| Timothy, you've made a long speech.
I'll try to answer the points from my view as a laowei (foreigner), living a long time here : 1) China is rising, but not in a cultural way. Purely economic. China is a DEVELOPING COUNTRY. And, in fact, very poor off ! For this reason, culture evolution is simply DEAD here. Every new things I've seen is just a copy from the West (I'm sorry to say so, chinese guys). 2) Smoking : 94% of men are smoking- 4% of women are smoking. Guess why. (And wonder !!). You are right - the "people's Government" profits, and the MAN rules here. That's all. Funny story : I will pay a good friend of mine 500RMB to quit if he can keep it for 6 months, and he quit in 1 month, just to prove it to me ! And, because of that, he found a nice girl from Gansu to marry now ! This is the chinese way, money does the miracle. 3) Eating at McDonald's or similar junk food outlets will not in recent times affect the economy of this country, because no public health security is available. People pay for their own hospitalization. When you go to hospital, you need money, otherwise you'll be rejected. Social security is a "province on Mars" here. Even if you consider to buy your own here, it's only meant to serve you if you are dead. (That is likely in the traffic, because 110.000 dies in traffic accidents every year (Official counts...)). 4) The friendly meeting in November with US, attending Mr. Bush and others, only made the piracy shops to close and withdraw their goods from nov.1 to nov 25, when he left. Anyone could see this in Shanghai... (We were quite nervous, if it was for final, because 6RMB DVD's IS a bargain after all !) 5) Timothy, come here, and you will discover a country far more capitalistic than the US ever been (at least after 1950).... That's why so many companies want to make business here, do you get it ?! The workers do not have any union or worker's protection. Most workers (with some education skills) have 1.00US$/hr in the larger cities. And can get exchanged in hours if they die or object to anything. Here, the employee is the ruler ! But, all the people in the west love to buy things for 70% of the domestic made product's price, and thus they help the things to go on here. Forget about preventing, preserving, protecting etc. Find another country to protect, here nobody can't do anything. Nobody want's to get a head shorter ! Wrong place, try India, they may listen......... An advice to all tourists is : Get a fully sufficient health insurance (including home transportation) when you intend to go to China for vacation, even for 1 day. And - you'll have to cope with the pollution ! |
Shanghai is Still Highly Polluted