My First Trip To China
by Bruce Shankle III

On Saturday August 14, 2010, I travelled from the state of Washington in the Pacific Northwest of the United States to mainland China. The purpose of my trip was partially to conduct business for my employer, Microsoft Corporation, and partially to visit my wife's family who lives there. My wife and I spent about a week visiting Shanghai on China's east coast and about a week in Guangzhou which is further south, just northeast of Hong Kong.

This is the first time I've travelled to the Eastern Hemisphere and I wanted to document and share my thoughts of the experience and my impressions of various aspects of China, as it exists today, and why the various Chinatowns in the U.S. (San Francisco, New York, Seattle), as well as parts of American culture, create gross misconceptions of China.

My early perceptions of Asian people, and by association Chinese people, were crafted growing up on a farm in North Carolina in the southeastern U.S. In my hometown there were veterans of World War II, the war in Korea, and Vietnam. There were many independent farming operations owned by self-proclaimed patriots who took pride in American products and workmanship. There were few if any Asian people in my childhood culture except for maybe a Chinese restaurant or two in larger towns that I never encountered until my late teens.

My first exposure to Asian culture was through television. As a young boy I was a fascinated by Godzilla movies. These motion pictures featured giant monsters and Japanese characters overdubbed by English voice-actors. The spoken words didn't really fit the actors' mouth movements which I found odd. The people looked strange to me with a different skin tone, somewhat flatter faces, and eyes that seemed to be squinting a lot. The Godzilla movies portrayed Asians as highly organized, process-oriented people. But they were terrified of the giant monsters that wreaked havoc on their cities.

I sometimes watched a television show called Kung Fu which was about a half-Chinese half-American Shaolin monk named Kwai Chang Caine who was exiled from China for killing a Chinese prince. The aim of the show was to teach morals loosely based on Eastern religions and entertain through slow-motion hand-to-hand combat. This created the perception in me that Asian people must be very wise and good at hand-to-hand combat, but not so good at staying out of trouble.

I also watched the television show M.A.S.H (which stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) which was set in Korea during the war between North and South Korea.

In this series, Americans were a portrayed as 'the good guys' an were part of the conflict in the sense they were there to patch up soldiers who were fighting an evil Communist empire. M.A.S.H often portrayed Asians as unsettled fighters bent on killing the Americans who were there simply to help spread democracy and give people medicine.

In my teen years I saw Bruce Lee movies like Enter The Dragon, which portrayed Chinese people as either extremely violent or extremely gifted and acrobatic depending on what you think of martial arts. Later, Jackie Chan movies (like Drunken Master and Rush Hour) would paint a humorous veneer on this perception.

My perceptions of Asia were also crafted by products made in Japan, Taiwan, and China. Japanese cars were just starting to become popular in the U.S. when I was learning to drive, and they were noted for being good on gas, but used metric units for nut and bolt sizes and were difficult to repair when they broke down. 'Made in Taiwan R.O.C.' was often stamped on plastic toys, and 'Made in China' was found on many products then and now. Cheap toys from Asia often broke easily.

One of my more memorable experiences with Chinese products came courtesy of my grandfather who gave me a set of wrenches and sockets made in China. He told me Craftsman tools were better because they were American-made and came with a lifetime warranty, but these would be good enough for a starter set. This led me to think of Chinese products as inferior. This perception would be validated when I broke a couple of these inferior sockets while trying to torque down bolts on an engine. A couple of bloody knuckles led to feelings of disgust for Chinese products.

At one point, my father, a livestock export specialist for the North Carolina Deparment of Agriculture visited Asia. But I was a little too young at the time to appreciate his visit there. If I recall correctly, he spent his time on hog farms in Asia, and returned home with of big bag full of Rebook shoes from Korea, and some Members Only jackets which were quite popular at the time.

These cumulative experiences and memories in my early life led to several misconceptions of Asia. My misconceptions went something like this: Communism is evil, many Asian countries are communist, therefore Asians must be evil or at least like evil things...like giant monsters and ninja assassins and having a controlling oppressive government. The Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 don't paint a pretty picture.

Furthermore, my Chinese-made tool set made me think that Chinese people produce inferior products, so they must be lazy and/or unintelligent. Or, at least, that they were shady business people trying to make a quick buck with a shiny yet inferior tool. In addition, I also developed the perception that all Asians know martial arts because it is so extremely violent everywhere in Asia that fighting is an everyday thing. I thought it was so violent that people must take refuge in monasteries where everyone shaves their head and learns wisdom and how to fight better. There was also negative sentiment from members of my family about the appearance of Japanese cars on the roads in our community. After all, my grandfather had helped defeat the Japanese during World War II and my uncle, who was in the Navy, despised what Japan had done to our fleet in Pearl Harbor.

I imagine that my concepts of Asian nations are not entirely uncommon in my generation, at least in the southeastern U.S. My understanding would later evolve as I matured and attended college where I met actual people from China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam who weren't much different than me. Many misconceptions would be corrected or erased when I worked with Asian people on the job. Later in life I would eventually date, fall in love with, and marry a Chinese girl. This helped create a much more accurate perception of Asian culture.

I really don't think many Americans have never had an opportunity to really get to know Asian cultures like I have. My wife sometimes tells me about Chinese history, stories of the struggle of the people dating back thousands and thousands of years. We have watched several historical movies about China together that show dramatic re-enactments of famous conflicts in China. My wife also introduced me to the strong moral, family, and financial values held by the majority of Chinese people that make many American values (or lack thereof) seem pretty shallow.

If anything is certain about China, then it has to be that China has dramatically changed over the years, especially in recent years. Former rulers in China did some pretty evil things to the people, and there have been some brutal bloody battles over territory, resources, and control of the people. There is no denying that, and many people all over Asia have died as a result of these conflicts over Asia's ten thousand year history. But so much has changed in recent history in China.

Compared to the relatively short 234-year history of the United States, which has its own volumes of bloody history, China is a very ancient civilization. An opportunity to visit China would be key to growing my understanding of Asia. I knew nothing could ever replace seeing China myself with my own eyes and experiencing modern China as it exists today. The reality I found in China would turn out to be very different than what I had imagined, what I had been taught, and what I thought I knew.

Preparing for the Trip

The first part of planning a trip to China is having a US Passport (which I had) and also getting a Chinese visa to enter the country. A visa is a form of permission for a non-citizen to enter, transit or remain in a particular country. Since I had only ever travelled to Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, and Colombia, I had never applied for a visa. That process required filling out several forms, obtaining a letter from my employer, getting a separate passport photo taken, and sending the documents, the photo and my US passport to the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in San Francisco.

At the Chinese Consulate, they review your application, keep your photo, and issue a visa that is glued to a page of your passport. Your passport is then mailed back to you. There are different kinds of visas for China that allow different lengths of stay. I applied for a 1-year business visa (since I was there on business) that allows me to enter the country for a maximum of 30 days at time over the course of a year. If you're not there on business, you can apply for a tourist visa. Prices vary, but mine was approximately $160 US and I used a 3^rd party company to help me with the process. Note: A visa does not guarantee entry, that decision remains the right of the immigration officials of the country concerned.

Another pre-requisite for me was ensuring my vaccinations were up to date and that I was vaccinated for things you might catch travelling in China. My employer gave me a list of diseases that included Yellow Fever, Polio, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, H1N1, Japanese Encephalitis, and Tetanus. That list rather was intimidating, I must say and reading about these various diseases online inspired me to visit a doctor who specializes in travel vaccinations. I spent about $600.00 getting about 10 different injections. Ideally you would do this 30 to 60 days before a trip to allow time for immunity to build up.

One of my concerns about China is air quality. I tend to be somewhat sensitive to pollen and pollution in the U.S. and every thing I could find on Shanghai air quality says it is very polluted. Better than Beijing, but still very bad compared to anything in the west. I even got in touch with a businessman in Beijing who sells indoor air filters. He said the average air quality in Shanghai is considered unhealthy by U.S. and European standards. I also learned that the Chinese government's measure of pollutants is based on a different particle size and tends to paint a more positive picture of the air quality than U.S. standards would.

At this point, I was already starting to form some impressions of China. The first impression is that the government must be an extremely overbearing entity by being so strict about entering the country. The second impression was that people must be literally dying in the streets from all the disease and pollution. These impressions would turn out to be wrong to varying degrees and replaced by the reality of my actual experience there.

Flying an Asian Airline

I was originally going to book travel on Delta who I've flown with many times and felt comfortable with. That flight would have taken me to Shanghai via Japan. But a last minute scheduling conflict resulted in a flight on EVA airlines, a Taiwanese airline, through Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. Wikipedia informed me that EVA had a stellar safety record (no one killed in their 31 year history), which put my mind at ease somewhat.

