Sorry about not posting much – during my journey through China or even the first week after getting back. Trip back was a bit rough. Was awake for about 30+ hours straight. Sleep schedule was royally fouled up. And pretty sure developed and am now fighting off a mild sinus infection. Medicine making me feel a bit loopy. One friend who travels to China regularly said jetlag feels like a “low grade flu that lasts for a while”.
I enjoyed my journey through China. There are many things about China I like more than the United States. Let me discuss several of these.
1. Service
I could have started with “restaurants, hotels, and other businesses” but better to start off with the number one thing that impressed me the most. Service. Almost every restaurant, hotel or other business the service was exceptional. The staff are there to help and take care of your needs to the best of their ability.
In restaurants – replenish your cup of tea promptly without being asked, helping lay out your napkin if you have not done so, replacing a dish that has filled up with bones/shells, standing patiently while you look through the menu making your choices, answering questions, guiding you to the restroom, providing extra utensils when needed, and so on.
In businesses – such as the foot massage place providing some fruit and hot water and/or tea for your refreshment, guiding you to where you need to go for what you need, producing a ticket so you can make a purchase, greeting and thanking you courteously, and so on.
Even on airplanes – the flight crew help and serve passengers first. And then yes they enforce rules and control passengers second. Flying was more pleasant in China than in the United States.
Compare this to what often happens in the United States. How often my family goes to a restaurant and experiences poor or mediocre service. At the airport in Newark stopped at McDonald’s to get a cup of coffee and the girl working the front neither thanked me for my business nor even looked at me when she handed me my change. One gets the impression sometimes in the United States that people who interact with customers do not care. And then we are expected to tip them!
Now I know that part of this impression – vastly better service in China – is because those labor is cheap. Instead of 2-3 flight crew there are several. Instead of one person who takes care of 3-4 tables at the restaurant you have about one staff per table. They even have staff whose sole job is to greet you when you come to the restaurant! I will return to this point in a later post.
But even then – okay so an American business has less staff available than a similar business in China. One can still ask how well each employee serves the customer. Take the girl at McDonald’s in Newark for example. Could she have smiled? thanked me? looked at me when handing me my change? Yes it is easier to get good service when there are more employees or staff. But if American businesses have less employees or staff can they provide better service?
2. Restaurants – and food in general
Chinese restaurants generally rock. Not just the high end restaurants but even the regular ones. Even their menus are more impressive – like large full color books displaying all the dishes available. There seem to be more choices. They seem to have a better more efficient system to make sure you get everything you ordered in a timely manner. Restaurants are generally larger. Many have private rooms available if you need a little more peace and quiet. In Taiyuan push a little button on your table and *poof* someone comes.
I like Chinese food more. More flavor. More variety. Each province has its own cuisine. Heck – sometimes a different town has its own distinct cooking. American food by comparison can seem a bit plain and boring. Now I live in Louisiana so that helps. But still. Most meals had several different dishes. Compare that to a typical American meal where you are eating 2-3 different foods. Here is my hamburger. There are my fries. That’s two.
I also greatly prefer how Chinese people eat. Frankly this is more important than the food itself. The different dishes are placed in the middle of the table and everyone takes what they want from those same dishes. There is a greater sense of sharing and community/relationship. One of my meals was at a Western restaurant in Shanghai and the difference was striking. This is my food. That is your food. You don’t enjoy any of mine. I don’t enjoy any of yours.
Now one can easily argue that a typical family meal does come closer to the Chinese pattern. A handful of dishes in the middle of the table. Everyone takes some. One of my friends commented that in America there were two meals that were more like the Chinese pattern: fellowship meal and Communion.
Only twice did I have a mediocre or worse meal at a restaurant in China. The genuinely bad/disgusting meal was a Chinese fast food place at the train station in Guangzhou.
3. Public transportation
It ain’t easy getting around in the United States if you don’t have a car.
I rather liked being able to travel from city to city by train. Or around a city by train/subway or by bus. Even by taxi – because taxis in China are vastly less expensive than they are in the United States. My most expensive taxi ride was the equivalent of $4.
A similar ride in Houston set me back something like $25. Taking a taxi in the United States is expensive. And there are not exactly taxis driving around all over the place. I will come back to this point also.
Travel in China was generally much less expensive. I could buy an air ticket a few days before the flight and – depending on the destination – would pay $80-150. As opposed to $250-700. Most subway/train/bus travel within a city was less than $1-2.
I still wish the United States had a stronger public transportation system. Yes I am aware of the problems we have had trying to get one. They always seem to be expensive and yet still lose money. Amtrak anyone? It is one of the things I miss most from our time in Great Britain – how easy we could get around just by bus or train. My brother and I could pop into London to spend a Saturday with our friends pretty much on our own.
4. Professionalism
In general I observed what I would call a higher level of professionalism in China. Even people who cleaned bathrooms – you could tell they took their jobs seriously and did quality work. Often people wore some sort of uniform – which I think contributes to this. Not we each wear whatever we want and do our job any old way. Chinese people generally work quite hard. My friends explained this is because if you don’t do a good job – there is always someone ready to take your place.
(to be continued)
