Cultural Observations

So I wanted to dedicate this blog to things that are different between Americans and Chinese.

Observation 1:
Despite the fatty fried food, everyone here is a stick. Quite literally, a stick with a head. When I have seen non-sticks, we are only talking about MAYBE 10-15 lbs too much for their frame. The idea of an overweight person does not seem to exist here.

Observation 2:
Like many cities, riding bikes here is extremely popular. In Manhattan, it’s common, but not as common as here. But here, it is how you get around.

In Manhattan, cyclists claimed they were not getting fair treatment in regards to safety and use of area in which to ride their bikes. Most bike riders in Manhattan do so because of either work or for actual travel (rather than the subways or expensive taxis).

Here, cyclists get their own light at crosswalks and at intersections (not that any type of moving object- be it car, person, bike, bus, etc actually USES the lights), and some roads have whole entire lanes sectioned off for cyclists. And I learned today that those sidewalk bike parking lots are actual bike parking lots, with parking attendants and everything. There are definitely more people riding bikes than driving cars.

And let me tell you, it’s not the moving cars you have to worry about running you over on the street, it’s the cyclists. They stop for NOTHING. They will plow you down and then get up and keep going. When you see bikes coming at you, best to step out of the way.

Observation 3:
Hygiene and clean restaurants don’t belong in the same sentence. So of course, I’m not talking about the upscale restaurants, but the typical on the street type places that you see in any city. They are cruddy gross, but here’s what is REALLY gross-

In one place we went, I only went once( I didn’t like the food and this story subject matter grossed me out), it was a huge place with four floors, and on the floor we were on, we had 8 of us at one table, and there were two tables of men around us. And I kid you not, they were hacking and spitting on the floor- hacking up snot and spitting on the restaurant floor.

Disgusting doesn’t describe it.

Observation 4:
Speaking of hacking, everyone does it here. I thought NY was bad. It doesn’t seem to matter where you are, or who you are, everyone from the malformed guy begging on the street corner to the door guard in uniform carrying a gun to the lady wearing designer duds straight off the Chinese runway, everyone hacks and spits.

And worse are the snot-shooters, where people plug one side of their nose and blow out the other and the snot lands on the ground. THAT is disgusting…

Observation 5:
But do you want to hear what’s really disgusting?

Parenting here is quite different than in the US. Babies and toddlers are not toted in strollers, or in fancy slings or anything, they are just carried. And toddlers walk. And it is seeing toddlers walk that leads me to answer the previous question-

Toddlers don’t generally wear diapers. They have one-sies that have open crotches. Some babies have these too. And what happens is that the children are instructed to just go through the holes in their pants, regardless of where they are- in a park, at an attraction, on the side of the street at a busy intersection... I can’t think of a way to describe it, and there’s surely no appropriate way to take a picture.

You constantly see baby tush and such as toddlers run around on the streets. And while we are on the subject of toddlers running around on the streets, I can’t tell you how many toddlers I have seen just pee right there on the sidewalk, no shame, no walking off to the side, just right there, boys AND girls.

A costumer was telling me how the other day she saw a mother holding her toddler in such a way that the mother’s lap was like a western toilet and the child was taking “the largest poo I have ever seen” onto a newspaper between her feet on the sidewalk. Can you even imagine?

Observation 6:
Everyone here smokes. This is probably partially why everyone is so skinny. But it really is amazing that almost everyone seems to smoke. You’d think that by now they’d have heard that smoking causes cancer. I cant say I’ve ever seen so many smokers in my life, even in the days when I went to bars that still allowed smoking. And they can smoke just about anywhere, and they do.

Observation 7:
These squat pots baffle me. They are definitely NOT hygenic. And I don't see how anyone who isn't young and strong could possible use them. There is no way an elderly person is using them, no way the few larger people we have seen use them, forget about pregnant women... And none of them seem to have toilet paper! We found a starbucks near the theatre that has western toilets and is almost always stocked with TP, so a few of us just go there when things get desperate. The bathrooms at the theatre are just disgusting. I can get as far as walking in there, and shutting the stall door.... but then gag reflexes take over, and if i don't get out that second, there will be puking. Definitely some cast members have actually puked, or so i hear. And the smell has spread to the entire hallway on stage left, so it smells like a gross public bathroom on all of stage left. They are just disgusting. I do not find it liberating, I find it weird and gross.

I didn't get to run to carrefour yesterday. i am going today. without question.

I could likely keep going, but I’m thinking there are just too many weird things and I would be here for hours!