Think of this thread as DTRs travel channel......with wonderful views and music.

MSNBC commenting is in the political thread....

now; back to our program.......



awesome Stan, i have been reading it aloud to my hubby. something i have never done in five years on this site. kudos, beuno trabaja or however you say GOOD WORK! lol

 

For the cost of a basic haircut in the US, you can get a meal.
For the cost of Stan's haircut, you could probably get a pretty good meal. For basic living, its probably comparable.
While a good portion of Asians may live in a corrugated tin shack, they will all have a cell phone.
In alot of cases, they live as they think is normal. Kinda like I don't see the point in a 40 bedroom house for 2 people. It just doesn't make sense.

Like Mom said, back to the regularly scheduled program.

 

Most idiotic statement I have read that you made.

 

they got food
they got shelter
they got warmth and cool
the areas Ive been, they have the funds to move around from area to area and country to country in the region.
Yeah, I would say they live in their area just as well as most in this area live.
No, they dont have a new car, 50" TV in every room.
They also dont have a shed full of crap that goes unused year after year. Just because we in the US CAN, doesn't mean we should.

 

Really? WOW! Thank you for your nice comments.

Right on. Many folks in the so-called developed or first world countries think that the people in undeveloped or third world countries are worse off than they are and therefor need "education" to bring them up to the 'standards' of the first world. However, what is often overlooked is happiness and contentment. In my home country (Africa) I have often looked at the natives living in the country and spoken to some of the old timers. They were all happy and content before the white man came and 'educated' them and showed them a 'better' way. OK, maybe some things were better, but these 'better' things destroyed their way of life. What about the North American Indians and their way of life before the white man arrived. Compare their way of life to the life of today's Indians. Who was better off and happier? Today so many Indians are on drugs, alcoholics and on welfare. What happened to their pride and way of life?

Was looking for the story about the guy that was fishing and some businessman was trying to persuade him to get a fleet of boats to fish, but can't find it. It sums things up nicely.

 

Im not so sure they aren't educated.
How many people do you know that fluently speak 2 or 3 languages?
they speak their native language, usually another local language and english. They have figured out that english is the language of business. learn to speak english, and you can deal with ex-pats. ex-pats have money and will spend money. Even the chinese will learn english to deal with ex-pats.

The only thing I have found them to be lacking on is global geography. And considering how many americans can barely locate their own country, that seems pretty bright to me.

 

how about a PM for that lil hint of wisdom.

china comments and observations is the thread, thanks.

 

With stan's post as well:

in a legal setting, it was eye opening to hear that Chinese have little regard for our laws but pay attention to the business impact. (wads of suspensions/traffic/parking tickets but when their car is impounded and they can't get to supplies for business...hoo boy! out comes the cash and "how much" question) while Africans, and some europeans are scared to death of our law (Court) but have more pride in themselves and their ways with disdain for anything American. they will live in a cardboard box rather than take an American government handout.

sad when both nationalities look around at our country and say "all this!! for what? your luxuries mean nothing."

more Americans need to hear from other nationalities some days..

 

Today dawned cold at all of one degree C, but it was windless and a nice blue sky, in spite of the air pollution. It did warm up nicely later. Went out with a Chinese friend from way back. He is a Canadian and we both worked for De Havilland in Toronto in the late 60's and early 70's. He has been here now for over a year, so knows the area. We walked for over 4 hours and visited numerous places.

First stop today was what is called the computer street. Almost the entire street is nothing but stores selling computers and associated stuff. There are also sales folk outside the stores hawking anything electronic you can imagine, including knockoffs. This area is quite noisy due to each vendor trying to out shout the guy next to him – and all use amps and big speakers. The store I wanted to go in (been there before) is almost one city block big and 5 stories high. Every floor is devoted to a different type of electronics. Bottom floor is miscellaneous such as cables, plugs, blank CD's, printers etc. Next floor is laptops etc. Next floor is nothing but cell phones, next, well you get the idea. You name it in computer related stuff and it is here. I bought a 150 Mbps 4 port wireless router for $14. One store on the computer street caught my eye. It was reasonably large and the entire shop was filled with violins. Somehow this did not fit.

