About China

With some urging from a friend of mine, I will continue to write about my trip to China. First, though, I have to apologize.

I am white. I know a lot about Japan. I know very little about China, except that it is geographically close to Japan. As such, when I went to China, the preceding facts dictated that I should subconsciously expect China to be similar to Japan. That is a very bad thing. I’m sorry.

I hate to do this, but I’ll be completely honest and frame this post in the way that I was subconsciously thinking the whole time: China vs. Japan. Here is Item Number One in the differences I noticed between China and Japan:

China is dirty. In fact, China is filthy. While I try to maintain a neutral attitude towards most things (it’s different, not bad), this one put me off a bit. 北京, being a big city, was relatively ok in terms of cleanliness, though the subways were much dirtier than I expected. But 西安, especially the area I was staying in, looked like a war zone. Buildings, walls, streets were crumbling left and right. People spit and litter everywhere. The sidewalks were coated with a thick layer of dirt. My ヨン様 scarf started out white and blue, but ended up grey and blue. My shoes are still discolored with the fine dust of the city. I was strongly warned by my friend not to drink my Coke from the can, as even the cans are filthy. In the grocery stores, pretty much all of the beverage cans were severely dented at best. Many roads are “under construction,” which means that they are, and for the forseeable future will be, little but rubble.

The buildings in the suburbs of 西安 are all in a state of severe disrepair. For instance, my friend’s grandfather’s apartment building still has graffiti on it from 20 years ago. But the apartment itself is quite well maintained. Here’s what I gathered about the situation: The buildings are owned by the state, not individuals or private corporations. The state doesn’t care to fix anything up, so things steadily decay over time. If this was Japan or America, property values would drop and people would get pissed, so repairs would be made and the problem would be rectified. But not in China. So they have filthy apartment buildings housing quite posh apartments. Now apply the same process to everything in the city, and you have 西安.

Here’s a half-similarity between Japan and China: The prevalence of pit toilets. Yes, that’s a toilet that is little more than a porcelain hole in the floor. In Japan, 90% of the time you can find a Western-style toilet amongst the pits. But in China, you’re stuck with the “squatters,” as I affectionately nicknamed them. Also, Chinese bathrooms are B.Y.O.T.P. You can imagine how much fun I had being sick with 拉肚子 in the PRC. On the other hand, my friend made a very good point: You wouldn’t want to use a Western-style toilet in a country like China. That is my 公案 for you today.

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