EVA's Boeing 777 300-ER

My flight left at 2:00 AM PST and was on a Boeing 777 wide-body which seated about 300 people. The first thing I noticed was the airplane seemed practically brand new, was completely clean, and was staffed with no less than a dozen extremely polite and youthful uniformed flight attendants from Asia who all appeared to be super models. This was in stark contrast to U.S. based airlines who seem to have an aging fleet of dirty airplanes and a minimal staff of flight grumpy flight attendants, who in my experience, don't like their jobs, aren't happy, and view customers as cattle to be 'dealt' with.

Food on EVA Airlines

American-based customer service pales in comparison to what Asia offers. On EVA I treated like a king. I received 2 hot meals, given pillows and blankets, and had my own personal entertainment center. It felt like a first-class experience, even though I wasn't in the first-class cabin. The superior experience on EVA made me wish they were providing regular flights in the US. I would immediately switch all my travel that airline. Everything was bi-lingual too. So an announcement would be made in Mandarin, followed by English (or sometimes Engrish, the English where the l and r sounds get mixed up and confused).

The flight to Taipei was about 12 hours and travelled northward towards Alaska before heading westward. I was able to track the flight on the provided entertainment center and noticed that we actually weren't ever really that far from land. I had thought we'd be out over the open Pacific, but that was not the case.

I spent much of that time speaking the gentleman beside me, the owner of a small Thailand-based furniture factory who had just been to the U.S. on a business trip (to buy a golf course apparently). Small to him was 5,000 employees. That didn't seem so small to me. It was fascinating to learn how so much furniture is made in Asia from latex trees. Apparently the tree stops producing latex sap after some period of time and the wood is great for furniture. He was extremely courteous and invited me to come to Thailand.

My grandfather owns a small retail furniture store in North Carolina. He has told me that over the years he has had to switch from U.S. manufactured furniture to Asian manufactured furniture to remain competitive. I offered to connect my grandfather with my new friend, perhaps some business might come of it.

The chat with the furniture factory owner and the sheer number of flight attendants on board led to another impression of Asia, which would turn out to be very true, human labor is much cheaper there than in the U.S.

I tried to sleep some, but I think the excitement of the trip kept me awake.

We landed safely in Taipei at Taoyuan International Airport after an uneventful flight of great service, food, and entertainment. It was about 7:00 AM local time when we landed and the sunrise was beautiful. Inside the airport did not seem at all like an airport. It seemed more like being in a large shopping mall. There were hundreds of stores selling jewelry, perfume, handbags, electronics, luggage, books, etc.

Inside Taoyuan International Airport

There were internet kiosks, restaurants, and even arcades filled with free-to-play Xbox 360s and HD TVs. Signs were in Chinese and English and it was easy to recognize which bathroom was for men. Toilets were normal and there was toilet paper. There were water fountains with signs that read: this water is safe to drink. There was some Western style food, and there were soft drink machines with a mix of Western and Eastern style beverages. There were several free WiFi hotspots and the Internet worked great. I was able to use Skype on my iPhone to make calls back to the U.S. to let folks know I had arrived in Taiwan.

Xbox 360s to play at Taoyuan International Airport

Everything was new, modern, and amazingly clean. There were no signs of an oppressive government or disease. Apparently there is much tenuous history between Taiwan and China and Japan. At present, China considers Taiwan to be a part of China, and Taiwan considers itself to be an independent nation (and even has its own president). But there was no sense of conflict or unrest in Taiwan. It felt safe.

Looking out the airport windows I saw modern roads, modern cars from major manufacturers, modern railways, blue skies, and clean air. This put my mind at ease, somewhat, and I started to realize that Westerners have many misconceptions of Asian nations. Pretty soon it was time to go, and I boarded a huge Boeing 747 for the 2 hour hop to Shanghai. I was greeted by many beautiful Asian flight attendants and received hot meal for the flight consisting of beef and noodles.

It is worth noting that every aircraft I flew to, from, and in China was an American-made Boeing aircraft.

The flight from Taipei to Shanghai was a little over an hour on a Boeing 747. The flight was the same great service and even though the flight was only an hour, everyone received a hot meal. I had never received a hot meal in coach class before. Not only that, the flight attendants for fast, efficient, and were continually smiling. They would always address Asian customers in Mandarin, and American customers in English. They were polite and professional and I never got the sense that I was a nuisance when I asked for extra beverages.

I noticed that Asian people tend to load and de-plane must faster than Americans do. Everyone has an assigned seat which is common to the U.S., but what is not common is the agility of Asian people overall. For the most part they are in much better shape than Americans: thinner and more agile. When loading a plane they move quickly to their seats, stow their bags and sit. They don't talk and chitchat as much and I never saw anyone so obese they were spilling over into the next seat, which I've found quite common in the U.S.

Arriving in Shanghai

Flying into Shanghai I noticed the many waterways there in the Yangtze river delta. The water was a muddy brown color. At first I assumed this was all pollution. However, in the US, we have a mix of colors in our rivers. In the Southeastern states, it tends to be dark if there has been no rain recently (when sediment settles to the bottom) and a murky brown after rainstorms. It is possible it rains quite a bit in and around Shanghai during the summer months and the soil is clay-like as it is in the southeastern U.S.

Looking down on Shanghai, at least on the day I arrived, the air quality seemed no worse than Seattle. In the summer months, it is hard to tell what is moisture in the air since it is so humid here vs. what is pollution. On the day I arrived there were blue skies and white puffy clouds.

We landed safely at the Pudong International Airport which sits west of Shanghai parallel to a river. Upon landing an exiting the plane there were arrows on the floor to guide me to customs. I started getting a little nervous because I was now standing in a Communist country a long way from home. I started thinking about all those perceptions of the Chinese government I'd developed over the years. Slowly, quietly, and calmly, I made my way towards customs, wondering if I'd be denied entry into the country for some unforeseen reason.

Along the way I noticed there were no water fountains scattered about as there were in Taiwan and the U.S. There was an occasional water filtration machine in the terminal that dispensed hot water or warm temperature water For some reason, there was no cold water. I filled my water bottle with warm water and ever so cautiously tasted it.

Water Filtration Machine at Pudong Airport

I was silently praying that I would not keel over in a fit of abdominal twitching followed by instant death. Really, I was afraid, because this was my introduction to a major difference between the U.S. and China: people do not drink the tap water here unless it is further filtered, boiled, or from a water bottling company. It is still unclear to me if this is a trust issue (i.e. the water is actually safe to drink, but no one trusts the water system for some reason), or if the water actually contains harmful microbes, metals, and chemicals. Everyone either drinks bottled water, which is available for about $0.30 a bottle almost everywhere, or they have special filters attached to their sinks to give safe water. Anyway, I didn't die in a fit of poison-induced convulsions so I refilled my bottle and drank more.

My wife's sister works in China as a quality control officer for water and other resources. She says the water is safe to drink, but that due something that happened in the past no one trusts the water system. She also said the pipes are 'old' and that can lead to problems. But much is lost in the translation and I think I'd rather err on the side of caution so I drank bottled water in China. I remember when I was living in Apex, North Carolina and we received warnings that the water was contaminated with E. Coli bacteria. Folks switched to bottled water for months. I recall that water there always tasted like chlorine. So I guess water quality fears are not unique to China.

Arriving at customs I was a bit nervous. This would be my first encounter with an official Chinese authority. I was preparing myself to be interviewed, searched, and potentially rejected from entry into the country but no such thing happened. The customs clerk simply opened my passport, found my visa, looked at my photo, looked at me, then stamped my passport and said "next". It was all very casual. No one even looked in my bag.

That turned out to be my only encounter with official Chinese authority for my entire visit in China, except when I left the country and had the same casual experience. I actually got through customs in China faster than I get through security for domestic flights in the U.S. and I've gotten much more interrogation from U.S. and Canadian border security on trips to and from Vancouver in Canda. At this point, my impression of some oppressive Chinese government out to control every aspect of life in China was starting to dissolve, and I was beginning to relax.

The Shanghai Maglev Train

As I exited customs at the airport, I saw signs clearly leading the way to baggage claim and the airport exit, just like any airport in the U.S. I wanted to get to my hotel and I knew it was near down-town so I bought a pass for the high-speed Shanghai Maglev Train, a magnetic levitation (maglev) bullet train which travels from the airport to the outskirts of Shanghai. My wife had given me some Chinese currency before I left the U.S. and I was able to buy a pass for the bullet train for the equivalent about $8.00.

