I know you all have been expecting a follow up after my first post about my adventures in China. Sorry to take so long to get around to it, but I’ve been busy! We usually get off work about 7:00 p.m. By the time you get back to the hotel and then go out for dinner, there’s not a lot of time left in the evening. And sometimes I don’t like to rush back from dinner, because that’s when I can gather more material and learn more about China!
There are so many things that I would like to share. As I’m going through the day, I see something, and I think, “I’d like to write about that.†But I usually can’t sit down and write about it just then, so I’ve been trying to keep some notes.
Actually, this weekend I’m in Guangzhou. I had a contact here through my sister and the people we know in Hong Kong, and the Chinese rep that I’m working with lives here, so it made it really easy to come. He goes home on the weekends to be with his wife, and he was happy to have me travel on the train with him. (Just a word of clarification here: the man I refer to as “our Chinese rep†is an engineer working for the company that sold our equipment to the company in China.)
One Christian Expat group here in Guangzhou meets in this hotel, so they were able to get me a discounted rate—in U.S. dollars, about $45/night, for a 4 star hotel! It’s quite a bit different from the hotel I’ve been staying at in Da Peng (which I think is about $20/night). This one is quite luxurious and comfortable (though the bed is not much softer—see below).
This has also afforded me the opportunity to see the difference between a big city, and the little town I’ve been staying in. I just went out for a walk in the park across the street, and I saw that there are three new skyscrapers going up right around the park! China is basically exploding in growth.
Since they opened the borders in the 1970’s, foreign investment has been flowing in, and goods have been flowing out. It’s kind of like the gold rush in the United States. Anyone that can get in the loop of business here has the potential for making a lot of money. I have been told that Shenzhen, which is the city right across the border from Hong Kong is less than 20 years old. Just for comparison, that’s like saying that a city like Miami is less than 20 years old. I don’t know how big Shenzhen is, but it’s huge. I think you can drive for an hour on highways and still be inside of it. I’m not saying that everyone that has a business here is getting rich, but some people are getting very rich. I don’t really like the fact that more and more things are being made in China, and fewer and fewer things are being made in the United States, but this is globalization, and I don’t think anyone is going to change it. (Please don’t get too upset about it unless you have the power to change it!)
But back to more mundane things… the traffic here in Guangzhou is truly frightening! It’s not that I feel like I’m going to get hit by another car when I’m in a taxi—it’s the bicycles! I fear that they are going to get hit by a car, and I cringe as I watch them travel through the streets. They have absolutely no fear of cars, and when I say “no fear†I mean “no fear!†I have watched more than once as the light turned green for the cars and they were already starting to move, and a bicycle rides strait across 3 lanes of traffic! I don’t mean beside 3 lanes of traffic, I mean directly across 3 lanes of traffic! It makes me cringe! But in one case, I saw a taxi stop abruptly about 2 feet from the bicycle, and he continued across and found breaks in the traffic to get across.
Cars at least have a general semblance of order, but bicycles just go where they want. They will ride out in the traffic lanes (as if they were a car), but when they switch lanes, they don’t look behind them to see if a car is coming in that lane, they just change lanes. The only saving grace is that the traffic is not moving very fast.
It’s not just bicycles, it’s also pedestrians. And I have been one, so I know how it is. On Friday night when we arrived, we decided to go to a nearby Japanese restaurant. We needed to cross the street, and the traffic was very heavy (no signal at that point); and so there was no break in the traffic. After a minute or 2 he said, “Okay, we have to go.†So we just started edging out into the street. As we got closer and closer to the first active lane of traffic, finally someone in that lane slowed to a stop to allow us to pass. Then we moved toward the next lane. Again, finally someone stopped. And we crossed 4 or 5 lanes of traffic this way.
If it were always just like that, I don’t think it would be so bad. But I have seen people standing in the road on the dotted line with cars passing on both sides of them, waiting until finally someone slows down to let them cross. I don’t think I would stand for that—I’d be a little more aggressive. I don’t want to stand there in the street in between the lanes with cars passing on both sides of me. (Please don’t get worried—the next time I crossed the street by myself, I crossed at the light.)
The hotel has a restaurant on the second floor with big windows overlooking the streets below. As I sat there today having my lunch and watching the traffic, I came to the conclusion that there are no traffic rules—only traffic suggestions. If a taxi needs to go the wrong way a short distance on a one way street, no problem. And there is some kind of guard standing right there on the corner, but it’s obviously not his job to enforce traffic rules, or else he sees nothing wrong with it.
The general rule in China seems to be that you don’t worry too much about procedure or formalities, you just get the job done with what you have. If all you have is a motorcycle and you need to carry two propane gas tanks, no problem. You just strap one on one side and another on the other, and off you go. If you have a family and all you have is a motorcycle or scooter, no problem. Mama can ride side saddle behind Dad, and the child can either sit in her lap, or stand on the running board. To see three or four people on a motorcycle is not uncommon. The Chinese rep told me he has seen six.
