Three Weeks in China ....Survived !

Recent 3-week trip to Tokyo, Beijing, Nanning, Guangzhou and Hong Kong was not actually a Survival exercise ... but there were Challenging bits and pieces, here and there. Finding and visiting some of the Original Hutongs ( alleys ending in a kind of New York-
Mafia-Compound ... several "homes" all shared by members of the same family ) revealed a part of China that is not changing as fast as the world-press would make you want to believe.

Serious, industrious people who seem to work 12 to 14 hours a day, every day, live in squalid shacks without running water, no electricity, no indoor plumbing or toilets ... yet, when you see them off to work and deal with them during the work-day ... you would believe they lived in a small suburban home outside of New York or Chicago or San Francisco or Austin, Texas.

You would have to follow them all the way into their part of China to see the conditions they find some way to deal with in order to Survive. And they do Survive and some in the family do better than others and they still seem to pull the others up and along with them as their tradition dictates.

In the areas I was visiting, the shops, stores, office buildings and hotels along the thoroughfares and avenues turned out to be facades ... adequately covering the fact that a half of a city-block behind them was a whole 'nother world !

Yes, the people can seem to be angry, self-centered, selfish, pushy and aggressive. Perhaps that's part of their survival-regimen. And one-hour or two-hour strolls on 4 or 5 swelteringly-hot afternoons does not create a "Qualified Expert". That's a fact. However, I think I did pick up a small corner of a Huge carpet and peek underneath. So ... when you tell me I am all wrong ... please let me know what your credentials are. That way I can judge how far wrong I am as opposed to an Illogical rant from a casual reader. Thanks !

J