Life and Travel in China

It's been a long time since I wrote anything about the condition of bicycles in China, but I must admit that there is improvement! Recently, in the provincial town of Quanzhou (close to Xiamen), I saw nice bicycles for students - they had full wheels (no spokes), they were all in a similar style, quite well-kept, new. I see that in many towns, for example in Zhejiang Province, Giant mountain and city bikes, new and well-kept, are becoming more and more popular. Chains of company stores and services are emerging. Some people even ride bikes. Of course, there are not many such passionate cyclists, but the sport is slowly developing. Clogged streets, millions of cars - some people prefer a bicycle or a scooter. Of course, there are still many neglected, rusty bikes, off-center wheels, loose chains and flip-flop brakes. Recently, I even saw a foreigner riding a worn-out "Ukraine" type bike in Shanghai at night, and his pedal was probably clicking, or the chain guard was knocking, and the bike was crossing a quiet street, making a constant 'screw, sneeze, sneeze...'. In Shanghai or Beijing it's probably normal for white people to ride such crappy bikes, in Shenzhen or Guangzhou it's not so common. They either buy nice bikes and ride recreationally, or use electric scooters (combustion scooters are often banned in large cities). Due to the crazy traffic, they also choose buses, taxis or the metro.

Yesterday I was waiting for the green light and a black van was parked next to it. The driver planned to turn left, which meant he crossed the entire intersection, a quite busy place. Before the pedestrians crossed the zebra, before the cars started moving from the perpendicular street, he quickly moved - on a red light and drove as if nothing had happened! Of course it had state registration numbers. And these are such untouchable people. They can park wherever they want, if they hit someone it is not their concern, they fill up their tanks practically for free, they transport entire families in company cars. I'm talking about purely transport privileges - what about the rest?! Free apartments, great income from bribes and scams, in addition to working in the government, they open their own factories or companies, buy apartments for their lovers, go on trips abroad, their children can study outside China, massage parlors, karaoke clubs, restaurants, golf clubs - all this is available to them practically for free, day and night. And these people, this untouchable, privileged group will never allow this system to collapse. Their profit, their abundance, their prosperity is based on the exploitation of the masses. These are millions of poor, unaware people who are exploited by this system. Factories where they produce quite expensive devices and earn pennies themselves. Workers who live in barracks and build skyscrapers seven days a week. Do they know office prices, rental prices of these properties, hotel profits, shopping center profits? They certainly don't even know such numbers, such amounts, such sums, and they earn little themselves.

In China, young people's attitude towards the world around them is slowly changing. People born in the 1970s were usually hard-working, education required many sacrifices, they lived and worked in difficult conditions, and not everyone had the opportunity to obtain higher education. They appreciate their parents, respect them, parents who worked hard, taught them discipline and treated their children as a chance for a better future and a safe old age. These are more valuable, ambitious people. Youth from the 1980s are also ambitious, but most of them are only children, so sometimes they are more selfish. They obtained education easier, they did not live in such difficult times and education was practically a standard for them, the education system had also changed then. Their parents also had a chance for a better life and more earnings. The problem, however, is that people born in the 80s sometimes do not take work very seriously. Some of them are used to being able to count on their parents' help, especially in large cities. Youth born in the 1990s are often spoiled kids (especially in large cities). Their parents have already provided them with everything, even apartments and cars! They don't know the concept of hunger, they sit in McDonald's and Starbucks, spending their parents' pocket money. Often parents do not have time for them, they are getting divorced, they are busy with work, business, earning a lot of money. Some even send their children to famous boarding schools and see them once a year. For these children, the most important things are material things: laptops, phones, electronic gadgets. They love parties, alcohol, trying drugs, they want to live like in America! They are impressed by their stupidity! They no longer respect their parents as much because they are often raised by nannies and housekeepers. Parents become a walking piggy bank that is supposed to fulfill all wishes. And since their parents and grandparents had a more difficult life, they obviously want to fulfill all the whims of their grandchildren and children, they simply spoil them! In general, this pattern can be applied to the whole world, but certain conditions are typical only for the Middle Kingdom. Having dealt with people from these different age groups, I find that people from the 1970s and early 1980s have more common sense and are more valuable. Of course, I cannot generalize because there are exceptions. Despite everything, the new generation in China is becoming quite material and superficial. They are more interested in entertainment and early sex than in good education and a decent job. The problem is that they have everything from the very beginning and ordinary life bores them! Their older colleagues didn't have it so easy and they worked for everything themselves.

