China

[Traveler]

I received a recent invite to participate in a 2 week tour of China and decided to take the opportunity with my wife.  China was not at all what I expected.  With us on the tour were some others from the USA, Russia and Ukraine.  Those from Russia and Ukraine were not currently living in their homeland and are seeking to come to the USA.

Up until 1993 private cars were not allowed on highways.  Now the highways and city streets are jammed and gridlocked with privately owned cars.   Most of the cars are less than a decade old.  The middle class in China is growing and quite strong.  The largest percentage of the growth of the middle class is in the upcoming generations.  Owning a car and home are the two most prominent status symbols.  The upcoming generations are educated and technical.  They are crowded into cities and into homes (condo type) into high-rise apartment style complexes.

Homes are purchased from the government on either a 50- or 70-year lease.  When a lease is up, they are purchased again from the government.  Other than the purchase there are no taxes paid.  There are income taxes which are paid by everybody.  No one is allowed to live free.  Homeless are returned to their families and family communities for care – everyone in cities are employed.

Since COVID the tourism industry in China has dropped over 80% - which I am sure is why we were invited to visit.  Our tour took very good care of us, and we were referred to as guests.  No one in China that I met spoke very good proper English.  There is a language and culture barrier like I have not experienced anywhere else.  For example, if at an eating establishment you ask for water – you will get hot water.  It is almost impossible to get water with ice because no one understands why you would want ice in your water.

China has been ruled by Dynasties for thousands of years.  The current communists party is considered the recent dynasty.  The people feel that under this communist’s dynasty they enjoy more freedoms, economy and safety than any of the previous dynasties.  They seem to be more interested in safety than increasing freedom and liberty.   The cities and streets are under tight surveillance with facial recognition.  Crimes are punished with fines.  There are no courts or jails – just the government electronically seeking payment.  If enough is not in a bank account, wages are reduced until the fine is mitigated.  Violent crimes are different – for that you go to prison – like wise if one is a “money rat”.  A money rat is someone that embezzles money.  There are a lot of privately owned businesses but if an enterprise becomes too big the government takes over the company’s primary shares.  The company owns shares in all companies operating in China.  So they do not need to be taxed.

I do not know if anyone in the forum is interested in more.  Let me know what you think.

 

The Traveler

[LDSGator]

Melissa and I are planning to go to China to visit my BIL and some of the exchange students we’ve hosted over the years. Glad you had a good time. 

[NeuroTypical]

1 hour ago, Traveler said:

China has been ruled by Dynasties for thousands of years.  The current communists party is considered the recent dynasty.  The people feel that under this communist’s dynasty they enjoy more freedoms, economy and safety than any of the previous dynasties.  They seem to be more interested in safety than increasing freedom and liberty.   The cities and streets are under tight surveillance with facial recognition.

Stuff like this is fascinating to me.

I've had very few opportunities to talk to people from other nations about freedom and liberty and the concept of inalienable human rights.   Were you able to have any discussions with anyone about these concepts?

[Traveler]

4 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

Stuff like this is fascinating to me.

I've had very few opportunities to talk to people from other nations about freedom and liberty and the concept of inalienable human rights.   Were you able to have any discussions with anyone about these concepts?

I talked to everyone I could but there is a definite language barrier.   The translate on the phone translation apps are next to worthless because the sentence structure is backwards, and it is so hard to make sense of anything.  Even those that spoke English were hard to convers with, in any detail about anything.

No one carries a gun.  Even a knife more than two inches cannot be carried in public.  I was told by our guide that a fellow stabbed someone but as soon as the police found out they tracked the guy and had him in custody within 6 minutes.    They claim to be able to facial recognize people with COVID masks, but they can follow someone that puts on a mask because there is no where they can go and not be monitored and identified for recognition with a mask.   I was also told that I could be tracked and every possible person that I could come into contact with would be identified.   There is nothing from any spy movie that would work.  Maybe in the USA but not in China.

Another thing I was told is that if my wallet or passport or anything was lost or missing, just find someone in a uniform – tell them where I last had it, and they would find it.  If they could not speak English, they would quickly find someone that could.   Also, if I got lost and even if I could not remembered the name of my hotel – they would check records and get me to where I had reservations – even find my luggage.  Rather incredible for a country with over a billon people.  I do not know if all this is true but whenever I checked into a hotel, they knew my name and who I was before I told them.

I was instructed not to argue or even ask why if someone in uniform approached and asked for anything.  I was told to just comply and cooperate as much as possible.

No one was afraid to talk to me.  There was a kid (boy) – I think he was about 8 or 9 that was studying English in school that wanted to talk to me – he was so hard to understand.  His parents were excited for this kid to try to talk to a foreign stranger.  Everyone was open and friendly and willing to be helpful.  And there are a lot of people in China – they look very diverse to me.

There were times the wife and I were on our own – we were never worried.  Sign language worked better than trying to talk.  Oh, if anyone decides to go to China be sure to take your own toilet paper and if you can’t do squat, do not venture far from tourist places into the culture.

 

The Traveler