Sunday, November 18, 2012

My China Trip part 7

I always used to wonder what it would be like to go to China. Growing up in Minnesota, China is an exotic land very far away from anything we knew. Living in Hong Kong has taught me a lot about Chinese culture and I’ve seen all kinds of food you never see in an American Chinese restaurant, but you don’t get the full Chinese experience. Hong Kong is not a closed communist society. It’s very open and extremely capitalist. In some ways, Hong Kong is a giant shopping mall. A lot of people speak English in Hong Kong. Most of them make a lot of mistakes, and sometimes it’s pretty funny, but you can live in Hong Kong without knowing much Chinese.

When I used to think of China, I thought about the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square. I thought about repression and censored internet. When I went to Mainland China, I didn’t go anywhere near the Great Wall. Fuzhou is 1,000 miles away. I didn’t spend any time online, but Ryan has confirmed that there’s plenty of censorship. He can’t get the kind of porn he can get in Hong Kong. He says it’s all censored in China. I should be happy about that, but I’d rather have my boyfriend surf for porn online than look around offline. If we only see each other every three months, I’d rather have him enjoy the pleasure of his computer than troll the streets.

The only thing I noticed when I went to Fuzhou was the repression. It’s probably not as bad as it used to be, but you can tell the people are not entirely comfortable. There’s a public uneasiness you don’t get other places. I can’t properly describe it. People stare at me in Hong Kong. Children stare and point. My race and hair are a curiosity, despite all the foreigners all over the place. No one stared at me in Fuzhou. In fact, most people looked down or averted their eyes whenever they walked past me. Hong Kong feels nothing like the United States, but if feels like a free place. Fuzhou simply does not.

Fuzhou has plenty of shopping malls, though it’s nothing compared to Hong Kong. There’s a large pedestrian shopping street downtown and a large mall with all kinds of small Chinese stores. McDonald’s and KFC are all over the place. I thought Hong Kong had a lot of McDonald’s, but I think Fuzhou has more. There was practically one on every block. It’s ridiculous.

Taxis are very cheap, about half the Hong Kong price just to get in and less than half for every mile. I thought the driver was trying to rip us off when he wanted $2 more than what the meter read, but Ryan said that’s an extra charge for gas. You always pay $2 more than the meter. Unless Ryan’s been getting ripped off all this time. I think it could probably be either or.

Ryan took me to a small lake in the middle of the city. We walked around it and it was all very romantic, but to be honest, we spent most of the time in his bedroom. I’m sure there’s plenty to see and do in Fuzhou, but after three months apart, we had to make up for lost time. Maybe I should have spent more time exploring the city, but I was perfectly happy spending time with Ryan exploring me. I want to say that the next time I go back I’ll see more, but we’ll probably spend just as much time on top of each other.

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