Shanghai Maglev Train

The train travelled at speeds up to 301 kilometers per hour. 1 mile is about 1.6 kilometers so were traveling about 187 mph. I've been that fast in planes, of course, but travelling that fast on a train was quite an experience. It was a smooth ride as well. And before I knew it I was near downtown Shanghai. Later I learned the train actually travels faster than that, depending on the time of day, and can travel up to 220 mph. This train is apparently just a demonstrator. But even so, it seems like a high-speed train would make so much more sense than aircraft for cross-country travel.

Getting off the train was my first real exposure to the outside air. It was hot and humid, not much different than an August day in Raleigh, North Carolina. It felt like home from that perspective. But the air did have a distinctive 'smell'. Not bad, not good. Just a smell. As I recall, New York city has a similar characteristic smell. At least parts of New Jersey do anyway. If I had to describe it in terms of previous smells, Shanghai has the faint smell of a two-cycle engine that burns gasoline and oil together. You may sometimes smell this near boat docks or when someone is running a chainsaw nearby. It's not entirely offensive, but it isn't exactly natural either.

I walked around the maglev train station that also serves as a hub for the Shanghai subway system. There I saw a McDonald's restaurant that was completely packed with Shanghai folks eating French fries and burgers. This is proof that America is exporting something: an unhealthy diet.

First Encounter with Customer Service

At the maglev station it was hot and humid and I was getting dehydrated. There are no water fountains to be found, and I didn't want a sugary soft drink from McDonalds. So I decided to purchase a bottle of water from a local snack stand. This turned out to be my first encounter with a 'normal' Shanghai resident. The young lady running the stand couldn't seem to care less that I was there, who I was, or what I wanted.

When I enter a store in the U.S. I have grown accustomed to some form of "Can I help you?" or at least the acknowledgement of my presence. This young lady actually got up and left the store while I was there to go outside and speak on her cell phone. This, at first, puzzled me. I wondered if I had done something wrong. But as my trip would progress I would begin to see more of type of attitude from store clerks and services-type people. The attitude would be considered some form of rudeness by western standards, but here in China it is not personal. Service workers do not earn tips here, and they aren't paid much. So that, combined with the sheer number of customers, makes for 'just-getting-by' customer service at many places.

First Cab Ride

I decided to take a taxicab from the train station to my hotel. Almost every taxicab I saw in China was some form of Volkswagen and usually it is a Volkswagen Santana 3000. These are now produced in China and there are millions of them on the road.

Volkswagen Santana 3000 - A common Taxi car in China

I assumed showing my cab driver my hotel address, which I had printed in English, would suffice. That was a mistake. He couldn't read English. I tried to use my own form of sign language for 'down town' and that didn't work. We tried to call the hotel, but the number I had been given was wrong. Fortunately, my iPhone was working and Google maps had the hotel location in Chinese so I was able to convey where I wanted to go.

The lesson I learned there is that if you take a cab in China make sure you have the street address of your destination and nearest cross street written in Chinese characters. Cab drivers do not read or speak English. But cabs here are air-conditioned for the most part and they are very affordable. A 20-minute cab ride cost about $8.00 US. And most short hops in a cab (3 to 5 blocks) about no more than $2.00 US. Plus there are literally millions of cabs here. There is no car rental culture here, and few, if any westerners, drive cars here, even if they live here. I'll talk more about traffic later.

Hotel Arrival and Getting Online

I arrived at my hotel, the Regal International East Asia Hotel, and I got checked in. The hotel staff understands and speaks English, which is very common in Shanghai hotels. Checking in was no different than an upscale hotel in the U.S. except there about 4 guys offering to help take my bags none of them expected a tip.

Once in my room I couldn't get any of the lights to work. It turns out that every room has a 'master' electrical switch activated by your room key. As you enter the room, you insert you room card key into a slot which activates electricity in your room.

Hotel Room Master Switch

Think about this for a moment. When no one is in the room, the room is not consuming any electricity. When you enter the room you activate the room. When you leave the room you deactivate the room. The air conditioning seems to run in any case, but nothing else is until you activate the master switch. I've seen motion-activated lights an air conditioning in hotels before, but never a room key activated master switch. After a while this switch annoyed me because I wanted to charge my laptop when I was out of the room. I found that my driver's license or any other thin piece of plastic would activate the switch.

My Hotel Room at the Regal International East Asia Hotel

View from my Hotel Room

The hotel is located in the Shanghai French Concession, an area of Shanghai occupied by the French from 1849 until 1946. There is a fair bit of history here I suppose so I wanted to read about it online. But when I tried to access the Internet from my hotel room I had my first encounter with Chinese firewall.

This digital Great Firewall of China (also called the Golden Shield Project) stands between China and the rest of the Internet. It was established by the Chinese government to limit access to information deemed offensive by the authorities. While in China, I could not access Wikipedia, Facebook, Netflix, or Youtube. Google works, but all searches are directed to Hong Kong and many of the search results are in Chinese. Gmail works as well. Interestingly enough, Google News works, which I found odd because what if someone publishes an offensive story? You'll see it on Google News, right?

Even though the firewall prevents access to these Internet sites, it did not block my ability to remote to my computer in the United States using Window's Remote Desktop Connection. From there I was able to post updates on Facebook. However, according to someone I spoke to, doing that is against some policy. However, there is no real enforcement of the policy, and apparently many folks have various tunnels through the firewall. Later on during my trip I was able to set up an SSH connection to my web server hosting www.bruceshankle.com. There I installed the Squid proxy server and pointed my local web browser through the SSH tunnel and into Squid. Again, according to my contact in China that is against some policy and when the firewall senses such activity it is likely to disconnect you from the Internet. I did experience that one evening and I became paranoid that police may be busting down my hotel room door. But it never happened.

Exploring Shanghai

One of my first adventures in Shanghai was to simply take a walk outside my hotel and investigate my surroundings. The Regal hotel is located near a very nice park called Xujiahui (pronounced Shoo-jeeah-whey) Park. It is similar to Central Park in New York. So imagine: I've travelled all the way around the world to a city that has 22 million people (several times larger than New York in terms of people and square miles), I'm thinking it's going to be polluted and full of disease, and some overbearing dictatorship is going to be watching my every move. And what is my first outdoor experience? Blue skies, puffy white clouds, lush greenery, and a walk in an amazingly tranquil park with kids playing, people dancing, swans swimming in a pond, and folks practicing Tai Chi, an Asian form of exercise and meditation.

Just Outside My Hotel

This was the second time I had the realization that China is nothing at all like it is perceived to be in the west, and nothing at all like any China town in the United States.

Traffic

I spent about 30 minutes traversing the park when I came a shopping area called Grand Gateway. It is similar to Times Square in New York city with one major difference: traffic. At this intersection of about 5 major roads I stood at the corner and watched traffic, dumbfounded by what I saw: complete chaos! Imagine 5 roads, some with 6 one-way lanes coming together. Now on top of that, add an almost complete disregard for traffic signals. Now add a complete disregard for lane markings. Now add as many cars and buses you can possibly fit. Now add thousands of motorcycles, mopeds, scooters, electric bikes, normal bikes, home-made bikes, and tri-cycle trucks, now add pedestrians. Now tell everyone to go...AT THE SAME TIME...and...BLOW YOUR HORN AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. I was simply amazed, mainly because all this traffic was moving, and no one was dying. I watched in awe as man on a scooter worked his way down a one way street THE WRONG WAY, dodging oncoming traffic left and right, and finally turning into an oncoming turn lane, then jumping the curb onto the sidewalk, and then basically plowing his way through a crowd of people who side-stepped to let him pass.

Traffic Near Grand Gateway

Video of Traffic Near Grand Gateway

I spent about an hour just watching traffic trying to make some sense of it. I noticed several things. First, no one was upset. Despite the apparent chaos, and constant horn blowing, no one seemed offended. Everyone just stayed calm. I learned from locals there is no such thing as road-rage in China. Second, the only rule seems to be: he who has the most mass has the right of way. Top-dogs are busses and trucks, they go when they want and where they want. Next comes cars, then motorcycles, then mopeds, then electric bicycles, then bicycles, then pedestrians. That's right: pedestrians do not have the right of way as they do in the U.S. They are simply the lowest priority. So if you're trying to cross the street you must not assume anyone cares about you. The third thing I noticed: traffic never stopped flowing. It actually seemed quite efficient because pretty much any width of road had a vehicle on it and they are always moving. It is completely different that the relative structure and rigid rules we have in the U.S. where pedestrians always have the right of way and crossing the double-yellow line warrants a ticket.

Very cautiously, I followed locals as they crossed the street and entered one of the many shopping centers at this intersection. After a while I got the hang of crossing streets: you want to do it as part of a herd with other people...thereby increasing the group mass and giving you all the right of way.

