As I write this, I’m on a 23-hour long sleeper train from Xi’an to Dunhuang, in Gansu province. We’re speeding west along the ancient Silk Routes, watching trees and people and towns and farms go by, playing endless card games, and consuming seven thousand million Oreos.
Since time spent on a train doesn’t necessarily make for riveting travel reading, I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk about some of my observations about China so far.
People, people, people
China has 1.3 billion people. I keep coming back to this number, because it’s so hard to process what it actually means. How do you even contemplate these numbers, especially for us Canadians coming from a country larger in area but nearly 40 times smaller in population.
So far, in practice, that seems to mean that there are 40 times the number of people crammed into any space. Whether it be a subway car, a tourist attraction, an elevator or a highway, everywhere you go, there are people. The concept of personal space is, understandably, much different here. People come right up to you, push and shove their way through, and nobody waits in line. But it doesn’t feel rude; it just feels like the logical extension of having so many people everywhere.
Having said that, China actually has some social and demographic problems associated with underpopulation. Yes, I know that sounds crazy, but I’ll explain: The one-child policy implemented in the 1980s slowed China’s population growth, but now the average age in China has gotten much older. People retire very young here, at age 50, but there aren’t enough young people in the workforce to support such a huge senior citizen population. Senior citizens without children to take care of them also have a big challenge, since services for seniors are sparse here. It’s what happens when you try to solve one problem and end up creating another, I suppose.
Things to eat
The food has been a pleasant surprise so far. I didn’t come on this trip for the food, and I know it will probably be less appetizing the closer to Central Asia I get. But thus far, I’ve quite enjoyed all the Chinese food in Beijing and Xi’an. On the whole, it’s been significantly better than the Chinese food we get back home.
Of course, it helps to have a guide: Not only does he know good places to go, but he’s also been doing most of the ordering on our behalf, because menus with English on them or English-speaking wait staff are rare to nonexistent. The guess-and-point method works too, especially with menus with photos.
The food in supermarkets has also been good, if different. Bread mostly has sweet flavourings or bean paste in it. Fruits and vegetables — both fresh and dried — are widely available, and it’s peach and watermelon season in Xi’an right now so those have been delicious. Dairy products are harder to find; fermented milk is popular, but yogurts and cheeses are rare and not particularly good. Dried and cured products seem to last longer in this heat, so the packaged food aisles outnumber the fresh food ones by a significant margin. And they sell rice in giant 20- and 40-kilo sacks, which I suppose makes sense for the average family to buy.
None of this explains why Chinese people seem to have a weird obsession with KFC, though. I guess people with terrible taste exist everywhere.
What about the…?
Yes, yes, I know what you all want to know: What’s the bathroom situation like? Well, so far it’s been a mix. The hotels we’re staying in are all fairly good standard business hotels that cater to western tourists, so they have western-style toilets. Everywhere else is mostly squat toilets, which vary in cleanliness standards — though to be honest, they’re not any worse than public bathrooms back home. Toilet paper and soap usually aren’t provided, but people just carry their own with them.
And most public bathrooms have one western toilet stall on the end, with a handicapped sign. Which makes me feel a bit funny for using them, so I’ve mostly been alternating. To be honest, once you get used to the squat toilets, they’re not a big deal in most cases — except on a moving train, which requires advanced technique and which I haven’t attempted yet. (There are western toilets every few cars.)
Some other notes
A few other observations I’ve had at random:
- People have a strange habit here of stopping right at the top of escalators, or in doorways. It’s easy to bump into them if you’re not careful.
- Related to above, people don’t wait for you to exit (an elevator, a subway car) before they start entering. They just push their way on, and if you want to exit, you have to push past them.
- Green lights have counters on them for the cars, not just for the walk signals. People turning right, tuk-tuks and motorbikes don’t stop at red lights. And, like at home, crosswalks are merely suggestions.
- They seem to have an obsession in China with extra-firm mattresses. All the beds in our hotels so far have been hard as rocks. It’s probably good for my back, mind you.
- People tend to speak very loudly here. They must need to, in order to be heard over everyone else. Then there are the megaphones.
- I feel, if not tall, then at least average height here. But the clothing in the markets is still all too long for me. I don’t know who it’s made for.
- I still haven’t managed to learn any Mandarin, other than the couple of words I arrived here with. More people speak some English than I expected, though, especially in the tourist areas. And I’ve figured out that hand gestures actually do work here, but you need to be really expressive with them because they don’t do subtle.
I’m off to go cook some instant noodles for dinner. More soon from Gansu province!