China has a smell. It's a real thing, and anyone who's been here probably can tell you that it's very real and very special. I heard a lot of things about it, like it smells like rice, or rubber, or plastic, or rotting trash. The best way I can describe it according to my own sense of smell, old rubber + flouride + steamed rice + urine. And here's why. Everything is under contruction where we are. Apartment buildings, streets, you name it, it's being chopped up and put in the streets. That plus the smell of all the motorcycles in the humidity gives you awesome old rubber smell. The fouride smell comes from the air conditioners. The wall units don't smell bad, but the standing units can smell awful. Whenever you feel a cold breeze coming out of a shop, it's likely going to be combined with a terrible smell. Steamed rice for abvious reasons. And urine because squatters (if you don't know what they are, feel free to look them up and pity me, but they aren't as terrible as they seem) and inadequate plumbing. (Cigarette smoke is also everywhere and people smoke and leave their cigarettes lying around inside buildings. Think of casinos in Vegas but worse. Although, I may prefer that to the urine smell.)
It's not easier to breathe here. Yeah, we're, like, 20 feet above sea level, but the pollution is bad (also not as bad as I expected) and the air is so wet that it feels like I'm drowning every time I step outside and take a breath.
People have cars here. Lots of people have cars. And they're nice cars. We're talking new models of Volkswagen, BMW, Audi, Lexus. The types of cars that most people I know can't afford. And believe it or not, there are traffic laws, but you wouldn't know it just by watching the traffic operate, especially on a Saturday night. Crossing the street is insane and terrifying but I think I'll be a pro by
the time I'm done here.
Family is really important. I can't tell you how many times I've heard jokes about mean, strict, unloving Chinese fathers who force their kids to be perfect, and mothers who are in the background and treated badly because they're women. I heard that people don't express their love in public because they believe it's not appropriate to hold hands or whatnot in front of other people. You hear about families with one child, usually a boy, and girls who are shoved into the background. And yes, this happens. It is technically law that you can only have one child. (We're near Hong Kong so a ton of people here go to Hong Kong to have their second and third children.) I've seen so many couples holding hands, playing with their kids, or entire families taking their kids to school. This morning when we met all the students at the gate of the school, moms and dads came in with them, all holdings hands, some kids crying their poor eyes out (I feel you, kids). AND I've met a bunch of women who have careers and go to school and are not treated as less than the men. It's really exciting to see how important family is in a culture that seems like it wouldn't value family. It's a further testament that family is the most important thing in this life.
If Americans visit China, they become instant celebrities. I'm probably the subject of 100 photos and at least that many videos on strangers' phones, and we've only been here a week. They film us crossing the street, they take pictures of us eating, they slow down their motorcycles when we're walking past just to stare at us, and almost everyone says hello or waves.
Chinese clothes do have random English words, or even letters, on them. And the translations are terrible and the spelling is usually wrong. Yesterday I saw a woman wearing a shirt that said "Superlative conspiracy" and I almost couldn't contain myself. Through the shopping mall, I saw "Chocoolate Garfield," "I'm the hippest gril there is,"'Love is nice," "HFZTIXWRQLK" and lots of others. So it's good to know we aren't the only culture obsessed with the language of another country.
They eat rice for every meal. This is no joke. With every single thing we eat, there is also rice.
Roaches and other unsanitary conditions are abundant. Luckily in our apartment building, it's fairly clean. It smells awful, but there aren't many bugs (except my bed which I'm convinced is infested with spiders). We've only had one roach in our apartment and it was a baby one. We saw two in the grocery store the other day, on the floor right by where the butcher cuts the fish heads off. I don't think we'll be getting fish there. Trash lines the streets. I haven't seen any questionable bodily fluids in the streets yet, but the sewers are open and very much... I don't even know. They're like canals back at home, just filled with trash and other fun things.
China is packed. We live in the center of a giant apartment complex. All around us there are buildings of 2-storey shops and businesses, topped by 20 storeys of apartments. It's hard because I feel stuck everywhere I go. (That, plus it rains ALL THE TIME NONSTOP and the sun NEVER OMES OUT EVER, so it's pretty miserable for me here, weather-wise. Between the clouds, the pollution, and the tall buildings everywhere, it really feels like I'm in a tight bubble filled with people.
Everything is cheap. I mean, we all know this, but I didn't realize how cheap until I got here. Excepting the American imports like Nike or Adidas, everything else is absurdly cheap. I bought a backpack today that's almost as nice as my $80 military-grade canvas pack from Japan, and it was 68y, which is just over US11. Crazy!