Shopping

The shopping center I entered was inside of what appeared to be a 40-story office-building made of steel and glass. Once inside I was shocked by the sheer vastness of this 'mall'. There were 6 levels reaching up into the sky filled with countless stores. The floors were made of polished granite and they were spotless. I learned later one evening that all of the floors are polished every day after closing time. The 5^th and 6^th floors contain, in addition to a multitude of stores, many restaurants as well as a 10 screen movie cinema. I explored this gigantic upscale mall and was amazed by the sheer size, complexity, and 'newness' of everything as well as the number of people swarming all around.

Inside the mall I located a China Mobile store and was able to purchase a pay-as-you go cell phone plan complete with data for about $12.00. I was a given a SIM card and promptly plugged it into my unlocked iPhone and I was back 'online'. I was able to check my Gmail account on my iPhone through the China Mobile network as well as my work email account. It isn't 3G, but it was great to be online. I understand there are several mobile networks in China now, but China Mobile has the broadest coverage so I went with them. The notion of contracts and being tied-in to a device as we see so much in the U.S. is a foreign concept here. Most folks pay as they go and you can easily purchase 'recharge' codes from almost any convenience store.

One of the things you notice about malls and almost any shopping venue in China is that there are often many employees in the store circulating around to either help you make a purchase, or as I suspect, to prevent shoplifting. I believe this is possible because labor is cheap. For example, in one average clothing store in the mall, about 400 square feet, there were about 15 assistants there to help and there were maybe 2 customers in the store. The only way this can make business sense is if labor is extremely cheap. This would turn out to be a common theme almost everywhere I went and I've dedicated a section to my thoughts on human labor in China.

After a while I finally found some oatmeal produced by a local business, and this was written on the package:

"Oatmeal for Middle-Aged and Senior Persons. Yashil Oatmeal for Middle-Aged and Senior Persons is mainly made high-grade oat, wheat, corn, fatti cream milk powder and soy protein, etc. Shelf life: 18 months"

That didn't inspire a lot of confidence. Plus there was no nutrition information on the package. That's another thing about China. There doesn't seem to be a standard nutrition or ingredient labeling system on food in stores. And based on the oatmeal containing things like wheat, corn, milk, and "etc." I decided I should probably be a bit cautious about which brands of products I chose to eat. I finally found some Quaker oatmel (a brand I buy in the U.S.) which appeared to be imported from Austrailia. So I bought that instead of the Yahsil brand.

There were other items I wanted which are very common in the U.S. but I could not find these in the grocery store:

o Decaffeinated coffee

o Artificial sweeteners

o Whey protein powder (or any kind of protein powder)

o Caffeine-free diet sodas

o Cottage cheese

But I did find these items in the grocery store:

o Raw pigs feet

o Chicken feet

o Steak that costs about $50.00 per pound

o Dried whole ducks

o Dried fish

o Dried pork

Pig Feet at the Grocery Store

After this little exploratory trip outside my hotel I was feeling very drained. There are so many people circulating around everywhere all the time. The mall and the grocery store were packed with folks and these environments were very loud. That combined with all the traffic was beginning to overwhelm my senses. Plus I didn't know what was safe to eat or drink, so I started to feel pretty run-down. I would suggest if you come to China, consider bringing some foods you know and love with you for the first couple of days until you get acclimated to the local cuisine...unless you like fast-food. Also, bring some ear plugs.

Visit to Guangzhou

Shanghai Airlines

When I travelled to Guangzhou it was with Shanghai airlines on a 2 hour domestic flight. My expectations had been set pretty high by EVA Airlines and I was expecting the same great service. I got it; complete with the same professional, courteous, super-model flight attendants and a hot meal. If I recall it was a Boeing 767. It was an older plane than I flew with EVA and the flight was delayed due to weather. But it was a safe, uneventful flight. Due to bad weather, I could really see much on the ground, but I did see some beautiful mountains at one point.

Arriving in Guangzhou was a bit different than Shanghai. There were far more trees and greenery in Guangzhou surrounding the airport. The airport seems further away from down town. It seemed a little cooler there as well compared to Shanghai.

College Visit

Here I met up with my wife and we toured the college she attended, South China Normal University, which was established in 1933. Here my wife earned her B.S. in Psychology.

My Wife and I at her Alma Mater

This college is akin to a public university in the U.S. It's not a high-dollar private school. The facilities reminded of North Carolina Statue University in 1989 when I attended there. Meaning: there is no air conditioning in the dorm rooms and the buildings seem quite ancient.

Dormatory at South China Normal University

There were tons of college kids circulating around, socializing, studying, playing basketball. It felt like any college campus in the U.S. After the tour we ate dinner at a nice hotel restaurant on campus. My take-away was just how 'normal' everything seemed. There were not thought police roaming around beating kids into conformity.

Dining in Chinese Restaurants

This is where a major misconception gets washed away. In the U.S., most Chinese restaurants are to be found in strip-malls or in some stinky part of China town. Sure there's P.F. Chang's, an upscale place masquerading as a Chinese restaurant, but it isn't authentic by any stretch of the imagination. The food at these places is generally loaded with MSG, fat, sugar, and salt. It's too bad, because real authentic Chinese food, especially Cantonese food, has many unique flavors and is light and nutritious.

Balcony of Chinese Restaurant in Foshan

In addition, Chinese restaurants in China are simply amazingly beautiful places, with uniformed staff, a wide variety of fresh seafood and chicken (and I mean fresh chicken...because they butcher them on-site at some places). There are ornate decorations, fancy chandeliers, and often exquisite hand-carved furnishings. The food is generally amazing and western Chinese restaurants don't even begin to convey the actual quality of Chinese restaurants. Tables are always large and round and can seat 8 to 12 people. There is a carousel in the center of each table onto which dishes are placed. People always eat family style picking and choosing small portions from the carousel to bring to their personal bowl or plate. Tea is always served, as is hot water. Soft-drinks are rare. Ice is unheard of.

Family at Chinese Restuarant

One behavior that a westerner might find odd is the idea of washing your own dishes at a Chinese restaurant. My mother-in-law does this when she dines at a restaurant:

o Waits for the tea to arrive

o Poor a full cup of hot tea

o Dip her chopsticks in the tea

o Poor tea into her plate

o Dip her spoon in the tea

o Discard the tea used for washing

Chinese restaurants in China actually provide a container for the discarded tea. I suppose the idea is that the hot tea will sterilize the dishes or wash away any contaminants or bacteria. My wife doesn't follow this practice and thinks her mom is a bit paranoid. But I suppose there is some history behind this practice. I never did it, but I did get a stomach bug during my trip which stayed with me for a couple of days. So maybe there is some wisdom in the practice.

Chinese food in China is also very affordable. You can feed an entire table of people a wide variety of foods for $15 to $30 U.S.

Visiting a Factory in Jiangmen

My wife grew up living in a factory-owned village in Jiangmen, a small town about 1.5 hours drive from Foshan. If you work in the factory, you get cheap housing provided by the factory, as well as a school for your children, a medical facility, a very large Olympic-sized swimming pool, a fire department, and entertainment in the form of movies, dances, and ping-pong at the 'social club'.

Figure 1Entrance to Factory in Jiangmen

The village and factory are still there, but the factory, which used to produce sugar by processing sugar-cane, has since switched to producing various chemicals. The factory would not let me in for a tour since I was not a Chinese resident, but I did get a tour of the social club, the swimming pool, and the village. We even convinced the current resident of my wife's old unit to let us look around inside. This was a trip down memory lane for my wife and mother-in-law. It was touching to see them get a glimpse of their past.

Factory Village in Jiangmen

The village life seemed pleasant. Residents live in multi-story apartment complexes surrounded by a man-made waterway where people fish. Retirees socialize and play Mahjong and seem quite happy. There are many children roaming around, playing, riding bicycles, and generally just being kids.

Housing in the Factory Village

Housing is quite small by western standards. My wife's family consisted of mom, dad, and 3 children, and they all lived in a unit that is about 425 square feet. There is no air conditioning and I imagine most Americans would consider the place intolerable. But when I think back to my own childhood home, it wasn't much different. There's seems to be a symbiotic relationship between the factory and the workers. I didn't see a forced labor camp, or anything that looked like slavery. Folks seemed quite normal and happy, even if there were a bit skeptical of my presence. They don't often see Americans and I got quite a few stares from passers-by.

Modern Life in Guangzhou

I would consider the conditions my wife grew up in to be 'last-generation' China although many are still living that lifestyle; working in a factory and living in factory-provided communities. Today there are a large and growing number of people living what I would consider a much more modern lifestyle. My wife has two sisters that fall into this category.