Next stop was what is known as the Exhibition Building. It is very large (also about a block large) and from the outside looks a very large traditional Chinese building with the turned up edges of the roof. Every week there are different items on view, but there are many permanent stores there too. This place is about as Chinese as you can imagine. This week the main items are furniture. Some very nice stuff there. There are also many vendors selling prepared food and even more selling raw food. There were piles and piles of things like miniature shrimp and many other sea food that I have no idea what they were. Neither did my Chinese friend. The whole area smelled very fishy. Many large piles of various kinds of nuts such as walnuts and small hazel nuts. Lots of fruit such as dates of various kinds. It would take about an hour just to wonder around looking at the food for sale. They have combs and other toiletries made from cattle and water buffalo horn. The story is that these combs made from that material do not harm the scalp, but actually perform some kind of massage on the skin. Another item made from horn material was a back scratcher. The other end was a sort of tapered hammer. This is used to stimulate the various pressure points on the body. Other stalls had many and various types of aromatherapy items, different kinds of heated and strange shaped devices for skin and muscle massage. One place had bottles of wine made from various fruit. I was made to taste a few. Every one was delicious. A bottle of that wine ranged from $4 to $6. There was even ice wine there. Some wines dated back to 1957. Lots and lots of clothes and shoes were everywhere. Saw some really nice looking winter jackets. Not sure if it would be possible to see everything in this building in one day. Could fill up pages on what is there.

We then walked out and up the road for about 10 minutes to a completely different world. This entire area is being transformed into an upscale area. Went into a huge type of modern mall that is 8 stories high. It is an upscale mall that caters to tourists and the richer Chinese. One end of the mall has a Hyatt hotel. This entire mall is very much world class. Most of the major upscale trade names were represented, such as Armani. On the 6th floor is a really nice ice rink that had lots of skaters. Real ice too. The next floor up was a food court and we ate there overlooking the ice rink. The food court was very large and a bit different to the North American food courts in malls. When you go in you pay 100 yuan (about $15) and obtain a sort of debit card with this 100 yuan on it. You can pay more if you have a large group. Then you go in and use this card to pay for your food. The idea is that money is very dirty and the authorities do not want the food servers to touch the money. Every time you buy some food you hand the card in and cash gets taken out. When you leave you hand in the card and get credited in cash with the balance. I like the system. There are about 12 or 15 types of Chinese food to choose from, each representing a different part of China. The two of us ate our fill and in total it came to 36 yuan, about $5.64. If you don't want this kind of food there are numerous restaurants dotted around. There is also KFC, McDonalds (the bottom of the food chain) and subs. On the ground floor there is an upscale grocery store with a high percentage of western products in it. In the mall, most of the signs are in English, but the food court and food is all Chinese.

The entire area where my hotel is located is being changed with lots of old buildings being torn down and replaced with modern buildings such a huge hotels. There is a new subway built that is scheduled to be opened at the end of this year. They are running trains on the lines right now for testing. One exit comes out less than a 5 minute walk from the hotel. This is a north/south line that joins up with an existing east/west line, so that once this system becomes operational I can go almost anywhere in the city very quickly.

As mentioned previously, there are large construction cranes everywhere I look. One area close to me is about a city block large and the entire block is under construction. On this block alone there are about 15 cranes working. In that confined area many of the crane booms overlap one another, so each crane is at a different height.

Worker safety is obviously not very high here. At work they are repairing the exterior of a 5 story building. To do this the workers are using one of those work platforms that are about 12-15 feet long and lowered from the top of the building with two steel cables. This platform could not go quite to the top of the building, so I watched two workers climb up and stand on the top of the platform rails to reach high enough. They were not wearing any safety harness. Scary! A few days ago also watched as they maneuvered this platform around a sort of overhang halfway up the building. Two workers without visible safety equipment were on the platform to operate the lifting and lowering gear. There were ropes attached to the platform and a crew on the ground pulled the platform away from the building while the two guys on the platform lowered it around the obstruction. Safety? Hmmmm! Don't think so!

 

Sounds like a good day out.
When are we getting pictures?

 

And 8 to 10 people share a 1000 sf home.......sound comparable to us?

 

How many of those are direct family members?
How much of that is reverence for parents, grand parents?
Asians dont move out of town leaving parents behind. That just isn't in their culture. Each child doesn't get a 300 sqft bedroom so they can have "a lil' personal space". bedrooms are for beds and sleep.

Are we comparing a 3000 sq.ft suburban ranch house for one kid or the three kids in an inner city 900 sq.ft apartment that has no grass to look at? Take a guess which is more common.
Even when Asians move elsewhere, they tend to live the same. Not because they can't afford to live otherwise, its NORMAL.

 

Many different cultures choose to live as families...with 3 generations or more under one roof. I respect that because of the values they have and its their choice. ChinaStan, thanks for the good reading.

 

When I learn how to paste pics here.

 

Gotta do it as an attachment Stan.

Can't wait though!!! Great Thread!!! I love it!!!