Musings
Hello gang. It's been about 4 days since I've arrived in China and it's been a fucking experience. With Facebook being blocked, I haven't had much contact with my homies and shit and I've wanted to tell people about some of the shit that I've seen here, so I thought I would post it on here just because I don't remember the password to my LiveJournal. And I know that I could use a vpn or proxy service to bypass the Great Firewall of China, but at the same time its been good to get away from all that shit and spending my day just trolling niggers. Anyways I had a hell of a day today and it made me want to write this shit.
So I left for my flight for China on Thursday 12 pm from Orlando and had two connections in Detroit and Seattle. I didn't really scope any of the cities and their airports weren't anything to write home about, but I did get to see Mt. Rainer and St. Helen's from the plane which was pretty dope. It was a 22 hour flight and I arrived in Beijing at 10 pm on Thursday. Just for reference, the East coast of the US is exactly 12 hours behind Beijing. Also I had not studied a goddamn word of Chinese and knew nothing other than Ni Hao and Wo Jiao.., which pretty much can't get you anywhere. Now I was not staying in Beijing, so I had to catch a train heading 5 hours southwest to a provincial city called Jinan. I took a bus to the train station, with the help of some American chick who knew a bit of Chinese. On the bus, I get help from this guy who spoke like 3 fucking words of English. He leads me to the station with a giant line at the ticket counter. Once I get to the counter I have the guy help me buy a ticket and I'm just saying 'Jinan! Jinan, now!' and he buys me a ticket and telling me that the only ticket available wouldn't be until 4pm the next day. It was out of the question for me to stay in Beijing because I had people waiting for me in the morning. So I'm scanning through my Lonely Planet and find the bullet train station in the south of the city, and use the guide to get a taxi to take me there and I get totally ripped off on the fare, but I can't say shit. Its now like two in the morning, and the entire station is dark, no lights whatsoever. I get up to the north entrance and I see a sign that says 530-2330, which obviously are the hours. So I have to chill for three fucking hours outside of this train station to buy a ticket in the morning. In the morning, I somehow manage to use a machine to buy tickets for a bullet train, which takes that 5 hour ride and cuts it down to 90 minutes hitting 300 km/h. And these trains are so fucking leet, state of the art, tv's and free wifi and reclining seats. I had to buy the business class tickets because everything else was sold out but it was still only about 300 kuayi, *pronounced kwhy, which is slang for the yuan here, similar to bucks* I get picked up at the station and taken to my apartment, which is pretty fucking dank. It's a brand new building, fully furnished. I stay on the 23rd floor with a huge fucking view, but its all construction.
Which brings me to my next observation, I have never seen a place with so much fucking construction and so many high rises and hotels being built. They're like LOL what recession? Speaking of which, their middle classes and upper classes are hella growing here. I see tons of peoples with iphones, more than back home in florida. Albeit, they're probably stolen or knock-off iphones because they're super cheap here. hahaha I went to a cellphone like flea market and saw soooo many knock-off phones, NCKLA or IFone or Coolgen. At the same time, they got the real shit too. But I'm also seeing tons of people with nice ass cars, beamers, range rovers, mercedes. I even saw a Lambo. Cars were just legalized for private use in 1997. And there's shit tons of malls, they just opened the biggest mall like 3 months ago, and they're already opening an even bigger one in like a couple more months. And its all the name brands, expensive as hell, even for me as an American. Most of the people are real fucking fashionable all in the western brands. Theres still a lot of working class people, working the shitty jobs but nothing really to terrible poverty like I saw in Mexico City. I've hardly seen any homeless people, actually I've only seen one, so far. Although that could be a result of the government secretly executing undesirables, heh.
One of the biggest things I've noticed is how fucking pervasive American culture is here, in the dress, the entertainment, the food, McD, Dairy Queen, Walmart, Subway, Starbucks. LOL they love KFC here, its open 24/7 and they deliver. They're not everywhere, but still they're seen as hip because its American. Two days ago I was in the park and there was a Hip Hop dance competition, so theres a bunch of rap music and kids dancing and break dancing, it was like straight You Just Got Served. There was even some Dubstep. And I'm just cracking up, never thought I'd come and hear some dubstep in China. And this is all so strange to me because in the US, we have such a negative view of China. That they're barking at the door, a hair away from invading us. I mean we see them as like our next major enemy, but jesus they fucking love us. They stare at foreigners because they've just never seen them. I've straight up seen people ask to take pictures with an American just cuz. You can go to a club or bar and straight up get free drinks and even like gift cards with credit to the club, because if Americans go they think it will bring in more Chinese kids because its seen as cool because Americans want to chill there. People are curious about you and try to talk to you, what are you doing China, do you like China, etc.
At the same time, I dont want to give the impression that China is become the next colony of bland American consumerism. They've still retained a lot of their own flavor and put their own twist on American shit. The whole culture is totally different to the US. It's so fucking hectic and chaotic here, like I never saw in Central America. Its different. Driving is certainly a trip, traffic laws are rarely obeyed. You can drink and smoke anywhere. Even if its posted that you cant, you still can. The Chinese are very passive and won't make a big fuss to put it out or wyle out and call the police. You can sleep in parks and benches over night and no one fucks with you. Crime is very low. I feel very secure. The Chinese are very honest, I mean they'll overcharge you for some shit on the street just because you're a foreigner, yeah, but mostly not. There is no tipping in this culture, and they will absolutely refuse if you insist. *this is not true so much in Beijing or jobs where they're interact a lot with tourists, like hotels, well because I guess they're gotten used to it now* Theres also a big sense of community still among people. People are always out at all hours of the night, and a lot of places stay up very late or all night. I always see guys just chilling on the side of the road playing cards, or this weird board game.
The women are abso-fucking-lutely gorgeous, my god. Only like 1 in 10 is fat. Nice, thin, petite, firm women. They're very subservient. Real talk, on a bus a chick will stand and her man will get the seat. They like to cook and they'll even prepare a table and help serve food at a restaurant. It's kind of hard sometimes to tell if a chick is in middle school, high school, or the university. Also my boy told me that the concept of date rape does not exist in China. If you find yourself alone with some guy, either at his place or yours, they pretty think you were asking for it, like you shouldn't have put yourself in that position.
Anyway, I wanted to write some more stuff but I cant think of it right now, but this shit is hella tl;dr, but I know some fools might read it. Its just the culture shock, and I wanted to share some of the crazy shit I've seen. I was inspired earlier tonight after eating some steamed squid in a rice cake and smoking a joint in some oldschool chinese alleyways and then drinking and driving my electric scooter and I was just enjoying the shit out of life at the moment. I'll be back itt later to add more shit as I remember it. Also its midnight now. zzzz
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Originally Posted by robat
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