The eldest sister is a water quality control officer for the government. She, her husband, and their 18 year old son live in a 30 story high-rise building in Foshan. Their apartment is approximately 1800 square feet, has 4 bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large living room, a dining room, a kitchen, and an office. There are hardwood floors, marble counter-tops, and polished granite. Each room has air conditioning (central air conditioning is not common in China). There is an on-demand hot water heater so you can take what I call an 'infinite' shower, meaning you never run out of hot water. They have a water filtration system built into the sink so drinkable water is available on tap. They have cable television with 100+ channels (2 in English), high speed DSL Internet, and two balconies overlooking the gorgeous man-made scenery below that consists of a river, a park, and large swimming pools. They have two relatively new cars in the parking deck below: a Volkswagen and a Honda Accord. Shopping for almost anything you could want is a short walk away, as are several nice restaurants. Presently, the local subway line is being extended out to their complex.

The son attends college and is preparing for an English exam he's required to pass to apply for college in the U.S. The husband is a business manager as well and has his own business interests as well. They live, for lack of better words, a completely normal life.

Every day they open all the windows and doors and a breeze blows through the apartment (it is up on the 19^th floor) and it stays relatively cool. At night, they close off each room and any room that is occupied they turn on the AC for that room.

I spent 4 days and nights with the family. In some aspects (food, family, convenience to shopping and restaurants) it was actually nicer than where I live in the U.S. In the U.S. I live in a house, on a street with other houses. If I want to go somewhere I have to drive. I have no swimming pool, nor am I able to sit on a balcony overlooking such beauty...and we pay twice as much for the mortgage. Our only pubic transportation is a bus system, and the schedule is infrequent, the routes inconvenient for where I want to travel, and the drivers are generally rude to the passengers. Plus, it isn't safe, based on an accounts I've heard of people being attacked in my neighborhood at night after getting off the bus.

My wife's younger sister lives in a smaller apartment that is not quite as nice. She has two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a balcony. She only has 1 hot water tap, the one in the shower, and gas to cook and heat with are delivered via propane tanks. Her place doesn't overlook any rivers or parks, however it is very cheap apparently and she seems happy.

At this point, any of my lingering misconceptions about China had vanished and I was beginning to see China as place of hard-working, diligent people, who are working hard to make their lives better. I was feeling very comfortable in Foshan and I enjoyed time with the family even if there is a quite a big language and cultural divide.

Shopping in Guangzhou

I've heard many stories about software and movie piracy in China so I asked to go shopping somewhere I could buy a copy of Windows 7 and some movies. What I found was mind-boggling. There are movie vendors in the shopping centers who sell very retail looking pirated movies. They are complete with box art, DVD sleeve inserts, full-color prints on the discs and what appear to be stamped discs (i.e. not DVD-R or DVD+R). These discs are actually stamped like a retail disc, or at least they appear that way.

Almost any movie you can imagine is available for about $1.00 each. Many are labeled as Bluray, but they are not actually Bluray discs, they are just ordinary DVDs, but it appears the content is ripped from retail Bluray discs. Also, pretty much any software you want ranging from Windows 7 to Photoshop to 3DSMax is available for $1.50 per copy.

That explained why I hadn't seen any retail movie or software stores in Shanghai. There just simply isn't a demand for these products when you can get such high quality pirated versions so cheaply.

Western Business in China

Western food is very popular in China, especially Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut. I have also seen Subway sandwich shops and Papa John's pizza places as well as Starbucks, Burger King and even a Walmart in Foshan. Rumor has it there are Home Depots in Shanghai as well, but I never saw one.

If you come to China looking for familiar businesses, you can find them, but you won't always find the exact same products as you will in American versions of these stores. For example, KFC serves fried chicken with rice and spicy sauce. Subway's fresh vegetable selection consists of sickly-looking lettuce and onion. None of the restaurants serve diet sodas, plus serving sizes seem smaller than in the U.S. Your mileage will vary as to whether or not the store attendants speak any English.

In my search for whey protein I ended up at a Carrefour store. Carrefour is the French-owned version of Walmart. According to locals, Walmart is losing out to Carrefour in Shanghai. This struck me as odd because Walmart is such a powerhous in the U.S. and most of the products in Walmart come from China.

A primary difference I saw in these stores compared to their U.S. counterparts is they all seem to be multi-level whereas most U.S. stores are single-story. You traverse levels via a set of conveyor belts that transport you and your shopping cart between levels. That's right, conveyors, not escalators, on about a 20 degree slope. Wheels on shopping carts have a simple and ingenious groove that allows them to fall into slots in the conveyor so the cart rests on little rubber feet on each wheel's axel. In that way your cart can go up or down these conveyors without freewheeling down and crashing.

Health in China

Smoking

Cigarette smoking is rampant. There are smokers, and smoking, and cigarette shops all over the place. Most restaurants allow smoking as well and it is quite common. You can find restaurants where there are non-smoking areas (into which smoke always drifts), and once-in-a-while a place that is smoke free. But for the most part smoking, and the smell of cigarette smoke is everywhere you go. This is in contrast to the U.S. where smokers have pretty much been told to go outside, even in the heart of tobacco country in Raleigh, N.C. So stepping into China is a bit like stepping into the past from a smoking perspective.

Exercise

Exercise doesn't seem to be a big part of the culture, except for the need to pedal bikes. In fact more than one person told me that you want to avoid running and long-distance biking outdoors especially on heavily polluted days. I did seek out a gym when visiting Guangzho, so I could continue my workout routine there, but people were actually smoking inside the gym which I found to be quite ironic and very annoying. What's the point in working out if you are trying to kill yourself? But the Chinese people definitely walk and bike more than Americans do.

Diet

Chinese people seem to have a very healthy diet compared to people in the U.S. First, portions are smaller than in the U.S. Second, heavily processed foods are not common, nor are soft drinks (which in the U.S. are a leading cause of obesity). Generally the foods are a nice blend of carbohydrates (primarily from rice), protein (primarily from fish, chicken, and pork), and steamed vegetables (eating uncooked vegetables is rare). While oils are used, and more-so in Shanghai restaurants than in Guangzho, it is a fraction of the oil used in westernized Chinese restaurants in the U.S.

Again, I want to underscore that any impression you may have of China from a local Chinese restaurant or China-town in the U.S. is probably the wrong impression. Common staple foods here are steamed whole fish shared by the whole family, steamed rice, and leafy green vegetables that are also steamed. Sometimes oil will be used to prepare a dish, but as I said, the Chinese tend to go light on the oil, salt, and sugar. This is opposite of the U.S. where we add oil, salt, and sugar to almost everything. This is obvious looking at the smaller waistlines in China.

While western restaurants like McDonalds and KFC are making definite inroads in China, they seem to be more populated by the younger generation, who are indeed looking less fit from my anecdotal observations than prior generations of Chinese. To be frank, I'm concerned about the current generation of youngsters in both the U.S. and China because McDonalds and KFC are horrible food choices for anyone.

Overall, the Chinese seem healthier, even if they smoke so much. They are definitely thinner, and they definitely rely more on human labor and less on machines than we do in the U.S. They walk more, and they bicycle more too. There are few if any diet foods (like fat-free anything or diet sodas) and the whole notion of dieting is foreign to these people. Also, the whole notion of 'caffeine-free' things are foreign. For example, during my stay, I could find not 1 caffeine-free diet soda, and unless I went to a specialty store like Starbucks, I could not find decaffeinated coffee. I believe folks there would ask, "What's the point?" and I find myself having to agree.

Human Labor

Labor 'overkill' seems to be the norm in China. There are always many employees working in a place, often outnumbering customers. Some examples: the hotel restaurant had 7 waiters, 1 chef, 1 checkout person, and 1 manager to serve about 3 customers for dinner. In addition, the hotel had 4 doormen, 2 valets, 3 security guards, 4 front desk workers, and 1 'runner' but I never saw more than 2 people checking in at the same time. The small bars and night clubs on the street of my hotel would often have 3 bartenders for 1 to 2 customers. Every intersection would have 4 'police assistants', one at each corner, basically just uniformed security guards standing there. Of course they didn't even attempt to referee traffic at all (that's just total chaos anyway) but I suppose they would blow a whistle or call the cops if there was an accident. Each sidewalk would often have 2 to 3 street-sweepers, not using machines, but brooms made of bamboo and straw continually sweeping the sidewalks all day long. A carwash I walked past one day was all manual, a water-house and 6 guys with buckets and washcloths. Trash collection people in the park would be numerous and would carry the trash bags on the backs of large tricycles that looked like they'd built them out of old bicycle parts.