Back to the small town for a moment….
It seems that there are big variations in the use of the horn among cities. I was told that in some cities, it’s actually illegal to use the horn—I guess they got tired of all the racket and they did something about it. You will get a fine if you use the horn without a good reason.
But as I’ve been riding the bus back and forth to work in the small town where I’ve been staying, I’ve been analyzing the use of the horn, and I’ve finally figured it out! Here’s how it works…. Bicycles, motorcycles, scooters, and pedestrians are not responsible for their actions, and they may veer in front of you at any time. If they have their back towards you, it’s your job (if you’re in a bigger vehicle) to blow your horn to make sure they know you’re coming. Now, this does not mean that if a slow motorcycle or scooter is in your way and you blow your horn that he will get out of your way. In fact, they rarely move at all unless you really lay on the horn. If there is no traffic in the oncoming lane, they would prefer that you go around them that way. I think it’s like an ego thing… “I don’t have to move for you (even though you’re much bigger than me).†Or maybe it depends on which side of the bed they got out of that morning. Most of the time it seems like they got out on the wrong side!
The use of sidewalks is also confusing to me. I was told that the main road is for cars, and then there’s another passage way (separated by shrubbery) that is for bicycles, and then after the second row of shrubbery by all the shops is where the people are supposed to walk. But all the bicycles ride on the side of the main road (it’s easier there, and you’re not as likely to bump down 6 inches where the concrete has sunk), and most of the people walk on the passage way after the first row of shrubs—that’s where it seems most natural to me to walk. But at any time, a scooter may decide that that’s where he wants to be, and it’s not unheard of for a car to use it for a short distance (very slowly). So what’s the conclusion? You’re just as likely to get run over by a scooter walking on what looks like the sidewalk as you are if you’re walking on the road. As a matter of fact, I’ve had two close encounters. Once I actually had to jump out of the way to keep from being hit! For some reason the scooters in that situation are not overly generous with their use of the horn!
Hotels
I’m going to wait until a little later to give the full description of the hotel, but I’ll give you just a little preview. When I arrived in Da Peng, the bed in my hotel room was so hard that I thought at first that maybe it was the box spring part that I was sleeping on. But then I checked, and there were two different mattresses. I haven’t checked to see how hard the lower one was! I was sleeping on my side, because I was afraid of what it would do to my back if I slept in my normal position (on my back), and I actually got a sore spot on my left hip. I don’t know if it was a bruise or not, but it was really uncomfortable.
Finally, one day at work (this was before the Chinese rep arrived), I wrote out a sentence complaining about my hard bed, asking if there was anything they could do about it. I asked one of the ladies at the job site to translate it, and she wrote a whole bunch of Chinese characters below my English sentence. At lunch time, I showed it to the lady behind the desk and she studied it. “Ohhh,†she said, and she seemed quite concerned. She rattled off something in Chinese, which of course I didn’t understand, but I felt she got my meaning. Before I could take the elevator and get up to my room, there were two ladies in there spreading out and doubling up an extra blanket or two on the bed, and I thanked them. It didn’t turn my bed into a bed of feathers, but it helped. After that, I was able to basically sleep through the night instead of waking up several times.
Food
The food here is truly amazing. There are so many different kinds, and almost everything really tasty and of very good quality. There is almost nothing that reminds me of the food in the Chinese restaurants back home. I have lots of pictures of food, and I hope to share more of them with you in the future. (Actually, I have some available now: See my gallery… Look for the “Food in China” album.) These two are from our favorite lunch time restaurant (see my previous post). The service is very courteous. I have found that, in general, Asian people are very gracious, especially when it comes to serving food in a restaurant or on a plane. Americans are more matter of fact with more of a “So what do you want?†type attitude. (Not unpleasant, of course, but they can’t come close to the Asians.) It’s really fun to watch them interact with our Chinese rep, who seems to have a long conversation every time he needs to order the food. If there’s an English menu, then we that only speak English can point to things on it.
As I said, there are so many things that I could write about, but I’m running out of time, and there are other things I need to do. I want to say in closing that I am very thankful that I’ve been able to take this trip. Before I left, I asked the church there in West Palm Beach to pray for me, and the Lord has been faithful to me. He has reminded me of things at critical points, and in general has been very merciful to me. I’m not as organized as I should be, and I sometimes I realize I’m not as smart as I should be, but the Lord takes care of me.
I’m basically done with my work at this point, and I’m planning to come home on Wednesday, so this will probably be my last general post from China. But there’s more to do, and more to write about, so hopefully this won’t be the end. I’ll let you know as soon as I can when I have more pictures ready to see. Until then, thanks for listening to me.