Heels

Snapped this interesting shot outside the hotel. Don’t get the wrong idea and think that the place is crawling with military, these are the only army that I have seen in the week that I have been here.

China is not what I expected. It is not the oppressed, militarian, starved of western ideals country that I imagined before I arrived. Quite the opposite in fact. You must keep in mind that I am living in the centre of a large, spacious, western style city, in a 4+ star hotel, surrounded by sky scraping buildings. The town centre is populated by designer shops, albeit different brand names than western shoppers might know. There is a money driven lifestyle here and plenty of people able and willing to buy into it.

My point is that any impressions that I give you can hardly be applied to rural China. You are probably unlikely to see a pair of heels walking through a village.

My initial impressions are that fashion and the right mobile phone is crucial here. I don’t see anyone pressing buttons on a phone like mine. Everyone is swiping and slinging images and documents around with their index finger. I have already lost count of the number of times people have tried to walk into me!

The people are very helpful in the most part. Those that refused to help, just couldn’t be bothered dealing with the language thing – I know how they feel, but I have no choice. There are the usual western influences; McD’s and KFC’s.

Although all the media websites are blocked, like Faceache, Jibber and BlueCrude, all my usual sites are available, including my mail site, AOL, which keeps me informed with a bit of news.

The people that I work with are friendly, helpful and bright. The management are particularly thick, stupid and out of touch, but nothing new there heh! My work mates have driven me home every day, above and beyond the call of duty and I am most grateful.

People don’t stare at me as much as they do in Indonesia, although western people are quite a rarity. All schools teach English, but just like Indonesia, kids do not see the point and do not learn much beyond ‘hello mister’ and ‘what is your name’. A bit like a dog chasing a car really, if they got an answer, they would not know what to do with it.

I will try to share more first impressions in the coming weeks, as I think of them.

Dave