Life and Travel in China

Our friend is hiding in a factory, in a company where she works in the sales department. He doesn't live at home, why? She is pregnant with her second child, and of course if the authorities found out about it, they would force her to have an abortion. She wants to have a child, legally she would have to pay 160,000 RMB for the second child (such a financial penalty). Currently, she will wait until the child is born and register her in the countryside, outside her place of residence. We also know a more drastic case. Another girl was forced to abort her baby a week before it was born.

I met some old American guy at the airport in Ningbo. He started telling something about 20 years ago when he was in Poland, that he traded steel, and that he lived in Shanghai for 6 years. He confided that he once had a Chinese wife (probably 40 years younger than him). Supposedly, she took over his business, took the car he registered in her name and went to the US on a visa she got thanks to him, setting up a competing company. A typical example of love for money. But looking at it objectively, this guy probably couldn't have counted on a better ending. He was really fat, dirty and old, and instead of marrying a young and smart Chinese woman for the third time, he could have stayed alone or gotten involved with an older woman who didn't care about his wallet. There are thousands of such relationships, I also know a Chinese woman in Shenzhen who is supported by her old American fiancé. And she's having fun here and playing with his money on the Chinese stock exchange. Some guys are losers, they buy temporary love and are fooled by cute Asian girls at the end.

I recently read in an English-language Chinese newspaper that the number of private cars is constantly growing and is around 40 million. This is not much when you look at the population of the country in general, but on the other hand, it does not include company, company or government cars, and there are probably hundreds of millions of them. Despite everything, the number of vehicles increases, and I observe that the number of collisions and accidents increases. When I left the house for 2 hours, I saw two collisions. Yesterday, while riding a bike, a small car brushed against a new BMW. The number of cars and drivers increases, and their driving skills are getting worse. Either they do something about it, regulate the regulations somehow and start demanding something from these pseudo-drivers, or they will kill themselves on the roads.

I noticed that Poles' perception of the Middle Kingdom depends on whether they have been to China at all, and if so, in which city or town. Two Poles visiting Guangzhou recently said that China is crap, the food is terrible, the streets are nasty. When someone visits some poor towns in the interior of China, they probably think that China is crap and poverty. Being in Shenzhen, Shanghai or Hong Kong, we will find that China is rich and modern. It's such a big country that even I, having been here for 20-30 years, won't get to know it thoroughly. So you need to have some humility and you shouldn't judge an entire country, such a large country, based on a few days' trip. Here, each province has different cities, towns, different culture, language, diverse architecture, customs, some develop more, others not at all. There are no rules for China. Of course, people who have never been here have the most to say about the country.

I was taking night photos in downtown Shenzhen yesterday and encountered a new form of begging. An older guy comes up to me, asks about the photos, asks where I'm from, of course he says America. Later he tells some story about his daughter, I didn't understand him exactly. And finally he tells me to give him 7 RMB. It may not seem like a fortune, but I don't give away money on the street. I look at him, glasses, hat, watch, decent clothes, and it turns out that he has nothing to eat. He then asks for 5 RMB as if he was haggling. I told him I left the money at home. He asked if I lived here and was surprised when I said yes.