Last days in China, and as promised we share some of our feelings.
After the positive aspects, we tell you some of the negatives. It is not our intention to judge the customs and traditions, the political and economic choices of this country. But simply give voice to our personal experience, tell you how we felt, how we perceived respect for the environment and other people.
* Pollution and dust everywhere, at any time of the day. The sky is perpetually covered with a blanket of smog, and the nature on either side of the streets is completely gray.
* Rubbish everywhere, in every flowerbed, on the roadsides, in front of shops and houses. Everywhere. And often bonfires are set to burn the heaps of garbage.
* There isn’t the culture of recycling. There is a lack of respect for the environment: people, even the youngest, throw things that they no longer use on the ground, from simple paper to the cabinet that decided to change.
* Abuse of plastic. It’s a fact: the chinese love disposable packs (there are shops and supermarket departments only for single-serve packs), and they are likely to pack every single thing using a different bag (one bag for each orange, one bag for each sandwich, and so on).
* Houses, public spaces, streets, everything is badly kept. There are electric cables everywhere, like bundles of wires rolled up on the trees or inside the manholes. The hygienic conditions are very bad, bordering on indecency. Everywhere there is a bad smell. And no wonder about the presence of strays and mice, even in large cities.
* Even the monuments and the few historical artifacts that survived the advent of modern society are not valued and are not adequately maintained. According to them: their past, their history, have no value to be handed down as they do not reflect today’s ideals, and slow them down in their global economic rise.
* You have to pay to enter the parks and green areas in the city, and also at a high price. Like if we have to pay to enter the area of any beautiful italian lake, or the municipal park. If there’s something nice to visit in China, be sure that you have to pay!
* The road code doesn’t exist. We ran the risk of doing a lot of traffic accidents because the direction of travel and the obligation to give priority are often not respected. Everybody rings the horn to affirm their presence. Everyone, from the biggest truck to the smallest scooter.
* Smoking and passive smoking. The ban on smoking in public places is not respected: all the rooms in the hotels we stayed in smelled of smoke and we couldn’t use the air conditioning because the smell of smoke that came out was always too intense. 2/3 of the population smokes, especially men. The cost of a pack of cigarettes varies from 1 to 3 euros. And try to think where the cigarette butts and finished packages end up? On the ground, of course.
* Most people don’t return the greeting; they are amazed and laugh if we don’t understand their language; they shrug their shoulders and don’t consider us if we ask them if they speak English or to wait a moment, just the time we need to turn on the translator.
* The queues are not respected, there is no vital space and respect for other people’s things. Everybody is in a hurry and everyone thinks of himself, pushing the others out. What is yours is actually everyone’s. Often they touch our things, even before didn’t say hello. And it also happened that they climbed on our bikes just to try the thrill of riding and understand how heavy they were, without obviously asking our permission.
* Often they film and photograph us secretly. If you make them notice that it is not pleasant to be spied on, they look down or start laughing (however, times they asked us to take a picture, we always were available and enthusiastic, even when in reality we were exhausted).
* They have a saying: “everything that moves can be eaten” and they aren’t intimidated to put it into practice. In addition to dogs, as you already know, cats and turtles are also eaten. More generally, dogs are tied to chains just over a meter long. Those that are destined to be eaten, instead, are kept in very small cages. And they bark in a way never heard before, as if they know the tragic end they will do.
* Exaggerated waste of food: it’s a good habit, in fact, to eat only a third of what you ordered to prove to the restaurateur that the dishes were plentiful and we like it. We obviously always been “rude” finishing all that we had in the plate!
* Internet censorship and various limitations.
That people whose great travelers, illustrious writers and famous journalists of the past, spoke about. Those humble, smiling people, full of charm. That people with extraordinary culture. Well, know it: that people no longer exists!
