5 Things I Learned in China
Greetings from Shanghai. I am on my 3rd night in China, having just finished my presentation at the International Association for Computer Science in Sports.
This is my first time in China and talked to many people, read many books about the travel, but nothing could have prepared me for the culture shock. Not judging right or wrong, just very different way of life compared to the “middle class kid from the shores of Lake Erie” that I grew up with.
While walking back from lunch to the conference today, over the loudspeaker I heard a familiar tune - never mind it was 80 degrees, my skin soaking up the much needed Vitamin D, and not a jolly fat guy in sight - the tune turned out to be Jingle Bells. And one of the cheesy karaoke style versions.
So with a tune in my step and a little help from my iTunes, the 5 Things I Learned in China.
#1 - Let Your Love Flow - Bellamy Brothers
There’s a lot of love flowing in China, holding of hands of all sorts of people. Child to parent, grandchild to grandparent, boyfriend to girlfriend, groups of girls, groups of guys - doesn’t matter. And I’m not talking just holding of hands, I am talking arms swinging, arm to arm (like Laverne and Shirley). Nice to see and they smile and laugh while doing it.
You can also buy plenty of love. I’ve had offers of “sexy lady massage” on the ferry, walking on the street, entering the lobby of my hotel, even the elevator. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been offered, but the same guy has been standing at the entrance of my hotel for the past 3 nights.
#2 - Life In The Fast Lane - The Eagles
One of the fellow conference delegates said that over 600 people in China are killed every day on the roads, and I now know why. The streets in Shanghai are massive, cars and buses everywhere, different traffic signals for pedestrians, cars and bikes, horns honking - not as a “get out of my way” honk, more of “this is where I am, don’t hit me”. Seems like the problem is when someone stops.
If the flow continues, they can weave around but when someone stops in the middle of the street, that’s when the problems happen. And of the thousands of bikes, motorcycles and scooters on the streets, I’ve seen less than a dozen helmets and one car to scooter accident.
#3 - You’re Not Alone - Chicago
At least not in China. We’ve all heard the stats, but you have to walk around the city or look out of the tallest building in the world like I did on day 1 (might be second tallest) to see the massiveness of Shanghai.
There are over 23 million people living in the city making it the largest city proper in the world (that’s 3x the size of New York City). Interesting stats from Wikipedia and their 2010 census:
・ The population of Shanghai had reached 23,019,148, including 8,977,000 long-term migrants, a growth of 37.53% from the 2000 census population of 16,737,734.
・ New migrants accounted for the entire increase as the natural population growth rate in Shanghai has been negative since 1993 due to low fertility rate.
・ There is a serious aging problem among Shanghai’s registered residents: as of 2009 only 8.3% of the total were under the age of 14, while 22.54% were over 60.
・ According to the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau, there were 152,050 officially registered foreigners in Shanghai as of 2009. This is an increase of 50% from 2005, when the registered foreigner population was 100,011.
・ The nationalities and population of the three largest registered foreigner groups are: Japanese (31,490), American (21,284) and Korean (20,700).
・ The life expectancy of Shanghai’s registered residents in 2010 reached 82.13 years (79.82 for men and 84.44 for women), the highest in China.
#4 - Smoking In The Boy’s Room - Motley Crue
I think that if I wanted to make a TON of cash in China, it would somehow be tied to smoking. And I’m not talking about smoking cessation, I am talking tobacco! There is a constant smell of stale smoke in many of the areas I have visited and public puffing going on everywhere - restaurants, streets, bars, taxis, even the hotel lobby. Interestingly enough, if I had to hazard a guess of gender breakdown, I’d say 75% of the smokers are male. From Wikipedia:
・ China is the world’s largest consumer (350 million smokers) and producer of tobacco (42% of world’s cigarettes)
・ The China National Tobacco Corporation (中国国家烟草公司) is by sales the largest single manufacturer of tobacco products in the world and boasts a virtual monopoly in Mainland China.
・ Tobacco control legislation does exist, but public enforcement is rare to non-existent
・ Smoking is considered socially acceptable virtually anywhere at any time, even if it is technically illegal.
・ The Chinese Association on Tobacco Control (中国控制吸烟协会) is engaged in tobacco control by members of the voluntary sector, including academic, social and mass organizations, as strong enforcement of existing tobacco control laws is not supported by the Chinese Government.
・ Progress on tobacco control is not moving quickly because the government derives large tax revenues from tobacco sales, and the industry employs a large workforce. The Ministry said that as a “mid-term goal, all health administrations and half of the country’s healthcare facilities should be smoke-free by the end of 2010”.
・ Nearly 60% of male Chinese doctors are smokers, which is the highest proportion in the world.
・ China does not have laws to punish those who violate smoking bans, and is instead relying on the Chinese media to act as a watchdog.
・ Smoking is a social custom in the PRC, and giving cigarettes at any social interaction is a sign of respect and friendliness.
Speaking of the boys room, nobody told me it was BYOTP (bring your own toilet paper), and that one does their “business” standing over a hole in the floor). Thank God my Holiday Inn has a toilet.
I’m a recovering OCD sufferer and try not to think about the bed bugs, the petri dish of the shower floor (guaranteed athlete’s foot next week) or the strands of long black hair in the sink (I am blonde with a crew cut).
#5 - Hungry Eyes - Eric Carmen (Soundtrack to Dirty Dancing - see OCD above)
I’ve seen, smelled and tasted some interesting, some not so interesting foods. Since my arrival in China, I have had little to no appetite. Breakfast has been toast with jelly, lunch in the student cafeteria has been rice with what looks like veggies and some sort of protein (rumor was first day it was duck and sheep intestine, day two was pork and crabs).
The conference hosted a family style dinner at a local restaurant. With a big glass spinning plate in the middle of the table - all sorts of cuisine from soups to veggies, some items served hot, others room temperature, my guess is some of them had been alive just minutes before (the first floor was a live butcher with alligators, turtles, fish, crabs, even a big-arse snake just waiting for a dinner plate).
My Uncle Mike gave me the advice NOT to use any water for drinking unless it was bottled - probably the best advice one could give. Even use bottled water to brush my teeth.
Don’t tell my nutritionist, but I fell off the wagon and headed for McDonalds for dinner tonite and guess what - my Big Mac tasted exactly like the ones from home. Thank you Ronald for a bit of home in a place far far away.
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