In essence, the over-arching reality is that human labor in China is obviously very cheap and plentiful. The average income for a laborer in China is about $4.00 per day. Assuming they work an 8 hour day, that works out to about $0.50 / hour. Figure that there are over 1.3 billion people in China and you start to understand why most products we find on store shelves in the U.S. are made in China. It is simply impossible for Americans to compete with someone who is willing to work for $0.50 / hour.

In fact a recent documentary I watched by Morgan Spurlock called '30 Days' (available on Netflix) has 2 adults try to make a living for 30 days in America working as minimum wage workers. It was a miserable life for them, by American standards at least, and they had to forego medical care and many luxuries (like having furniture and eating decent food) just to get by. I can only imagine the poor quality of life for the average Chinese laborer earning $0.50 per hour. And yet they work very dutifully every day for that small wage. I saw no complaining, or slacking off by laborers during my time there. It is hard not to be a little upset by the unfair distribution of wealth as you watch an $80,000.00 luxury car (that someone paid a 50% import tax on) sitting in a parking lot beside a thin and frail Chinese woman looking for aluminum cans in the trash. But I've seen this in many countries including Mexico, Colombia, Canada, and the U.S. It is a global inequality, and I puzzle over how we might address it.

I learned that in the basement of the mall was an entire grocery store so I went to investigate that. I wanted to find some oatmeal. Because pretty much everything is written with Chinese characters on the packaging, it took a long time for me to find it. I basically I had to do a linear search. I tried asking the numerous assistants continually circulating the store, but they spoke no English and seemed primarily concerned that I wasn't shoplifting.

Weather and Air Quality in China

Shanghai is near the east coast of China. It is hot and humid there in the summer months. Most any place you visit will have air conditioning. Most taxis have air conditioning. All of the subway trains are air conditioned. When I was there the temperature ranged from 78 to 104 degrees Farenheight. However all local measurements are in Celsius. To convert from C to F you multiply by 9/5 and add 32.

When I arrived in Shanghai it was a blue-sky day with scattered clouds. Locals told me it was rare to have such days and they are the result of having lots of wind which blows the smog out of town. I spoke with someone who had been there 3 months (June through August) and he said that when he arrived the smog was very thick and he tried to stay indoors. It hadn't really eased up until the week I arrived.

I did witness a couple of days close to what he described and there were times when I could literally taste the air. I also felt somewhat itchy at the end of every day and felt the need to shower before bed. I believe that I due to sweating and then having particulates in the air stick to my skin.

When the air is still and there is no wind, the pollution and moisture create a layer of smog of varying thickness depending on conditions. It can be bad enough to limit visibility more than a couple of blocks and make every light seem to glow at night. Locals told me that when it is bad you don't want to be exercising outdoors and you'll want to run an air-filter in your home. Apparently the winter months offer little relief from the smog either. In other words, the pollution in Shanghai can be pretty bad.

According to the air cleaner company owner I spoke with before I left the states, running an air filtration system in your home can cut your exposure in half. That is reassuring, but the reality is that Shanghai is a very polluted city by western standards. It is filled with cars, mopeds, motorcycles, busses, and trucks that generate lots of emissions and account for 40% of the pollution in the air. The rest is from industrial factories scattered around the area. There are few controls or enforcement of emissions standards and the ones that have been created and enforced are outpaced by the growth of the population and industry.

Cars in China

First-off, cars in China are the same as cars in the U.S. I had expected to see miniature-sized cars with tiny engines and no power made by some unknown 3^rd-world manufacturer. That was simply not the case. Every major brand of car we have in the U.S. is on the roads in China. There are of course more Chinese made cars with names I'd never heard of, but for the most part the Chinese drive Japanese, German, and American cars. Strangely absent are pickup trucks. Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Buicks are all very popular.

Buying a foreign car in China results in a hefty import tax. So, in response, some manufacturers have set up assembly plans in China. For example, you can buy a Chinese-built Honda Accord. Volkswagen has a plant there as well. Recently I've heard rumors GM will be going to China, and they should, because Buick's are very popular in China.

License plates are issued via an auction process. Locals told me the going rate for a license plate starts around $4,500.00 U.S. Ouch! Locals also told me that if you are not from China, you don't want to be on the road. I assumed because of the chaotic nature of traffic. But no, the reason is because if you are involved in an accident, the process is not quite like the U.S. It turns out that when people have a car accident, each driver gets on the phone not to call the insurance company but to start calling connections, preferably in government. He who has the highest connection is deemed not at fault, regardless of which person is 'really' at fault. I'm not sure I buy that story, but it seems plausible given the chaotic nature of traffic. Why would the laws be much different? I also was told that insurance companies in China are notorious for not paying claims.

I really wanted to stop by a BYD dealership, but I never got around to it. BYD started out making batteries and they are now making cars as well. They have an entirely electric car now and a hybrid as well. These cars are using a lithium-iron battery chemistry that seem poised to be the next big thing in batteries. Warren Buffet has recently invested in BYD by purchasing a 10% stake. The history of how BYD came to be in the car business is quite fascinating. Local sources told me that the BYD cars are of lower quality than other manufacturers, but that they are very cheap. Supposedly they are popular in smaller cities throughout China. I only saw 1 BYD on the road.

Subways

Subways systems in the Chinese cities I visited were:

o Cheap

o Fast

o Safe

o Clean

o Air conditioned

o Widespread

o Usually crowded

Subway Station - Clean

They are much nicer than subway systems in the U.S. in terms of cleanliness. Most stations have shining granite floors, security guards, full time cleaning staff, and conveniently located vending machines with water and soft drinks. That's nice since there are no water fountains to be found. You purchase a card and pay exactly as much as it costs to reach your destination, or you can by a pre-paid card and load it up with credits. You can traverse all of Shanghai from North to South and East to West and diagonally on the subway system. You can also take the subway system to both of the major airports. Most trips range from $0.45 to $1.00.

Crowded Subway Train

As you enter any subway station, you are required to pass through a security checkpoint where your bags are x-rayed. I didn't get the sense this was very strict, but it seems to serve as a deterrent at least. I haven't seen security like that in the U.S., although I did see soldiers with machine guns at a New York subway one time...and it didn't make me feel very secure.

Trains are frequent, so if you just miss one, no worries, another one will be along in 3 to 5 minutes. However, the subway system is often very crowded. It is generally standing room only, unless a seat becomes available, at which point everyone tries to get it.

An odd behavior of subway riders is trying to get into a train before letting people exit. It is bizarre behavior, but when the train opens, everyone tries to get on and off at the same time creating hundreds of little head-on collisions.

Each stop also has a set of what I call subway referees. These are guys with whistle and a flag. If you get too close the track you get whistled at. Once the train is boarded, the referee raises his flag to let the operator know it is safe to depart.

On board, each train car has clearly marked signs in Chinese and English, and a friendly automated voice makes announcements in both languages. So if you have a good subway map (available at most hotels) you can easily navigate almost the enire city via subway with little effort. Be warned, however, they subway systems close between 10:30 and 11:00 PM. I got stranded one evening and had to take a cab back to my hotel...which only costs about $4.00 anyway.

The entire system is built for very high volume and it is doing its job. On my last day there, a Sunday, I took the subway to People's Square to have lunch with my wife, and from there back to the Airport. All of the subway stations were literally swarming with people. Every train was packed. And yet, I easily made it to the airport (all the way across town and on the far eastern side of Shanghai) on time for 5 RMB (about $0.90).

Two-Wheeled Transportation

Two-wheeled transportation is very popular in China. Everywhere you go you see swarms of scooters, motorcycles, electric bicycles, bicycles, and custom-made tricycle trucks. What's more, these vehicles are driven anywhere they can fit, whether that's between cars on a 6-lane street, on the sidewalk, cutting through the park, or going the wrong way down a one-way street. There are numerous brands of motorcycles and scooters. Some with completely different names look identical. There are no Harley Davidson on the roads there, nor did I see many of the more exotic sport bikes. Pretty much everything is very utilitarian, chain driven, with small displacement engines of one or two cylinders. There seem to be a lot of 2-cycle engines in use judging by odors in the air.

Motorcycles and Scooters on Sidewalk Outside a Restaurant

Interestingly, motorcycles are used as taxi's in parts of Guangzhou and Foshan. Drivers will sit on the sidewalk at intersections waiting for a passenger (smoking cigarettes of course). You can approach one and negotiate a price to be taken to your destination. Women passengers will often sit side-saddle on the back. Men will straddle the seat and get quite cozy with the driver, a very un-masculine thing by American standards. Sometimes passengers will wear a thin helmet provided by the driver. Drivers zig and zag in and out of traffic to deliver passengers to their destinations. There seem to be no rules, and little concern for safety.

