I have realized that Americans view China only through its tourist attractions. We think of the Great Wall, Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. These places are as much indicative of China as historic Jamestown or Paul Revere's house are of the modern United States. They aren't anything like the everyday life in the country.
John and I traveled to Beijing during the National Holiday in China and we, and about fifty million Chinese, were all headed to the same tourist attractions!We did Beijing right, sitting in traffic for four hours to get to a part of the Great Wall. Apparently you cannot say you've "done" Beijing without a good hardcore traffic jam.(Part of the traffic issue had to do with the growing fame of a little roadside restaurant on the back roads in the area that was famous for its donkey meat. I was not enticed to stop and eat.) The walk up the road to the Wall was harder work than the actual stairs up. It was like main street Disney, with vendors yelling "Hello! Hello!" and shoving good old fashioned made-in-China tourist kitsch our way. By the way, if you look like a foreigner, the first price quoted will often be fifty to one hundred times more than they will actually take for the item. If they convince one Mei Guo Ren (American) to pay 150 rmb for a t-shirt they'll take twenty for, they've had a good day...lol. We rode a chairlift to the stairs of the wall, toddled up the stairs, and were able to see the most amazing view of the countryside. If you look away from the vendor stalls, food sellers and sedans and suv's parked as far as the eye can see,the view across the the other side of the wall truly can feel, if only for a moment, as if you are transported back in time a few hundred years. Then you walk a little further along the top, buy a Coke Zero and a Snickers bar from a very nice Mongolian man dressed in a Mao-esque communist green, red-starred uniform who wants to take a picture with you. Capitalism is EVERYWHERE in Communist China. As a side note, John joked witht he man that HE was the reason they BUILT the wall in the first place! The guy loved the joke...his English was very good for a vendor!
On that note, I have to say that I think there are probably more entrepreneurs in Communist China than there are the the United States! The only difference is here, its a little less regulated unless the government takes an interest...lol. For instance, only licensed vendors can sell popsicles in Tienanmen Square. Yet you see dozens of folks milling around with cardboard boxes of frozen popsicles. It's a good gig if the police don't take an interest. We saw one man try to non-chalantly turn another way as a bicycle policeman approached. The cop tried to confiscate the popsicles, and the seller attempted to pass his box of merchandise over a low fence to a friend on the other side. Another bike cop appeared out of nowhere and promptly snatched the box from the friend! Then all parted ways, no harm, no foul. It was, honestly, quite funny!
There are some aspects that are still very directly government controlled. There are several of our library books that the local consular general's office confiscated and will not return because they apparently have information on China contrary to that which the government deems appropriate. Additionally, they confiscated our Social Studies text books and removed, not drew a line through but physically removed the top layer of the paper, any mention of Taiwan as an independent state. It was truly masterful work. So again, my friends, there are many, many days when I forget that I am in a Communist country, but then there are days when I most assuredly remember.
Oh...and the government controls the heat and won't turn it on until November 1st! Did I forget to mention that??? ;)
Cheers friends!
