I have much more to write about what I like and/or admire about China. But in the meantime and out of fairness let me list a few things that I did not like.
When one visits another nation with a different culture there are different forms and stages of “culture shock”. For me it was mostly positive. According to my journal the charm began to wear off some time after the second week.
1. Bathrooms
Anyone who has been there probably understands. Not just that the toilets themselves are different – generally porcelain/steel holes in the floor over which one squats. That was the case in India as well. But that they are filthy and they stink. Like walking into an open sewer. Even nice generally clean restaurants often had bathrooms that were disgusting. Nearly always there was at least one sink for washing hands afterward. Frequently no paper towels – paper products such as tissues and napkins are not freely available in China. That is not so bad. But sometimes there was no soap either. It was never clear to me whether one is allowed to put used paper in the toilet. Many bathroom stalls had little trash cans filled with used toilet paper.
There were exceptions of course. Hotel rooms always had Western toilets on which one sits. And some businesses had bathrooms that were clean and pleasant. But when and where to go the bathroom was a serious issue I had to face each day.
2. Traffic/crowds
China is crowded. Some of you are thinking “well duh that’s obvious”. It is not just obvious. It is in my opinion the single most significant fact of Chinese society. Even more than their long rich and unifying history/culture. The traffic in Chinese cities – especially Beijing and Shanghai – has to be experienced to be believed. The roads are jammed nearly every hour of the day. And it has become worse during the last few years because more Chinese people are buying cars. It can take 1-2 hours to drive from one part of Beijing to another. I remember trying to get to a restaurant in time for a dinner party. It took 30 minutes just to travel the last 5 kilometers. There are traffic signs and rules of the road and so forth – but to a large extent driving is a constant battle for the next slot or open space. Bicycles and scooters do not seem to obey any rules at all – they go pretty much where they want when they want even through a stop sign or red light.
It is not just the traffic. It is crowded on the streets. Constantly dodging and navigating past other people. At train and subway stations a competition to squeeze and push past hundreds of others just to get onto the escalator or through the gate. Nearly everywhere long lines. The Shanghai Expo was by the far the worst. Standing in line for 1-2 hours with thousands of other people for a chance to get into one of the pavilions. There was one place in downtown Shanghai that was a solid mass of people – the only way to get where you wanted was to look for a meandering stream of bodies that was heading in your direction and join the flow.
Why do I think this is so significant? Because it transforms daily life into an almost constant competition. For a slot for a space for a turn for a table for a chance to get through a door or through a gate. Chinese cities are stressful. And I say that not just as a visitor. One can tell that locals feel it too.
3. Signs
Signs in China are confusing. I cannot tell you how much time I spent just trying to figure out which way to go at the airport or in a train station. Not enough signs. Signs that are not clear. Signs that are too small to be seen while driving along at 80 kmh. Signs where the crucial information is covered up by something else such as an emergency telephone. Signs that send you in the wrong direction. Even signs that contradict each other. Again – I could tell this was a problem for my friends who live there as well. Which way to the maglev? Where is the west parking lot? Wait – which way to subway line 8? Where on earth do I check in for China Air? There were a few times I the visitor helped out locals who were lost and confused.
4. General difficulty/confusion
There was a point during my journey when I began to lose patience with just how difficult everything seemed in China.
One might reply “well that’s because you’re not a native and you don’t speak/read the language”. That is partly true. I have traveled to many different countries during my relatively short life. Canada and Western Europe and Eastern Europe and even India. But based on my experience China is an unusually difficult place to travel if you are not a native. If you (a) do not have a local Chinese friend who takes care of you and/or (b) do not go with a tour group/agency that does the same thing then (c) it would be difficult frustrating and almost impossible to visit China as a tourist. My wife noted that on her favorite television show “The Amazing Race” contestants consistently experience the most trouble in China.
By contrast Hong Kong was not like this. And I did not have a local friend to take me around! But I had little difficulty figuring out where to go or what to do. As my rabbi friend told me during my brief visit “Hong Kong is built on convenience”. China is not.
5. Public smoking
I think it is fair to say that public smoking is frowned upon in the United States. Not so in China. Smoking – including in public – is quite common. You have been warned.
6. Ignoring rules and pushing
This last part I am reluctant to bring up. Because I like China and I love Chinese people. And I stand by what I wrote earlier about service and professionalism. And I have not yet mentioned the generosity and hospitality that my friends demonstrated. I paid for nothing in China except travel and hotels. My friends insisted on paying for everything else such as meals tickets and even the occasional gift.
But there is another side of Chinese society. I believe it is directly related to how crowded China is – at least in the cities – and how life is a daily competition.
Publicly posted rules/signs are frequently ignored. In some tourist sites are signs that say “no (flash) photography” or the like. People just snap and flash away. In the museum “no cell phones”. People make and answer calls. In some areas “no smoking”. People light up and puff away. On the airplane the “fasten seat belt” light is still on – we are still taking off from the airport with plenty of heavy turbulence and Chinese passengers start getting out of their seats and heading toward the bathroom or getting things out of their luggage in the overhead bins. Unreal. Flight crew make announcements like “we would like to remind our passengers to stay in/return to their seats with their seat belts on“ every few minutes – and Chinese passengers would either not return to their seats or wait about one minute and then sure enough start getting up and doing exactly what they were told not to do. I noticed that very few Americans did this.
My general impression was that many Chinese people will do whatever they want to do or think they need to do at any given moment no matter what the signs/rules say. Until someone with specific authority – such as a security guard or police officer – stops them. At the museum in Shanghai my friend – who is a professor of English at Tongji University – saw a security guard stop me from answering my cell phone. And then 5 minutes later she was making and answering phone calls herself. Eventually the guard spotted her and told her to stop.
Related to this is pushing/jumping in line. I frequently saw Chinese people push or jump ahead in line. The worst was at the Shanghai Expo. I saw a few fights start because someone jumped in line – by hopping over or scooting under a fence/gate. At one point an older Chinese gentleman – who had been yelling at the guy who just jumped line right in front of him – turned around looked at me and said “Americans don’t jump in line – they wait their turn”. Apparently we have a reputation. My friend in Hong Kong said one of the ways he can identify mainland Chinese in Hong Kong is that they push in line.
Do not misunderstand me. These are general observations. Plenty of Chinese people are courteous and patient and follow posted rules and so on. But I frequently saw public behavior – such as relieving oneself in public – that one does not normally see in the United States.
7. Cautionary note
There is one major problem when comparing China to the United States which is this. What exactly are we comparing? I live in Baton Rouge which is a small city – in many ways just an overgrown town. Most of my life I have lived in the country or the suburbs. Is it fair to compare life in the suburbs to life in a Chinese city? Perhaps it would be better to compare Houston or New York City or Atlanta or Los Angeles to such places as Beijing or Shanghai or Guangzhou. Perhaps we should compare cities to cities. Not towns to cities. What we typically see and experience of China is urban China. We must not forget that 80% of Chinese people live in rural areas.
