Observations in China

Blogging indeed takes a backseat during our current shuttle-runs of changing locations/accomm. Though being ethnic Chinese roaming China as a foreigner, here're some observations thus far:

1. Like a parallel to Westerners mistaking Singapore as part of China, the local Chinese are surprised that Singapore contains ethnic Chinese and can actually speak Mandarin.


2. The PA-system of Guangzhou's subway announces in 3 languages - Mandarin, Cantonese, then English (likely according to priority).

3. Now I know what it means to breathe the air of a polluted city (picture of Guangzhou). On a good day, it borders on romance. On a bad one, you know your health insurance policy was not bought in vain.

4. While the sleeper class of China's train easily beats the KTMB (Msia) variant, it's still lamentable to witness how the space proportion of humans/luggage to breathable air in the unreserved seating class gets pretty bad. :(

5. Some experiences here remind me (Willy) of what my parents can only relate to me or what I can only watch on TV - rattling of firecrackers all over (esp during Lantern Festival in Guilin), people in crumbling courtyard homes clustering over lunch, cycling through villages just like those in pugilistic movie sets etc.

6. The touts (in Yangshou) are amazingly persistent and remarkably irritating. They'll sell you anything, even if you're in the same line with them buying something, or asking for directions (they'll insist on sending you there). Their strong-arm tactics in not taking a firm "NO!" for an answer even applies to the group of hunching grandmas hawking flowers & peanuts. But sometimes you do get overwhelmed with the "What's wrong with giving up some RMB when it contributes to their comparatively lower income?" moral dilemma that we relent. Otherwise, we've been quite happy contributing to those asking along the streets.