censorship?!
i just arrived in china. my impressions so far are few, but i'll share them with you:
- the behaviour of the chinese, in my culture, could be classified as "rude". my travel agent somehow had me on a small chinese carrier, so i was the only non-chinese person on the planes (yes, she also made me transfer in Xaimen ... and delivered my ticket to me less than 12 hours before i departed toronto ... but i digress ...) i had an aisle seat, and to my excitement i was seated between two buddhists, at least one of whom was obviously a monk (i think the other was as well, but his clothing was more peasant-like.) well, in an aisle seat i realized that the chinese don't have much of a problem invading the personal space of others. i was half-sat-on multiple times, hit (hard!) with various pieces of luggage, and at one point literally punched in the nose, ALL without apology or inquiry as to my well-being. i tried to withhold judgement ... it's a cultural thing, right?! then during the meal (this in business class) two men behind me had a belching contest. and when each plane landed, i seemed to be the only one that recognized deplaning etiquette ... in fact, i had to ENFORCE it by blocking the aisle (and the belchers) as the people in my row "exited" (i could say "shoved past me", but that would deflate my sense of heroism ;) okay, enough complaining ... i mean, look at this snack they gave me, and what a (wierd! but) nice sentiment:
... awww! ... but then i saw what it was:
... and where i come from, THAT ain't respect!! LOL
- from what i have seen, the economy here is growing at a feverish pace! on my drive from Shanghai to Suzhou, i literally saw THOUSANDS of new condos being built, along with the modern infrastructure to support them. the centralized planning astounded me aswell: a hundred of the same apartment building on one block, then a thousand of the same house on the next block, and so on. and something strange that i noticed from the air: many (say, 25%) of the roofs here are blue! (from high in the air i thought "wow, lots of pools") heh
- and lastly, the reason for the title of this post: i have broadband internet access from my hotel room, but i can't read any blogs on this site! (and yet i can post) censorship? someone on blogspot pissed off the chinese government perhaps? i'll see if i have the same problem from work next week ...
alrighty, time to start my day ... and figure out how to explore a city where no one seems to speak engligh (it took me a couple of seconds to realize that the receptionist was saying "hello, mr. walker" as i arrived ... oops!) ciao my loves ...
- the behaviour of the chinese, in my culture, could be classified as "rude". my travel agent somehow had me on a small chinese carrier, so i was the only non-chinese person on the planes (yes, she also made me transfer in Xaimen ... and delivered my ticket to me less than 12 hours before i departed toronto ... but i digress ...) i had an aisle seat, and to my excitement i was seated between two buddhists, at least one of whom was obviously a monk (i think the other was as well, but his clothing was more peasant-like.) well, in an aisle seat i realized that the chinese don't have much of a problem invading the personal space of others. i was half-sat-on multiple times, hit (hard!) with various pieces of luggage, and at one point literally punched in the nose, ALL without apology or inquiry as to my well-being. i tried to withhold judgement ... it's a cultural thing, right?! then during the meal (this in business class) two men behind me had a belching contest. and when each plane landed, i seemed to be the only one that recognized deplaning etiquette ... in fact, i had to ENFORCE it by blocking the aisle (and the belchers) as the people in my row "exited" (i could say "shoved past me", but that would deflate my sense of heroism ;) okay, enough complaining ... i mean, look at this snack they gave me, and what a (wierd! but) nice sentiment:
... awww! ... but then i saw what it was:
... and where i come from, THAT ain't respect!! LOL
- from what i have seen, the economy here is growing at a feverish pace! on my drive from Shanghai to Suzhou, i literally saw THOUSANDS of new condos being built, along with the modern infrastructure to support them. the centralized planning astounded me aswell: a hundred of the same apartment building on one block, then a thousand of the same house on the next block, and so on. and something strange that i noticed from the air: many (say, 25%) of the roofs here are blue! (from high in the air i thought "wow, lots of pools") heh
- and lastly, the reason for the title of this post: i have broadband internet access from my hotel room, but i can't read any blogs on this site! (and yet i can post) censorship? someone on blogspot pissed off the chinese government perhaps? i'll see if i have the same problem from work next week ...
alrighty, time to start my day ... and figure out how to explore a city where no one seems to speak engligh (it took me a couple of seconds to realize that the receptionist was saying "hello, mr. walker" as i arrived ... oops!) ciao my loves ...
posited by hereis nowhy at 22:43
1 Comments:
Wow, bad plane ride. I had similar experiences... just be careful. If someone wants to get somewhere, they'll do anything to get there (I was in a large store once, standing near the wall... there was about a foot of space behind me, and someone pushed through THERE). I don't know if you'll be able to read this over there... but, try going to CNN! :P And yes, they're censoring it...
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