Out and About Chongzuo

The Yushu earthquake in Qinghai province has dominated the news here in China. Wednesday was China’s official day of mourning. At 9:30 in the morning air raid sirens blared and there was a moment of silence. No one was allowed entertainment for the day; every TV channel played the identical morose montage and all entertainment-based websites were offline. As an outsider I can’t help but wonder if this government policy inspires more frustration than compassion. It seems like the government treats its citizens like untrustworthy children. For all the talk of modernization, China has some maturing to do.

Mature or not, there is no doubt that the times are a changing in China. Rapid economic transformation is evident by the countless factories and high rise buildings springing up out of the land that was previously 5’x10’ farm plots. Change is also evident by the generation gap between our students and their parents. I think the current generation shares many of the same traits that the baby boomers have. They are in fact a bit of a baby boom themselves with more than 200 million people between the ages of 15 and 25. They tend to be both economically and culturally more liberal than their parents. They borrow money rather than save money and they value trends and fashion even more than Americans. They love what is new and hate what is old. There doesn’t seem to be much counterculture here. When these kids grow up and have money they will make a great consumer market.

Another odd thing about China is how a craft that took weeks of painstaking work to make only will sell for a couple of dollars. Labor has no value in China. Minimum wage is ~$1/hour but it isn’t enforced. The government doesn’t bother enforcing things like that. They care about political and social stability, and economic growth. Things like expired food, pollution and traffic laws (China has the highest traffic accident morality rate per capita of any country) are simply not priorities here.

Enough social exposé, let’s get on with the happenings of our lives.

A few weeks ago we told our students we hated it here and we were going to go back to America… “April Fools!!” A few moments of bewildered silence passed and then suddenly all the students screamed at the top of their lungs, “AAAAAAAAAh!!!” One of Fiona's students said "You should not joke. I almost cry!" We got them good.

I’ve been teaching the non majors a new topic each week: personal introductions, phone calls, school, family, jobs, and this week, talking at work. The school asked me to teach the students cultural awareness and get them to talking out loud in English. I try to keep them learning and also keep them interested. Many students flipped out when I told them about same-sex and interracial marriages in the United States. My PowerPoint presentations are getting increasingly detailed and lengthy but there is nothing as useful and entertaining as describing things with diagrams and photographs.

The past two weekends we have chosen to stay at home and ride our “motos” (Chinese for moped) around the area where we live.
We have explored in just about every direction. A few times we have ended up going down long single track dirt roads and getting to little impoverished villages that feel like they are waaay out there.

No way these places are on any maps. Perhaps we are the first foreigners to ever venture here. Everyone looks at us like “what the hell are you doing here?”

The rides have given us a sense of the local surroundings. To the East and South there lies beautiful farmland country, farmers, tractors, water buffalo and not much else.

To the North lies the center of our town called “Jiangzhou.”

Jiangzhou straddles the meandering Zuo Jiang River. We found an ancient leaning tower on an island in the river.

Past the Zuo Jiang River are beautiful karst mountains and about an hour into these mountains lies another small town whose name is unknown.

To the West is the new development of Chongzuo City (our school is part of this). It is an area about 2x4 miles composed of brand new roads and streetlights. Only about 15% of the land has buildings on it and the rest of the land is abandoned banana plantations. The buildings are all less than three years old and they tend to be 4-8 stories tall. At each construction site there are little shanty towns that house the construction workers. There are very few people or cars on the streets and it seems like a brand new ghost town. There is no way this development is economical and is obviously a result of government planning.

This photo is of a local in front of our school.

This illustrates how they build roads in China. They lay a foundation of cement about a foot thick. I figure given the abundance of cheap limestone and coal, it might be cheaper to build the roads like this, not to mention that these roads will hold up for a long time.

Last week we went to our first “KTV” which is Karaoke Chinese-style. Basically you go into something that feels a little like a nightclub except there are dozens of private rooms complete with Karaoke machines, deafening speakers, lasers, and black lights. T.C. invited us to a company party there. Fiona and I sang a few songs and played dice games. It was pretty fun but it was one of those things that you need to have a few beers in you to properly enjoy the experience and we never got there.

We have been getting our fruits and vegetables at the outdoor market. It is a huge farmer’s market that goes on all day and is a little cheaper than the grocery store. It has just about everything you want and more, including dead dogs laid out next to the cages of dogs ready to be butchered. One man’s best friend is another man’s dinner.

-George