Here are a few observations from our week in China. Now I must qualify the following list by saying we have only been here for a week and we by no means consider ourselves fluent in the chinese culture. Our observations have come from spending time in Beijing and Xi'an. But this is what we have seen and observed.
- We did not experience any Chinese food even remotely similar to Chinese food in the US. When we ordered sesame chicken (pretty standard chinese food dish in the US), we received a rotisserie chicken covered in sesame seeds and hacked into bite size pieces (bones and all) with no sauce. So where the heck did our US version of sesame chicken come from!? We did thoroughly enjoy the local food we encountered. We love noodles!
- You can't walk around without feeling like you are being watched; there are cameras throughout the city. Okay, so there are loads of cameras in some of the major US cities; most are traffic cameras, some are not. Here though, there are cameras on many of the light posts throughout the city, and we even counted up to 10 on the light posts in Tiananmen Square.
- Beijing is the dirtiest, clean city we have ever visited. The streets are clean because they have many people to clean them, not because people don't make them dirty. Babies here don't wear diapers and walk around with the butts cut out of their pants, meaning they pee and poo at will wherever the mood strikes them. Also, people tend to just throw their trash on the ground, but have no fear because there is an army of people whose job it is to sweep up all the trash and even scrape gum off the ground.
- This truly is the most populated country in the world; we have never seen so many people. Imagine Disney World during high season, multiply it by 10 and then cram all those people into a subway. I now have a greater appreciation for Asian tourists in other countries who I find a bit pushy; if you aren't pushy here you will never get anywhere!
- We did not experience any Chinese food even remotely similar to Chinese food in the US. When we ordered sesame chicken (pretty standard chinese food dish in the US), we received a rotisserie chicken covered in sesame seeds and hacked into bite size pieces (bones and all) with no sauce. So where the heck did our US version of sesame chicken come from!? We did thoroughly enjoy the local food we encountered. We love noodles!
- You can't walk around without feeling like you are being watched; there are cameras throughout the city. Okay, so there are loads of cameras in some of the major US cities; most are traffic cameras, some are not. Here though, there are cameras on many of the light posts throughout the city, and we even counted up to 10 on the light posts in Tiananmen Square.
- Beijing is the dirtiest, clean city we have ever visited. The streets are clean because they have many people to clean them, not because people don't make them dirty. Babies here don't wear diapers and walk around with the butts cut out of their pants, meaning they pee and poo at will wherever the mood strikes them. Also, people tend to just throw their trash on the ground, but have no fear because there is an army of people whose job it is to sweep up all the trash and even scrape gum off the ground.
- This truly is the most populated country in the world; we have never seen so many people. Imagine Disney World during high season, multiply it by 10 and then cram all those people into a subway. I now have a greater appreciation for Asian tourists in other countries who I find a bit pushy; if you aren't pushy here you will never get anywhere!
1 comment:
hot hot hot.....here in the u.s. for the past three weeks, your observations of china are very interesting for they capture the culture of the people.....being a sociology major (way back when).....i loved reading this post.....the people probably found both of you very interesting being blonde and looking quite differnt than themselves.....thanks
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