1. Hong Kong is NOT China: Our Scariest Moment: China uses the expression "one country, two systems" to describe its unique reacquisition of Hong Kong -- but it is my observation that there is very little similarity between Hong Kong and the part of mainland China that we visited. And, the border crossing of having to process out of one and then into the other makes it clear that China and Hong Kong are still completely separate entities. For while the border crossing entering mainland China had gone quick and routine when we arrived, our departure from mainland to Hong Kong was anything but routine -- giving us the scariest moments of our trip. We arrived at the border crossing and became part of a mass of people both ahead of us and behind us that we're crossing into Hong Kong. We never did learn why the processing backup occurred -- but we had gotten to about midway in the crowd when, again for unknown reasons, the crowd began to rush the doors. We had already known that the Chinese people do not seem to have any regard for queue jumping (see this article ) in our experiences on the buses, trains, stores, restaurants, etc. But, now, the mass of people just pushed the queue barriers out of the way and forced ahead. We were caught in the middle. We didn't want to disobey the orders of the yelling/indeed screaming officers who were in hand-to-hand fisticuffs with some at the door but we also couldn't stop the crushing crowd as we were moved along against our will. About the same time that we feared that the officers would pull weapons -- the crowd surge paused and we had a-way-too-close view of officers yelling all kinds of demands (none of which we understood -- but we could tell the crowd wasn't responding the way they wanted as they began to get physical with a few).
It was an experience I'd rather not have again. The border crossing that day -- both out-processing from China and in-processing to Hong Kong -- took us 5 hours. It was no fun and left us with more questions about China, its people and government. It is still hard to reconcile in my mind what we had learned about the school systems apparent focus on teaching obedience first -- with the apparent disrespectful -- survival of the fittest -- type behavior demonstrated both by their lack of queuing etiquette and crowd rioting at the border crossing.
2. What We Liked the Least - Toilet Smell, Spitting, and Driver Behavior: First off, toilets: It's pretty well known that China has historically used "squat" toilets rather than the "western style" sit-down type. We knew that and we knew the kids had regular "western style" toilets. We also quickly learned that we could find "western style" toilets for handicapped or elderly (sometimes marked in English "for week" (misspelling for "weak" that was also common). So, the squat toilet really wasn't a huge issue. The real issue became the unbelievable stench in almost every room that had toilets. First I thought perhaps it was because the plumbing can't take paper, and so the used toilet tissue is deposited in a waste basket. That was sometimes a contributing factor, but not often because the wastebaskets frequently had foot operated lids. Then I thought it was just general lack of cleanliness. That too was also sometimes a contributing factor, but not often because even those restrooms with full time cleaning attendants present (and many had them) stunk. I finally came to my own unprovable theory that Chinese plumbing systems are missing the simple U-shaped water trap that keeps the the septic odors from re-entering the room. I obviously don't know if my theory is right -- but I do know that the smell of China's toilets is disgusting.
Second, spitting: One of the many challenges the Chinese government is trying to address is the anti-civilized cultural behavior of spitting by a large portion of the population. When Staci/Martin first told me about this -- I was somewhat dismissive of the notion that the problem might be as widespread as they had observed. I couldn't have been more wrong. While it's clear that there have been successes: I saw/heard no spitting in the nice, new metro systems where apparently laws are clear and there is adequate on-site law enforcement to catch offenders. On the street is a whole different story. And, disgustingly, I'm not just talking about a simple, move to the curb and spit. What is common is to have people walking nearby hocking a loogie with seriously startling sounds. And, given their population density (it's easy to understand why they don't have the same personal space assumptions that we take for granted) -- that nasty sound is often offensively close.
Again, it was hard to wrap my head around the observation that about 10% of the general population and a majority of the government officials continue to wear surgical face masks at all times to protect against H1N1 but the hocking and spitting continues.
Third, driver behavior: It is impossible to adequately describe the experience of being both a pedestrian and a bus user in China. I can not ever imagine wanting to personally drive there. As I previously described, China's drivers demonstrate chaotic lawlessness where the pedestrian has no rights, the drivers make a habit of honking their horns constantly without regard for whether the honking really serves any useful purpose, and with same disrespect for space and sharing demonstrated at the border crossing -- driving is the wheeled version of survival of the fittest -- the ultimate game of automotive "chicken."
Here again, I continue to have great difficulty in understanding why the Chinese government employs a reported 30,000 to monitor and control what its population can see on the internet (even this google blogging site is restricted) and yet it seems to have almost no law enforcement of basic traffic and public sanitation laws.
Those are my rants for today. I share them so that you might get a more complete picture of our experience -- but don't think for a moment that these less-than-best experiences seriously detracted from the wonderful adventure we enjoyed in China.
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