious.

“Well about 64 million…”

“Oh, I guess that’s not too many, just twice the population of the entire country of Canada….How long have these cities been empty for?”

“Well, maybe four or five years…”

Talk about waiting a long time for those new people to move in! When Sean and I did a little bit more digging, we were able to discover that these projects were funded by the Chinese owned banks and the debt that these cities were accumulating sitting empty was staggering.

While here, we also discovered that their stock market is equally vapid. Sure, like the vacant cities, it looks like there is something interesting happening but under that pretty shiny surface there is…absolutely nothing. The other day we were chatting with a banker friend of mine, who works at one of the state owned banks.

“Do you think that if the Shanghai stock market collapses, it will affect the Chinese economy?”

“No, it shouldn’t have any affect because right now, if the average Chinese person has a 100 RMB, they are putting 20 in the stock market and 80 in their bank accounts. So, even if they lost everything in the stock market, the Chinese person would have saved enough to live.”

“Wow, that’s pretty good! I heard that you can leverage that single RMB you put into the stock market up to four times in China, is that true?”

“Yes, that allows people to make money faster.”

“Would you say that most people are leveraging their money in the stock market?”

“Most…”

“Well, if you take that 20 RMB and you leverage it 4 times, you get 80 RMB, right?”

“Yes.”

“So when taking leveraging into account, doesn’t that mean that if the average Chinese person has 100 RMB, they are actually putting 80 percent of it into the stock market?”

“Well, I guess…”

“And how many new individual trading accounts were opened last month?”

“About twelve million…”

“And the Shanghai stock market has gone up by over 100 percent in the last year, right?”

“Yes, but the government tells us that it still has room to grow.”

Well, I guess that’s true if the government continues to halt trading on over 50%!o(MISSING)f the Shanghai stock exchange whenever it feels like it needs to supercharge its monetary injections. Not sure why a stock exchange that has grown over 100 percent in the last year needs to have a government prop it up?

Empty cities and stock markets overflowing with leveraged money. This, my friends, is the biggest economy in the world.

These are strange times indeed.

2. Sean is jealous of me.

I have to admit, this one came as a bit of a surprise as when we married, I didn’t think Sean was the jealous type. But make no mistake about it, there is a problem as when I just quietly suggested this to him, he got so flustered that he began incorrectly inputting all of his students’ marks. Sounds serious? Well it is. So serious that I thought it was important to construct a list of what he is MOST jealous about:


• High levels of envy that he will never be able to bake light and fluffy mouth-watering delicious muffins like I do.
• Speaking about my fermented veggies will send him into a
Cookie MonsterCookie MonsterCookie Monster

It is incredibly hard to find an action shot of Cookie Monster eating...this will have to do
jealous rage even though I have offered time and time again to teach him how to make his own.
• I caught him the other day trying to steal one of my pairs of rainbow colored toe socks.
• Speaking of stealing, I was so worried about him taking my hot pink velour pajama pants, that I had to mail them home the other day using China Post. Hopefully, a random mailman will not be overcome with jealousy when he sees the pants and try to steal them like Sean did.
• I have also noticed him watching me with envy out of the corner of his eye when I am eating peanuts on the bed. I have learned to eat them with such exuberance than I rival Cookie Monster in terms of flying shrapnel…although he has never outwardly expressed it; I know Sean wishes he could eat peanuts like me.



Being from cowboy country in Alberta, I did try to suggest to Sean that we handle this issue like true men, with a duel at high noon. Sean was quick to agree and then conveniently never showed up. I thought all this time that he was just being a sissy but in his defense, it was only today that we realized that we understood high noon differently. Sean does not use the same “Vitamin D” app on his phone as me, which means that he is out of touch for when “real” high noon is. While Sean was busily waiting for me at noon (12:00 pm) by the fountain for our duel, I was showing up at 1:37pm, which is when “real” high noon is at this time of year in Guangzhou…

Anyway, with only a couple of weeks here, there is a slim chance that we will make it to our duel. Either way, we will use the coming months in Hawaii to work on Sean’s jealousy issues…

3. The Chinese are hardcore about bugs.

This is last, but not certainly not least for me because I feel that anytime a flame thrower is involved, there is serious business to be had.

I saw this news report when we first got to Guangzhou, almost a year ago, and has passed the “par excellence” test of time for being so hardcore. It made such an impact that I still remember watching the video like it was yesterday.

To sum up, not only did the Chinese government dispatch the army to get rid of giant wasps but they equipped them with state-of-the-art flame throwers! What I find most impressive is that they managed to somehow blast only a tiny part of the tree. What aim! What style! Certainly this creates a tiny bit of cognitive dissonance as I always believed that flame throwers were tools of massive destruction. The Chinese have proved to me that flame throwers can be incredibly precise weapons.

I do, recommend for full impact, watching the video yourself. Just click the link below:

Chinese Army Using Flame thrower to Exterminate Giant Wasp Nest

It is a shame that the Chinese will not sell me one of these fancy flame throwers before we leave.



However upon further reflection, this is ultimately for the best…as it would only be one more thing for Sean to be jealous about.


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13th July 2015

I'm jealous too
Wonderful post Erin - you had me laughing out loud. I must admit that I am with Sean regarding the toe socks. If you would be able to bring 3 pairs back (one for me and one each for Rae and Haley) my jealousy could be contained and I could let go of any other issues ;) I would like a flame thrower (for Michael's part of the house - I hope he can't see this if he reads your post) but will have to just dream about that particular item. Can't wait to see you and Sean soon in person. Safe travels.
14th July 2015

I will look for my sock guy today...
Hi Cheri! You wouldn't believe the number of requests for toe socks I have gotten since posting...I will have to check to see if my toe sock guy is still in town...its the end of the school year and this place is like a ghost town..but if I can find him, I will bring some back:) Looking forward to seeing you and the family soon!!!
15th July 2015

Ghosts, Jealousy & other Bugs
Another delightful blog from the Enlightened Ones. I've traveled through China several times since 2002 and seen China's frantic building spree in action...from a whole city block demolished and all debris removed in 5 days in a Beijing blizzard to an Expressway in Yunnan that was here when we drove past in the morning that had lengthened to there by afternoon. The empty city phenomenon is fascinating yet it seems to work. Its the old adage of if you build it they will come. Time will tell if the debt can be sustained. And regarding eating peanuts in bed...I'm with Sean. He's happy you see it as jealousy...but he and I know what it really is!!!
20th July 2015

true said!
on all accounts Dave:)

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