Scooter with Roof, Windshield, and Wiper

Gas powered scooters form the back-bone of the propane tank and water deliver system. Everyone drinks bottled water and much of it is delivered via large bottles of water (7+ gallons) slung to mopeds as if they were pack mules. At one point I saw a guy on a moped with 6 to 8 of the multi-gallon water bottles tied in a creative arrangement to his scooter tooling down the sidewalk beeping at pedestrians to get out of his way. Many people don't have natural gas lines and instead use propane tanks. The tanks are about twice the size we have for gas grills in the U.S. You can find 4 or more of these tanks strapped to a scooter tooling down the road all over Foshan.

Another common site is to see 2, 3, or 4 people on a scooter: a child standing up between the driver and the handle-bars with two passengers bringing up the rear. Americans are simply too fat to pull off a feat like this, but you see it repeatedly in China.

Helmet use is rare, although the motorcycle-based taxi services will often wear what appears to be a little-league batting cap, or a hard-hat from a construction site. Indeed it is dangerous. I saw several scooter related accidents and more than one injured person. So there is a definite down-side to the lack of safety concerns.

Bicycling is a large part of the transportation system. It is also very casual. Not like in the U.S. where bike-riders tend to be decked out in special gear and skin-tight pants and riding bikes made of exotic materials. Instead, Chinese people of all ages from kids to elderly are riding bicycles. They wear no special gear. Their bikes are homely looking, generally made of tube steel and generally quite rusty and beat up looking. There are bicycles out in front of every business, residence, and subway station. Oddly, rear bicycle breaks China are almost all hand-lever actuated drum brakes. I'd never seen that type of brake on a bicycle before.

There are also very many electric bicycles, often with two seats so the driver can carry a passenger. These bikes often have detachable batteries boxes that can be taken inside for charging. They always have pedals for when the batteries go dead and folks often peddle them a bit to get started. You rarely see electric bikes in the U.S. and those you do see have exotic technologies and are very expensive. In contrast, you can purchase an electric bicycle in China that can carry two people and have a detachable lead-acid pack for about $300.00 U.S.

Human Individuality and the Intrinsic Value of Human Life

Something that is part of the culture in the U.S. is the idea that every human life is precious. Of course you can go turn on the local news right now and find many exceptions to that, but the idea is evident everywhere in America. It is evident in our laws. For example pedestrians have the right of way, always. If you drive a motorcycle, in most states, you are required to wear a helmet, for you own safety. You are required to carry auto insurance, even for the other guy, in case he doesn't have it. If you misbehave in traffic or break the rules, you will eventually be pulled over and be asked to appear in court before a judge. If you have an accident, there is a process to follow, an insurance provider to consult, and a legal system to hear your case if you're not happy.

You have rights, guaranteed by our constitution. You can speak your mind, even about the government. You can own a gun if you so choose. You can surf the web anywhere you want and you can pretty much earn a decent living anywhere you go.

The notion of the importance of human life is evident in our building codes where homes must meet rigid standards to pass safety inspections. The idea is to protect you and future inhabitants from bad construction. We also embrace handicapped people by making all public buildings handicapped accessible (at great cost sometimes) and we have handicapped parking in almost every parking lot.

If you grow up in the U.S. you become accustomed to this idea that your life is special and that you are important, even if you are disabled. If you can't makes ends meet we'll likely have some sort of social program to help you get back on your feet. If you lose your job, you won't starve because we have food programs to feed the poor. Well at least it is supposed to work that way.

If you are a customer in the U.S. then you are "always right" the saying goes. If you enter a place of business you expect to be treated a certain way and perhaps you get used to the phrase, "Hello, how may I help you?" If someone bumps into you, then you can expect him or her to say "Excuse me" or "Sorry." If someone blows the horn at you in traffic it perfectly normal to be offended by it.

All of these components of American culture reinforce our individuality and our sense of importance. In my experience, most Americans honor in others that sense of individuality and importance and we are taught to have compassion from a young age. To varying degrees most people follow the rules, most businesses are fair or at least regulated in some way, and we have a lot of structure in place: from traffic to home construction to filing taxes to talking to strangers.

Things feel a bit different in China.

In China, human individuality feels less acknowledged and less respected. If you are walking down the street as a pedestrian, you're expected to yield to anyone on a machine of any sort because you are automatically a lower-class being. Deal with it.

In China, I got the sense that human life is less precious. If the air is polluted to the point of being unhealthy, so what? The profit motive outweighs your need for good air. Deal with it.

If you are a construction worker, you are free to wear flip-flops while operating a jackhammer busting concrete. Your employer won't stop you and no one will cite him for an unsafe work environment. And if you happen to slice off your toe? Your guess is as good as mine.

In China, if you drive a motorcycle and you don't have a helmet, no one is going to say a word. If you pile your whole family on a scooter with two bald tires and drive down a one-way road the wrong way weaving in and out of traffic no one will try to stop you. If your tire explodes from all the weight and you all slam into a bus head-on, I highly doubt any new laws will be written or enforced to prevent it from happening to the next family.

In China, if you are the customer, you play a different role than in the U.S. You are not automatically always right and you can expect that whomever you're doing business with is there to make a profit, not make you happy, or cater to your needs and wants, unless that is part of the profit motive.

While I was in China I had the distinct feeling that the intrinsic value of my life and individuality as a human was lower than in the U.S. I found myself dodging scooters and bikes on the sidewalk, and fearing for my life at intersections. On subways people cut in line in front of me in line and made no bones about it. Cab drivers tried to rip me off. Hotel employees were sometimes cold and lacked empathy. One store clerk simply ignored me. At first this offended me. But I learned to deal with it.

I knew that underneath the surface of public interactions that Chinese people love their families and friends. I had witnessed the kindness and hospitality my wife's family showed me. So, I spent a lot of time trying to understand this difference between the U.S. and China and I came up with a couple of theories: 1) In China, in public, you are one of 1.3 billion other individuals. In the U.S., in public, you are one of 300 million other individuals. That means relative bandwidth for 'public' relationships and interpersonal awareness is several times greater in the U.S. than in China. 2) In China, if you don't speak the language you feel very isolated, which compounds feelings of being unimportant. At least that is how I felt.

With regards to the first theory, there are simply just so many people in China that everyone can't pay everyone the kind of respect we've come to expect in the U.S. If they did, it seems traffic wouldn't flow, business would halt, and perhaps nothing would get done. There'd be too many apologies flying around. It's nothing personal, in China. You can't take offense to someone not acknowledging your needs, you simply need to ask again, or ask louder. Would New York City be so different if we tripled the human population overnight? That's what it is like in China: triple the people in the same space.

With regards to not knowing the language: Mandarin, the de-facto standard in China, is a very different language than English. It is 'tonal' meaning the pitch with which you say a word changes its meaning. Mandarin also has a much less rigid grammar that relies on context. It also has more than 40,000 characters. It also takes many years to master speaking and writing (especially if you are no longer a child). So when I was in China, I couldn't read all the signs, and I couldn't interact with people in Mandarin. This contributed to my feeling of isolation somewhat and I think that compounds the sense the you have less intrinsic value because you can't really connect with people in a meaningful way.

So I came to the conclusion that when you are in China, you have to put on a Chinese persona. That means:

o Don't take offense to impersonal treatment

o Expect to yield when someone or something is bigger than you

o Expect that if you don't step up, someone will take your place

o Be very careful in traffic because no one is looking out for you but you

o If you plan to live in China, you'd best spend some time learning Mandarin

o Realize that in private relationships, Chinese are very empathetic, but in public they simply don't have the bandwidth for it, so if you want someone to care for you and your needs, you're going to have to invest in theirs

o And finally: don't try to change China or bring your Western sense of self-importance to this country. It will only create stress for you. You have to let China be China.

Locals told me that westerners either learn to love China or they learn to hate China. There is no in-between. I think those who learn to love are those who adapt, learn the language, and instead of expecting China to change for them, they change for China.

Things I Did and Didn't See In China

Sometimes it is interesting to think about the things you were surprised to see in a new country and things you expected to see but were rare. Here are my observations.

