Monday, November 26, 2012

My China Trip part 9

Hong Kong is in China, but China is very different from Hong Kong. Americans, and most people, can go to Hong Kong without a visa. Everyone needs a visa to go to Mainland China. Even people living in Hong Kong need a visa to go to the Mainland. It’s the same country, but different governments. From here on, I will just call Mainland China “China” so I don't have to type “Mainland” over and over, even though Hong Kong is in China.

In Hong Kong, anyone can drive anywhere at any time. In China, there are curfews and you can only drive on certain days based on your car’s license plate. They let you know which day you’re allowed to drive.

In Hong Kong, you can have as many children as you want. In China, they have that one child policy. But they are talking about abolishing it, and whether it stays or goes, there are so many exceptions that millions of couples have more than one child. Either way, everybody wants to have a boy. I guess no one thinks about what will happen when there are only boys in China and no more girls.

In Hong Kong, it’s perfectly legal to be gay, though frowned upon. And apparently, there are quite a lot of lesbians. Enough to have club outings, at least. They’re a friendly bunch. In China, it’s all illegal. Gay nude beach day in China will land you in prison. I wonder what they’ll do in 30 years when everyone under 20 is a boy.

In Hong Kong, we have Chinese food from all over the world. You can get pretty much anything if you know where to look. I’ve been here almost two years and I’m still looking. In China, it’s mostly Chinese food. It’s good and cheap, but there’s not much variety. McDonald’s and KFC are all over the place, but that’s about it when it comes to something that’s not Chinese.

I always thought the people in Hong Kong were rude. They walk right into you. Nobody ever moves out of anyone’s way. If I’m walking in a straight line, I have to move for people walking all over the place. If I’m carrying something, I have to move for people who aren’t carrying anything. I see people with luggage, strollers and babies moving for people who are only holding their cell phones. Everyone in Hong Kong is holding a cell phone. They are all talking on them while slamming into everyone else. It’s like none of the millions of people walking the streets are aware that millions of other people exist.

Where I come from, people don’t slam into each other. If they do, it’s an accident, and we will always apologize. We always step aside for people carrying heavy things. We’ll even help them sometimes. We always – always – give someone with a baby the right of way. That’s non-negotiable. You move for the handicapped and people with babies. You don’t see handicapped people in Hong Kong. I don’t know why, but there are plenty of mothers with babies. No one seems to care about crashing into them.

It’s even worse in China. Hong Kong is polite compared to China. People say it’s because there are more people in China. There are. China has a lot of people, but Hong Kong is not exactly empty. China has over a billion people in the same amount of space as the United States, but Hong Kong has 7 million people in the same amount of space as Indianapolis, and Indianapolis has less than a million people.

Everyone smokes in Hong Kong and China. I think smoking is repulsive. It’s not only bad for the smoker, it’s bad for anyone near the smoker. Too many Americans like to smoke, but at least we have places where you can get away from smoke. There are very few non-smoking places in Hong Kong. From what I saw, there are absolutely no non-smoking places in Fuzhou. People in Hong Kong and China don’t think twice about blowing their smoke right in your face. They care less about poisoning others than about walking into them.

But China takes it to the next level. Everyone in China spits. All the time. That might sound like an extreme exaggeration. Especially since I only went to one city for one week. But every single person in the entire country of China spits in public every second of every day from birth until death. I couldn’t believe it. Fully grown adult men and women were spitting everywhere. There are signs in elevators telling people not to spit because they do, right there in the elevator. I finally realized why Chinese people always take off their shoes when they go home. They spend all day walking around in everyone’s spit. It always looks like it just rained because the streets are always wet. It’s the most disgusting thing ever. You can’t get away from it. Like smoking, it’s everywhere. You can’t look away when you see someone spitting because wherever you look, there’s someone else spitting. I don’t know what it is about Chinese people that fills their mouths with constant saliva, maybe all the constant smoking, but they can’t stop spitting. I’m getting sick just thinking about it.

1 comment:

No hate, please. There's enough of that in the world already.