A few Impressions From a Tourist to China We did all the usual tourist things in Bejing so I wont go into that. It was stinking hot with high humidity. There are high rise buildings and cranes on new ones as far as the eye can see. The number of people on the streets and everywhere is staggering, but they are orderly and polite. There is almost no violent crime (but some theft). (No one owns guns so that may have something to do with it). Housing is expensive and starts at $2,000 a sq. metre (about 10 sq. feet). With an average income of $25,000 a year, its tough. People get married late, our guide Fiona being an example. Shes in her mid-thirties and engaged. Beijing is very polluted and I only saw the sun once. They are taking steps to change this and taking 6 million cars off the road there by year end that fail the emission standards. The cities are kept immaculately clean and they have planted trees everywhere. Beijing is one of four cities directly administered by the central government so they can take action without any debate. We took planes and buses to other cities like Xian where the terra cotta warriors were excavated (remarkable). We flew to Wuhan and then took a bus to Yichang and saw the famous Three Gorges Dam (controversial), the largest dam in the world. When it was completed in 2009, it supplied 10% of their energy needs but its down to 3% as their energy needs grow. We took a cruise on the Yangtze river for three days and saw the three Gorges and the Shennong Stream in a sampan. As I said in my status, the people are courteous and kind. However, as the country turns into a consumer society, the younger people have become very materialistic as they didnt experience the hard times of earlier generations. They seem obsessed with gadgets and material things and status symbols and they are pretty apolitical. People 35 and older seemed a bit more reflective about where they are going as a county. We spent the last two days in Shanghai, the largest city in China with 23 million people. Im not much of a shopper so spent most of my time walking around on the Bund and I took the underwater tunnel to the other side of the Huangpu River. It was their big holiday, the Dragon Boat Festival, so the crowds were unreal. The soon-to-be completed Shanghai Tower will be the biggest building in the world. I wanted to visit an animal shelter, but there arent any (not allowed by the government), but there are small underground rescues where people rescue abandoned dogs and cats off the street. I saw many people walking their dogs and they looked healthy and well-cared for. I saw very few stray cats in China but the ones I saw didnt look very healthy. I was going to make a donation to a cat rescue if I could have found one. Its only in the past 17 years since theyve become prosperous that people have been able to keep companion animals. Do people eat cats and dogs today? Probably in some remote areas of the country but not in the cities where people have achieved middle class status. However, not so long ago hunger was rampant and people ate everything on four legs except tables and chairs, which is what I was told. In conclusion, China is a complex and diverse county and a developing industrial giant. Kids in Europe and North America are taking Mandarin immersion and tourism has become a big industry. We can effect change in attitudes towards animal welfare there through dialogue and by supporting animal welfare activists and not by throwing stones IMO.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 06:13:18 +0000
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