Things I Saw But Didn't Expect

o Blue skies and puffy white clouds in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Foshan, and right beside a chemical factory in Jiangmen

o Big cars from manufacturers all over the world (Mercedes, Infiniti, Lexus, Volkswagen, Honda, Toyota, Ford, Buick)

o Propane tanks being hauled around hanging off the sides of scooters

o Entire families on a two-wheeled scooter (4 people, no kidding, it is very common)

o American-made aircraft

o The popularity of KFC

o Electrical receptacles will accept the style of plug we have in the US (but ensure what you're plugging in handles 220 volts)

o That my laptop and my phone chargers are 120 volt or 220 volt compatible and work in most receptacles without any kind of adapter

o Road signs are in English and Chinese

o Many young people speak English pretty well

o Carts to help with your bags in airports are free (we have to pay for these in the U.S.)

o Local food is very cheap

o Taxi rides are very cheap

o There is no tipping in restaurants or taxis

o Movie theaters have assigned seats and movies are often in English with Chinese subtitles

o Complete chaos in traffic

o Fish farms – fresh-water fish farming is very popular here

o Use of bamboo to create platforms to construct multi-story buildings

o 'Cooking' your dishes after you wash them – Chinese people have 'dish-ovens' they use to dry and sterilize dishes after washing them by hand.

o Cafeterias do not use paper plates or disposable cups – cafeterias always use real dishes that are washed (by hand) after you're done with them

o Having to pay for bags when you buy goods – To cut down on plastic bag use, stores charge about $0.30 for a plastic bag to carry your purchases. Plastic and paper bags are generally free in the U.S.

o Thousands of healthy fish swimming in a man-made river beside the chemical factory and normal people catching and eating those fish. I won't even eat a fish out of Puget Sound due to the contamination warnings.

o Ice cream (funny because there is no ice and milk seems uncommon)

o Only whole milk

o You can buy antibiotics over the counter

o Kites, hundreds of feet up into the sky with LEDs attached to the string every few feet

o Beggers in Starbucks going customer-to-customer asking for money and getting nothing

o Beggers on the subways using children as props to elicit empathy and getting nothing

o Beggers on the subways who were obviously burn victims but were playing the harmonica to entertain passengers and actually getting donations

o The World Expo

o Brasil

o One other country I can't remember

Things I Did Not See

o Youtube or Facebook (unless I remoted back to the U.S.)

o Squirrels – not a one

o Rabbits – not a one

o Cats – I saw only one

o Dogs – I saw only five (and two were very thin)

o African Americans – I saw only 3

o Hispanics – not a one

o BYD cars (a Chinese brand) – I saw only 1...and I looked everywhere for them because I've been following their electric technology development

o Pickup trucks – There are tons of passenger vehicles, but strangely absent are pickup trucks. Most trucks are 'box' delivery trucks. Everything else seems to be hauled on pedaled tricycles, bicycles, and scooters.

o Retail movie stores (rental or purchase)

o Legal versions of software

o Road-rage

o Clothes dryers – people hang up there clothes to dry in China, they do not use clothes dryers like we do in the U.S.

o Dishwashers – people wash their dishes by hand in China, they do not use dishwashers like we do in the U.S.

o Ice. You want ice in that tea? Good luck.

o Skim milk or non-fat milk

o Food ingredients an nutritional content

o Small airplanes

A List of Overall Impressions

As I was writing this, I had many overall impressions, observations, and factoids come to mind. Here they are in list form:

o Everything is BIG in China – Few things are done on a small scale

o China towns in U.S. give the wrong impression of China and its people

o Water supply – Can you drink the water? No one does, but it supposed to be safe

o The Government is Invisible

o Aside from customs I never saw any sign of the government.

o People are free to do what they want.

o There is no obvious oppression, slavery, or control.

o Any corruption is at such a high level the average person will never see it.

o Internet firewall

o No Youtube

o No Facebook

o No Wikipedia

o Easy to bypass (but it's probably illegal) ... good luck

o Impersonal treatment should not be taken personally

o Human labor is plentiful and cheap

o Customer service – the customer is not always right

o Some taxi drivers will try to cheat you by taking longer routes if they cancheats

o Service workers can be down-right rude – a hotel restaurant worker wouldn't let me take a boiled egg back to my room because it was against the rules

o Food stuff

o China has a 'no-diet' culture

o KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut are popular – Our western foods are putting flab into China's kids

o Local foods - few milk products, there is no skim milk or fat-free milk, few if any uncooked fresh vegetables, no salad bars like we have in the U.S.

o Money

o Food is cheap

o Real estate is very expensive

o Rents are reasonable

o Negotiating is common

o There is a 'Foreigner Tax' – meaning if you're not Chinese you're going to be paying more for rent and won't likely do was well negotiating prices for other products

o Environmental Issues

o Collectively, the Chinese seem unwilling or unable to control the explosive growth and environmental impact that growth creates. Profit motivates more than having clean air and water

o Many individuals, however, are very concerned about the environment. I met one businessman whose company only does environmental projects.

o Being green will only work in China if it is profitable or if the government takes a hard stance on it.

o All the sidewalks have special grooved bricks for blind people to follow, but I never saw a blind person, and I doubt any would walk on a sidewalk for fear of being run over by a scooter.

o It is very loud in restaurants, bring ear plugs.

o The paper money has different sizes depending on the value. That means you can't neatly fold it all. Strange.

o There are no small aircraft in the skies. Apparently privately owned planes are illegal. I saw 2 helicopters in 2 weeks.

o Power outlets have 2 types. One type allows you to plug in American style plugs. Make sure whatever you plug in can handle 220 Volts

o Everything is based on 24-hour time. That means 1:00 PM is 13:00. Military time is quite common.

o There are smoker's lounges in airports.

o Some toilets are squat-style, meaning there is no stool for you to sit on. I had never seen these before, but apparently they are quite sanitary because your buttocks never touch anything.

o Toilet paper was actually common, I had been told it was uncommon and to be sure I carried some.

o Paper towels take a back seat to tissue and toilet paper. My wife's family keeps a roll of toilet paper on a fancy dispenser on the kitchen table. They don't do large paper towels like we have in the U.S. Restaurants will often not provide paper towels or napkins. Make sure you carry some with you.

o Central air conditioning is rare. There are individual units are each room in most dwellings with the heat exchanger bolted outside the window. This makes some apartment complexes very ugly with hundreds of heat exchangers bolted to the building in seemingling random patterns. Other buildings account for this and 'hide' them in various ways either in decorative vented enclosures or as part of the structure in some way.

o Tea is quite popular, Caffeine-Free and Diet-Caffeine simply does not exist in China

Conclusion

I want to end by discussing a couple of points. First, my perceptions of Asia and specifically China are now based on actual experience there. But I only spent two weeks. The cities there dwarf anything we have in the U.S. and the sheer number of people creates a set of social and environmental dynamics the west just simply doesn't have. And if we did have these problems, I'm not sure we'd fare any better. If I were to live in China, I would need to adapt to these differences, and I believe that I could. I believe that I would also be able to experience China in a greater depth once I processed the initial culture shock and started learning Mandarin. The people definitely have a stronger work ethic overall than the U.S. and they definitely seem to have better practical family values with less dysfunction than the west (where we have the higher number of people on anti-depressants and people like Dr. Laura and Oprah and friends on television giving us all advice that is usually obvious common sense). And in spite of being over the top with smoking, Chinese are more fit than Americans largely due to their approach to food: less processed, less sugar, less fat, less salt, less calories. They do not have a problem with obesity like we do, and they don't eat a lot of high fructose corn syrup.

The second thing I want to talk about is the government. It is true that the government censors the media, and it's true that every headline you read in a paper needs to be taken with a grain of salt. But every intelligent citizen of China knows that and they know how to get the 'real' news. Plus, I didn't see any kind of open oppression or evil deeds taking place. In fact the country was going through some hard times with all the flooding that was happening in late August. There was even a moment of silence for all those who'd died in the floods. I was told there is corruption in China, that it takes place up on high, business-to-business. But I saw no evidence of it, anywhere.

Perhaps I'm being naive, but the China I saw was not the China I saw on television or in movies growing up. It wasn't the China my friends and family knew. It wasn't the China that was talked about in school. Today it is not the China that my wife's mother grew up in, nor is it the China my wife grew up in. It didn't feel like a controlled place like the China in history books. Quite the opposite in fact, it seemed like a capitalist free-for-all where anything goes in the name of making money and progress.

China is in a state of flux right now. China seems to be reinventing itself. And based on the sheer number of inhabitants there, who are hungry (some literally) for success and are willing to work hard for that success, I see China as a major global power that will very likely overtake the United States in the coming years. I see China as a land rife with opportunity for those who know how to recognize it and I feel a sense of sadness for the U.S. Here in America, I simply don't see the same work ethic and drive to succeed that seems common in China. It will be very interesting to watch the future unfold for both countries.

Copyright © 2010 by Edwin Bruce Shankle III
Please contact bruce.shankle@gmail.com if you would like permission to use portions of this document.