Kindergarten security has appeared in our neighborhood. Three policemen appeared at the entrance: one officer, one constable and a guy from China Security. The constable had a metal rod to push away dangerous people. Let me remind you that kindergartens in China are under threat - yesterday another murderer attacked children in Shaanxi, killing a total of nine people, including seven children. This was the sixth such attack in China (previously in various provinces). It is possible that the authorities are underestimating the number of victims of previous attacks. People criticize the government, which relies on the army and police, but cannot protect defenseless, tiny children! Who are the murderers? It's hard to say clearly... they are not typical psychopaths. These are most often frustrated, middle-aged men, isolated, hating others, maybe tired of life and the whole system. Or maybe it's also due to gender imbalance - there are too many single men who don't have a partner and therefore won't have a family. Maybe this causes them to feel some extreme hatred towards children, towards family, towards Chinese society? If this was just one incident, it could be called an attack by a madman. But six such tragic events? Have groups of madmen already appeared in China? Despite everything, the authorities are to blame, and Chinese society cannot say it out loud, protest, demand explanations or effective prevention! Shouldn't they provide protection after the first or second attack? They had to wait so long? The average Chinese policeman does nothing! Absolutely nothing! He writes some stupid reports, he never deals with crimes unless he has some order from above, he looks after his own interests, bribes, protects prostitutes, nightclubs, and harms those who have harmed someone. I would say it's like the mafia in uniform. Most officers are obese guys who care about their own well-being, they have no honor, and justice is no longer a foreign word. There are millions of these policemen, but you don't see them every day. Now they left the kindergarten gates. They couldn't do this before? What were they so busy with? Your own business! With your deals, bribes, deals. The police is an institution that the government activates when it is in trouble. When a citizen is in trouble, he or she can go to a friend or colleague, borrow money, hire someone for protection or revenge, because the police will never do anything if they have no interest in it.

I fly a lot on Chinese planes and I must admit that the situation is getting worse when it comes to service, quality of services, approach to passengers and punctuality. Currently, a 20-30 minute delay is standard. I used to think that it only applies to large airports and depends on the weather, but now I know that there is no rule. I don't even pay attention to it anymore, I'm sitting on the plane and reading something, I used to get irritated by it. It happens that the plane staff does not even mention an hour's delay. Sometimes they thank you for your understanding, but they rarely apologize! Depending on the airline, passengers are treated differently, but generally it is getting worse, because even if you offend 200 people, the airline will still have millions of customers in the future. There are thousands of passengers. Even when flying to small towns, I have a full complement of fellow passengers. When I have one free place next to me, it's simply a celebration! I don't know about the luggage because I never check it in, but I don't think there are any major problems here. The quality of the planes is ok, mainly new Airbuses and Boeings, less often MD-83s, I once flew an older MD-83 and I was really scared! I don't like this design with engines at the back, I have also read about many accidents of these planes. When it comes to flight safety, pilot training is very good - considering the number of flights and millions of passengers, I don't know of any major disaster in the Middle Kingdom. The biggest problem, however, is delays and sometimes confusion during some stopovers. I also noticed that flight attendants are nicer to foreigners than to Chinese people. It happens that they raise their voice to a Chinese person, ask for something to drink in a not very polite way, or ignore any questions from a Chinese passenger. They treat foreigners more kindly, are more understanding and devote more time to them. Recently, I was traveling with some Poles on an airport bus, then we separated at the airport, and after an hour they were sitting next to me on the same plane, it was not a popular flight destination, it was not an international flight, but a local flight in China! A really interesting coincidence, the world is small.