Lanzhou, China.
Though I don't feel like I've been losing weight - the official verdict of definitive weight loss came today when I checked into the overly expensive (but only clean hotel in the entire city) Hualian Bing Guan single room with fan (for a whopping 98 RMB - more than I've ever paid). I was naked for more than a few brief seconds for the first time in weeks, largely because this is the first privacy I've had in a while. I glanced at myself in the mirror and groaned. I'd undone all that puberty had given me.
Chinese television has a lot of war movies and movies set in the past. It's like they don't like acknowledging the present. They do definitely acknowledge the future as Beijing 2008 is on 3/4 of the channels all the time. I think half the country is still in surprised shock that they got it, but it's a point of pride. Like world acknowledgement. A nod of respect thowards China. The Chinese are very conscious of their place on the world stage. The question I get asked the most is if I find China very hard to adjust to coming from America. It's usually followed by an embarassed laugh an apologetic statement along the lines of "We're a little backwards still" or "We're still behind and old-fashioned." Based on my sampling of conversations with cab drivers and hotel cleaning staff, China's very much aware of its catching-up status with respect to the other countries. "We're not developing fast enough" is another statement I hear a lot, along with "We got started late," accompanied by a sigh and a shake of the head. But they are so proud of Beijing 2008.
Oddly enough, the other question I get asked a lot concerns guns. "Is it true that anyone in the U.S. can own a gun?" They're always amazed at that.
Lanzhou is very different from everywhere else I've been in China. It's a very dry land with a large Chinese Muslim minority (called hui zhu). You can visibly see the minorities on the street based on style of dress and facial hair. It's interesting and I wish I'd talked to more people but the young boy at the Muslim restaurant I ate at was too shy to respond to my questions.
China in general is inconvenient to travel in because no establishments are setup to take credit cards and very few banks take foreign ATM cards. Every day is a challenge in that sense. I've paid for all my internal flights with cash and have spent many RMB on cab rides to the one ATM in town that will take my foreign card. Part of it is that western China is simply less developed.
Though I don't feel like I've been losing weight - the official verdict of definitive weight loss came today when I checked into the overly expensive (but only clean hotel in the entire city) Hualian Bing Guan single room with fan (for a whopping 98 RMB - more than I've ever paid). I was naked for more than a few brief seconds for the first time in weeks, largely because this is the first privacy I've had in a while. I glanced at myself in the mirror and groaned. I'd undone all that puberty had given me.
Chinese television has a lot of war movies and movies set in the past. It's like they don't like acknowledging the present. They do definitely acknowledge the future as Beijing 2008 is on 3/4 of the channels all the time. I think half the country is still in surprised shock that they got it, but it's a point of pride. Like world acknowledgement. A nod of respect thowards China. The Chinese are very conscious of their place on the world stage. The question I get asked the most is if I find China very hard to adjust to coming from America. It's usually followed by an embarassed laugh an apologetic statement along the lines of "We're a little backwards still" or "We're still behind and old-fashioned." Based on my sampling of conversations with cab drivers and hotel cleaning staff, China's very much aware of its catching-up status with respect to the other countries. "We're not developing fast enough" is another statement I hear a lot, along with "We got started late," accompanied by a sigh and a shake of the head. But they are so proud of Beijing 2008.
Oddly enough, the other question I get asked a lot concerns guns. "Is it true that anyone in the U.S. can own a gun?" They're always amazed at that.
Lanzhou is very different from everywhere else I've been in China. It's a very dry land with a large Chinese Muslim minority (called hui zhu). You can visibly see the minorities on the street based on style of dress and facial hair. It's interesting and I wish I'd talked to more people but the young boy at the Muslim restaurant I ate at was too shy to respond to my questions.
China in general is inconvenient to travel in because no establishments are setup to take credit cards and very few banks take foreign ATM cards. Every day is a challenge in that sense. I've paid for all my internal flights with cash and have spent many RMB on cab rides to the one ATM in town that will take my foreign card. Part of it is that western China is simply less developed.
posted by ink at
11:53 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home